HYMN FOR PENTECOST 26 O God of Earth and Altar

Text: Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1876-1936) Tune: English folk tune, King's Lynne 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. MEDITATION (a slight reworking of a previous blog) G. K. Chesterton’s hymn on God and Caesar or “earth and altar,” a prayer for "Forgiveness and deliverance” is a good one to contemplate today as we ponder Jesus teaching the disciples about what is to come. The lesson for next Sunday where Jesus predicts the end of everything: the destruction of the templs, and our mundane world. In doing so he is really talking about what is ultimate and penultimate. Be prepared and remember only my word will prevail against the gates of hell. A good lesson after the political slugfest of the past months. While people have been fighting as if everything is at stake--and much was to both sides--getting our priorities right is what Jesus is teaching us. He is giving us something that allows us to survive the tumults here. We can struggle for a beter life here because we have by faith what is eternal. Knowing that makes us free to risk much knowing whether we win or lose we are the Lord's. T here is much tumult about us in the world and few hymns have addressed our civil situation as fully as Chesterton’s. Chesterton was no shrinking violet. He had what his biographers call a “rollicking personality.” He fully enjoyed life; he was a good friend of George Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells with whom he violently disagreed. He saw the dangers in the hubris of empire: he was one of the few British journalists to oppose the Boer War. He also became a violent opponent of the eugenics movement—in 1922 he wrote Eugenics and other Evils against it as it was gaining popular support. This gained him the reputation of being a “reactionary”, but he was proved right as the Nazi party gained dominance in Germany. That same year he joined the Catholic Church. Some scholars maintain that his argument that Small is Beautiful convinced Ghandi to work for the “genuine” nationalism of India.   He is the author of the Father Brown mystery series and wrote biographies of Charles Dickens. St. Aquinas, and St. Francis of Assisi that are still popular. He wrote poetry from the sublime—like this hymn--to the ridiculous—"The Logical Vegetarian.” His books Heretics in 1905 followed by Orthodoxy are masterpieces. He was a force in British life: the quotation books are full of his proverbs and sayings.   He knew the dangers of empire well and the failures of a craven leadership not really up to the demands of the time. This hymn was written after the Boer War, which although the British won, ended up as something of a disaster for them. The Boer troops managed to inflict damage on the British army which included troops from the entire Empire—Canada, New Zealand, Australia. When they realized they were losing to a much greater force, the Boers started guerrilla warfare against the British and continued to create havoc.   One can read this hymn by Chesterton as a warning to the British empire from the experience of the Boer War, but hymnal editors have found the sentiment calling for judgment and unity expressed in its fine poetry worth including in non-British hymnals.   With Chesterton’s willingness to entertain opposing ideas and ideologies, this hymn should not be read as a prayer that his side will win, but rather that both sides will be judged and that the nations unite around a common set of principles even as they spar politically for what is penultimate. He wants the united people to be both "smitten and saved." We should be praying that now, whether we are glad about the election results or disappointed. “Ire and exaltation” probably describes the feelings of many after this election; What we all need to pray for is both a cleansing judgment and modicum of temporal unity. Our life is in him, not the political situation.   HYMN INFO This hymn was included in the 1906 English Hymnal , 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 the English hymn tradition to its folk melodies, working against the strong influence of German music at the time dominated by Beethoven, Brahms and Wagner. Vaughan Williams returned English hymnody to its folk roots. He really caused a Renaissance in English music which is still going strong. 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: Jesus the Harmony  would make a nice Christmas present. It can be read devotionally over the entire year, one poem for every day.   "With these 366 sonnets, remarkable in artistry and number, Gracia Grindal has made literary history. The scriptural and theological knowledge that supports these poems is vast, but it is the imagination infused with the holy in poem after poem that reveals the poet's grace and skill and the astonishing work of the Spirit." -- Jill Baumgartner , Poetry Editor, Christian Century, and professor of English emerita, Wheaton College https://www.amazon.com/Jesus-Harmony-Gospel-Sonnets-Days-ebook/dp/B08L9S4Z1T/ref=sr_1_3_nodl?dchild=1&keywords=Grindal&qid=16145