It is a travesty that so many hymns in Lutheran hymnals end–against the overwhelming testimony of the Scriptures–with stanzas about dying and going to heaven. So I’m rewriting them. No doubt improvements can be made, and if you don’t like mine, no big deal; write your own. Here’s what I’m going to sing, unless you give me something better in the comments!
Lutheran Service Book (LSB) 524 (“How Sweet the Name of Jesus Sounds”), stanza 7:
And then when I awake in life,
Body and soul unite!
Your good creation put to rights,
And make us whole again.
LSB 563 (“Jesus, Thy Blood and Righteousness”), alternate stanza 5:
When from the dust of death I rise
To greet my Savior in the skies,
Then on new earth my feet will stand,
I will live still from His good hand.
LSB 609 (“Jesus Sinners Doth Receive”), alternate stanza 7:
Jesus sinners doth receive;
Also I have been forgiven;
And when I this life must leave,
I shall find an open heaven.
But my hope is even more:
Jesus bodies doth restore.
LSB 686 (“Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing”), alternate stanza 4:
On that day when freed from sinning,
Lay my body in the grave.
But my soul shall cry out louder:
“Lord, how long?” and “Lord, please save!”
But we will not wait forever;
Christ the Life will hear our prayer!
And He will, our dear Lord Jesus,
Come and bring the Day to us.
LSB 702 (“My Faith Looks Up to Thee”), stanza 5:
My faith looks up to Thee,
In Christ, my life I see
Hidden in Him.
And when that life appears,
I’ll see Him as He is,
And at His Word I will
Be made like Him.
LSB 730 (“What Is the World to Me”), stanza 5:
What is the world to me?
When will it cease its groaning?
It longs in labor pains
For Christ and His revealing.
And when true children see
The world made new and free,
It ever shall be so:
Creation is my home.
LSB 733 (“O God, Our Help in Ages Past”), alternate stanza 6:
And we, when Jesus calls us forth,
From graves as from our beds,
Will wake and live forevermore
Bright, glorious as our Head.
LSB 761 (“Rock of Ages, Cleft for Me”), stanza 5:
I will rest my soul in Thee
While my body lies in dust;
Even so, my hope is this,
On Your Word my faith insists:
That my bones shall not remain
In the ground but live again.
LSB 763 (“When Peace, like a River”), stanza 5:
Because in that day mine own eyes shall see
Creation restored and renewed.
I’ll see Christ my Lord, and my body like His.
In that day, finally, all is well.
Balaam's Ass 