Sunday, April 24, 2011

Thine is the Glory


Thine Is the Glory

1. Thine is the glory,
Risen, conqu'ring Son;
Endless is the vict'ry
Thou o'er death hast won.
Angels in bright raiment
Rolled the stone away,
Kept the folded grave clothes
Where Thy body lay.
                       
2. Lo! Jesus meets us,
Risen, from the tomb;
Lovingly He greets us,
Scatters fear and gloom;
Let His church with gladness
Hymns of triumph sing,
For her Lord now liveth;
Death hath lost its sting.

3. No more we doubt Thee,
Glorious Prince of Life!
Life is naught without Thee;
Aid us in our strife;
Make us more than conqu'rors,
Through Thy deathless love;
Bring us safe through Jordan
With Thy power and love.

Chorus:
Thine is the glory,
Risen, conqu'ring Son;
Endless is the vict'ry
Thou o'er death hast won.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Holy Week Hymns: The Weeping Sky

This year, each day of Holy Week, I will post one hymn, with a meditation or explanation afterward.  Some will be hymns I have written; others will be ones I just find meaningful.  I hope you will join me each day, at least to read the hymn if you don't want to take the time for the prose that follows it.  Today's hymn is one of mine.

The Weeping Sky

The icy, grasping hands of fog
Grip every barren, gnarled tree.
Their shadows in a stagnant pool
Like iron bars encompass me
The fog surrounds my breaking heart,
Veils even Heaven’s constant light.
My eyes turn back to Earth below,
Where what is true cannot be right.

Now Goodness dies by Hate betrayed,
So every cloud in heaven weeps,
Descending to a muddy grave,
The pool in which my spirit sleeps.
The shining teardrops of the sky
Descend to taste the parched earth’s pain,
To bind the earth with Heaven’s love,
A chain of ripples forged in rain.

The teardrops soak an ancient tree
To turn its bark to mournful black,
As purest water turns to mud
And sinks, no hope of turning back,
For Beauty lies, forever scarred,
And Innocence is stained with sin,
Eternal ruler, helpless slave
They mix and die as lives begin.

Weep for your maker, distant clouds.
His blood now soaks the earth like rain.
On icy mud His love pours down
And carries off my heart’s black stain.
A single bird’s cry chimes out clear,
A bell that lifts my eyes to see,
When every hope seemed drowned in fear,
White flowers on the twisted tree.

This is probably my favorite of the hymns I have written.  I wrote it while looking out the window on a rainy day during Holy Week.  I’d been taking a class on East Asian poetry, which certainly influenced the way I wrote it.  For instance, the first verse focuses mostly on setting the emotional tone by describing natural surroundings, which I later realized is a common feature of Japanese poetry.  Another class I was taking introduced me to Platonism, which also worked its way in.  Plato talked about forms, the essence of a given property, so I used “Goodness” “Beauty” and “Innocence” to describe Jesus, the one who fully exemplified these characteristics.  I don’t really believe Platonism, but it’s very poetic, as long as you don’t take those lines literally.

Throughout the poem, I used rain as an image of Jesus.  The second verse focuses on the idea of the rain falling from Heaven to Earth, just like Christ did in the Incarnation.  A pool outside my window (which I mention in the first verse) became an image of death and sin; the first verse compares the reflection of the tree branches to bars, symbolizing imprisonment, and the second verse directly calls it a “grave.”  Since the raindrops represent Christ, I attribute feelings of love to them, saying that they fall to share the pain of a world which is “parched” – desperate for what they offer.  The ripples the raindrops form in the pool look like links of a chain, which I used as a symbol of the love that binds people to God.

The third verse focuses on the idea of a perfectly innocent person taking on the sins of the world.  It suggests that, just as the pure raindrops become mixed with mud when they fall, Christ took on the pollution caused by sin.  This mixture also symbolizes the combination of His power and His self-sacrifice.  Yet the last line of this verse signals a change, pointing out the hope that comes from the Crucifixion and the beginning of new lives that are transformed by it.

The last verse changes the metaphor a bit.  Now, the rain represents all of creation “weeping” for Christ, but the comparison between Christ Himself and the raindrops continues, becoming more explicit.  A third aspect of the comparison also appears; Christ’s blood like water purifies things.  In this case, it purifies us from sin. 

