crosscurrents
Until we can publish an Autumn/winter crosscurrents we welcome articles and other contributions to Crosscurrents that we can put on the online version. Here are two recent topical contributions from Sam Walker and Rebecca Warren.
Cathy Slater
Cross Currents Editor
Cathy Slater
Cross Currents Editor
‘Where have you experienced the Spirit moving in this season of time?’
Sam Walker - 4 June 2020
This week has been a very sad one for me and for many others, both Black and White people. I have been distraught, emotional and I have cried as I watched the murder of a Black man in broad daylight. I saw many other Black people in high positions in society weep on TV reflecting on the hurt they feel. The murder brought to me in vivid focus the many accounts I have read of lynchings of Black people, Jim Crow laws, the Confederacy in the Southern United states, the Ku Klux Klan etc. I have cried and wondered how my relatives living in America would explain to their young children the things they are witnessing in their living rooms. I have cried.
When You hear Mr. Floyd crying, I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe, and calling for his mother, Mama, Mama! I ask myself the question, momentarily, where is God?
When the report that the Police officer kept his knee on his neck for nearly eight minutes and that he kept his knee on his neck for another 2 minutes and 58 seconds after Mr Floyd had been unresponsive and was showing no signs of life, I ask myself the question, momentarily, where is God? But then I thought again, this is nothing to do with the Spirit of God, it is about ‘man’s inhumanity to man (that) makes countless thousands mourn!’
Arnaud Arberry was jogging when he got shot by a white man and it took more than two months for an arrest and only after a video was leaked to the public. Christian Cooper, a man of good character and standing in his community and has long been a prominent bird watcher in New York City asked a white woman to put a leash on her dog in an area of a park where she was supposed to do so. She refused and instead called the Police to report that an African American man was threatening her and her dog. There are many examples where Black people, especially Black men have not had equal justice in the sight of the law and have grossly been discriminated against because of the colour of their skin.
Black people are just tired of being tired. Not only in America but also here in Britain.
I was once a regular visitor to Brixton Prison. There you can see the glaring inequities of the justice system. When she became Prime Minister, Mrs Theresa May standing in front of 10 Downing Street said that she was going to reform the justice system that sends so many Black men to prison relative to other groups of people in the country. She never had the time to do anything about this, Brexit came along.
Covid 19 has exposed the inequities of systems in society that relegates BAME communities to poor housing, poor health, low paid jobs, inequities on the job market, in our schools, and in our criminal justice system. And yet, this is the community that occupies the front row in delivering the essential services necessary for society to function.
The question is: Where have I seen or experienced the Spirit moving at this time of Pentecost?
Perhaps I could say, Pentecost is revealed in the immediate condemnation of Mr Floyd’s murder from across the world and the exposure of the inequities Black people have complained about since enslavement.
I can also see God’s spirit in those who are literally fighting anti-racism at this time. I can see the spirit of Pentecost when I see and hear people clapping, singing and beating drums in praise of those in the health service fighting Covid 19.
The Spirit of Christ burns away our many fears and anxieties and sets us free to move wherever we are sent. That is the great liberation of Pentecost. Let us join together in asking the Spirit of God to liberate our hearts and our nation today.
Sam Walker - 4 June 2020
This week has been a very sad one for me and for many others, both Black and White people. I have been distraught, emotional and I have cried as I watched the murder of a Black man in broad daylight. I saw many other Black people in high positions in society weep on TV reflecting on the hurt they feel. The murder brought to me in vivid focus the many accounts I have read of lynchings of Black people, Jim Crow laws, the Confederacy in the Southern United states, the Ku Klux Klan etc. I have cried and wondered how my relatives living in America would explain to their young children the things they are witnessing in their living rooms. I have cried.
When You hear Mr. Floyd crying, I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe, and calling for his mother, Mama, Mama! I ask myself the question, momentarily, where is God?
When the report that the Police officer kept his knee on his neck for nearly eight minutes and that he kept his knee on his neck for another 2 minutes and 58 seconds after Mr Floyd had been unresponsive and was showing no signs of life, I ask myself the question, momentarily, where is God? But then I thought again, this is nothing to do with the Spirit of God, it is about ‘man’s inhumanity to man (that) makes countless thousands mourn!’
