ok, here's the Love Unknown rewrite, as promised. on the last day before easter....anyway....

original text (Presbyterian version...number 76)
text by Samuel Crossman, 1664.
tune: LOVE UNKNOWN (6.6.6.6.4.4.4.4) by John Ireland, 1918, copyright John Ireland Trust.

My song is love unknown,
My Savior's love to me,
Love to the loveless shown
That they might lovely be.
O who am I
That for my sake
My Lord should take
Frail flesh, and die?

Christ came from heaven's throne
Salvation to bestow,
But people scorned and none
The longed for Christ would know.
But O my Friend,
My Friend indeed,
Who at my need
His life did spend!

Sometimes they strew his way,
And His sweet praises sing,
Resounding all the way
Hosannas to their King.
Then "Crucify!"
Is all their breath,
And for His death
They thirst and cry.

They rise, and needs will have
My dear Lord made away;
A murderer they save,
The Prince of life they slay.
Yet steadfast He
To suffering goes,
That He His foes
From thence might free.

Here might I stay and sing,
No story so divine:
Never was love, dear King,
Never was grief like Thine.
This is my Friend,
In whose sweet praise
I all my days
Could gladly spend.


major issue...MAJOR: The text implies that "they" did all the bad stuff while "I" have nothing to do with it and in fact "I" am so good that i "could" spend all my days in sweet praise. Too much "they" vs. "I"...THEY strew his way, THEY shout crucify, THEY thirst for death...THEY slay the prince of life...but here I will stay and sing the amazing story. because of Jesus' love for ME ME ME, not so much for the people who were shouting "Crucify". (I know y'all are going to look again and say "what about the end of verse four?" well, when was the last time you were singing this hymn and you notices that the end of verse four says that Jesus frees his foes from death? my guess is that most or all of us have glossed over that in our slightly self-righteous singing of this hymn, which overwhelmingly places us on the innocent side of this whole deal. too bad only Jesus was on the innocent side. anyway..)

so, here is my main suggestion: that "they" language be changed to "we" language. after all, hymns are primarily for use in the gathered community and, as such, are usually bad with too much "i" language anyway, let alone me vs. them language. I would propose two options for verse One...either change to we language and add it again as verse 6 in the original "I" form...or change it to "we" to begin with. I prefer option one as it maintains the idea that Jesus died for the entire community, of which I am a part and therefore also for me as an individual. Also, in verse five I propose a change to "should" instead of "could" to imply responsibility rather than ability. I also hear a few people potentially saying that this is noting a historical reality, that it really was "them" crucifying Jesus...well, I would simply say back that none of us are innocent of that, that every time we are the goats of Matthew 25--not feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, clothing the naked, housing the homeless, etc--and every time we are the Pharisee passing by the battered man on the roadside instead of the Samaritan helping out, we participate as the crowd in the crucifixion. don't try to claim that if it were all happening now you'd be innocent, because it's a lie. "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us." so, here goes...a rough rewrite...


Our song is love unknown,
Our Savior's love to all,
Love to the loveless shown
That we might lovely be.
O who are we
That for our sake
The Lord should take
Frail flesh, and die?

Christ came from heaven's throne
Salvation to bestow,
But people scorned and none
The longed for Christ would know.
But O our Friend,
Our Friend indeed,
Who at our need
His life did spend!

Sometimes we strew his way,
And His sweet praises sing,
Resounding all the way
Hosannas to our King.
Then "Crucify!"
Is all our breath,
And for His death
We thirst and cry.

We rise, and needs will have
Our dear Lord made away;
A murderer we save,
The Prince of life we slay.
Yet steadfast He
To suffering goes,
That He His foes
From thence might free.

Here might we stay and sing,
No story so divine:
Never was love, dear King,
Never was grief like Thine.
This is our Friend,
In whose sweet praise
We all our days
Should gladly spend.

My song is love unknown,
My Savior's love to me,
Love to the loveless shown
That they might lovely be.
O who am I
That for my sake
My Lord should take
Frail flesh, and die?