HYMN FOR EPIPHANY IV I'm a pilgrim and I'm a stranger
- Gracia Grindal
- 10 hours ago
- 3 min read
Swedish: Jag är främling, Jag är en pilgrim
Text: Mary Stanley Bunce Dana Shindler (1810-1883) Tune: Oskar Ahnfelt (1813-1882)
1. I'm a pilgrim, and I'm a stranger,
I can tarry, I can tarry but a night;
Do not detain me, for I am going
To where the fountains are ever flowing:
I'm a pilgrim, and I'm a stranger,
I can tarry, I can tarry but a night.
2. There the glory is ever shining;
O my longing heart, my longing heart is there:
Here in this country so dark and dreary
I long have wandered, forlorn and weary:
I'm a pilgrim, and I'm a stranger,
I can tarry, I can tarry but a night.
3. Of the city to which I'm going
My Redeemer, my Redeemer is the light;
There is no sorrow, nor any sighing,
Nor any sinning, nor any dying:
Of the city to which I'm going
My Redeemer, my Redeemer is the light.
REFLECTION
The pilgrims were exhorted by William Brewster before the Puritans left Southampton for what became the Massachusetts Bay Colony to be a city on a hil. They were to witness to the LOrd by their work, he noted, warning them if they failed "we shall be made a story and a byword throughout the world." In our lesson for today, spoken just after the Beatitudes, Jesus, the light of the world, tells us we, as his disciples, are the light of the world, which we are to shine before others so all can see it and give glory to our Father.
This hymn does put the city and light together as few do. An old chestnut from the treasury of Anglo-American Gospel songs, it was given an Ahnfelt tune by the Scandinavians.
The longing for the light, the longing to be home, is palpable today. People feel the need for connection, for meaning, for truth. Our calling as Christians is to be the light that leads them to that place, the city of God. So Christ gives us his light so we can be seen and show people the way. He doesnt say try to be like lights, he says we are the light. How can that be? I feel sometimes overwhelmed with darkness, lost in the valley of the shadows. But Christ says we are the light. There isnt a switch in us that turns the light on or off. Because we are in him and he in us, the light shines. Always.
Our pilgrimage is a struggle, a battle against the dark forces of this world. In the Beatitudes Jesus blesses us, and gives us strength for that journey, a journey is difficult. Jesus knows that. Blessed are the persecuted, he says, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The world hates this light and as bearers of that light we fight its darkness with all our might. The light shines wherever we go. We can take comfort that he will protect us “in this country so dark and dreary.” Wherever we go as Christians we bring his light, it is our calling and who we are. It is a difficult time just now in the world, but we go forward knowing how brightly the Light of the World shines. Filled with blessings, bright as heaven.
HYMN INFO
Mary Shindler was one of the early women hymn writers in America. She lived in the south so she knew about the southern harmony tradition. She published several books of poetry over her lifetime. Raised as a Presbyterian, she tried Unitarianism for a bit, but became an Episcopalian when she married her second husband, an Episcopal priest. With her first husband she had moved west into Iowa, but in 1838, he and their son were taken by a fever, which Mary survived. She returned to her family in South Carolina. She published a book of poems known as The Southern Harp which became a best seller and made her some money. Her publishers asked her to write other works, one of them, The Northern Harp, which also did well. She continued writing. In 1848 she married Rev. Robert D. Shindler, who taught at Shelby College in Kentucky. They then moved to Nacogdoches, Texas, where he died. She moved to Memphis where she lived until her death.
Somehow this text made it to Sweden where Betty Ehrenborg (1818-1880) the founder of the Swedish Sunday school, translated it. It appeared in Sionstoner, the songbook of the Swedish revival. Oskar Ahnfelt found two tunes for it. The compilers of the Concordia Hymnal took the English text and used it with one of Ahnfelt’s tunes. I can't find the Concordia version on line, but this tune has a similar sound.
LINKS
Einar Ekberg,
Anders Andersson
Per-Arne Wahlgren
The Church Hill Boys
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