It has been a long time since I baptized anyone in a river.
Indoor baptistries have been most common and occasionally a country pond. I’ve never used a swimming pool or a cattle trough, but I know they are popular with the contemporary folk. The best baptismal pool I have ever seen is at Church Without Walls in Houston, Texas: wonderfully designed outdoor openair baptistry near an entrance to the sanctuary.
But I have a baptismal candidate now, and we are looking for a river in the foothills of the mountains in North Carolina. Someone suggested a church to call, and I will do that, but in the meantime, I have written a song for the occasion.
Over the years, I have written a lyric or two. On one occasion, we tried to use my new lines to a familiar song, but it turned into a disaster.
“I’m preaching on the baptism of Jesus,” I said to my worship team on Monday. “What shall we sing?”
There aren’t many songs in the hymnal—any hymnal—about baptism, but I confess I have never examined a hymnal from the Church of Christ. Given the emphasis they place on baptism, I would not be surprised if they have a score or more.
“What about ‘Shall We Gather at the River’?” somebody said, and I grabbed my hymnal and read through the words.
“This is about death, dying, and the life to come,” I surmised. “We need lyrics about baptism, salvation, and living for Jesus. I just may try my hand at writing what we need.
In my old age, I have grown more aware of the famous songwriters of my lifetime: such as Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, Prince, Dolly Parton, and Taylor Swift.
Plus, John Prine. He is first on my list these days, and I am passing on my affection for him to my grandson Sam! Every time we get in the car these days, he puts in a Prine CD.
There are many good worship songwriters, I suppose, but I like the old hymns, the old songs, especially those with a chorus. I know that is we might call a working-class taste in singing and not at all suited to the more sophisticated hymnody of liturgical settings. Nevertheless.
So I took this old hymn about heaven—“Shall We Gather at the River”—and turned it into a song rooted in the gospel accounts of the baptism of Jesus.
Shall we gather at the River where our Lord himself has trod:
There to open up forever our delight in the way of our God.
Then I turned to John the prophet, John the Baptizer, because that is the way all three gospel accounts begin, with the preaching of John in the wilderness, calling for repentance and change, with a pointed criticism of the governor thrown in for illustration.
On the margin of the River, John stood preaching of the Day:
“Turn from sin and God will save you; Do not wait, only trust and obey.”
None of us really knows why Jesus came to John to be baptized. His baptism does not fit any of our explanations today. For some reason, it fit what he needed at the time. Just like the many people who highlight their pilgrimage to Israel with an immersion in the waters of the Jordon River.
Now I have a candidate who walked the aisle and said, “I was baptized as a young man, but the real me at that time was still in the closet. I need for all of me, the true me, to be baptized.”
I have never had such a request, but after praying about it for several weeks and knowing there are many paths that lead people to the river, I said Yes. And when we baptize this man, we will have a song to sing!
In the waters of the River, Jesus heard the Voice above:
“You are anointed to deliver; you indeed are the true Son of God.”
This, of course, invokes the epiphany at the baptism of Jesus, when he heard the voice of God and saw the dove descend, making the episode fully trinitarian.
Finally, in true revival fashion, I added the invitation:
To the waters of the River, God calls all of us to go:
“Fill us also with your Spirit, let Your love through us all overflow.”
I know it is simple, amateurish, and perhaps downright hokey. But lots of hymns are, don’t you think? At least these new lyrics are rooted in a biblical narrative told three times in Holy Scripture. And they prepare us to use the familiar chorus as a way of saying Yes to Jesus, not just that first time when we walked the aisle of salvation, but every time we feel the Spirit moving us to respond to the call to follow Jesus:
Yes, we’ll gather at the River, the beautiful, beautiful River.
Gather with the saints at the River that flows by the throne of God.
I think we might actually sing this version on Sunday. I’ll let you know how it goes!
It has been a long time since I baptized anyone in a river.
Indoor baptistries have been most common and occasionally a country pond. I’ve never used a swimming pool or a cattle trough, but I know they are popular with the contemporary folk. The best baptismal pool I have ever seen is at Church Without Walls in Houston, Texas: wonderfully designed outdoor openair baptistry near an entrance to the sanctuary.
But I have a baptismal candidate now, and we are looking for a river in the foothills of the mountains in North Carolina. Someone suggested a church to call, and I will do that, but in the meantime, I have written a song for the occasion.
Over the years, I have written a lyric or two. On one occasion, we tried to use my new lines to a familiar song, but it turned into a disaster.
“I’m preaching on the baptism of Jesus,” I said to my worship team on Monday. “What shall we sing?”
There aren’t many songs in the hymnal—any hymnal—about baptism, but I confess I have never examined a hymnal from the Church of Christ. Given the emphasis they place on baptism, I would not be surprised if they have a score or more.
“What about ‘Shall We Gather at the River’?” somebody said, and I grabbed my hymnal and read through the words.
“This is about death, dying, and the life to come,” I surmised. “We need lyrics about baptism, salvation, and living for Jesus. I just may try my hand at writing what we need.
In my old age, I have grown more aware of the famous songwriters of my lifetime: such as Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, Prince, Dolly Parton, and Taylor Swift.
Plus, John Prine. He is first on my list these days, and I am passing on my affection for him to my grandson Sam! Every time we get in the car these days, he puts in a Prine CD.
There are many good worship songwriters, I suppose, but I like the old hymns, the old songs, especially those with a chorus. I know that is we might call a working-class taste in singing and not at all suited to the more sophisticated hymnody of liturgical settings. Nevertheless.
So I took this old hymn about heaven—“Shall We Gather at the River”—and turned it into a song rooted in the gospel accounts of the baptism of Jesus.
Shall we gather at the River where our Lord himself has trod:
There to open up forever our delight in the way of our God.
Then I turned to John the prophet, John the Baptizer, because that is the way all three gospel accounts begin, with the preaching of John in the wilderness, calling for repentance and change, with a pointed criticism of the governor thrown in for illustration.
On the margin of the River, John stood preaching of the Day:
“Turn from sin and God will save you; Do not wait, only trust and obey.”
None of us really knows why Jesus came to John to be baptized. His baptism does not fit any of our explanations today. For some reason, it fit what he needed at the time. Just like the many people who highlight their pilgrimage to Israel with an immersion in the waters of the Jordon River.
Now I have a candidate who walked the aisle and said, “I was baptized as a young man, but the real me at that time was still in the closet. I need for all of me, the true me, to be baptized.”
I have never had such a request, but after praying about it for several weeks and knowing there are many paths that lead people to the river, I said Yes. And when we baptize this man, we will have a song to sing!
In the waters of the River, Jesus heard the Voice above:
“You are anointed to deliver; you indeed are the true Son of God.”
This, of course, invokes the epiphany at the baptism of Jesus, when he heard the voice of God and saw the dove descend, making the episode fully trinitarian.
Finally, in true revival fashion, I added the invitation:
To the waters of the River, God calls all of us to go:
“Fill us also with your Spirit, let Your love through us all overflow.”
I know it is simple, amateurish, and perhaps downright hokey. But lots of hymns are, don’t you think? At least these new lyrics are rooted in a biblical narrative told three times in Holy Scripture. And they prepare us to use the familiar chorus as a way of saying Yes to Jesus, not just that first time when we walked the aisle of salvation, but every time we feel the Spirit moving us to respond to the call to follow Jesus:
Yes, we’ll gather at the River, the beautiful, beautiful River.
Gather with the saints at the River that flows by the throne of God.
I think we might actually sing this version on Sunday. I’ll let you know how it goes!
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