04/17/2026
Thursday, April 16, 2026
Meditation by Pastor Kaegler
“Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain, but if it dies it bears much fruit.” John 12:24
“Now the green blade rises, from the buried grain, what that in dark earth many days has lain; love lives again, that with the dead has been; love is come again like wheat arising green” - John Macleod Campbell Crum Now the Green Blade Rises
This past week, we got to sing one of my all time favorite hymns, Now the Green Blade Rises. Even though the melody comes from an old French Christmas Carol (Noel Nouvelet which is translated into the English version Now We Sing of Christmas), when I hear the haunting melody, it feels like I’m being carried along in the wind in a field - and like I’ve been swept in time and space to a late medieval Europe. This is a folk tune that would give the lowly strength, joy, and fellowship when it was first collected in the 15th century. There’s a certain lightness, or airiness to it. Any one of the gifted music teachers and musicians here could tell you the why’s and the how’s, I can only attest to the beauty of the sound.
The author of the text was John Macleod Campbell Crum was an Anglican priest with a love of history, architecture and theology. Crum likely heard a modern organ rendition of the medieval piece by Marcel Dupré some time between 1922 and 1928, and curiously decided to apply lyrics more fitting to Easter and early springtime: seeds that were buried peaking out of the ground and sprouting green, apparently out of nowhere. Jesus said taught he would be like that, and so too would be the church. The powerful would bury him, not recognizing that he would be the firstborn of the dead, the first fruit of the new creation, and that he would be taking all of us dying, forgiven, beloved people with him. And the difference between following him into the life of the world to come, and staying unmoved is nothing less than the between a seed above ground, and a seed that’s sprouting and coming into its true glory.
Good words for the ominous late 1920s - as the global market was preparing to crash and the world was about to descend into revolution, fascism, and unparalleled war. Though he himself certainly did not know it - his work in recreating that hymn for a new generation would give a sense of peace and courage to countless people in the impending sorrows of the mid-20th century and beyond. We still sing Now The Green Blade Rises, probably more than we sing the original translation of the text Now We Sing of Christmas. But behold! A new era brings a new use to an old tune.
Our newest hymnal All Creation Sings has added a different version of that old tune. While its first duty was in service to the Nativity of Our Lord, and the second was to the Resurrection of our Lord - this most recent one is to the life of the Church. David Bjorlin wrote it around 2018 - as an attempt to speak about the Church’s ability to truly welcome people in need of community, safety, and support. To not be conformed to the fears of the world, but instead to welcome others in as Christ welcomes us. It’s called Build a Longer Table. Here’s how it goes, and I hope you love it as much as I do:
1. Build a longer table, not a higher wall,
feeding those who hunger, making room for all.
Feasting together, stranger turns to friend,
Christ breaks walls to pieces; false divisions end.
2. Build a safer refuge, not a larger jail;
where the weak find shelter, mercy will not fail.
For any place where justice is denied,
Christ will breach the jail wall, freeing all inside.
3. Build a broader doorway, not a longer fence.
Love protects all people, sparing no expense.
When we embrace compassion more than fear,
Christ tears down our fences: all are welcome here.
4. When we lived as exiles, refugees abroad,
Christ became our doorway to the reign of God.
So must our tables welcome those who roam.
None can be excluded; all must find a home.
May the best tunes remain timeless. May songs of Christ and his Church be sung for every generation to come. Amen
Music: Build a Longer Table (with Lyrics) All Creation Sings 1062
Steve Winwood - "Now The Green Blade Riseth" (2020)
Christ's Lutheran Church
700 E. Pennsylvania Ave.
Oreland, PA 19075
(215) 886-4612
