This coming Sunday congregations will celebrate the “Community of Saints” who have gone on before us and who stand now as beacons showing the way for our own journeys of faith and proclamation. There will be hymns marking these words and deeds. There will be rituals memorializing congregational members who have died during the previous 12 months. And many of us whose closest loved ones have passed in the last several years will mark the time in solemn reflection on the present shattered bonds of intimacy that will perhaps in the future be healed - as the old song anticipates, a time when “the circle will be unbroken.” This will; be the case for me as I reflect on the life and death of my spouse, friend, lover and partner in mission, Judy Sparks Montgomery who passed now some seven years ago.
This coming Sunday, however, at our church, we will be breaking with tradition and we will not sing the grand old hymn by William Walsham How, For All the Saints. We are not singing this hymn this year because my pastor,
So what is this all about? My witness had to do with my deep existential experience of this particular celebration of worship over the last several years. While Ralph Vaughan Williams’ majestic tune and How’s poetic words are indeed classic. Over the years, as I have sung this hymn, it has been harder and harder for me to see that this is about Judy and others like her. The military tenor of the language does not paint a picture of my late wife’s sainthood.
Now don’t get me wrong, I am not being anti-soldier, many have given the full measure defending not just my country but my country’s values and I readily acknowledge their contribution. My difficulty with the hymn particularly as it shows up in our hymn book is not what is there, but what is missing.
Our current United Methodist hymnbook cuts some very important verses that speak of our forebears in faith – the preachers of our message, the writers of our gospels and the martyrs who stood their ground even when threatened with torture (a lesson, we seem too easily ready to forget these days).. Listen to these words…
3) For the Apostles’ glorious company,
Who bearing forth the Cross o’er land and sea,
Shook all the mighty world, we sing to Thee:
Alleluia, Alleluia!
4) For the Evangelists, by whose blest word,
Like fourfold streams, the garden of the Lord,
Is fair and fruitful, be Thy Name adored.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
5) For Martyrs, who with rapture kindled eye,
Saw the bright crown descending from the sky,
And seeing, grasped it, Thee we glorify.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
For All the Saints was written as a processional hymn by the Anglican Bishop William Walsham How. The hymn was first printed in Hymns for Saint's Days, and Other Hymns, by Earl Nelson, 1864. The hymn was sung to the melody Sarum, by Victorian composer Joseph Barnby, until the publication of the English Hymnal in 1906. This hymnal used a new setting by Ralph Vaughan Williams which he called Sine Nomine (literally "without name") in reference to its use on the Feast of All Saints, November 1. It has been described as "one of the finest hymn tunes of [the 20th] century." (Thank you Wikpedia)
Why How included four full verses using military imagery must remain a mystery. At this point we cannot recover the historical context that informed his decisions. Perhaps they partake of “Onward Christian Soldiers.” In our country, of course, we were in the midst of bitter struggle over the question of slavery, but I have found no documentation that How had this in mind when he wrote these verses. We are generally used to singing three of the original four.
2) Thou wast their Rock, their Fortress and their Might;
Thou, Lord, their Captain in the well fought fight;
Thou, in the darkness drear, their one true Light.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
7) O may Thy soldiers, faithful, true and bold,
Fight as the saints who nobly fought of old,
And win with them the victor’s crown of gold.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
8) And when the strife is fierce, the warfare long,
Steals on the ear the distant triumph song,
And hearts are brave, again, and arms are strong.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
9) The golden evening brightens in the west;
Soon, soon to faithful warriors comes their rest;
Sweet is the calm of paradise the blessed.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
How introduces the hymn with the stirring words that we all know by heart.
1) For all the saints, who from their labours rest,
Who Thee by faith before the world confessed,
Thy Name, O Jesus, be forever blessed.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
How concludes his hymn reflecting on the day when in its fullness, the Kingdom does arrive.
6) O blest communion, fellowship divine!
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;
All are one in Thee, for all are Thine.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
10) But lo! there breaks a yet more glorious day;
The saints triumphant rise in bright array;
The King of glory passes on His way.
Alleluia, Alleluia!
11) From earth’s wide bounds, from ocean’s farthest coast,
Through gates of pearl streams in the countless host,
And singing to Father, Son and Holy Ghost:
Alleluia, Alleluia!
I’ve always taught my children that if they see the need, they do the deed. In my follow-up conversation with David, I suggested two particular responses that could be made in the future allowing us to re-appropriate this glorious hymn. First, we must sing all the verses and we need to find the time in our worship to make this happen. Secondly, we can create additional verses that celebrate the sainthood of all. I have now committed to crafting several of these new verses. Part of the purpose of this post is to invite your aid. I would welcome any and all contributions. Here is my first draft – you will quickly see why I am asking for help.
O great physician whose gentle healing care
Guides doctors' and nurses' willingness to share
Their gifts towards our wholeness
That brings hope from deep despair,
Sing alleluia, Sing alleluia
Yes, I know it needs work!
Then we can do:
Deep well of wisdom (for teachers and counselors),
Emanuel, constant solidarity (for relief workers - thinking particularly of those firefighters related to 911 both the bombing and the clean-up after our Coastal hurricanes)
And then probably a verse about those whose sainthood was worked out in constant care year after year for our communities and our local church.
I’ll stop now and await your comments.
Grace and Peace,
John
