HYMN FOR PENTECOST 17 O for a Heart to Praise my God
Text: Charles Wesley (1707-1788). Tune: Abridge Isaac Smith (ca/ 1770)
1 O for a heart to praise my God,
a heart from sin set free,
a heart that always feels
Thy bloodso freely shed for me.
2 A heart resigned, submissive, meek,
my great Redeemer's throne,
where only Christ is heard to speak,
where Jesus reigns alone.
3 A humble, lowly, contrite heart,
believing, true, and clean,
which neither life nor death can partf
rom Christ who dwells within.
4 A heart in ev'ry thought renewed
and full of love divine,
perfect and right and pure and good,
a copy, Lord, of Thine.
5 Thy nature, gracious Lord, impart;
come quickly from above;
write Thy new name upon my heart,
Thy new best name of Love.
REFLECTION
The parable of the laborers describes the kingdom of heaven, Jesus says. While its main message is the freedom of God to bestow grace on everyone, no matter how long or well they have served, its insight into the character of human beings is what makes it so compelling and outrageous. Envy, one of the seven deadly sins, is the besetting sin of us all.
Envy is addressed by the last commandment on covetousness. Do not covet anything that is your neighbor’s, it says. The sin is fundamental to us. We see it as early as in the nursery—a toy that was not of interest to a child, suddenly becomes a deeply desired object for him or her when they see another value it. René Girard’s work shows how our deepest desires are caught from envy of our neighbors. When we see what our neighbor has or does, something within us wants that too. Thus, the cry from the vineyard when the last laborers receive their pay which will be the same as the first, “that is not fair!”
Flannery O’Connor’s story “Revelation” treats the theme of this parable. To make a long story short, it is about Mrs. Turpin who spends her days imagining who is better or worse than she. Sometime after an attack on her by a young woman named Mary Grace, who throws a book at her and calls her “a wart hog from hell,” she has the revelation of a line of people entering heaven—ahead of her are the people she has looked down on, and she along with other proper people like her are last in line. It is a devastating revelation.
This is what the kingdom of heaven is like: we are all sinners. God doles out the same amount of grace to everyone. Our worldly sense that the first should be first is dashed. Jesus says it plainly, the first shall be last and the last shall be first.
The only way we can bear this, given our deep-seated envy, is to be changed. And while this parable can really change the way we see the kingdom of heaven on earth among us, the old envious nature is hard to fight. My mother, after a nasty fight in the church my father served, commented that if all those people who had treated my father badly were going to heaven she didn’t know if she was interested. A friend heard her and said, Well, they will be changed, it says. And for a moment, that comforted her. And then her friend added, and so will you! While that is a mercy, that wasn’t quite as good news.
But change is what the whole business is about. The rules are different in the kingdom of heaven. Fortunately. The battle between the old and new rages on in our lives. While we can hear the good news in the parable, we can also see it is an assault on our old natures. We need new hearts, something Jesus came to do. As our hymn has it Thy nature, gracious Lord, impart;/come quickly from above;/write Thy new name upon my heart,/Thy new best name of Love.
HYMN INFO
This is one of Charles Wesley’s most beloved hymns. Written in 1742, it was based on Psalm 2:10. Wesley, the brother of John Wesley, is still one of the most popular writer of English hymns. He is thought to have written over 5000 hymns and some 600 are still in use around the world. For more on Charles Wesley click here. https://www.hymnfortheday.com/post/hymn-116-love-divine-all-loves-excelling
There are several tunes that have been used for the text, ABRIDGE by Smith is the one that appears most often on Youtube.
LINKS
Martijn de Groot Tune: Abridge
The Choir of Tewksbury Tune: Stockton
Concord Wesley UMC. Tune: Concord
Another hymn that fits the text more closely.
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