Arnaud Arberry was jogging when he got shot by a white man and it took more than two months for an arrest and only after a video was leaked to the public. Christian Cooper, a man of good character and standing in his community and has long been a prominent bird watcher in New York City asked a white woman to put a leash on her dog in an area of a park where she was supposed to do so. She refused and instead called the Police to report that an African American man was threatening her and her dog. There are many examples where Black people, especially Black men have not had equal justice in the sight of the law and have grossly been discriminated against because of the colour of their skin.
Black people are just tired of being tired. Not only in America but also here in Britain.
I was once a regular visitor to Brixton Prison. There you can see the glaring inequities of the justice system. When she became Prime Minister, Mrs Theresa May standing in front of 10 Downing Street said that she was going to reform the justice system that sends so many Black men to prison relative to other groups of people in the country. She never had the time to do anything about this, Brexit came along.
Covid 19 has exposed the inequities of systems in society that relegates BAME communities to poor housing, poor health, low paid jobs, inequities on the job market, in our schools, and in our criminal justice system. And yet, this is the community that occupies the front row in delivering the essential services necessary for society to function.
The question is: Where have I seen or experienced the Spirit moving at this time of Pentecost?
Perhaps I could say, Pentecost is revealed in the immediate condemnation of Mr Floyd’s murder from across the world and the exposure of the inequities Black people have complained about since enslavement.
I can also see God’s spirit in those who are literally fighting anti-racism at this time. I can see the spirit of Pentecost when I see and hear people clapping, singing and beating drums in praise of those in the health service fighting Covid 19.
The Spirit of Christ burns away our many fears and anxieties and sets us free to move wherever we are sent. That is the great liberation of Pentecost. Let us join together in asking the Spirit of God to liberate our hearts and our nation today.
A Song for Pentecost and Coronavirus
Rebecca Warren - June 2020
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me;
because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor;
he hath sent me to heal the broken hearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives,
and recovering of sight to the blind;
to preach the acceptable year of the Lord".
Isaiah 61 vv 1-2, adapted from KJV
There has been only one occasion in my life on which I started a job interview with a quote from the Bible. It was the one that appears above – one of my favourite passages from the Bible, and it must have been one of Jesus's favourite passages as well, because, according to Luke, he quoted it at the beginning of his ministry. It is also the first verse of one of my favourite songs (if you know how much I sing, you will know that it is a big deal for me to designate a song as a favourite!)
One of the reasons I like this passage is because, even though it was written thousands of years ago, the invocations in this passage are directly relevant today. They are particularly relevant at this time of coronavirus. If you want to know what it means to bring good news to the poor, just ask Roger Clark, or anybody else who works for the WLM. What does it mean to heal the broken hearted? Right now is a particularly bad time to be bereaved, firstly because it is more likely to happen, both directly and indirectly from coronavirus, and secondly because, with bars on meeting up with loved ones and proper funerals, it is more difficult to grieve. And to bring deliverance to prisoners? I have been answering that question ever since I joined Amnesty in 1991, leading to me joining the Board in 2017. A prison sentence in a prison infected with coronavirus may well turn out to be a death sentence.
Having verified the relevance of the passage, I will move on to the final line – the acceptable year of the Lord. This refers to the year of Jubilee, every fifty years, described in Leviticus chapter 25. During this year people and property who were in bondage were redeemed – modern analogies would be the freeing of slaves and the cancellation of debts. I have heard that there is little evidence that the Israelites lived in this way, which is perhaps understandable given that they probably were not in a position to think fifty years into the future.
But, as with the other lines in the Isaiah passage, what can we learn from it today? The point about freeing slaves is completely straightforward – it is not acceptable for anybody to be a slave. Slavery certainly still exists, but having a scheduled time for slaves to be freed is not the right response – the correct thing to do is to work to stop slavery. What about debt cancellation? The implication is all debts are bad, and that in a lender/borrower relationship the lender is necessarily in the stronger position. You don't have to think too hard to see that neither of those points are the case. What we can valuably work towards is the cancellation of exploitative debts which should never have existed in the first place – this was the focus of the Jubilee campaign for the cancellation of damaging international debts in the year 2000, and the campaign still continues today.
Restore factory settings…
A subtitle is required here, because I have got to the most important point. The key point about the Jubilee year, whether or not it actually happened in practice, is that it was an opportunity to reset the way society operated.
This could be seen as a step backwards (hence "restore factory settings"). But it does not have to be – society can be reset in a more desirable way.
