ZACHARY'S NOTES:
Stanza 1 // This hymn connects the promises Christ speaks in this weekend’s Gospel text with the promise we are given in Holy Baptism. “Embraced into Christ the vine” we are joined to be “a branch of [the] life-giving Tree” of Christ.
Stanza 2 // The sequence of summer, autumn, and winter is compared to seasons of life. Just as Christ says we are pruned to bear more fruit, so our Lord acts on our behalf that we might know and be sustained by the vine-grower and “shout for joy” at the good news He brings.
Stanza 3 // The middle stages of life are described here as holding a “heavy harvest.” The burdens of responsibility - work, family, friends, relationships, our own needs, and the needs of others - can weigh heavily on us. Joined to the vine, Christ brings His gifts of “beauty, wisdom, and love.”
Stanza 4 // Even in death, we are held and abide in Christ - the vine! This is thanks to the “promise of the spring” - the promise into which we are baptized and held in life and death, even as our lives wither, and must die. Perhaps most espeically in this time, God promises the fruit of faith!
Stanza 5 // As much as this hymn is a prayer weaving together images of today’s reading and Holy Baptism, it is also a hymn of praise. By “word and water” we are revived to abide with Christ, and joined forever to His “Tree of Life” - His cross - by which we abide and live with God forever.
OTHER SUGGESTIONS
ELW 447 - O Blessed Spring - BERGLUND
ELW 342 - There In God’s Garden - SHADES MOUNTAIN
ELW 362 - At the Lamb’s High Feast We Sing - SONNE DER GERECKTIGKEIT
ELW 377 - Alleluia! Jesus Is Risen! - EARTH AND ALL STARS
ELW 379 - Now the Green Blade Rises - NOËL NOUVELET
ELW 447 - O Blessed Spring - BERGLUND
ELW 449 - We Know That Christ Is Raised - ENGELBERG
ELW 758 - You Are the Way - DUNDEE
LBW 148 - Now the Green Blade Rises - NOËL NOUVELET
LBW 189 - We Know That Christ Is Raised - ENGELBERG
LBW 210 - At the Lamb’s High Feast We Sing - SONNE DER GERECKTIGKEIT
LBW 378 - Amid the Worlds Bleak Wilderness - GRANTON
LBW 464 - You Are the Way - DUNDEE
LSB 474 - Alleluia! Jesus Is Risen! - EARTH AND ALL STARS
LSB 526 - You Are the Way - DUNDEE
LSB 595/595a - O Blessed Spring - O WALY WALY
LSB 603 - We Know That Christ Is Raised - ENGELBERG
LSB 633 - At the Lamb’s High Feast We Sing - SONNE DER GERECKTIGKEIT
RH 150 - At the Lamb’s High Feast We Sing - SONNE DER GERECKTIGKEIT
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