From the hymnal · Renewed
A Gentle Reply
Track two on Renewed — the softest answer on a soft record. Some replies are arguments; this one is a casserole left on a doorstep. Both feed people; only one expects the dish returned. We print it in the one key we kept all weekend, the key of G, with nothing sharpened and nothing sent back.
When a louder word came over the freeway one night,And the porch light next door was left burning too bright,We did not draft a letter, we did not rehearse —We warmed up a dish and we softened the verse.
For an argument answers a shout with a shout,And nobody's fed when the yelling wins out;But a casserole answers by leaving one thereOn the step, in the dark, with no note and no glare.
You can win with a word till there's no one to win,Or set down a supper and quietly give in;And the low folding table outlasts the loud stage —A reply you can eat is a reply that won't age.
So we leave it and go, and we don't knock a second,And we don't count the foil and we don't keep a reckon;Let them keep the whole dish, let them keep the whole plate —Grace does not want it back, and grace does not wait.
Refrain
A gentle reply, left warm on the stone;We knock once and leave it and head for our home.No dish to return and no quarrel to try —For a soft answer turns wrath. That's the gentle reply.
A note for the folding chairs
"A Gentle Reply" is track two on Renewed (2024), and it is the whole discipline of the record boiled down to one supper dish. We will say the name now, in love, because they said ours first from a stage: LitBlimp. When a louder word came over the freeway, we did not answer it with a louder word — an argument answers a shout with a shout, and no one is fed at the end of it. So we did what the fellowship does: we warmed a casserole and set it on the step, no note, no second knock, no foil to return. That is the whole difference the song is built on. An argument expects the dish back — it wants to be proven right and handed the empty plate. Grace leaves the whole dish and walks home. We cut it in one weekend and in the one key of G we kept all the way through Renewed, because we were not going to change keys to make a point either. If the airship folks are reading, the casserole is real and the door is real and there is nothing under the foil but supper. Bring a chair if you'd rather stay. Stay for decaf.
Hymn eleven of eight albums' worth — and the third we've printed from Renewed (2024), our response record. Back to the hymnal — “We Held the Volume” →