The Christian year is fast drawing to a close, but there are still wonderful dates and scriptures and themes. This week we observe All Saints Day, when we remember the brothers and sisters and all of the saints who have joined the Church Triumphant. Our scriptures for the ordinary time focus on the greatest commandment and love and loyalty.
When we think of those who have gone before us into the heavenly realms, we can sometimes become fearful about our own mortality. When we think about loving God with all of our heart and all of our soul and all of our mind, it can be intimidating, or even fearful. When we face the daily challenges in our lives, we can become anxious or afraid, too. This week's Lectionary hymn, written by Paul Gerhardt and translated by John Wesley, tells us to give all of those fears to the winds.
Gerhardt, a Lutheran minister in 17th century Germany, faced tremendous challenges, pressures, and fears stemming from strife that had arisen between the Lutheran and Reformed churches. When Gerhardt refused to sign an edict which prohibited Lutheran clergy from preaching about the differences between Lutheran and Reformed teachings, he was stripped of his official status and was prohibited from performing any clerical functions. He wrote many hymns after that time, including Give to the Winds Thy Fears. The words applied powerfully to his own circumstances. How poigniant the words must have been as he penned them.
In the next century, John Wesley was introduced to many of Gerhardt's hymns when he sang with the Moravians on board a ship to the colony of Georgia. The powerful messages of those hymns comforted and inspired Wesley on that journey, and in the following years he translated many of Gerhardt's texts for inclusion in hymnal collections, including this hymn.
Think on your challenges and fears as you read these words:
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1. Give to the winds thy fears; hope and be undismayed. God hears thy sighs and counts thy tears, God shall lift up thy head. |
2. Through waves and clouds and storms, God gently clears the way; wait thou God's time; so shall this night soon end in joyous day. |
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3. Leave to God's sovereign sway to choose and to command; so shalt thou, wondering, own that way, how wise, how strong this hand. |
4. Let us in life, in death, thy steadfast truth declare, and publish with our latest breath thy love and guardian care. |
Know that God will lift you up. Give to the winds your fears.
Grace and peace,
Lection at HymnSite.com
God bless you!
| Passages suggested are from The Revised Common Lectionary: Consultation on Common Texts (Abingdon Press, 1992) copyright © by the Consultation on Common Texts (CCT), P.O. Box 340003, Room 381, Nashville TN 37203-0003. Reprinted with permission of CCT. |