Halfway through the last verse, there is a twist, leading to a hopeful ending.  I wanted to end the poem with a hint of the Resurrection to come.  This begins with the bird’s song, which gets compared to a bell, a symbol of joy and an instrument often used in Easter celebrations.  The flowers similarly symbolize new life coming out of the tree/cross.  They are white because it is the opposite of black, which has been representing both mourning and sin.  (Confession: there were no flowers on the trees that day.  It came from an image in my head, which I realized much later had come from the movie “The Return of the King.”  Don’t judge me.)

There was a lot more going on consciously or unconsciously as I wrote this hymn, but in the interest of keeping this brief, I’ll stop there.  I hope you have enjoyed and/or learned from this series.  And stop in tomorrow, because I’ll post an Easter hymn (without commentary).

Friday, April 22, 2011

Holy Week Hymns: O Sacred Head, Now Wounded

 This year, each day of Holy Week, I will post one hymn, with a meditation or explanation afterward.  Some will be hymns I have written; others will be ones I just find meaningful.  I hope you will join me each day, at least to read the hymn if you don't want to take the time for the prose that follows it. 

O Sacred Head, Now Wounded

O sacred Head now wounded, with grief and shame weighed down;
Now scornfully surrounded, with thorns Thy only crown;
O sacred Head, what glory, what bliss till now was thine,
Yet, though despised and gory, I joy to call Thee mine.

What Thou, my Lord has suffered was all for sinners’ gain.
Mine, Mine was the transgression, but Thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior, ‘tis I deserve Thy place.
Look on me with Thy favor; vouchsafe to me Thy grace.

What language shall I borrow to thank Thee, dearest Friend,
For this, Thy dying sorrow, Thy pity without end?
O make me Thine forever, and should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never outlive my love to Thee.

Be near when I am dying, O show Thy cross to me;
And for my succor flying, Come, Lord, to set me free;
These eyes, new faith receiving from Jesus shall not move;
For he who dies believing, dies safely, through Thy love.

I had mixed feelings about featuring “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded” on this blog.  On the one hand, it’s more or less the classic Good Friday hymn, which means most Christians already know it.  On the other hand, it’s a classic for a reason, and I think it is theologically correct and emotionally powerful.  As you may have noticed, I compromised by using a different translation from the one found in most hymnals.

Like several of the hymns I’ve featured, this one is powerful enough in itself that I don’t think it really needs commentary.  However, I’ll point out a few lines that I find particularly moving.

In the first verse, I like the rhyme between “glory” and “gory” because the words sound so similar but have such drastically different meanings.  It draws attention to the paradox I’ve been pointing out all week between Jesus as God and Jesus as the suffering servant.  The end of the first verse adds a powerful emotional twist with the line “I joy to call Thee mine.”  Generally, when I sing this hymn, joy is not my primary emotion (to use a drastic understatement).  However, by adding that line, the hymn reminds us that this suffering actually led to our salvation, which is something we can and should rejoice in.

I think this hymn’s greatest strength lies in its expression of the singer’s reaction to the events it describes.  I particularly like the lines “Lo here I fall, my Savior; ‘tis I deserve thy place,” and “Let me never, never outlive my love to Thee”.

The final verse does not show up in most hymnals; in fact I had never seen it before I found “O Sacred Head” in the anthology that gave me this translation.  Maybe it’s because I’m so young, but I don’t think this verse is as generally applicable as the others, since it focuses on death.  I suppose, though, that none of us really knows when we will die, so it is important to have the right attitude toward this possibility.  I like the phrase “dies safely” because it seems contradictory but actually expresses an important truth.  Since people are eternal beings, death is not the worst thing that can happen to us, so if we believe in Christ, we can be safe even when we die. 

Overall, I think that “O Sacred Head” is worth meditating on as an expression both of Christ’s love for us and of the love we should have for Him.

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Holy Week Hymns: How Does the World not Cease to Spin

This year, each day of Holy Week, I will post one hymn, with a meditation or explanation afterward.  Some will be hymns I have written; others will be ones I just find meaningful.  I hope you will join me each day, at least to read the hymn if you don't want to take the time for the prose that follows it.  Today's hymn is one of mine.

How does the World not Cease to Spin?