Coronavirus has exposed many deeply undesirable characteristics of our society:
And behind it all, climate change (which is itself a cause of inequality). I have little time for anybody who considers that the drops in carbon emissions this year are something to celebrate – firstly because they are very clearly temporary, and secondly because they have happened in a way which is harming the most vulnerable members of our society.
But the country – the world – has been shaken up so much that we need to rebuild. And this is the opportunity to rebuild in a new direction – in a way that protects the interests of people and the environment, rather than trying to restore what came before.
How do we do this? Every time I attend an online discussion on the subjects of the environment and/or inequality, the question I always ask is "how do we enact change?"
If you are hoping for an easy answer to that, there is none. But here are some starting points (credit to participants in the No Going Back: Climate, Justice and Jobs in a time of Covid Crisis discussion):
Coronavirus is a terrible disease, but if the disruption it has caused enables us to address climate change and inequality, it will be an opportunity well taken. We can't afford to wait fifty years for another opportunity!
*Where do you find other campaigners? Some starting points: the Campaign against Climate Change, Global Justice Now, Unlock Democracy, the Green Party (you don't need to be a member). And these links will lead to other opportunities.
Rebecca Warren - June 2020
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me;
because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor;
he hath sent me to heal the broken hearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives,
and recovering of sight to the blind;
to preach the acceptable year of the Lord".
Isaiah 61 vv 1-2, adapted from KJV
There has been only one occasion in my life on which I started a job interview with a quote from the Bible. It was the one that appears above – one of my favourite passages from the Bible, and it must have been one of Jesus's favourite passages as well, because, according to Luke, he quoted it at the beginning of his ministry. It is also the first verse of one of my favourite songs (if you know how much I sing, you will know that it is a big deal for me to designate a song as a favourite!)
One of the reasons I like this passage is because, even though it was written thousands of years ago, the invocations in this passage are directly relevant today. They are particularly relevant at this time of coronavirus. If you want to know what it means to bring good news to the poor, just ask Roger Clark, or anybody else who works for the WLM. What does it mean to heal the broken hearted? Right now is a particularly bad time to be bereaved, firstly because it is more likely to happen, both directly and indirectly from coronavirus, and secondly because, with bars on meeting up with loved ones and proper funerals, it is more difficult to grieve. And to bring deliverance to prisoners? I have been answering that question ever since I joined Amnesty in 1991, leading to me joining the Board in 2017. A prison sentence in a prison infected with coronavirus may well turn out to be a death sentence.
Having verified the relevance of the passage, I will move on to the final line – the acceptable year of the Lord. This refers to the year of Jubilee, every fifty years, described in Leviticus chapter 25. During this year people and property who were in bondage were redeemed – modern analogies would be the freeing of slaves and the cancellation of debts. I have heard that there is little evidence that the Israelites lived in this way, which is perhaps understandable given that they probably were not in a position to think fifty years into the future.
But, as with the other lines in the Isaiah passage, what can we learn from it today? The point about freeing slaves is completely straightforward – it is not acceptable for anybody to be a slave. Slavery certainly still exists, but having a scheduled time for slaves to be freed is not the right response – the correct thing to do is to work to stop slavery. What about debt cancellation? The implication is all debts are bad, and that in a lender/borrower relationship the lender is necessarily in the stronger position. You don't have to think too hard to see that neither of those points are the case. What we can valuably work towards is the cancellation of exploitative debts which should never have existed in the first place – this was the focus of the Jubilee campaign for the cancellation of damaging international debts in the year 2000, and the campaign still continues today.
Restore factory settings…
A subtitle is required here, because I have got to the most important point. The key point about the Jubilee year, whether or not it actually happened in practice, is that it was an opportunity to reset the way society operated.
This could be seen as a step backwards (hence "restore factory settings"). But it does not have to be – society can be reset in a more desirable way.
Coronavirus has exposed many deeply undesirable characteristics of our society:
- Inequalities too numerous to list. To give just one obvious example, lockdown has hugely different effects on people depending on what sort of homes they live in, what sort of work they do, and (most of all) the security of their work.
- Lockdown is dangerous for many people, particularly those at risk of domestic violence.
- The reduction in local air pollution has revealed just how dirty our air was previously – this is not merely unpleasant but has severe effects on people's health.
- The lack of respect and status with which people doing absolutely critical jobs, including many immigrants, are held at the highest level of government.
And behind it all, climate change (which is itself a cause of inequality). I have little time for anybody who considers that the drops in carbon emissions this year are something to celebrate – firstly because they are very clearly temporary, and secondly because they have happened in a way which is harming the most vulnerable members of our society.
