HYMN FOR PENTECOST 21 O God of Earth and Altar

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1876-1936) Tune: English folk tune, King's Lynne Jesus in the debate over the coin. Rubens 1. O God of earth and altar, Bow down and hear our cry, Our earthly rulers falter, Our people drift and die; The walls of gold entomb us, The swords of scorn divide, Take not thy thunder from us, But take away our pride. 2. From all that terror teaches, From lies of tongue and pen, From all the easy speeches That comfort cruel men, From sale and profanation Of honour and the sword, From sleep and from damnation, Deliver us, good Lord! 3. Tie in a living tether The prince and priest and thrall, Bind all our lives together, Smite us and save us all; In ire and exultation Aflame with faith, and free, Lift up a living nation, A single sword to thee. REFLECTION Render unto Caesar. Titian (This is a slightly revised popular repeat from three years ago.) There are not a lot of hymns written on taxes and Jesus, although it was one of his themes. His statement "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s," echoes down through the ages in the West. Some interpret it to be the beginning of the Christian notion developed by the west that secular powers and divine powers were to be in some sense separated. Although we know God is the source of all good and all power, he rules the world through means Luther called his left hand, or hidden hand. We as citizens work for the good and try to do his will in that sphere, knowing that secular powers can be corrupt and evil. Somewhere in all that, believers can see God working but not in a one to one relationship. There is mystery there. And hiddenness. To go back to the story, however, Jesus shows his brilliance here. His opponents think they have him. If he says, don’t pay taxes, the Romans will arrest him. If he says pay them, his opponents will have more reason to oppose him. This confounds them. They can’t win. They can only force his crucifixion which ultimately is their final defeat, not his. Of course, they are furious. There is also an incovenient ttruth here: We cannot bring in the kingdom by our own might. Jesus is reigning as king already. and he is working out his dread purposes in ways we cannot see or understand. Chesterton's hymn has remained in our hymnals despite its older language. Thrall, or slave, is not in our current vocabulary. Maybe he is echoing the phrase from Heraclitus that war is the father of kings and slaves, or thralls. The hymn describes a time when the political leadership was weak and feckless. People were divided, scorning the other side. There is today a desire for peace and unity.The problem is that it used to be we agreed on the ends but disagreed on the ways to get there. Now, we are divided on our ends. It is hard to cooperate with someone who wants to go against everything you believe and in fact oppose with all your might. Maybe we need to pray with Chesterton, “Smite us and save us all.” The hymn needs to be sung often and the prayers in it prayed again and again. “Bind all of us together.” HYMN INFO G. K. Chesterton This hymn was included in the 1906 English Hymnal, which was a strong reaction against the Victorianism of the previous hymnal,Hymns: Ancient and Modern. (1861) Musicians like Vaughan Williams, Percy Dearmer (1837-1933), and others could not say enough about how bad the Victorian age had been for English hymnody, especially its music. They wanted to restore English folk melodies to English music, working against the strong influence of German music dominated by Beethoven, Brahms and Wagner. Vaughan Williams worked hard to return English hymnody to its folk roots. Many of the folk songs from England we have in our hymnals were rediscovered by him and arranged for congregational singing. This caused a Renaissance in English music which is still important. LINKS British congregation singing https://youtu.be/wFG-CqYXyOo Choir of Trinity College Cambridge https://youtu.be/XUYY0uJfkhQ Ivica Kljuce https://youtu.be/4IskStYYi-M The Gentle Wolves https://youtu.be/XqJlJIwh34A This gives a brief history of Chesterton’s place in British history https://youtu.be/etI_QRNJfkw NB: Christmas is coming and this book of daily devotions based on the life of Jesus told in sonnets, would be an appropriate gift. It has a poem for every day of the year and Bible references for each poem that put Jesus in what has been called "the red thread of salvation." Many have been using it for daily devotions; others in group Bible studies. Click here to check it out. https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Harmony-Gospel-Sonnets-Days-ebook/dp/B08L9S4Z1T/ref=sr_1_3_nodl?dchild=1&keywords=Grindal&qid=16145