This morning for our Passion Sunday I used a new hymn, written since The Christian LIfe Hymnal was published. I composed the hymn tune (which I have named CEDAR LANE) to an existing text in our hymnbook in 2001 but in 2008 my wife Dawn Rodgers and I wrote 3 stanzas of a new text, and incorporated one stanza attributed to John Donne. I am posting it here, and giving you permission to reproduce it in a service bulletin, and as needed for choir, accompanist, etc. If you report to CCLI, please report any usage. If you do not report to CCLI, you are still free to use this new hymn however you desire. Here are the lyrics:
Dear Jesus, Thou did favor,
To be our blessed Savior;
And Thine own Blood and Body
Were given to make us holy.
Oh, Jesus, Thou were taken,
And on the cross forsaken,
Yet, never did Thou falter
Upon that cruel altar.
Kind Jesus, in Thy passion
Redemption did Thou fashion;
The Bread and Wine we treasure
Remove sin’s curse forever!
Christ was the Word, that spake it:
He took the Bread and brake it;
And what that Word did make it,
I do believe and take it.
Text: St. 1-3, Dawn Rodgers, Eric Wyse, 2008; St. 4 attributed John Donne (1654)
Music: CEDAR LANE, Eric Wyse, 2001
For a PDF of the Music, click here: DEAR JESUS, THOU DID FAVOR (Score)
The tune is published in HYMNS FOR A PILGRIM PEOPLE (GIA/NACCC) with the text (by F. Bland Tucker and Donne) “When Jesus Died to Save Us.“