But the country – the world – has been shaken up so much that we need to rebuild. And this is the opportunity to rebuild in a new direction – in a way that protects the interests of people and the environment, rather than trying to restore what came before.
How do we do this? Every time I attend an online discussion on the subjects of the environment and/or inequality, the question I always ask is "how do we enact change?"
If you are hoping for an easy answer to that, there is none. But here are some starting points (credit to participants in the No Going Back: Climate, Justice and Jobs in a time of Covid Crisis discussion):
- If you are in the position of having spare time during lockdown (not everybody does), use the time, with other campaigners*, to clarify objectives, prepare to win the arguments and create a positive vision of the future, and build a movement for change.
- Although the current government are difficult to influence, they have changed position on several issues recently because of the strength of public opinion. So they can be influenced. Focus on the most important politically transformative demands.
- If you are in a position to influence – use it. Here is an example of something I did recently.
Coronavirus is a terrible disease, but if the disruption it has caused enables us to address climate change and inequality, it will be an opportunity well taken. We can't afford to wait fifty years for another opportunity!
*Where do you find other campaigners? Some starting points: the Campaign against Climate Change, Global Justice Now, Unlock Democracy, the Green Party (you don't need to be a member). And these links will lead to other opportunities.
Emmaus
We’re walking along on the road to Emmaus
Our hearts are weighed down with despair
For Jesus our prophet and friend has been killed
And his body is no longer there.
A man walks beside us and asks us to tell
Of the loss of our Master and guide
And caref’lly explains all the Scriptures to us
And why the Messiah had died.
Christ needed to suffer the life of a man
To enter to glory at last
And we are dull pupils to easily forget
The prophets who spoke from the past.
And when we came into Emmaus itself ,
He joined us in eating our meal
He blessed and broke pieces of bread we could share
And suddenly all became real!
Our eyes were now open, but then he was gone
He vanished away from our sight ,
But our hearts had been burning with fire as he talked.
And we ran to Jerusalem that night.
The eleven were gathered and breaking their bread
They eagerly watched us arrive ,
We told them our story, and they told us theirs,
Our Master is fully alive!
The original was written in blank verse by a group doing a music workshop at a Hinde Street weekend away in the 1990s. It was sung in the service on the Sunday of the church weekend. I turned it from blank verse to rhyme and a few years ago when Rev Val Reid was leading the service where the lectionary was the Road to Emmaus, the congregation sang it.
As it is the lectionary for this week it was read at our class meeting that took place over the phone. Members felt it would be good to share with with the rest of the congregation who might like to read it.
If other class members would like to share any prayers, poems, or un-copyrighted readings, please do forward to the office to be published on this website.
Cathy Slater
We’re walking along on the road to Emmaus
Our hearts are weighed down with despair
For Jesus our prophet and friend has been killed
And his body is no longer there.
A man walks beside us and asks us to tell
Of the loss of our Master and guide
And caref’lly explains all the Scriptures to us
And why the Messiah had died.
Christ needed to suffer the life of a man
To enter to glory at last
And we are dull pupils to easily forget
The prophets who spoke from the past.
And when we came into Emmaus itself ,
He joined us in eating our meal
He blessed and broke pieces of bread we could share
And suddenly all became real!
Our eyes were now open, but then he was gone
He vanished away from our sight ,
But our hearts had been burning with fire as he talked.
And we ran to Jerusalem that night.
The eleven were gathered and breaking their bread
They eagerly watched us arrive ,
We told them our story, and they told us theirs,
Our Master is fully alive!
The original was written in blank verse by a group doing a music workshop at a Hinde Street weekend away in the 1990s. It was sung in the service on the Sunday of the church weekend. I turned it from blank verse to rhyme and a few years ago when Rev Val Reid was leading the service where the lectionary was the Road to Emmaus, the congregation sang it.
As it is the lectionary for this week it was read at our class meeting that took place over the phone. Members felt it would be good to share with with the rest of the congregation who might like to read it.
If other class members would like to share any prayers, poems, or un-copyrighted readings, please do forward to the office to be published on this website.
Cathy Slater
17/1/19 The Methodist Church has put out a statement about the murder on London Bridge . To see it click on the link below
https://www.methodist.org.uk/our-faith/prayer/a-statement-and-prayer-following-the-london-bridge-attack-29-november-2019/
WESLEY HYMNS
On July 8th we celebrated the publication of the new Wesley Hymns in a service where several people chose their favourite hymn and explained why. One of the hymns chosen was , Lord, my inward ear (Hymn 47 which was chosen by Glenn Kesby.