How does the world not cease to spin
When He who charts its course is slain?
How can the powers of darkness win?
Does Heaven’s King no longer reign?
You, living God whose breath is life,
Give up Your life for those who died.
The Lord of Joy in Heaven’s light
For broken hearts in anguish cried.

They raised You, not on golden throne
But roughest wood of agony.
How can salvation’s sweetest fruit
Be grown on such a bitter tree?
No earthly nail could hold You there;
Love bound You firmly as You died
Now pierce my heart with love so deep
To draw me to Your spear-torn side.

Blood pouring from the Healer’s wounds
Should call my eyes to pour out tears
Yet evil reigns within my heart;
My laughing lips shout mocking jeers.
How is it that the lips of Truth
Instead of mine are sore and dry?
Lord, pour your grace into my heart
To love You deeper as You die.

So though the sun may cease to shine
Your hope illuminates my heart.
This love that sought me in the grave
Through life and death will not depart.
For all the sins that held me down
With You were lifted up to die.
Your victory in defeat is sure
For longer than the earth and sky.

I began writing this hymn by imagining what the disciples must have been thinking and the confusion they must have felt after the Crucifixion.  Although they probably didn’t understand that Jesus was actually God, recognizing this makes what happened even more confusing and amazing.  Since God created and sustains all things, if God dies, shouldn’t that mean the universe is destroyed?  The death of God the Son did not actually destroy the world because God did not cease existing, but I think these sorts of questions can lead to a healthy recognition that God’s plan is beyond our comprehension.  This sense of stunned admiration continues into the rest of the first stanza, which plays on the paradox of God, whose nature is the source of life and joy, giving up life and joy for people who have neither.

The next stanza also refers to a variety of concepts; the first couplet points out how Christ, who rightfully should have been king was instead executed.  I particularly like the lines, “How could salvation’s sweetest fruit be grown on such a bitter tree?” because it plays on the image of the cross as a tree and points out the paradox of sweet coming from bitter.  The last couplet in that verse intends to draw a parallel between Christians and Christ; just as He was bound by love to the cross and just as His side was pierced, our desire is to be “pierced” with love that binds us to Him.  We ask God to bring to fruition the Biblical promise that believers are given the life of Christ, even if this means that we share in His sufferings, taking up our crosses to follow Him.

In the next verse, I picture myself at the scene of the Crucifixion as part of the mocking crowd.  As I discussed yesterday, being part of the sinful human race makes us complicit in Christ’s death.  In this verse, a person’s lips represent their moral character, so I contrast the perfectly truthful lips of Christ with our mocking lips and marvel that He is being punished instead of me.  This verse, like the last one, ends with a plea for God to help us to love Him more.

The final verse becomes a bit more hopeful, looking away from Christ’s suffering toward its results.  In particular, it points out that Christ’s love endures forever and that sin itself died on the cross.  Although He appeared defeated, Jesus was actually victorious over sin, destroying its power completely.  The last line is meant to connect back to the beginning of the hymn; even if the world had been destroyed, God would still be victorious.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Holy Week Hymns: Ah Holy Jesus

This year, each day of Holy Week, I will post one hymn, with a meditation or explanation afterward.  Some will be hymns I have written; others will be ones I just find meaningful.  I hope you will join me each day, at least to read the hymn if you don't want to take the time for the prose that follows it.

Ah, Holy Jesus

Ah, Holy Jesus, how hast thou offended
That man to judge Thee hath in hate pretended?
By foes derided, by Thine own rejected O most afflicted!

Who was the guilty? Who brought this upon Thee,
Alas, my treason, Jesus hath undone Thee!
Twas I, Lord Jesus, I it was denied Thee, I crucified Thee.

For me, kind Jesus, was Thine incarnation,
Thy mortal sorrow, and Thy life’s oblation;
Thy death of anguish and Thy bitter passion, for my salvation.

Therefore, kind Jesus, since I cannot pay Thee,
I do adore Thee and will ever pray Thee,
Think on Thy pity, and Thy love unswerving, not my deserving.

Every time I read these lyrics, I feel like I’ve been punched in the gut.  Unlike most of the previous hymns I’ve featured, this one focuses more on less on exactly what Christ did and more on its effect on us personally. 

