“Borning Cry”

Thanks to Jim and Betty Anderson for offering their favorite hymn, “Borning Cry” and why it is a special song for them.

"Borning Cry" assures us that God loves us from the very beginning and throughout the various stages of our lives. Since we are both experiencing all that goes with the final "season" in our lives, with our many and various "quirks", it is so reassuring to know that God always loves us. 
– Jim and Betty Anderson

THE COMPOSER:

John Carl Ylvisaker, born on September 11, 1937 in Fargo, ND, was raised in Moorhead, MN, and he attended Concordia College where both his parents were employed; his father chaired the Religion department and his mother was the librarian. The Concordia library was later named in honor of his father Carl Ylvisaker. John earned a degree in music and history from Concordia in 1959. He taught in music in the schools of Hawley, Morris, MN before becoming a Parish Assistant at St. Philip’s Lutheran Church in Fridley, MN. After he completed his Master’s Degree at the University of MN, he traveled the country as part of the civil rights movement in the United States. After an additional 4 yrs teaching in Buffalo, MN, he took a position as the composer-in-residence for the American Lutheran Church, headquartered in Minneapolis.  This this work, he began traveling the country and abroad, studying the musical styles of each area he traveled to. He become particularly interested in American folk music, which was reflected in the music he would write. It was a stylistic change from Lutheran music that was precisely composed and performed by trained vocalists and organists. Ylvisaker’s hymns, which he sang in his intense, warbling baritone voice, were loose and inviting.  These stylistic differences led him to be criticized by many traditional Lutheran hymn writers, however, they were also what made him popular.  John’s wife, Fern Kruger said this about John; “For John to come into church with a guitar and encourage the congregation to sing, as a cantor would do, was quite a shift.”  “What John’s music does is get you in touch with your heart; He put the gospel into everyday life.” 

John Carl Ylvisaker, age 79, of Waverly, died peacefully at his home in Waverly, IA, from complications of Multiple System Atrophy and cancer on March 9, 2017.

 THE SONG:

During 1985, the ALC was doing a series on baptism called “Reflections”. John began work on the song before any footage for the video had been shot. When the media team met to put the music with the video for the first time, it became obvious that the dance-like beat and fast rhythm of the music did not match the gentle scenes being depicted on the screen. The lyrics were on target, but not the music. As he left the studio that day, John received the suggestion to “take it home and personalize it”.  John began the work of changing a completed work into something else, the result being the song “Borning Cry”, which is now included in songbooks and hymnals around the world.

In this familiar song, John Ylvisaker’s witness to us is that God speaks to us at our baptisms, and he proclaims promises which can never be revoked. When Jesus promises the Kingdom of God to everyone who is born anew of water and the Spirit, it is the same exact message. Ylvisaker reminds us of these promises which are lived out in every stage of our lives – when we cry after first emerging from our mother’s womb to when we go out to find where demons dwell; when we are first hearing God’s word, to cheer us on to when we find someone to share our time; even during those middle ages between being young and old. And finally, when the evening gently closes in and we shut our weary eyes. All who are born anew of water and the spirit can sing the words that John Ylvisaker put to music and hear the words of God that his son was sent into the world so that all of us might be saved through him.   –Rev. Ralph Wolfe, March 12, 2017

“I Was There to Hear Your Borning Cry” takes believers from the moment when God claims them in Holy Baptism to that moment after they've closed their eyes in death to be shown God's grand surprise, secured for all who believe in Christ, resurrection life eternal with God! That surprise will include reunions with all believers of every time and every place.”

The following is a video with pictures from John and his family’s life in Christ with “I Was There to Hear Your Borning Cry” accompanying the video.  Check it out!    –MarkDaniels.Blogspot.com