July 2021 – Page 2 – The Raynville Rambler

We sing your praise, Eternal God

Elijah in the cave,
William Brassey Hole (1846-1917)

Today’s song from Sing Praise is, perhaps we should say, the title track: “We sing your praise, eternal God” by Alan Gaunt. Verse 3 gives a clue to its origins: references to wind, earthquake and fire (representing the turmoils of life that “kill love and stifle prayer”) suggest it’s based on Elijah’s experience in the desert cave in 1 Kings 19, where he pours out his troubles in prayer before experiencing these natural forces in which he failed to find God.

A parallel theme, also found in that desert experience, works its way through the hymn, at least in verses 1,2 and 4: that of sound and silence. “We can never match your love, however loud our songs” … “Your love which comes so silently through all the noise we hear” … “No sound on earth can drown the silence we have heard”. God revealed his love for Elijah, and comforted him, through silence, not speech or natural forces. The right balance between work, worship and contemplation in the Christian life is difficult to achieve, especially for those of us who prefer action to stillness, but sometimes stillness is what we need.

Although Elijah went away from Horeb refreshed by the revelation of God in the silence, it was not to a monastery for more of the same, but back into action, and indeed into danger. The last verse puts this quite clearly: “It [God’s Word in silence] comes to guilty, broken hearts, with challenge and release; prepares us for self-sacrifice and speaks eternal peace”. As I wrote yesterday about the hymn “We do not hope to ease our minds”, the Christian life is never meant to be only about forgiveness, silence and inner peace, although they are part of it. They are the basis of an active faith that has to take risks and face difficulty.

We do not hope to ease our minds

Image credit: Christ on Gethsemane, from **Art in the Christian Tradition**,
a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN.

If, like John, you wondered why I haven’t blogged for the last eleven days, it’s because I was on holiday. I continued singing the daily hymn from Sing Praise, but just haven’t been at a computer to write about them. I may find time to go back to them later.

Today’s choice is “We do not hope to ease our minds” by Marnie Barrell. It’s in the general ‘God and the World’ section of the book, but as two of the verses refer to Holy Week, it would actually have been better sung then. The theme of the three verses is that the needs of the world are so insistent and demanding of a compassionate response, that we (members of the Church) cannot comfort ourselves with an easy-living faith.

The ‘simple answers, shifted blame’ of verse 1 will not cut it with Christ who, as he put in the parable of sheep and goats, is present in everyone in physical or emotional need. We ask in this verse to be ‘disturb[ed] till every need is satisfied’, which of course is never in this life.

Verse 2 refers to Christ’s unjust trial and torture at the hands of the Romans, standing as a symbol for all the injustice and violence in the world, the pain of which he bore on the cross. As with verse 1, we ask to be ‘given no peace till his peace reigns in triumph here’, and again that will not happen until Jesus returns. We are asking here for a permanent sense of being troubled by the way the world is, and what we might be able to do about it.

The last verse begins ‘We will not pray to be preserved from any depths of agony’, although in fact that’s just what Jesus did in Gethsemane, before accepting his Father’s will. I therefore don’t think there’s anything wrong with praying to be spared agony. A true faith lived out will include moments of discomfort and inconvenience at the very least, but there’s a very wide spectrum between ‘comfortable Christianity’ and martyrdom. As Paul wrote to the Corinthians, God knows each of us individually and will not let us be tested beyond what we can endure.

The hymn is set to a metrical version of ‘St Patrick’s breastplate’, maybe with deliberate reference to the ascetic saint’s own renouncing of comfortable worldliness in the service of Christ.

Living God, your word has called us

the congregation of Walthamstow Central Baptist Church

We are now on to a section of the Sing Praise hymn book titled ‘gathering’: these hymns are intended to be sung at the start of an act of worship to help the congregation feel they belong together. Today’s hymn is ‘Living God, your word has called us’ by Jan Berry.

The first lines of the three verses are almost identical but for one word: “Living God, your word/love/hope has called us”. So being called by God is the theme, and as it’s ‘us’ not ‘me’, this is the prayer of the whole congregation. In the first verse, God’s word, we ask to be made one “in hope and grace” and describes our praise and prayer as “springing from the love we share”.

The second verse, God’s love, refers to him making us the Body of Christ by the Spirit. How does that happen in practice? “Working, laughing, learning, growing, old and young and black and white, gifts and skills together sharing, in your service all unite”. The words remind me of one of the few modern hymns I know in German, “Stimmet ein, groß und klein” which has much the same message (I couldn’t find the full words online to link to).

