The Song Forever New: Lent and Easter with Charles Wesley
208
The Song Forever New: Lent and Easter with Charles Wesley
208Paperback
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Overview
Sacred texts from Wesley’s Redemption Hymns and Resurrection Hymns are particularly well suited to the themes of Lent and Easter. Selections from both these collections are featured in the volume, including “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling,” as well as hymns, such as “Christ the Lord is Risen Today,” drawn from a wider selection of Wesley’s works.
The hymns are arranged around themes tied to scriptural texts proper to each day. Each of the fifty-four meditations includes a biblical text, the Wesley hymn selection (with a recommended tune for singing from the Episcopal Hymnal 1982), a brief meditation, and a prayer for the day. Suggestions are also provided for the use of these materials in a pattern of either Morning or Evening Prayer.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780819223739 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Church Publishing, Incorporated |
| Publication date: | 09/01/2009 |
| Pages: | 208 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.50(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.60(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
The Song Forever New
Lent and Easter with Charles Wesley
By Paul Wesley Chilcote
Church Publishing Incorporated
Copyright © 2009 Paul Wesley ChilcoteAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8192-2373-9
Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Hymns and Prayers for Lent
First Days of Lent: The Way of a Pilgrim
Ash Wednesday
Read
Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven. So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so that they may be praised by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. (Matthew 6:1–6)
Sing
Meter: 77.77
This hymn can be sung to "The Call," the tune used for "Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life."
Holy Lamb, who thee confess, Followers of thy holiness, Thee they ever keep in view, Ever ask,—What shall we do?
Governed by thine only will, All thy words we would fulfill, Would in all thy footsteps go, Walk as Jesus walked below.
While thou didst on earth appear, Servant to thy servants here, Mindful of thy place above, All thy life was prayer and love.
Such our whole employment be, Works of faith and charity, Works of love on us bestowed, Secret intercourse with God.
Early in the temple met Let us still our Maker greet, Nightly to the mount repair, Join our praying pattern there:
There by wrestling faith obtain Power to work for God again, Power his image to retrieve, Power like thee our Lord to live.
Vessels, instruments of grace, Pass we thus our happy days 'Twixt the mount and multitude, Doing, or receiving good:
Glad to pray, and labor on, 'Till our earthly course is run, 'Till we on the sacred tree Bow the head, and die like thee.
(Family Hymns, Hymn 42)
Reflect
Faithful Christians have practiced Lent for countless generations. The forty days of the season remind us of Jesus' sojourn in the wilderness and his struggle to know who he was and what his life's mission would be. The disciplines of the Lenten journey invite us into the same process of discovery. We know that the confirmations and commitments from Jesus' time in the desert ultimately led to a cross. For us to remain faithful to our calling as his disciples means, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer reminded us so poignantly, that we too must take up our cross and die. But if we have died with Christ, we know that we will be united with him in his resurrection. Through baptism, God has incorporated us into these mighty actions and this amazing narrative of love. While our journey begins in ashes, it concludes in the joyous affirmation of God's life-renewing power. Through it all, we seek to walk as Jesus walked.
Prayer is the primary discipline of the journey that leads from Ash Wednesday to the celebration of Jesus' resurrection and beyond. In a hymn that Charles Wesley wrote specifically with families in mind, he describes the pattern of prayer that Jesus lived. He maintains that "all [his] life was prayer and love." He talks about the importance of holding faith and love together—about how our secret communion with God in prayer is most fully realized in works of love and mercy for others. He describes the importance of meeting with God regularly in morning and evening devotions. A life of prayer—modeled after that of Christ—he concludes, will be lived out "'Twixt the mount and multitude." What a marvelous image! We live out our lives as instruments of grace, in the continual movement between lofty spiritual awakenings and engagement with people—between moments in which we glimpse the glory of God and times in which we love and give and serve others for the glory of God.
The sixth stanza of the hymn provides a vision of the goal toward which we move in our journey of faith, and while it was not composed with this season in mind, it connects so well with Lent. Being purposeful about rediscovering who we are and what God calls us to do with our lives empowers us to live like Christ, to work for God again, and to find God's image restored in our lives. This journey inward, upward, and outward involves serious soul-searching and risk-taking, honest reflection and courageous action. As Jesus' words in the Gospel reading for Ash Wednesday remind us, there is no place for self-righteousness in our quest to draw closer to God and to others. But God is faithful and will never leave us! And God's grace abounds! Let God mobilize your prayer into action. Take courage. Embrace your true identity and calling and you will be amazed by the ways the Spirit will shape you more and more into a beloved child of God.
