Dear Lord and Father of Mankind has been my favourite hymn for a long time. 25 years ago, my wife and I chose to sing it at our wedding. At the time, my Mum did question whether singing the words ‘forgive our foolish ways’ immediately after saying our vows was a good idea, but we went for it anyway.
As well as its beautiful melody, its words contain a generous form of challenge: grace-filled words of deep truth. It conveys so much so succinctly: the simple faith of Jesus’ first followers, poetic description of God’s incarnation in Christ, and our need of his calm within the strain and stress of our lives.
I wanted to highlight the lines within it which have been most important to me, as well as encourage people to listen to my favourite version of my favourite hymn, by the band The Divine Comedy. Neil Hannon somehow sings the words with both rich humanity and epic flourish. Check it out as you read:
‘Our rightful mind‘
Dear Lord and Father of mankind,
forgive our foolish ways!
Re-clothe us in our rightful mind,
in purer lives thy service find,
in deeper reverence, praise;
in deeper reverence, praise.
I love the metaphor of being ‘re-clothed in our rightful mind’ because of how readily we become distracted and befuddled by the demands of life. Jesus speaks of how “the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things” choke us and make us unfruitful (Mark 4:19).
Our service to God easily becomes entangled in our foolish distractions: I know how regularly I need to purge myself of resentments and seek to purify my motivations.
‘In simple trust‘
In simple trust like theirs who heard,
beside the Syrian sea,
the gracious calling of the Lord,
let us, like them, without a word,
rise up and follow thee;
rise up and follow thee.
‘Simple trust’ is a great description of faith. We can make it complicated, enter into deep theological and ecclesiological debate and argue about church politics, but at the centre of the Christian faith is the question ‘Will we follow Jesus?’
Like those Galilean fishermen, who were no doubt grappling with plenty of struggles of their own, will we lay down our security, rise up in trust and follow him into the unknown?
‘The silence of eternity‘
O Sabbath rest by Galilee!
O calm of hills above,
where Jesus knelt to share with thee
the silence of eternity
interpreted by love!
interpreted by love!
No one know for sure what is beyond this life: at best we have signposts into the mist. We have some longing for eternity etched in our hearts but much is mystery.
But what we do know through faith is that Jesus showed us what God is like. He shared with us this ‘silence of eternity’ in his very life. “For God so loved the world that he sent his only son” (John 3:16). In Christ, God was incarnated into history: mystery took flesh and ultimate truth is ‘interpreted by love’.
‘ordered lives’
Drop thy still dews of quietness,
till all our strivings cease;
take from our souls the strain and stress,
and let our ordered lives confess
the beauty of thy peace;
the beauty of thy peace.
Many of us urgently need ‘still dews of quietness’ to address the strains and stresses which beleaguer our souls. We cannot be disciples without discipline: to stop and truly listen to Jesus’ words “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).
To do this requires order. This is not just about a well-managed inbox or a tidy desk – it is about making time to be with Jesus every day: to experience the beauty of his peace before our strivings overcome us.
‘The heats of our desire’
Breathe through the heats of our desire
thy coolness and thy balm;
let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;
speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,
O still, small voice of calm;
O still, small voice of calm.
We are created with God-given passions and ambitions: sensuality and achievement are at the heart of who we are made to be. These desires do not simply need repressing, but they do need restraint. We need the coolness and balm of divine grace to repair, renew and reorder our passions.
God can move with the dramatic power of earth-shattering events – but also with the still small voice of calm. Let us remember how Jesus, with just a word, calmed both the stormy Syrian sea and the panic of his followers. Let it be so for us.
Dear Lord and Father of Mankind, forgive our foolish ways and re-clothe us in our rightful mind. Amen.
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