He wrote
In our Wesley Hymns project, we were aiming not only to protect, in print, a valuable part of our Wesleyan Methodist history, but also to offer a new resource for use in our private prayers, meditations and worship. It’s in thinking about the second purpose I selected Open, Lord, my inward ear (Hymn 47). Its emphasis is on quietness, stillness and contemplative reflection.
The first two verses quieten us down to be receptive to God’s quiet and comfortable voice that, when we’re ready, we will hear from within. We withdraw from the distractions of the noisy world. We wait silently and in stillness. There are allusions to Elijah’s experience, in 1 Kings 19, watching earthquake, wind and fire pass by - only to discover that God was not in these impressive, turbulent events, but that God’s still, small voice was in the silence that followed.
By the third verse we are ready to hear the secret of God’s love and Jesus’ sacrifice for us, and to begin our response to this sacrifice.
The remainder of the hymn asks for awareness of our sins to the extent that we are able to understand and bear them, and to humble us. Then we’re ready to put the rest of our earthly lives into God’s hands.
This Wesley hymn hadn’t really stood out to me until five years ago, when David Cruise asked me to sing it for a service about Charles Wesley - the man. I find the poetry both beautiful and surprisingly modern. The tune then was the one we’ve included in the hymn book, written in 2010 by Nicola Morrison
https://www.methodist.org.uk/our-faith/prayer/a-statement-and-prayer-following-the-london-bridge-attack-29-november-2019/
WESLEY HYMNS
On July 8th we celebrated the publication of the new Wesley Hymns in a service where several people chose their favourite hymn and explained why. One of the hymns chosen was , Lord, my inward ear (Hymn 47 which was chosen by Glenn Kesby.
He wrote
In our Wesley Hymns project, we were aiming not only to protect, in print, a valuable part of our Wesleyan Methodist history, but also to offer a new resource for use in our private prayers, meditations and worship. It’s in thinking about the second purpose I selected Open, Lord, my inward ear (Hymn 47). Its emphasis is on quietness, stillness and contemplative reflection.
The first two verses quieten us down to be receptive to God’s quiet and comfortable voice that, when we’re ready, we will hear from within. We withdraw from the distractions of the noisy world. We wait silently and in stillness. There are allusions to Elijah’s experience, in 1 Kings 19, watching earthquake, wind and fire pass by - only to discover that God was not in these impressive, turbulent events, but that God’s still, small voice was in the silence that followed.
By the third verse we are ready to hear the secret of God’s love and Jesus’ sacrifice for us, and to begin our response to this sacrifice.
The remainder of the hymn asks for awareness of our sins to the extent that we are able to understand and bear them, and to humble us. Then we’re ready to put the rest of our earthly lives into God’s hands.
This Wesley hymn hadn’t really stood out to me until five years ago, when David Cruise asked me to sing it for a service about Charles Wesley - the man. I find the poetry both beautiful and surprisingly modern. The tune then was the one we’ve included in the hymn book, written in 2010 by Nicola Morrison
Alison Gowman chose Hymn number 49 Where shall my wandering soul begin? She wrote ? Because it was written in May 1738 immediately following the conversion experience of Charles Wesley on 21st May.You may know that I am a trustee of the Aldersgate Flame the 15 foot bronze sculpture of a flame standing outside the entrance to the Museum of London in Aldersgate Street- marking the spot where John Wesley on 24th May had his own conversion in a Bible Study meeting near that spot. This second date is the one that Methodists commemorate as Wesley Day or Aldersgate Day and the Sunday nearest is also a time of reflection in many Methodist Churches. We share a service at the grave of Charles with St Marylebone Parish Church on this Sunday every year.
This hymn in a sense speaks to the experience of both brothers. Something I personally find quite difficult partly because I cannot point to a time or a day as to the start of my faith and secondly because of a reserve about speaking of such personal matters. The bronze Flame is actually one of three symbols of this very religious moment. There is one of the gates of Postman's Park next to the church St Botolph's Aldersgate and one more recent on the concrete wall of the Museum at the corner of Aldersgate Street. It was probably the older one that I recall was mentioned in a sermon by Rev Dr John Newton who was quoting a French diarist describing his visit to London and wrote that in Paris we put up statues to men of war and mark battles but here in London they mark a matter of the heart and soul.
