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.
The hymn is a metrical version of part of Isaiah 60 – the part which in the Common Worship Daily Prayer version of Morning Prayer is set as the “Old Testament Canticle” for the Easter Season. Of course CW Daily Prayer has only been around for about 20 years, whereas the hymn was written in 1989 – but I’d guess there was a predecessor version of the service which Brian Wren was writing for.
The Isaiah 60 passage is a clear forerunner to Revelation 21, but maybe not quite so clear as Isaiah 65:17-end, and I’m not clear in my mind why the CW DP people picked it – but as you say, Stephen, it does have the themes of light associated with Epiphany.
I was struck by some of the different imagery as I sang the words. The glory doesn’t gleam “on distant hills” according to the text (unless Brian means that from Babylon’s plains the exiled Israelites would remember the hills that surround Jerusalem), nor does it appear “high on your walls”. Nor is there any reference to “dwellings” (individual houses) in the city, and nor are the “avenues” called praise and peace but rather the gates and walls are given names. For me the phrase “unnumbered gates, like open hands” conjured up the feeling of being at the start of the racecourse, whereas Isaiah means the city gates of Jerusalem which certainly wouldn’t be “unnumbered” even if they all stood open. And I didn’t think the sun and the moon would “give up” – rather the glory of the Lord would outshine them. But, on the other hand, I thought “as history shall dry its tears” is an inspired line which truly holds together the twin truths that historical hurts can’t be wiped out by future bliss but those past hurts can be divested of their power to continue to hurt us in the present. And the idea of “Love shines out of every face” – that when we reach heaven, we shall indeed see the glory of God himself shining out from the face of the others around us – that’s a great summary.
In singing the hymn whilst playing it I had to take myself firmly in hand about the rhyme scheme. Most LM hymn tunes expect either ABAB rhymes (or its relative xAxA) or AABB rhymes, and ABBA is much less expected. I thought the ABBA rhyme wasn’t very well supported by the tune “Church Triumphant” (where lines 2 and 4 end with the same rhythmic figures), and I wondered if a less symmetrical tune (perhaps like Gonfalon Royal) would mitigate the effect and go better with this hymn?
I also found the ABBA rhyming pattern rather odd – not unusual in spoken poetry but odd for a hymn.
At the beginning of the year I didn’t have a copy of “Sing Praise”, so looked through for texts which might be in other books to sing until my copy arrived. I asked Stephen if this one was “Arise, shine, your light has come” (“Darkness, like a shroud, covers the earth”) by Graham Kendrick, and he replied that it wasn’t – it was by Brian Wren. So I looked again and noticed the word “out” (Arise, shine OUT) which also appears in the Common Worship Daily Prayer version of the “OT canticle” for the Epiphany season. “Aha!” I thought to myself. “I bet it’s a setting of that canticle. And I bet it’s in Long Meter too.” (i.e. 8.8.8.8.)
So before the book arrived I sat down and wrote my own setting of that canticle in LM, just in case it was, so that I could compare mine with what was in the book. Here’s mine:
Arise, shine out, for you have light:
the glory of the Lord will rise,
though earth is covered still in night
and darkness blinds the people’s eyes.
Above you is the Holy One,
majestic, glorious and bright:
all lands will notice and be drawn
to you, and kings will seek your light.
Your gates will lie flung open wide,
not needed in a land secure;
and none will need to run and hide,
and violence will be heard no more.
With gates of praise and walls which save,
the sun and moon and stars which shine
will not be needed, as you bathe
in light from God your Lord divine.
You shall be called the Holy Place
where God the Lord of all shall dwell,
the city where his love and grace
are seen by all in Israel.
All glory to the Holy One:
who dwells in splendour, majesty,
and grace: the Father, and the Son
and Spirit, in eternity.
Words copyright (c) John Hartley 2021, based on Isaiah 60:60:1-3,11a,18-19,14b
(as in “A song of the New Jerusalem” Morning Prayer canticle for the Epiphany Season in Common Worship Daily Prayer.) Suggested tune: Deus Tuorum Militum (Grenoble).
As you see, I’m more of a literalist and less of a poet than Brian Wren, and I’m more inclined to adhere to the traditional Gloria at the end of paraphrases. But why don’t you, dear reader, close this web page and close the book, turn up the bible, and write your own paraphrase of this chapter of Isaiah. You might discover it’s easier than you thought, and learn a few things along the way!