The last verse, God’s hope, turns us outwards to service in the world (not usually a theme of a ‘gathering’ hymn) “teaching us to live for others, humble, joyful, unafraid”. We ask for “eyes to see your presence” (implied: in other people).

The hymn presents a picture of the ideal congregation, coming together in worship, becoming one in fellowship, serving Christ together joyfully. In practice some congregations seem to be closer to that ideal than others, but it remains an ideal rather than a reality for most.

The suggested tune is one called ‘Tor Hill’ (a tautology, but never mind). It was unfamiliar to me and I was pleased that John chose the better known ‘Hyfrydol’. Another Welsh hymn tune ‘Blaenwern’ is also suggested as an alternative.

Tell all the world of Jesus

Today’s hymn from Sing Praise is “Tell all the world of Jesus” by James Seddon. The theme is obvious from the first line – the command to spread the Gospel. The three verses cover, roughly speaking, his mission for the redemption of all creation, his gifts to the individual and his eventual triumph over sin and death.

We have here Jesus as Redeemer of the World, Jesus as personal Saviour, and Jesus as King of the Universe. However it passes over his suffering on the cross, which may be intended to make it a ‘nice’ hymn to sing, but of course misses the vital historical and theological point of sacrifice being necessary for redemption. It also makes him a rather ‘cuddly’ saviour (offering forgiveness, peace, care, love and mercy), without any of the demands of discipleship. This is salvation-lite.

The suggested tune, Thornbury by Basil Harwood, is better known to the words “Thy hand O God has guided”. Thornbury is the adjacent parish to Eccleshill: I wonder whether Basil Harwood had any connection with that part of Bradford?

Summoned by the God who made us

Today’s hymn from Sing Praise is “Summoned by the God who made us” by Delores Dufner.

I feel this hymn lacks coherence. As John remarked at morning prayer, it could be suitable for a baptismal service, but the only direct reference to baptism is in verse 2* (“Radiant risen from the water, robed in holiness and light”). Apart from that, it is a hymn on the general theme of discipleship and Christians in community. As such, it might be suitable for an ecumenical service, a renewal of vows, or possibly with verse 2 omitted for any general occasion when we wish to remind ourselves of our calling as a Church. But the several verses are all on different themes.

Verse 1 refers to richness in diversity and unity; this is expanded in the chorus (“Let us bring the gifts that differ and, in splendid, varied ways, sing a new Church into being, one in faith and love and praise”). Verse 2, as well as the baptismal reference, speaks of being made in God’s image, verse 3 of trusting the goodness of creation and the Spirit within us, verse 4 of every nation and race, and verse 5 of the whole human family being drawing into an ever-widening circle (paraphrased). Lots of ideas, but with no development of them, and the early focus on commitment to Jesus and baptism seems at odds with the message of ‘every nation and all the human family’ at the end. Is the Church distinctive from the rest of humanity, or isn’t it?

* In ‘Sing Praise’, it is set as five four-line verses with a chorus, but John chose to sing it to an alternative eight-line tune, counting the chorus as verse 2 thus making three longer verses. I think either works well enough, depending on whether you want a shorter or longer hymn and whether you want to emphasis the message of the chorus about using different gifts.

Send, O God, your Holy Spirit

Today’s hymn from Sing Praise is “Send, O God, your Holy Spirit”. The title may suggest it for the Pentecost season, but the compilers have chosen to put it in the section headed “The Church’s Ministry and Mission”. That reminds us that the Spirit is never given for the individual’s benefit (as Paul explains to the Corinthians) but for the building up of the Church as the Body of Christ and for the furthering of God’s mission.

Thus, after the first verse asking for the Spirit to be sent “on your people gathered here”, the second acknowledges that the Spirit’s gifts are given “to equip the saints of Jesus for the saving work we share”. The third verse lists some of those gifts (wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing) and the last reminds us that in claiming the “gift, faith and promise” of the Spirit, we “build the body of the Lord”.

Restore, O Lord

Today’s hymn from Sing Praise is “Restore, O Lord, the honour of your name” by Graham Kendrick and Chris Rolinson. This is another of Kendrick’s 1980s hymns that has stood the test of time, both for its memorable tune, and because it addresses ideas that don’t lose their relevance.

When planning the allocation of the hymns across the year I wasn’t paying attention to the daily lectionary, but John in his video noted the link between the theme of this hymn and the book of Ezekiel which is being read at Morning Prayer for the next few weeks. Both are about restoration from times of trouble. Ezekiel spoke to the Jewish exiles who had lost their homeland and maybe were in danger of losing their hope in God. The hymn speaks to Christians today who have, perhaps, lost a sense of God being with us and working through us, and we also may risk losing our hope in God himself.