This remark makes me proud to be a custodian of such a meaningful landmark.
This hymn in a sense speaks to the experience of both brothers. Something I personally find quite difficult partly because I cannot point to a time or a day as to the start of my faith and secondly because of a reserve about speaking of such personal matters. The bronze Flame is actually one of three symbols of this very religious moment. There is one of the gates of Postman's Park next to the church St Botolph's Aldersgate and one more recent on the concrete wall of the Museum at the corner of Aldersgate Street. It was probably the older one that I recall was mentioned in a sermon by Rev Dr John Newton who was quoting a French diarist describing his visit to London and wrote that in Paris we put up statues to men of war and mark battles but here in London they mark a matter of the heart and soul.
This remark makes me proud to be a custodian of such a meaningful landmark.
Come on, my partners in distress (wh 96)
Most of the films of the great director Ingmar Bergman involve intense studies of personal relationships within families or small groups in the Sweden of his time or a little earlier. But one of the greatest of them all is quite different. It opens with an immensely long panning shot of a desolate Danish landscape stricken by the Black Death. Eventually there appears, crossing it, a solitary knight, returning empty-handed and disenchanted from what had begun as the idealistic adventure of going on Crusade, and it transpires that he is now committed to what will prove to be a losing game of chess with Death. A voice over intones the account in Revelation of the opening of the seven seals of the Book of Life, the first six accompanied by the horrors of conquest, war, famine, martyrdom, earthquakes and death. But when the Lamb opens the seventh seal, instead of some culminating catastrophe the text reads "there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour", apparently a bathos but in truth one of the most stunning climaxes in all literature.
Bergman was far from being alone in recognising the impact of those words and using them to artistic effect, and in this hymn Charles Wesley echoes them masterfully at the end of the penultimate verse and the beginning of the next: " …. and silence heightens heaven. - In hope of that ecstatic pause …."
This is a hymn about heaven, drawing widely, in those and other phrases, on the imagery of the book of Revelation, especially in the closing verses, but also capable of the astonishing leap outside the Newtonian cosmology of Wesley's day displayed in verse 2: "Beyond the bounds of time and space".
Do not be put off by being addressed as "partners in distress". Charles was by no means a miserable or tormented person. He was happily married and after sharing, in earlier years, his brother's rôle of a travelling preacher had for the last 17 years of his life settled here in Marylebone with his family as a gentleman of modest but adequate means, still a leader of London Methodism but also participating in the literary life of the capital and holding musical soirées at which the precocious talents of his sons Samuel and Charles junior were displayed. He describes life here as "this vale of tears" not because it lacked its own comforts but in order to highlight what was to him the incomparable superiority of the life to come. Many of his hymns end in heaven; this one is there throughout.
John Hicks
Bergman was far from being alone in recognising the impact of those words and using them to artistic effect, and in this hymn Charles Wesley echoes them masterfully at the end of the penultimate verse and the beginning of the next: " …. and silence heightens heaven. - In hope of that ecstatic pause …."
This is a hymn about heaven, drawing widely, in those and other phrases, on the imagery of the book of Revelation, especially in the closing verses, but also capable of the astonishing leap outside the Newtonian cosmology of Wesley's day displayed in verse 2: "Beyond the bounds of time and space".
Do not be put off by being addressed as "partners in distress". Charles was by no means a miserable or tormented person. He was happily married and after sharing, in earlier years, his brother's rôle of a travelling preacher had for the last 17 years of his life settled here in Marylebone with his family as a gentleman of modest but adequate means, still a leader of London Methodism but also participating in the literary life of the capital and holding musical soirées at which the precocious talents of his sons Samuel and Charles junior were displayed. He describes life here as "this vale of tears" not because it lacked its own comforts but in order to highlight what was to him the incomparable superiority of the life to come. Many of his hymns end in heaven; this one is there throughout.
John Hicks
I have chosen Hymn No. 82: Jesus, Thy Boundless Love to me
This is John Wesley’s loose translation of the hymn “O Jesu Christ, mein schönstes Licht” by the famous 17th century German Lutheran pastor and hymn writer Paul Gerhardt.
Here’s the story – and this happens a couple of years before John Wesley’s heart was “strangely warmed” in his "Aldersgate experience" of 24 May 1738, at a Moravian Christian meeting.
