This lyrics for this song were written in 1928 by the English priest John M. C. Crum to the tune of the medieval French Christmas carol “Noel Nouvelet.” The dorian melody has a sense of mystery and power perfect for his comparison of the Resurrection to the might sleeping in those tiny seeds all winter and bursting through leaves and earth around the time we celebrate Easter, even for those of us who live where it’s still snowing.

Thank you to the Episcopal Diocese of Northern Michigan for sponsoring the creation of this video

Em A Em - C - Am B7 Em A

Now the green blade rises from the buried grain

Em A Em - C - Am B7 Em A

Wheat that in the dark earth many days has lain
Em Am B7 G A B
Love lives again, that with the dead has been

Em A Em - C - Am B7 Em A

Love is come again, like wheat arising green

In the grave they laid him, love by hatred slain
Thinking he would never wake to life again
Laid in the earth, like grain that sleeps unseen
Love is come again, like wheat arising green

Forth he came at Easter like the risen grain
Springing from the grave where three days he had lain
Raised from the dead, my living Lord is seen
Love is come again, like wheat arising green

When our hearts are wintry, grieving, or in pain
By your touch you call us back to life again
Fields of our hearts that dead and bare have been
Love is come again, like wheat arising green

Three years ago this week my friend Ann Gonyea asked me to come sing at her church, Eden Evangelical Lutheran Church, in Munising. They were singing this song every week during Lent that year. It’s such a simple and beautiful song and I kept it in my repertoire of quiet night songs. It is sorrowful and joyful at the same time, which might be why Erica’s video of the singer in the dark contrasted with the bright frosted forest makes sense.

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