You are the light of the world - hymns?
Offeiriad
Shipmate Posts: 46
Help! I'm urgently trying to find hymns to link with Sunday's RCL Gospel (Matthew 5, v13-20), where we are called upon to be salt and light. So far, almost nothing! (One half decent old hymn, but can't find a tune that works!)
Plenty about Jesus as light of the world, but none about us as the light of the world. My wife is busily knitting one which will certainly be better than nothing, but your suggestions would be welcome! Thank you.
Plenty about Jesus as light of the world, but none about us as the light of the world. My wife is busily knitting one which will certainly be better than nothing, but your suggestions would be welcome! Thank you.
Comments
(Tune: Ellacombe)
We are Christ’s light in this dark world
Driving the dark away,
Bringing His light upon the lost
Changing their night to day.
So let your light forever shine
Showing the way to go,
The lost shall find their path to life
And God’s great love will know.
We are Christ’s light in this dark world
Making the clouds depart
To let the sunshine of His peace
Flow to the burdened heart.
So let your light forever shine
On tired souls seeking rest,
Bringing new life to those who fear
As they join with God’s blessed.
We are Christ’s light in this dark world,
Through us true light must shine,
Calling the lost beloved of God
To know His love divine.
So let your light forever shine
In praise of God above
Like stars across the open sky
Until all know His love.
(c) (Mrs Offeiriad)
Not suitable for your needs I am sure but just throwing them in for discussion.
There's one point about it though that I'd query, which for me would be fairly important, which is that it doesn't really go 'upwards'. i.e. it doesn't praise or thank God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost. It doesn't even proclaim that much. It's mainly about us. There's a bit of a flavour that we are patting each other on the back for being good little Christians, and telling anyone who happens to be listening to us how fortunate they are to know us.
Having the same first line repeat itself in each verse is particularly good, though I think if it had been me, I'd have gone for 'Christ calls us out to be the light'. It would also be possible to get each third line to start with a transitive infinitive as in the middle verse at the moment, so that in the first it would be 'To bring His light upon the lost' and in the third, 'To call the lost beloved of God'. But then, it's her hymn not mine, and this is cheek of the first order.
The hymnary.org website will also list the hymnals it appears in and give you the opportunity, for a small fee, to download a flexscore.
This video of “We Are Called” is a go-to for me when I need a little lifting up.
Coat? Sorry.
Sorry if I'm being obvious.
- Jesus is the light of the world, whereas we are either,
- called to be the light of the world, or,
- the light of the world only because we are in him, and to the extent that we are.
The latter but being our response.
Jesus Bids us Shine was one of the first hymns I learnt in Kindy at my Presbyterian school and it really resonated with me I think it's just perfect for young children -so much better than many children's religious songs. I am sad that it seems to have disappeared from hymn books.
Well it does need considerable explanation given the arcane language
Yes, starting with Lights abode celestial Salem..
It’s really a hymn about heaven, not about us being light in the world. The first four words are twin references to heaven, described as the abode (n.) of light, and the heavenly Jerusalem - using a rare (five occurrences in the Bible) name for Jerusalem.
The hymn can be found here. It is J.M.Neale’s verse translation of a Latin hymn by Thomas à Kempis. In the fourth and fifth verses it switches from being addressed to heaven to being addressed to the author’s own bodily self.
It’s a hymn which is not easy to take in on singing through if you’re not already familiar with it. The language is quite allusive.
As for "Salem" being rare, tell that to the inhabitants of the town in Massachusetts or anyone who's heard of the (in)famous Salem Witch Trials.
Living near the Moravian town of Salem (now Winston-Salem), I’m well aware of the meaning of Salem, but I think BroJames is right that the average person would miss the meaning.
And as noted, the request was for a hymn about us being the light of the world.
It's also the first word of a very, very well known hymn.
Correct. Though the insertion of the comma has clarified matters (so did Professor Google, and Hymnary.org, but that was after I posted), and the word abode can now be read as a noun.
And yeah, Enoch, abide is relatively common. But I was stressing the point that abode as a verb died out late in the 17thC.
So carry on.
I think this isn't terribly relevant - a lot of poetry uses words which aren't commonly used in ordinary UK English discourse. And unless we want to sing hymns entitled "Oh bugger, it's raining again" then that's probably a good thing. A more relevant question is whether the words used are commonly understood by normal English speakers, and I think I have to side with TheOrganist on abode. I don't, by contrast, think the average person will get Salem <-> Jerusalem, and more people will get 'abode' than will get 'celestial'. I think the rest of the hymn is rather easier than the first line, though.
As it happens, I'm rather fond of "Lights abode, celestial Salem" - and as I remember, we used to sing it at school fairly regularly. But I'll agree with you that it's not about us being a light in the world.