The first verse calls for God to restore his own honour, by works of power that make everyone realise he is the one in control. Since the hymn was written, there has of course been a great increase in the number of people concerned for the future of human society, not least because of the climate crisis. People of faith long for God to step in and put things right, but we are working with others who have no religious conviction, who can only call for everyone to do their bit “for the sake of the planet”. The challenge for us Christian environmentalists is to work with them on the practical actions we can take, without losing faith that God somehow has a bigger plan that indeed “his kingdom shall outlast the years”.

The second verse acknowledges that it is not only God’s apparent lack of action that leads to earthly problems, but the Church’s own failings. We call on him to “revive in our time the church that bears your name” and to have mercy on our failings. We have failed to move with the times, lost a whole generation of adults who no longer have any connection with Christianity (though some find spirituality in other forms), and often lost hope that they will ever come back. It needs a movement of God’s Spirit, not just our own good intentions, to reclaim that lost ground for Christ.

The third verse move from the corporate to the individual level. “Bend us, O Lord, when we are hard and cold, in your refiner’s fire come purify the gold” is the cry of anyone who realises they have lost their love for God and enthusiasm for worship and witness. There is perhaps a mixed metaphor in these lines, both of a hard iron rod needing to be heated in the fire to make it malleable, and of a gold alloy that can be purified by melting out the impurities. Both are meaningful images, as we need both to be purified of our sins, and heated with love for God, before we can truly hope in him. It recognises also the reality of suffering and evil, which in their many forms prevent us from fulfilling our potential as people and as God’s servants.

The last line (unless you repeat verse 1 as suggested in the book), is also a message of hope: “still our living God is reigning, he is reigning here”. Unbelieved by many outside the Church, unacknowledged in practice by many within it, our hearts hardened by sin and worldly worries, yet God is still reigning, and hears us when we call on him for restoration.

Bread of life, hope of the world

Today’s hymn from Sing Praise is another communion song, “Bread of life, hope for the world” with words and music by Bernadette Farrell. There are eight verses in the book, but three of those are each for specific seasons of the year, and two others offers as ‘additional or alternate’ options, so the intention is not to sing all of them, although if sung by a music soloist or group while the people take communion, it could need more than three if the congregation is of even moderate size.

The title is that of the first line of the refrain, which is followed by “Jesus Christ our brother, feed us now, give us life, lead us to one another”. In those few phrases is a summary of the various ways that the mass/communion is understood: as both physical and spiritual food, as a means to eternal life through his death, and as a means to unity within the Church as we share the one bread.

The first few verses expand on those themes: the death and resurrection of Jesus, the making of bread from individual grains compared with the making of the body of Christ from individual people; its breaking as a sign of Jesus’ body broken for us and as a sign of hope.

The additional verses cover the unity of the Church, the sharing of peace, the promise of Christ’s coming (in Advent), the Nativity, and in Lent “our hunger for your word, our thirsting for your truth”.

One is the body

The hymn I chose for 2 July from Sing Praise (but commenting a day late) was “One is the body and one is the head” by John Bell, with words based on Ephesians chapter 4. Unlike the psalm setting I mentioned on 1 July with a difficult tune to pick up, this one in Bell’s usual Scottish folk style is very easy.

It’s a song of unity in mission: the unity between God the Father, Jesus Christ and the holy Spirit; unity between the earthly Jesus and the eternal Christ; unity between the members of the Church with our different gifts and callings, and unity between the Church as body of Christ, and the threefold God whom we serve and worship.

O Lord, you are the centre of my life

Today’s song from Sing Praise is “O Lord, you are the centre of my life”, a cantor-and-chorus setting of Psalm 16 by Paul Inwood. I found the tune rather difficult to sing, but that may just be a matter of unfamiliarity, as the style is very much that of the Catholic rather than Anglican use of the Psalms. Indeed an online biography of Paul Inwood confirms him as a Catholic composer.

There are three verses for cantor, being fairly close paraphrases of verses 1, 2 and 7-11 of the psalm. The psalmist asks God to be his refuge, praises him for his counsel (guidance), and asks to be shown the path of life and to be rescued from death. The chorus is “O Lord, you are the centre of my life: I will always praise you, I will always serve you, I will always keep you in my sight” which does not appear to be a quotation from the same psalm but complements it. God works with people on a covenant basis: he offers his gifts of grace (such as protection, guidance and eventually eternal life) and in return expects our praise and humble service.