Come Thou Fount
This is another one of those hymns that has such a timeless melody and contour along with painfully honest lyrics that it has been arranged effectively in a number of different ways in a number of different traditions. Like my arrangement for Be Thou My Vision, I constructed a melodic interlude to add some extra space between the strophic verses. I took the first phrase of the third stanza and then transposed down a sixth to echo the original. When I lead this, I give each phrase to a different instrument to emphasize the parallelism in different colors. My favorite combination is an electric guitar with some reverb and delay on the first line in a higher register and then piano in octaves on the second line.
I also altered the harmonic structured, putting it in the relative minor and giving it a really repetitive ground bass that has a minimalist sort of feel. This lets the band create a really thick and ambient groove that allows the melody to soar above the arrangement.
Also similar to the Be Thou My Vision arrangement, I’ve added some more space in a bridge section that repeats, “Here’s my heart Lord.” For me, this is the central thought of this song; that the life of faith is one of constant confession that we are not strong enough on our own. We admit that we are prone to wander, not just in our salvation, but in our sanctification as well. We confess that despite our love for God, we do what we don’t want to do (Rom 7) and turn our backs like the prodigal son and leave the father. The journey of faith is a continual giving of ourselves back to God, for it is only him that can put his seal upon us—the seal of our baptism into the father son and holy spirit. This is such a baptismal hymn for me. The fount is one of living water that cleanses and restores.
At the end of the bridge, the arrangement transitions to a reharminization of the first verse with a pedal on D. Our response to God’s forgiveness and incorpartion into his body in baptism is always praise. It is God who seals us and it is He who teaches us to sing. It is the beginning and end of a song about wandering. We do not end without hope, but in the joy of the fount, drowning in the forgiveness and redeeming love of a God we—though we wander—sees us afar off and runs to us to receive us back.
Don’t Bury Your Head
Ostrich's don't actually bury their heads in the ground...
Bonnie and I wrote this for the second Sunday of Advent in 2007. The Gospel reading for that Sunday was Matthew 25:14-30 and the bridge quotes Luke 3:16. This song is in a prophetic, apocalyptic, Johnny Cash type of vein. It speaks of Jesus’ unequivocal call to labor as workers in the harvest, to go into all the world, to not sit on the treasures he gives us in our baptism through his spirit, but instead to invest them in kingdom work.
Jesus does not soften the message that he will reject some who think they have been serving him and that he will take away the gifts of those who squander it. This harsh side of Jesus’ gospel shows us how passionate Jesus is about finding the lost sheep. When he gives his life to save us, he calls us to give our life to save others, and he has no patience for those who–having received his gift of grace–are too selfish to give it to others.
...but sometimes we do.
When Jesus returns, he will come to judge the living and the dead, but it is his will that none perish, so we labor in the vineyards because we want everyone to see him and to rejoice with us when he comes. In him there is grace to be found, so don’t bury your head in the ground.
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