Pray
Gracious God, as we take our first steps in this journey through the season of Lent, renew our vision of who we are and what you are calling us to do, through the power of the Spirit of Christ. Amen.
Thursday
Read
Whenever you fast, do not look dismal, like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces so as to show others that they are fasting. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, put oil on your head and wash your face, so that your fasting may be seen not by others but by your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. (Matthew 6:16–21)
Sing
Meter: 886.886
This hymn can be sung to "Cornwall," the tune used for "We Sing of God, the Mighty Source."
How happy is the pilgrim's lot, How free from every anxious thought, From worldly hope and fear! Confined to neither court nor cell, My soul disdains on earth to dwell, I only sojourn here.
My happiness in part is mine, Already saved from self-design, From every creature-love; Blessed with the scorn of finite good, My soul is lightened of its load, And seeks the things above.
The things eternal I pursue, A happiness beyond the view Of those that basely pant For things by nature felt and seen; Their honors, wealth, and pleasures mean, I neither have nor want.
I have no sharer of my heart, To rob my Savior of a part, And desecrate the whole: Only betrothed to Christ am I, And wait his coming from the sky, To wed my happy soul.
No foot of land do I possess, No cottage in this wilderness; A poor wayfaring one, I lodge a while in tents below, Or gladly wander to and fro, Till I my Canaan gain.
Nothing on earth I call my own, A stranger, to the world unknown, I all their goods despise, I trample on their whole delight, And seek a country out of sight, A country in the skies.
There is my house and portion fair, My treasure and my heart is there, And my abiding home; For me my fellow pilgrims stay, And angels beckon me away, And Jesus bids me come.
I come, your servant, Lord, replies, I come to meet you in the skies, And claim my heavenly rest: Now let the pilgrim's journey end, Now, O my Savior, brother, friend, Receive me to your breast.
(Redemption Hymns, Hymn 51.1–4, 6–9)
Reflect
Most people associate Lent with sacrifices of one form or another. People give up all sorts of things from chocolate to television during this season, and well they should. Sacrifices of this type, no matter how small, free the spirit and reconnect us with an important aspect of authentic Christian living. In a world where so many die each day of hunger, the sacrifice of a meal reminds those of us with plenty that God has blessed us richly and desires for all to live fully. In a culture where the media shapes our values, goals, and dreams, it is important to escape from the constant bombardment of ads and images, and to abide in the biblical vision of life in Christ. Even the abandonment of one simple pleasure during this journey can remind us of God's call to seek God's dominion first—to fix our eyes upon Jesus and his way in the world.
Wesley's hymn provides images counter to the seductive values of materialism and consumerism. He does little more than paraphrase Jesus' bold proclamation in the Sermon on the Mount. Don't we all need to hear this message again? Particularly in this culture, in this time in history? As we lighten our load at the outset of this journey to the cross we are reminded to store up treasures in heaven, to invest in those things that are truly eternal. The authentic disciple, claims Wesley, despises material gain in this world and tramples on the worldly delight in things. He understands how the things we tend to cling to in this life for security can weigh us down and claim our ultimate allegiance. We can actually begin to believe that our happiness depends upon pleasure, wealth, and honor; that we have earned the treasures we accumulate as the products of our own labor, rather than viewing all as the gifts of God's grace.
On January 1, 1953, a pacifist and peace activist by the name of Mildred Norman began a twenty-eight year walking pilgrimage that would carry her across the United States nearly seven times. Adopting the name "Peace Pilgrim," she vowed to remain a wanderer until humanity learned the way of peace. She walked until she was given shelter and fasted until she was offered food. She carried no money and owned nothing except for the clothes on her back. She claimed that she never went wanting a day in her life over the course of three decades. One of the lessons she learned as a consequence of her pilgrimage was that de- accumulating her possessions liberated her. Her sacrifices, to use the language of Wesley, freed her "from every anxious thought, from worldly hope and fear!" Freedom from things enabled her to focus on God and others.
In all probability, none of us will live with the same kind of prophetic zeal or reckless abandon that characterized the practice of Peace Pilgrim—nor could we—but we can begin to taste the liberation of which she speaks in our own lives, this Lent, if we have the courage to live as those who take sacrifice seriously.
Pray
Self-giving God, help us not to cling to things as if our security and happiness were dependent upon them; rather, give us the will and the courage to store up treasures in heaven, to invest our lives first and foremost in the realization of your reign in this world. Amen.
