Lent: Day 14

"Arise, My Soul, Arise"

Text: Charles Wesley, Hymns and Sacred Poems, 1742

Tune: LENOX, Lewis Edsen, 1782

Here's another largely unfamiliar hymn, finally one from within the "family" of the Methodist movement. Charles Wesley reported amazing numbers of people who received assurance of their salvation while singing this hymn. Leave it to "Daddy Charles" to portray so personal an experience of a difficult concept--the atonement--in a (then) popular hymn!

Arise, my soul, arise; shake off thy guilty fears;
The bleeding sacrifice in my behalf appears:
Before the throne my surety stands,
Before the throne my surety stands,
My name is written on His hands.

He ever lives above, for me to intercede;
His all redeeming love, His precious blood, to plead:
His blood atoned for all our race,
His blood atoned for all our race,
And sprinkles now the throne of grace.

Five bleeding wounds He bears; received on Calvary;
They pour effectual prayers; they strongly plead for me:
“Forgive him, O forgive,” they cry,
“Forgive him, O forgive,” they cry,
“Nor let that ransomed sinner die!”

The Father hears Him pray, His dear anointed One;
He cannot turn away, the presence of His Son;
His Spirit answers to the blood,
His Spirit answers to the blood,
And tells me I am born of God.

My God is reconciled; His pardoning voice I hear;
He owns me for His child; I can no longer fear:
With confidence I now draw nigh,
With confidence I now draw nigh,
And “Father, Abba, Father,” cry.

Advent, Week 3: Thursday - Saturday

Recommended readings from the fourth Sunday of Advent (from the Revised Common Lectionary):
Micah 5:2-5a
Luke 1:47-55 or
Psalm 80:1-7
Hebrews 10:5-10
Luke 1:39-45, (46-55)

God is turning the world right side-up! To me that is what the Magnificat (Mary's song of praise) is all about. God has regarded our helpless state (as sinners all), and has helped us by sending us a Savior. This is what we wait for (symbolically) during Advent. We remember the first waiting for Christ, we recall our own helpless state before we first welcomed the Savior into our lives, and we wait again for the Savior's return.

What I find fascinating is that Mary, a first-century Jew, sang about this coming as present fact. Though only in the beginnings of her pregnancy with the Holy Child, she celebrated what God was doing, as though it were already done. The longer I live, the more confused I tend to get about the yet-not-yet-ness of God's Reign. I suspect that this is because God has already accomplished salvation, even as in our time and space-bound reality, Christ is still reconciling all creation to God. Sometimes I see it as God having "turned loose" salvation in our time and space and it's a glorious, complex, seeing-it-only-from-the-wrong-side-of-the-canvas work in progress. Sometimes I just say "thank you" to God and leave off wordering about it.

Too seldom, however, do I sing for joy because of God's mercy in working salvation in our sinful world--and in sinful me. Dear God, accept today my echo of Mary's Magnificat. You have helped your servant Israel, and specifically you have helped, over and over again, this least of your ingrafted servants: me!

Holy is your name, and holy is the Child about to be born, again, in our midst!

Advent, Week 3: Monday - Wednesday

Recommended readings from the third Sunday of Advent (from the Revised Common Lectionary):

Zephaniah 3:14-20
Isaiah 12:2-6
Philippians 4:4-7
Luke 3:7-18

The lesson from Zephaniah from last week's Lectionary readings is one of my favorites in the entire Bible. First of all, as a self-respecting singer, it's the only explicit example we have of God the Singer. (The LORD, your God, is in your midst, a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness, he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing - Zephaniah 3:17, NRSV)

I love this passage for a more general, wonderful reason, however. This portrays the extravagant joy of God over the return of a precious people. It also shows the Christian the joy God has over each of us when we return to the heart of God. It also shows us that God doesn't wait passively, wringing hands, wishing for us to come back. Instead, God is moving heaven and earth to bring us home. The coming of Christ which we celebrate in Advent, shows us the extent to which God was willing to go in order to secure our safe homecoming. That God loves us each and all, this much, humbles my heart and makes me want to sing for joy.

That joyful song is my prayer of gratitude today. Won't you sing your own song of joy, too?

Advent, Week 3: Sunday

Recommended readings from the third Sunday of Advent (from the Revised Common Lectionary):

Zephaniah 3:14-20
Isaiah 12:2-6
Philippians 4:4-7
Luke 3:7-18

Here I sit, at the church office computer, in a very unusual situation. I have virtually nothing I have to do this morning except lead an opening and a closing hymn. No choir to rehearse and lead. No scurrying about, looking for misplaced robes and hijacked music folders. No spot checks and chancel furniture adjustments.

Why the "vacation"? Because our church's liturgical dance/movement group is presenting the Christmas story this morning. I could pick about it here and there (they use only canned music, it's generally the same music and choreography year to year), but such criticisms are minor. The group is girls from first through twelfth grade. Though the majority are members/daughters of members of the congregation, a significant number come from unchurched families. Because our sanctuary is relatively small and therefore does not lend itself to conventional liturgical dance per se, many years ago the group leaders developed a blend of more static movement and American Sign Language. They dress in long-sleeved, full skirted (mid-calf length) white dresses (lavender for first-year girls) with white tights and ballet shoes, and have a variety of floral garlands they wear on their heads. For this production, as for the one they do each year for the Easter sunrise service, however, various girls dress as their assigned characters, while the "chorus" full group wears their usual white/lavender. (I say all this to assure any readers who object to liturgical dance because they don't like bare arms, legs and feet; our girls are completely covered except for hands, necks, and heads. And if you object to liturgical dance on other grounds, we'll have to agree to disagree.)

How does their pending presentation this morning relate to this week's Lectionary readings? I think of this verse from the Psalm lesson (First Song of Isaiah):

And you will say in that day: Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known his deeds among the nations; proclaim that his name is exalted. (Isaiah 12:4, NRSV)

The girls are "making known the deeds of the LORD" in a beautiful, meaningful way. We Christians read and hear the "old, old story" so often that we sometimes take it for granted. But when we witness it told in a new way, it's startlingly real to us.

I also think about the experience of the children themselves. They will know and treasure the story of the birth, death, and resurrection of Jesus for the rest of their lives, thanks to this group's seasonal reenactments of those portions of the gospel story. That makes worthwhile all the hard work the girls and their leaders do. We promise, when children are baptized, that we will nurture and teach them so that, in time and with God's help, they accept for themselves the salvation God has already accomplished in Jesus Christ.

Shout aloud and sing for joy, O royal Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel. (Isaiah 12:6, NRSV)