Month: January 2021

Arise, shine out, your light has come

Today is the Feast of the Epiphany when we celebrate the revelation of God in the birth of Jesus. It’s also a festival of light, both in the spiritual sense of enlightenment, of seeing the world in a new way in the ‘light’ of God’s presence, but also (in the northern hemisphere) marking the latest time of sunrise – 08.40 this morning where I live – after which the days get lighter again.

The hymn I have chosen appears in the ‘Epiphany’ section of the hymn book, although it doesn’t directly address either of those uses of the idea of of light – the literal sunrise, or the birth of Jesus. Instead it takes another way in which the Bible uses the idea of light, when it speaks of the new creation (or ‘New Jerusalem”) to come at the fulfilment of time, a creation in which there will be no violence, no pain, no tears, no death, and also no darkness: “the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb” [i.e. the sacrifice of Jesus] Rrevelation 21:23).

This looking forward to a time of perfection is an attractive proposition at a time of pain, isolation and death from the Coronavirus, and a national lockdown in England occurring in the middle of winter. To some people it may be seen as just wishful thinking, but as we saw yesterday with the divinity of Christ and the Communion of Saints, these are very much matters of faith. If we have faith in Jesus as the human incarnation of the eternal father, and in everlasting life with him for those who have died in that faith, then the idea of a whole new creation with Jesus as its light makes sense. And if you ask “what does faith look like?”, I refer you to my earlier blog post in December “Advent Faith” which you will find by scrolling down the recent posts.

God we praise you (Te deum)

After two hymns this week based on the Psalms, today’s hymn, “God we praise you, God we bless you” by Christopher Idle is based on the ‘Te Deum’ – an ancient hymn or canticle traditionally sung at morning prayer.  It reminds us of two things.  Firstly, that the baby Jesus whose birth we have been celebrating for the last twelve days of Christmas is the same King of Glory in heaven.  It is a teaching that has been handed down to us from those who knew Jesus, who had both heard the story of his humble birth (presumably from his mother Mary) and also experienced his transfiguration, resurrection and ascension.  When Jesus shocked Jewish leaders by saying things such as “Before Abraham was, I am!” or “He who has seen me has seen the Father”, he was claiming to be God. As C.S.Lewis memorably put it,  “a man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else he would be the Devil.” Christians believe that Jesus was not mad, or evil, but truly God.

The other Christian belief found in the Te Deum is that of the ‘Communion of Saints’.  The apostles, martyrs, prophets and saints – and for that matter anyone who has died believing in Christ – are, we believe, not only alive in heaven (whatever that might mean) but are aware of what is happening on earth and able to pray to God on our behalf.

These two beliefs are of course ‘acts of faith’ that cannot be proven scientifically or evidentially.  But if you hold to them, particularly at this time of lockdown when many people do not see others for days or weeks at a time, it can be a comfort that there is this ‘invisible cloud of witnesses’ along with Jesus Christ himself, who know what we are going through and are constantly praying for us.  The hymn ends with these words –“King enthroned above all praises, save your people, God, we pray!”

Come with newly written anthems

Today’s hymn, “Come with newly written anthems” is by the same composer as yesterday’s and is another psalm setting (this time Ps.98).  Although it has its own tune called “St Paul’s Cathedral” I sing it to a better known one, Abbot’s Leigh (likely to be in any popular hymn book).

The first verse praises God for his qualities – mercy, strength, holy kindness – and the fact that he never forgets or breaks his promises. The last verse speaks of God coming with justice, although more literal translations of Psalm 98 speak of God coming to “judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity (or truth)” which is a bit scarier.  Some hymns, as we will no doubt see later in the year, are less about joyful praise and more about engaging with the righteousness and truth (i.e. being faithful to God in our actions and words).

In between these two, the middle verse focuses on our response to God, exhorting each other to be ‘creative’ in our worship as well as skilful. It also speaks of rejoicing, of having a thankful heart and cheerful voice. And most important of all, to “focus on the wonders of God’s greatness as you sing”.  If hymn singing becomes just a routine, part of a sandwich of activities making up a church service in between readings and prayers, it can be easy just to go with the flow and not pay much attention either to the words or the emotions they seek to evoke.  Which is one reason for this year-long challenge, in itself an exercise in being creative: to look at unfamiliar hymns as well as well known ones, ponder the words and sing them outside the context of church services.  That way, I hope I can get ‘under the skin’ of them and a bit closer to ‘worshipping God with righteousness and equity’ as well as joyfully.

Bring to God your new, best songs

Because for most of the year I’m not including Saturdays, today is day two of this project to sing through the hymn book (see the pinned introductory post for details).  It’s the second Sunday of Christmas, the one nearest to the Epiphany when we celebrate God’s presence in Jesus being revealed to the world through the visit of the magi.  The hymn I have selected is a modern one, “Bring to God your new, best songs”. It doesn’t have a tune of its own but of the available tunes that fit it, I sing it to the tune of an older hymn, “King of glory, King of peace”.

The words are an adaptation by an acquaintance of mine, Martin Leckebusch, of Psalm 96.  This psalm has a long history of being adapted to sung worship. In the Book of Common Prayer it is known as the Venite (from the first word of the Latin version – Come!), and is still set as one of the canticles to be read or chanted at Morning Prayer.  God is praised as the creator of all the world and its peoples. Some verses of it also inspired the Epiphany hymn sung in many churches on this day, “O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness, bow down before him, his glory proclaim!” 

Whichever version of the psalm you prefer, the common themes are that after Epiphany the whole world, not just the people of Bethlehem, get to hear about the birth of Jesus, the presence of God among us.  And that there is no longer any excuse for idolatry – in Martin’s words, “Earth and heaven, revere the Lord your Creator: Why exalt some other god? He is greater!”

At the end of the twelve days of Christmas, the challenge is to do as the magi did, return home with a message of good new to tell the world. We can’t do that much in person at present, but this song calls us to “Bring to God our new songs” – we have other ways of communicating these days. In your phone calls, video conferences, tweets and other online interactions, how can you tell of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ?

Be still, for the presence of the Lord

Day one of this project to sing through the hymn book (see the pinned introductory post for details).  For copyright reasons I’m not putting the full words up here but will link to other online sources where possible.

We’re still in the Christmas season (the Eighth Day of Christmas today) but as “Sing Praise” only has a few Christmas carols I will leave those to December, and start with some general ones appropriate to a new year. Today’s song is “Be still, for the presence of the Lord”, a modern one popular in many churches.  It reminds us that prayer and worship start with being still – ‘centring prayer’ as some people call it.  It calls us to “bow down before him now, in reverence and fear”.  There are thirteen references in the Bible to bowing down to God, a practice very familiar to Muslims but less so to Christians. It’s worth trying this physical symbol of our humility in God’s presence, or at least kneeling in prayer.

The second verse reminds us of the possibility in the stillness of being surprised by Gods’ sudden glorious presence around us, much as the shepherds were surprised by the angels’ song at the birth of Jesus or the wise men discerned God’s purposes in the appearance of a new sign in the sky.  The final verse, appropriate for a new year, responds to God’s work of cleansing and healing – “No work too hard for him, in faith receive from him”.  Whatever your current needs for cleansing and healing, bring them to God in humility and ask him to make his presence known in your life this year.