“O blessed spring, where word and sign embrace us into Christ the Vine:
here Christ enjoins each one to be a branch of this lifegiving Tree.
Through summer heat of youthful years, uncertain faith, rebellious tears,
sustained by Christ’s infusing rain, the boughs will shout for joy again.
When autumn cools and youth is cold, when limbs their heavy harvest hold,
then through us, warm, the Christ will move with gifts of beauty, wisdom, love.
As winter comes, as winters must, we breathe our last, return to dust;
still held in Christ, our souls take wing and trust the promise of the spring.
Christ, holy Vine, Christ, living Tree, be praised for this blest mystery:
that word and water thus revive and join us to your Tree of Life.”
– O Blessed Spring, Susan Palo Cherwien, b.1953—d.2021
Beloved of God,
I’ve found myself deeply moved in recent days by the passing of hymnwriter and poet Susan Palo Cherwien, author of the marvelous baptismal hymn above. Her death on December 28 at age 67, after a diagnosis of metastatic uterine cancer last April, came too soon.
I began becoming more acquainted with Susan’s beautifully crafted hymns when eight of them were included in Evangelical Lutheran Worship (the red hymnal) in 2007. What attracted me to them was her gift for distilling spiritual conviction into compact language while telling a story. Her hymns have an arc to them; they are layered; they are theological grounded while remaining totally accessible; they speak the truth in love about our human condition and, most of all, testify to God’s unshakable commitment to love us through all the messes of our lives, no matter what. I have no doubt that her hymns will nurture the life of the church for generations yet to come, and for that I am grateful.
At her Requiem Eucharist Funeral on December 31, the first hymn, a Hymn of Lament, was one she wrote in 1994—In Deepest Night. It is a hymn that marks, unflinchingly, the depth and truth of loss while paying homage to the All Tender One who shares our tears and holds us close.
In deepest night in darkest days, when harps are hung, no songs we raise,
When silence must suffice as praise, yet sounding in us quietly there is the song of God.
When friend was lost, when love deceived, dear Jesus wept, God was bereaved;
So with us in our grief God grieves, and round about us mournfully there are the tears of God.
When through the waters winds our path, around us pain, around us death,
Deep calls to deep, a saving breath, and found beside us faithfully there is the love of God.
It was while planning worship for our Season of Creation in the spring of 2020 that I began corresponding with Susan. The new All Creation Sings hymnal was set to be published by Augsburg Fortress the coming fall and several hymn samples from the new collection were being distributed to congregations. One of them was Susan’s, In Sacred Manner May We Walk, one of her earliest hymns (1990) and a fitting companion to our Creation theme. The first verse follows:[1]
“In sacred manner may we walk upon the fair and loving earth,
in beauty move, in beauty love the living round that brought us birth.
We stand on holy ground. We stand on holy ground!”
In the ensuing weeks our correspondence moved us from being strangers to being collaborators, and led to her share a brand-new hymn she’d written that spring honoring Dr. Anton Armstrong, conductor of the St. Olaf Choir: Infinite Beauty. We sang that hymn to the tune of Shades Garden on our final Season of Creation Sunday.
1 Infinite Beauty, Love that moves the heavens,
Maker of all things, present in creation,
From the beginning, all Your works reveal You,
Stirring to wonder.
2 Holy this garden, worthy of protection,
Blue pearl in deep space, due our true affection,
Dwelling and parent, elegant in balance,
Growing in wonder.
3 Sacred all creatures, marvelous companions,
Elders and teachers, all of our relations,
Rocks tell earth’s story, plants reveal earth’s wisdom,
Living in wonder.
4 Blesséd our bodies, kindred gift of starlight:
Eyes to see beauty, ears to hear the heart sigh,
Hands to give healing, hearts to bind together,
Breathing in wonder.
5 Infinite Beauty, Love that moves the heavens,
May our minds wisen, may our hearts awaken,
That we join all things, one and interwoven,
Singing in wonder.
Through this and other creation focused hymns Susan spoke eloquently about the great challenge of our time to become reconnected to the whole of God’s good creation and to seize upon our first vocation of caring for all life on this planet home, mirroring God’s generosity.
As we mark the Baptism of Our Lord on January 9th, we are reminded of God’s declaration to us in the sacred waters—that we are truly and forever God’s beloved children, a status and truth no one and nothing can alter or destroy. This baptismal declaration grounds us in this life and buoys us past the boundary of death and into the life to come. “Life is changed,” wrote Susan, “not taken away. Nothing disappears without a trace.” And so we sing:
As winter comes, as winters must, we breathe our last, return to dust;
still held in Christ, our souls take wing and trust the promise of the spring.
Christ, holy Vine, Christ, living Tree, be praised for this blest mystery:
that word and water thus revive and join us to your Tree of Life.”
With deep gratitude,
Pastor Erik
[1] Eight of Susan’s hymns are published in All Creation Sings, and we have sung a number of them over the course of the past year. To hear and see the recording of In Sacred Manner, set to a tune by Thomas Pavlechko, follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tuvk1HM6bNg
What does this mean?