HYMN FOR EASTER 5 They will know We are Christians by our Love
- Gracia Grindal
- May 12
- 3 min read
Text and Tune: Peter Scholtes (1938-2009)
(Copyright protection means I can’t print the text, but you will find it in the links).They'll know we are Christians by our Love
Guds Sønn steg ned å tjene/God's Son came here to serve us
Text: Jonas Anton Dahl (1849-1919). Tune: Anders Arrebo (1587-1637)
7.6.7.6
God’s Son came here to serve us
And give himself for us.
Just like a seed that’s planted,
He died and then arose.
The greatest of creation
Is not might from above,
But one who’s glad to serve us,
He wore a robe of love.
The highest in creation
Is not the eagle’s flight
But one whose heart is winging
To help their neighbors’ plight.
What joy to find God’s heaven
Among the least we see.
To lose life is to find it;
To give is to receive.
When serving you’ll find power,
When serving trust while you
Are sowing, fields will ripen
In the eternal blue.
REFLECTION
Jesus’ command that we love one another is not easy and can only be done because, as 1 John says, God is love and we can love because we have been loved. That is a basic truth. We are all messed up on the notion of love—we think it is a feeling, but in Jesus’ day, up until the Romantic era, it was deeds. Jesus shows his love to his disciples not by telling them how much he loves them, but by doing something for them: washing their feet, a menial and lowly service. Then, he went to his death for us, a deed that is unimaginable for its horror and deep love, not just for nice people, but for the people who were demanding his death.
We have a marvelous story to tell: God, our creator, created us out of love. He wanted companions and friends. So he made us in his image, able to live and act and converse with him. Then when we spurned that gift, he sent his Son to live among us out of love. And now, after Easter and the Ascension, we are able to live with God, whom Jesus tells us will now make a home in our hearts! There is a lot of housecleaning to be done in our hearts, but he has promised to give us new hearts, completely remodeled for us, all out of love.
That love gives us the will and energy we need to serve our neighbors. In the same way that he did. Today the idea of service, or submission, to another seems to impinge on our freedoms, but Jesus came to tell us that our notion of freedom is simply slavery to other gods or idols that are demanding and vicious. He wants to save us from ourselves and our bondage to sin. That is what he did for love, and for the world. Through our actions, we bring him to others. And he lives for them when we speak his name and do his will. It is his Great Commission to carry out to all the world.
HYMN INFO
Born in Evanston, Illinois, Peter Scholtes attended Catholic schools in Oak Park. He served as parish priest in Chicago’s south side in the sixties. As a leader of a youth group, he wanted a song that spoke to the times, ecumenically and socially. He composed the song in a day and it became the song of the Chicago Civil Rights movement. Later he became a consultant for business organizations, and wrote the book The Team Handbook later deemed among the 100 Best Business Books of All Time. He was especially against practices like performance review which he said demoralized employees.
The Norwegian hymn by Jonas Dahl gives us more to go on than the Scholtes hymn. Dahl was a pastor in the Norwegian Seaman’s mission in Amsterdam. During his life he wrote over 250 hymns. He served as pastor in Trondheim, Kongsberg, Stavanger, and Oslo. This, along with, "Nå vandrer fra hver en verdens krok," are his most well known..
LINKS
Forest Home
Jars of Clay
The Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir
Lynda Randle
Guds Sønn steg ned å tjene
Frelsarmeen
Another hymn on the text:
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