I received an honor from a Time Out listener: having sung a lot of hymns for the podcast, what hymns would I suggest for a funeral of a Christian related to this listener?
For my own funeral, I would choose hymns that impress upon the singer that Death is no mere rest, that it is an enemy to be dealt with, and that Christ has dealt with sin, death, and the devil on our behalf. Funerals in reality are not for the dead, they are for the living that remain.
TLH 607, “Day of Wrath, O Day of Mourning.” This is the English version of the ancient hymn Dies Irae. It isn’t in the Lutheran Service Book. The hymn has 19 verses, but they are short. This would make a good entrance hymn.
While the wicked are confounded,
Doomed to flames of woe unbounded,
Call me, with Thy saints surrounded.
TLH 656, “Behold a Host, Arrayed in White.” Now, some people would call a foul on me, because this hymn is in the LSB at 676. The TLH version has a prettier setting, arranged by Edvarg Grieg, and the lyrics while Jacobian are also easier to sing. LSB 676 is good and serviceable; I just prefer TLH 656. This was sung at my grandmother’s funeral, and I’m grateful she had requested this one.
Despised and scored, they sojourned here; But now, how glorious they appear!
Those martyrs stand a priestly band, God’s throne forever near.
So oft, in troubled days gone by, In anguish they would weep and sigh,
At home above the God of Love For aye their tears shall dry.
They now enjoy their Sabbath rest, The paschal banquet of the blest;
The Lamb, their Lord, at festal board Himself is Host and Guest.
Now I’ll put away the old red hymnal…
is among my top three favorite groups. Their first two albums, Hybrid Theory and Meteora, never hit any religious notes with me, but their next two, Minutes to Midnight and A Thousand Suns, have interesting songs and lyrics that made me think they are trying to grasp some answers about how we exist religiously.
