My Song is Love Unknown (ELW 343, verse 3)
3 Sometimes we strew his way
and his sweet praises sing;
resounding all the day
hosannas to our king.
Then “Crucify!” is all our breath,
and for his death we thirst and cry.
Devotion
A beautiful litany of the church, this hymn is in fact a dialogue or conversation that Christ has with the us, with the church. Christ asks us: What has he done that we would crucify him? The first verse is as follows: “O my people, O my church, what have I done to you? How have I offended you? Answer me. I led you out of slavery into freedom, and delivered you through the waters of rebirth, but you have prepared a cross for your Savior.” We have been freed from all that separates us from God and from one another, but we look the other way. We prefer as Luther said the “ease and comfort” of our ways, the empty songs of praise, rather than the joy of entering into love unknown, beyond all expectations, in service of our neighbor.
Prayer
Christ, even in death your arms are outstretched in an embrace of love. Turn our indifference into that same love for all our neighbors and for your creation. Amen.