Friday
Read
Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on towards the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observe those who live according to the example you have in us. For many live as enemies of the cross of Christ; I have often told you of them, and now I tell you even with tears. Their end is destruction; their god is the belly; and their glory is in their shame; their minds are set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and it is from there that we are expecting a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. He will transform the body of our humiliation so that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, by the power that also enables him to make all things subject to himself. (Philippians 3:12–14, 17–21)
Sing
Meter: 888.888
This hymn can be sung to "Old 113th," the tune used for "I'll Praise My Maker While I've Breath."
Leader of faithful souls, and guide Of all that travel to the sky, Come, and with us, e'en us abide, Who would on you alone rely, On you alone our spirits stay, While held in life's uneven way.
Strangers and pilgrims here below, This earth, we know, is not our place, And hasten through the vale of woe, And restless to behold your face, Swift to our heavenly country move, Our everlasting home above.
We have no 'biding city here, But seek a city out of sight; Thither our steady course we steer, Aspiring to the plains of light, Jerusalem, the saints' abode, Whose founder is the living God.
Patient th'appointed race to run, This weary world we cast behind, From strength to strength we travel on, The New Jerusalem to find, Our labor this, our only aim, To find the New Jerusalem.
Through you, who all our sins has borne, Freely and graciously forgiven, With songs to Zion we return, Contending for our native heaven, That palace of our glorious King, We find it nearer while we sing.
Raised by the breath of love divine, We urge our way with strength renewed, The church of the first-born to join, We travel to the mount of God, With joy upon our heads arise, And meet our Captain in the skies.
(Redemption Hymns, Hymn 41.1–4, 6, 8)
Reflect
Paul's Letter to the Philippians provides amazing insights into the nature of our Christian pilgrimage. From a prison cell in Rome, the apostle reminds his beloved community that heaven is their true home. The goal of this pilgrim journey is to glorify and live with God forever. Paul wants to make sure his followers understand that nothing glorifies God more than the unbroken fellowship we share with God through Christ. While based upon God's grace, this relationship, like all relationships, requires vigilant attention. We can be distracted easily from the goal, particularly by those Paul describes as the "enemies of the cross of Christ." They delight in pleasure ("their god is the belly"), take pride in unrighteousness ("their glory is in their shame"), and fall prey to consumerism ("their minds are set on earthly things"). In the midst of the journey, it is important to keep our eyes fixed, therefore, on the ultimate goal.
Charles Wesley picks up this theme in one of his most effective "pilgrim hymns." He contrasts the eternal home toward which we move with life's uneven way, describing this weary world as a vale of woe. Perhaps he echoes here the ancient prayer Salve Regina: "To you, O Lord, we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears." You can feel the weight, sense the darkness, and empathize, as Paul does, with the misery of those who have not yet perceived the true meaning of it all. The power of this hymn, however, resides in its increasing pace and the magnetic attraction of the finish line toward which we move. The pilgrim race begins with an invitation to Christ as guide. Patience and steadiness characterize the initial steps in the journey as we become more secure in our footing. Like the disciple Christian in John Bunyan's classic, Pilgrim's Progress, we do not let barriers and detours deter us from our goal. These obstacles, in fact, serve to quicken our pace as we resist their pull. With each new victory we begin to travel "from strength to strength" toward the New Jerusalem where all the saints await. They cheer us here below. The singing of the community draws us closer and closer still. Ultimately, we meet our Captain—Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith—"in the skies." As we look back over the course of the pilgrimage completed—the race won—we immediately see that we were "raised by the breath of love divine." What an amazing vision of the life we live in Christ.
Does this "race" to heaven diminish the importance of life in the here and now? Absolutely not! In both creation and in God's act of entering human history in the person of Jesus Christ, God declares that this life is good. God calls us to journey through life with Christ, not to run away from it. But the race calls for a realistic vision. The abiding lesson is clear: Keep your eye fixed on the goal. Embrace the good that surrounds you day in and day out. Do not be seduced or overcome by the darkness that is also a part of life.
Pray
Compassionate Guide and Friend, even as we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this vale of tears, help us to keep our eyes firmly fixed upon the goal of our high calling in Jesus Christ, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. Amen.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from The Song Forever New by Paul Wesley Chilcote. Copyright © 2009 by Paul Wesley Chilcote. Excerpted by permission of Church Publishing Incorporated.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents
Contents
What People are Saying About This
"Without the Wesleys, we’d still be singing metrical psalms as the primary music of our worship. Truly, it was the Wesleys and their zeal for evangelism that changed the entire flavor of our music in church. We went from a dry, Puritan-influenced, one-note-to-a-syllable approach and a concern that we not look too 'enthusiastic' to music of desire, hymns that touched the heart, and called for conversion."
—The Rev. S. Elizabeth Searle, Rector, Christ Church, Ridgewood