I talked at St James’ on Sunday about the bronze serpent raised up on a pole by Moses to be (exactly how it is difficult to fathom from this distance) the source of healing for God’s rebellious people (Numbers 21.4-9).
One member of
the congregation said she’d never heard the story before. She was surprised – she had been sure that
her long ago Sunday School days had equipped her with the key Old Testament
stories, but here now was one mentioned by Jesus (John 3.14) which was new to
her.
Perhaps it
never gets read aloud in church. It isn’t
set for Communion, Matins or Evensong on a Sunday in the Book of Common
Prayer. It wasn’t set for Communion on a
Sunday in the Alternative Service Book 1980.
And, although it could have come up seven times as a reading set for the Principal Service on the Fourth Sunday in Lent in the cycle of Sunday readings we’ve mainly used since the late 1990s, each time it
may well have been replaced by alternative readings for Mothering Sunday.
Anyway,
having recently delved briefly into a verse of a long forgotten early Issac Watts hymn,
I did find another totally eclipsed eighteenth century hymn (which appears to be
an expansion of a Watts hymn) which seemed to do the job for the Sunday quite
thoroughly, so, to everyone’s greater surprise, we sang it.
With fiery
serpents greatly pained,
when Israel's mourning tribes complained
and sighed to be relieved;
a serpent straight the prophet made
of molten brass, to view displayed:
the patient looked and lived.
when Israel's mourning tribes complained
and sighed to be relieved;
a serpent straight the prophet made
of molten brass, to view displayed:
the patient looked and lived.
But O what healing
to the heart
doth Jesu's greater cross impart
to those that seek a cure?
Israel of old, and we no less,
the same indulgent grace confess,
while life and breath endure.
doth Jesu's greater cross impart
to those that seek a cure?
Israel of old, and we no less,
the same indulgent grace confess,
while life and breath endure.
To reason's
view this strange effect
self righteous souls will still reject,
and perish in their pride,
but those who sin and break the law
do all their rich salvation draw
from Jesu's bleeding side.
self righteous souls will still reject,
and perish in their pride,
but those who sin and break the law
do all their rich salvation draw
from Jesu's bleeding side.
May we then
view the matchless cross,
all other objects count but loss;
no other gain desire:
here still be fixed our feasting eyes,
weeping with tears of glad surprise;
and thankfully admire.
all other objects count but loss;
no other gain desire:
here still be fixed our feasting eyes,
weeping with tears of glad surprise;
and thankfully admire.
Hail, great
Emmanuel (balmy name!),
thy praise the ransomed will proclaim;
thee we “Physician” call:
we own no other cure but thine,
thou, the deliverer divine,
our health, our life, our all.
thy praise the ransomed will proclaim;
thee we “Physician” call:
we own no other cure but thine,
thou, the deliverer divine,
our health, our life, our all.
Meanwhile, I
love the patterns made by the windblown snow in this recent picture taken from
near St Gabriel’s, Stanbury looking across the valley to Oldfield Primary
School.
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