We don’t sing this hymn much these days, but today we should

Standing in a Penticton pulpit yesterday I thought aloud about suitable music for the Epiphany season. Today, on the Feast of Epiphany itself I have a suggestion which came to mind during yesterday’s sermon, a text by the English clergyman and theologian John Hanry Newman (1801-1890) who in 1833 wrote Lead Kindly Light enroute to England from Italy. I am not sure if the weather was particularly rough or if his recent illness caused discontent. Possibly he was wrestling with personal demons, but he does seem especially distraught; In his Apologia Pro Vita Sua, Newman writes:

[John Henry Newman] “Before starting from my inn in the morning of May 26th or 27th, I sat down on my bed and began to sob violently. My servant, who had acted as my nurse, asked what ailed me. I could only answer, “I have a work to do in England.” I was aching to get home; yet for want of a vessel I was kept at Palermo for three weeks. I began to visit the Churches, and they calmed my impatience, though I did not attend any services. I knew nothing of the Presence of the Blessed Sacrament there. At last I got off in an orange boat, bound for Marseilles. Then it was that I wrote the lines, “Lead, kindly light”, which have since become well known. We were becalmed a whole week in the Straits of Bonifacio. I was writing verses the whole time of my passage.”

Newman’s text (found in the 1938 Book of Common Praise of the Anglican Church of Canada, #519) is as follows:

Lead, kindly Light, amid th’ encircling gloom,
Lead Thou me on;
The night is dark, and I am far from home,
Lead Thou me on;
Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene; one step enough for me.

I was not ever thus, nor prayed that Thou
Shouldst lead me on;
I loved to choose and see my path, but now
Lead Thou me on;
I loved the garish day, and spite of fears,
Pride ruled my will; remember not past years.

So long Thy pow’r has blest me, sure it still
Wilt lead me on,
O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till
The night is gone,
And with the morn those angel faces smile,
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile.

There is little light in Newman’s dark and melancholy mood, a malady aided solely through divine leadership, a forceful shove or drag upon his doleful self. At this point in Newman’s life, he is some distance from publication of Tract 90 in which he declared himself “on my death-bed, as regards my membership with the Anglican Church.” In these earlier years, however, he was no stranger to distress.

In response to our own contemporary distress, Newman encourages us to put one foot in front of the other and trust divine direction. As January 20^th approaches when Donald Trump will be inaugurated and the new administration will seize power and act upon its projects and promises, to me at least gloom is everywhere.

Beyond the celebration of Epiphany itself, today marks the 4^th anniversary of the storming of Capital Hill in Washington DC by those hoping to disrupt or delay the certification of the 2020 election results. President-elect Trump has vowed to re-write history in declaring that he was the legitimate winner of that election which he claims was stolen by Joe Biden and democrats. He has further vowed to avenge what he declares was a miscarriage of justice and to use his own words “fake news.” He plans to pardon those charged with insurrection. He further intends to take revenge of all those who do not accept his verdict on the outcome, especially journalists and other commentators. Clear targets include The Washington Post, the New York Times, ABC and NBC along with countless numbers of critics and political opponents.

According to CNN, “President-elect Donald Trump plans to nominate firebrand loyalist Kash Patel to serve as FBI director, an extraordinary move that would put a self-described enemy of the so-called deep state as the head of the nation’s top law enforcement agency — a role that would give Patel power to carry out Trump’s threats to go after his political opponents.”

In yesterday’s sermon I proposed Linnea Good’s Epiphany text as mos appropriate for the day and season of Epiphany.

A light is gleaming,
spreading its arms
throughout the night,
living in the light.
Come share its gladness,
God’s radiant love is burning bright,
living in the light.

Today I am not so sure.

A blessed Epiphany to all