It begins by painting a picture of Christ’s suffering not in terms of the physical aspects of it or even His relationship with God, but in terms of the contempt and rejection of people.  I think the author intended this as a way of setting up the later verses; ultimately, Christ’s death was caused by sin, which is contempt and rejection of God.  Focusing on the attitude of those who crucified Christ emphasizes the fact that humans are responsible for it.

But the hymn doesn’t end with blaming humans in general.  It moves to a more personal confession.  Since Jesus died for sin, any sin was sufficient to cause His death, including our own.  Another way of putting this is that the essence of sin is desiring to control our own lives rather than have God control them.  And, though we may not want to admit it, sinful people would choose to kill God rather than give up this control.  In the Crucifixion, that is exactly what we did.

The third verse moves to talk about Christ’s work as a response to our sinful desires and the love He showed, which contrasts sharply with our hatred of Him.  The final verse brings all of it together, leading us to the only appropriate response, worship and devotion to Christ.  It also points out that our only hope is to be judged on the basis of God’s love, not on what we deserve.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Holy Week Hymns: My Glorious King in Heaven Crowned

This year, each day of Holy Week, I will post one hymn, with a meditation or explanation afterward.  Some will be hymns I have written; others will be ones I just find meaningful.  I hope you will join me each day, at least to read the hymn if you don't want to take the time for the prose that follows it.

Today, I am sharing the first hymn I wrote about the Crucifixion.

My Glorious King in Heaven Crowned

My glorious king in heaven crowned
Your blood like rubies on the ground
Beneath the bitter cross I kneel
And let your pain my suffering heal

The cock called forth a joyless dawn
The light of lights would soon be gone
Yet from Your dying flame a spark
Would save those crying in the dark

For cleansing waters from Your side
Flowed thick and freely as You died
The separating curtain tore
That we could live with God once more

So as my Savior’s darkest day
My spirit’s shadow purged away
Through all my days on You I’ll call
And at Your nail-scarred feet I’ll fall

I wrote this hymn after my church’s Maundy Thursday service during my first year of hymn writing.  Normally, I have to work on the hymns to get them to sound right, but this one came as soon as I began writing it.  I think it actually began in December of that year, when I was listening to “Oh Holy Night.”  When the choir sang the line “Behold your King,” the image of the cross stood out in my mind.  The baffling idea of a king willingly enduring the crucifixion was so moving that it stuck into my mind until Holy Week, when it inspired the first line of this hymn.
 

Monday, April 18, 2011

Holy Week Hymns: Ride on Ride on in Majesty

This year, each day of Holy Week, I will post one hymn, with a meditation or explanation afterward.  Some will be hymns I have written; others will be ones I just find meaningful.  I hope you will join me each day, at least to read the hymn if you don't want to take the time for the prose that follows it.
 
Ride on! Ride on in Majesty!
Ride on! Ride on in majesty! Hark! All the tribes hosanna cry;
O Savior meek, pursue thy road With palms and scattered garments strowed.

Ride on! Ride on in majesty!  In lowly pomp ride on to die;
O Christ, thy triumphs now begin O’er captive death and conquered sin.

Ride on! Ride on in majesty! The winged squadrons of the sky
Look down with sad and wondering eyes To see th’approaching sacrifice.

Ride on! Ride on in majesty! In lowly pomp ride on to die.
Bow Thy meek head to mortal pain, then take, O God, Thy power, and reign.

One of the challenges in looking for hymns that relate to Holy Week is the fact that the vast majority of them focus on the Crucifixion.  This is completely appropriate, but going immediately from Palm Sunday to Good Friday seemed a bit abrupt.  One of the things I love about “Ride on! Ride on in Majesty” is that although it focuses on the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, it also references the Crucifixion and even the Resurrection.

I think that one of the roles poetry should play in the Christian life is pointing out the paradoxes within God’s nature and the ways God works that we would never have imagined.  The more we learn about God, the more we should experience wonder at what He is like and what He does.  Given that, one aspect of this hymn that I love is the alternation between images of triumph and suffering, especially the phrase “lowly pomp.” 

