Grant us Wisdom, Grant Us Courage......

Harry Emerson Fosdick used to be a name to conjure with in the first half of the Twentieth Century. He is largely forgotten now. One of the great preachers of a liberal and generous Gospel, he was long time minister of Riverside Church, built by Rockefeller in 1930. Fosdick started off as a Baptist, but was no Fundamentalist, held a progressive view of revelation and a non literalist approach to the Bible, and in social concern and social justice issues was outspoken, influential and often enough controversial.

I was thinking about him this morning, having chosen his famous hymn "God of grace and God of glory" as the hymn opening our worship. Sometimes our hunger for innovation, over-concern with relevance, insistence that hymns reflect personal experience rather than objective affirmation of faith in God, all combine to dull our awareness of that world out there and the realities that have to be encountered and navihated every day. Not so Fosdick, though his hymn was itself thoroughly contemporary, painfully and unuashamedly relevant. But its strength is in its unflinching confession of the mess of things, and its recurring refrain for us to be granted wisdom and courage for this hour, these days, this time. As we sang this there was an unmistakable sense of a congregation in serious agreement with words that spoje with prophetic clarity into the stae of our world, our country and of the heart and mind of contemporary culture. It is a hymn adaptable to our deepest prayers, and an affirmation, if we need it, of our faith in God when a whole lot else is proving transient, unpredictable and uncertain.

In the world of Aleppo and Haiti, of Trump and Clinton, of Brexit and the fallout in an increasingly divided society, of concern about increases in hate crime, anti-semitism and xenophobia, the rise of international scale emergencies such as mass immigration and the breakdown of international stability and the slow erosion of the authority of the great institutions such as the United Nations, the increasing undermining of the work of the Intenrational Red Cross and Medecin sans Frontieres, to the slow progress in action to slow down climate change and avart permanent damage to our planet and all the living creatures who share it with us - yes that is one long sentence, a whole paragraph!

But it is only a select and small list of what it is our world faces, the world in which I as a follower of Jesus am called to live as peacemaker, reconciler, carer of creation, worker for justice, conduit and inspirer of hope. So I need hymns like this, to remind me, of the brokenness of the world, and the redemptive grace and glory of God.

1 God of grace and God of glory,
on your people pour your power;
crown your ancient church's story,
bring its bud to glorious flower.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
for the facing of this hour,
for the facing of this hour.

2 Lo! the hosts of evil round us
scorn the Christ, assail his ways!
From the fears that long have bound us
free our hearts to faith and praise.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
for the living of these days,
for the living of these days.

3 Cure your children's warring madness;
bend our pride to your control;
shame our wanton, selfish gladness,
rich in things and poor in soul.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
lest we miss your kingdom's goal,
lest we miss your kingdom's goal.

4 Save us from weak resignation
to the evils we deplore;
let the gift of your salvation
be our glory evermore.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
serving you whom we adore,
serving you whom we adore.

H E Fosdick, 1930

Comments

[ANGELA ALMOND]

I have always been a fan of Fosdick's hymn. The line 'rich in things and poor in soul' has always challenged me. It is a shame that he is rather neglected these days.