Poetry in Ordinary Time: The Power of a Hymn

This past Sunday, it was my turn to prepare and lead the Prayers of the People.  To do this, I generally review the lectionary for the day, and also refer back to a template of prayers I keep on file, amending them accordingly.  This time wasn't any different.  As Monday was being marked as "World Food Day", I made sure to include a prayer that seemed suitable.

Then we sang the Gradual Hymn -- #442 in our Book of Common Praise (published, 1998): "Great God, Your Love has Called Us Here".  The words just 'got' to me as we sang, and I knew I had to use it to begin the Prayers.

After the service, a fellow parishioner complimented me. "I really like that poem you read at the start of the prayers," he said.  Thanking him, I also startled him by saying, "It was just the hymn.  The one we'd just sung."  He went away muttering that he'd have to pay more attention next time. 

And that got me thinking.  I'm a singer; I'm part of the music team in this parish -- as I have been part of music teams and choirs on and off since I was a young girl.  I am also a "word" person...someone who enjoys reading and writing -- and that includes poetry.  Although I've never been particularly good at Lectio Divina, there have been many times in the course of my life that words in a book, song or poem have 'jumped out' at me, and followed me around for hours, if not days.  Sunday was one of those times, and it seemed right to share those words -- hoping that someone else would 'hear' them too, so connected they seemed to be to the messages in the readings, and the homily.

Often, though, when it comes to hymns, we may be so focused on getting the tune, the timing and/or the lyrics "right" that we don't really pay attention to what those words mean: to whit, the startled response of my fellow-parishioner when I said "It was just the hymn."  And despite my sensitivity to and fondness for words, I'm just as guilty of this sort of oversight as anyone.

So perhaps, next time you're singing along with the radio, or with your church community...try to focus on the lyrics.  What you 'hear' might just surprise you with sorrow, inspiration, joy, and wonder.   And then you might find yourself asking, with the composer of yet another hymn, "How can I keep from singing?"

For those of you who missed it on Sunday, here's the 'poem' I read from the hymnal...

1 Great God, your love has called us here
as we, by love, for love were made.
Your living likeness still we bear,
though marred, dishonoured, disobeyed.
We come, with all our heart and mind
your call to hear, your love to find.

2 We come with self-inflicted pains
of broken trust and chosen wrong;
half-free, half-bound by inner chains;
by social forces swept along,
by powers and systems close confined;
yet seeking hope for humankind.

3 Great God, in Christ you call our name
and then receive us as your own
not through some merit, right, or claim,
but by your gracious love alone.
We strain to glimpse your mercy seat
and find you kneeling at our feet.

4 Then take the towel, and break the bread,
and humble us, and call us friends.
Suffer and serve till all are fed,
and show how grandly love intends
to work till all creation sings,
to fill all worlds, to crown all things.

5 Great God, in Christ you set us free
your life to live, your joy to share.
Give us your Spirit's liberty
to turn from guilt and dull despair
and offer all that faith can do
while love is making all things new.

Lyrics: Brian Wren (1936 -- )
Tune: "St. Petersburg" - Dmitri Bortniansky (1751-1825)