(1) Preach you the Word and plant it home
To men who like or like it not,
The Word that shall endure and stand
When flowers and men shall be forgot.
(2) We know how hard, O Lord, the task
Your servant bade us undertake:
To preach your Word and never ask
What prideful profit it may make.
(3) The sower sows; his reckless love
Scatters abroad the goodly seed,
Intent alone that men may have
The wholesome loaves that all men need.
(4) Though some be snatched and some be scorched
And some be chocked and matted flat,
The sower sow; his heart cries out,
"Oh, what of that, and what of that?"
(5) Preach you the Word and plant it home
And never faint; the Harvest Lord
Who gave the sower seed to sow
Will watch and tend his planted Word.
Martin H. Franzmann, 1907‑76, "Preach You the Word," Lutheran Worship, St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House, 1982, Hymn #259. Mark 4.