- In October 1735, John Wesley (then aged 32) and his brother Charles sailed for America, where John, already ordained, was to become a minister at Savannah in the Georgia Colony – preaching both to Native Indians and colonists. Stayed just under 2 years.
- During the 4 month sea voyage, the Wesley brothers became acquainted with Moravian Christians, and John learned German from them.
- In Georgia, John discovered a 16 verse hymn by Paul Gerhardt in the Moravians’ hymnal.
- John Wesley was so taken by the hymn that he translated 9 of the original 16 verses into English.
- It meant a lot to him: in his final sermon before leaving Georgia, he quotes the 3rd verse as “his heart’s cry.” – the cry was later answered at Aldersgate.
- He then published the hymn in Hymns and Sacred Poems (1739) where he titled it “Living by Christ—from the German.” In both the original and Wesley’s 9 verse version, it moves through all stages of life, both the easier times and the difficult times.
- More recently the published versions have 5 verses. Our version here uses 4 of Wesley’s original verses – while I can’t track down the provenance of our Verse 2!
- [Of these hymn books now usually use CH-1, 2, 3, 8, and 9. – but our version uses CH-1, ??. 2, 8 & 9.]
Scripture is referenced in every verse of this hymn. Echoes of Deuteronomy 6:5 (“Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength”) can be heard throughout.
Taking a quick look at 2 verses:
Verse 1: In the opening line of the hymn, we find the idea of Jesus’ “boundless love” that tongues cannot express nor “thought can reach.” This is also seen in Ephesians 3:18-19, “I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
[The “strange fires” of which Verse 3 speaks (Wesley’s V2 on which he preached) allude to Leviticus 10:1-2, [where the Lord destroyed Nadab and Abihu for using profane or unauthorized fire to burn incense in the tabernacle. The fire was to have come from the altar of sacrifice in the courtyard (16:12), a fire which God Himself had ignited (9:24). [Nadab and Abihu had substituted something foreign and unworthy for the work of God. And since the rising smoke of the incense was to picture praise and prayer ascending to God (cf. Ps. 141:2), what they did represents a fleshly religiosity and a carnal substitute for true worship, rather than being founded upon the shed blood of the sacrifice (picturing Christ).]]
In the final verse, John Wesley draws upon the paradox found in 2 Corinthians Chap 12 verse 9, Christ’s love being peace in suffering and power in weakness. Paul tells the Corinthians, “And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’”
Gerhardt and Wesley encourage us to show Christ’s love to our neighbor, knowing that Christ’s love will fill our very souls. As in verse 3. may our “every act, word, thought, be love.”
Our tune, David’s Harp – is actually older than John Wesley translation. It was first printed in 1722 in something called The Divine Companion – with slightly different harmonies. Beware of the 5th line where the lower and upper voices separate! I’ll ask Magi to play the whole hymn through before we sing it.
Ann Mckay
Taking a quick look at 2 verses:
Verse 1: In the opening line of the hymn, we find the idea of Jesus’ “boundless love” that tongues cannot express nor “thought can reach.” This is also seen in Ephesians 3:18-19, “I pray that you may have the power to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
[The “strange fires” of which Verse 3 speaks (Wesley’s V2 on which he preached) allude to Leviticus 10:1-2, [where the Lord destroyed Nadab and Abihu for using profane or unauthorized fire to burn incense in the tabernacle. The fire was to have come from the altar of sacrifice in the courtyard (16:12), a fire which God Himself had ignited (9:24). [Nadab and Abihu had substituted something foreign and unworthy for the work of God. And since the rising smoke of the incense was to picture praise and prayer ascending to God (cf. Ps. 141:2), what they did represents a fleshly religiosity and a carnal substitute for true worship, rather than being founded upon the shed blood of the sacrifice (picturing Christ).]]
In the final verse, John Wesley draws upon the paradox found in 2 Corinthians Chap 12 verse 9, Christ’s love being peace in suffering and power in weakness. Paul tells the Corinthians, “And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’”
Gerhardt and Wesley encourage us to show Christ’s love to our neighbor, knowing that Christ’s love will fill our very souls. As in verse 3. may our “every act, word, thought, be love.”
Our tune, David’s Harp – is actually older than John Wesley translation. It was first printed in 1722 in something called The Divine Companion – with slightly different harmonies. Beware of the 5th line where the lower and upper voices separate! I’ll ask Magi to play the whole hymn through before we sing it.
Ann Mckay