Churches, I have concluded over many years, are very odd entities.  Hymns and hymnody are a perennial nightmare, and lead to organists behaving badly (we all know the old joke) and suggestions by several ministerial colleagues that recourse to violence might actually be justified.  This last week, and the whole heap of nonsense that has arisen over my request that we sing BPW 200 is just one more typical example of churches behaving badly and missing the whole point of why we exist.  That’s not because I don’t take hymnody seriously, on the contrary, I take it VERY seriously.  It is just sad that energy that could go into anything from prayer to feeding starving people is expended on telling preachers they can’t sing this or that song.  For some reason this has got to me enough that I feel the need to defend this old, somewhat twee, theologically imperfect (what isn’t) hymn, not because I want to sing it – I don’t even like it all that much – but because it is far from useless.

All I have managed to find about the writer, Maria Penstone, was that she was born in Kensington in 1859 and died in St Pancras on  27th December 1910 – a relatively short life very clearly having a Victorian flavour.  Her hymn – usually appearing as a children’s hymn in older hymnals - inevitably reflects the age in which she lived, where life was far more precarious than today.  What Kensington or St Pancras may have been like in those days, I have no idea but it is probably fair to suggest that poverty, disease and death were never far from her experience - even if she had the good fortune to be born into a moneyed family. 

So, on to the hymn itself…

God has given us a book full of stories

Which was made for his people of old

It begins with the tale of a garden

And ends with a city of gold

What I like about this approach to the Bible is that it refers to the whole thing, and has, what I think is a healthy attitude to it – it is a collection of stories (accounts) from the beginning (creation, Genesis) to the end (recreation, Revelation).  It is a book put together for God’s people that speaks of real people and real relationship between creator and creation.  Yes, it’s over simplified; yes it could be read as the Bible arrived neatly packaged in the KJV or whatever, but the idea of ‘stories’ rather than answers or rules is an important one.

But the best is the story of Jesus

Of the babe with the ox in the stall

Of the song that was sung by the angels

The most beautiful story of all 

This, for me, is probably the worst verse!  What ox?  There isn’t one in the Bible.  But there are oxen and cute little lambs and fluffy bunnies (OK, not fluffy bunnies) in all our favourite Christmas carols.  Yes, it is mushy, but - and this is the key – it says to me the best story is that of the incarnation, and that wonderful song ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to those on whom his favour rests’ (Luke2: 14, NIVi).  It may be expressed with glittery, tinsel, infant-school nativity language, but it is pointing to something utterly central to our faith.

There are stories for parents and children

For the old who are ready to rest,

But for all who can read them or listen

The story of Jesus is best

What I really like here is the clear statement that the Bible is for everyone – young and old, active or retired.  It is a cradle to grave book (ready to rest I assume is a euphemism for nearing death).  Whoever you are, whatever stage of life you’re at, this book is for you – and whether or not you can read (this woman is way ahead of her time on inclusion!) the story of Jesus is the best bit.  One of the objections I received to use of the hymn was the line ‘the old who are ready to rest’ which I was told dismissed and devalued older people as unable to contribute.  When I asked an older people’s specialist, her view was the opposite – how great to be affirmed when you can no longer ‘produce’ or ‘contribute,’ how good to be given permission to lay down responsibilities.  There is, I think, a danger of reading into much to the words of an old hymn; why not just accept that it says the Bible is for everyone – young, old, literate or not.  That’s a good message in my opinion.

For it tells how he came from the Father

His far away children to call,

To bring the lost sheep to their shepherd –

The most beautiful story of all.

This utterly verbose post will not be used to replace my sermon, nor will it be passed to the person who ousted the hymn.  What it will hopefully do for me, is to allow me to put down my annoyance and move on.  It will also serve as a reminder that the next time I find myself uncomfortable with someone’s choice of hymns that I need to think very carefully about why.