The repeated line “Ride on! Ride on in majesty!” depicts Christ as a glorious king, which is certainly how the crowds saw Him on Palm Sunday.  It also alludes to Psalm 45:4 “In your majesty ride out victoriously for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness; let your right hand teach you awesome deeds!”  If you read the whole psalm, you will find that it is a wedding song, and this line is addressed to the king.  By applying this verse to Jesus, the hymnist reminds us that the crowds were right in calling Him their king.  It also reminds us that Christ’s actions on that day and throughout Holy Week aimed at redeeming people to become the Church, His bride.

The line, “O Christ, thy triumphs now begin O’er captive death and conquered sin,” reflects an understanding of the Crucifixion that we seldom think of today.  The idea is that even in the midst of His suffering, Christ was defeating sin and was in the process of destroying it.  Amazingly, even when Christ appeared to be the one who was captive and defeated, He was already conquering evil.  The Crucifixion was the beginning of Christ’s exaltation.

Verse 3 reflects the opposite side of Holy Week; it points out that while the crowds cheered, angels wept because they knew what was coming.  He was indeed riding on to die.

The last line effectively sums up the essence of Holy Week: “Bow Thy meek head to mortal pain, then take, O God, thy power and reign.”  Christ submitted to suffering and death, but then He would take His life up again and be exalted to reign over all things.  Most of the hymns I will post this week focus on the Crucifixion and on suffering, but we must not forget that, even when Christ cried out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”, God knew what was happening and was planning the Resurrection.  Christ was never a passive victim.  He knew what He was getting into and suffered willingly for us, which in my mind makes His sacrifice even more incredible.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Holy Week Hymns: All Glory Laud and Honor

This year, each day of Holy Week, I will post one hymn, with a meditation or explanation afterward.  Some will be hymns I have written; others will be ones I just find meaningful.  I hope you will join me each day, at least to read the hymn if you don't want to take the time for the prose that follows it.
 
All Glory, Laud, and Honor
Refrain:
All glory, laud, and honor, to thee, Redeemer, King, 
to whom the lips of children made sweet hosannas ring. 
1. Thou art the King of Israel, thou David's royal Son, 
who in the Lord's name cometh, the King and Blessed One. 
(Refrain) 
2. The company of angels are praising thee on high, 
 and we with all creation in chorus make reply. 
 (Refrain) 
3. The people of the Hebrews with psalms before thee went; 
our prayer and praise and anthems before thee we present. 
(Refrain) 
4.To thee, before thy passion, they sang their hymns of praise; 
to thee, now high exalted, our melody we raise. 
(Refrain) 
5. Thou didst accept their praises; accept the prayers we bring, 
 who in all good delightest, thou good and gracious King. 
(Refrain) 
If you’re not familiar with the tune, you can listen to the hymn here.

I chose this hymn to kick of my series on hymns for Holy Week because it is the hymn that I associate with Palm Sunday more than any other.  I have many memories of singing this hymn while processing into church with the children’s choir, holding the palms that the boys had only just stopped using as swords.  This year

The words are fairly self-explanatory, as long as you know that the word “laud” means “praise.”  The hymn invites the congregation to join the crowds at Jerusalem, who joyfully welcomed Jesus as their rightful king, the son of David who comes in the name of the Lord.

My favorite verse is the last one, which points out that Christ accepted these people’s praises.  When I was younger, I was confused by this.  Praise is good, so why wouldn’t God accept it?  Yet Jesus knew that the crowd’s cheering was motivated by a profound misunderstanding of his mission.  The people wanted Jesus to save them from the Roman Empire by conquering it, but Jesus planned to save them from sin by allowing sinners to kill Him.  He also knew that when He didn’t follow their expectations, the people would turn on him with the intense fury that comes from disappointment.  The same voices that were proclaiming Him to be their king would soon be shouting for his death and mocking Him on the cross.  And yet, despite all that, Jesus accepted their praises.

As much as I hate to admit it, too often, I am just like the crowd.  The praise I offer God is based on misunderstandings of His character and His promises.  My praise is often painfully short-lived; I can pledge allegiance to Christ as my king and a few minutes later blatantly violate His rules, indicating that I, too, wish Him dead.  And I am sure that I have this inconsistency in common with all the other sinful human beings that make up the Church.  It is a tremendous act of love and grace that God would even be patient enough to listen to our pathetic attempts at worship.  This grace should compel us to continue trying to worship Him as He deserves, to love Him as well as we can until He gives us new hearts that can worship Him fully.