The God Pause for Saturday, 20 May 2017 - The Luther Seminary in Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States "God's Grandeur," Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1877
"God's Grandeur," Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1877
1. The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod. 2. And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs--
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.-------
The hymn selection for this week is in keeping with the spirit of Paul's speech to the Athenians before the Aeropagus (see the Acts reading for this week). I am following Paul's endorsement of using extra-scriptural materials to express a gospel purpose: "As even some of your own poets have said" (Acts 17:28). Paul quotes an anonymous poet to help his audience in their search for God. I am quoting a priest whose poetry was never published until after his death. So it was anonymously that he wrote, "The world is charged with the grandeur of God." Hopkins poetry is very hymnlike--the subject is centered on our human faithful relationship to God and the writing is uniquely musical. Like the image of the refiner's fire from our psalm, Hopkins reminds us that this grandeur "will flame out, like shining from shook foil." It is indeed a powerful charge we share with the world, "the grandeur of God!"
Grand God, help us to carry the charge of your grandeur in all we do--in speech, in silence, in work, in prayer. Help to remind us of all the ways your grandeur flames out and make us faithful wicks for its shining. In Jesus' shining name. Amen.
Sam Bardwell, '15
Actor, Minneapolis, Minn.
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The Luther Seminary
2481 Como Avenue
"God's Grandeur," Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1877
1. The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod. 2. And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs--
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.-------
The hymn selection for this week is in keeping with the spirit of Paul's speech to the Athenians before the Aeropagus (see the Acts reading for this week). I am following Paul's endorsement of using extra-scriptural materials to express a gospel purpose: "As even some of your own poets have said" (Acts 17:28). Paul quotes an anonymous poet to help his audience in their search for God. I am quoting a priest whose poetry was never published until after his death. So it was anonymously that he wrote, "The world is charged with the grandeur of God." Hopkins poetry is very hymnlike--the subject is centered on our human faithful relationship to God and the writing is uniquely musical. Like the image of the refiner's fire from our psalm, Hopkins reminds us that this grandeur "will flame out, like shining from shook foil." It is indeed a powerful charge we share with the world, "the grandeur of God!"
Grand God, help us to carry the charge of your grandeur in all we do--in speech, in silence, in work, in prayer. Help to remind us of all the ways your grandeur flames out and make us faithful wicks for its shining. In Jesus' shining name. Amen.
Sam Bardwell, '15
Actor, Minneapolis, Minn.
-------
The Luther Seminary
2481 Como Avenue
Saint Paul, Minnesota 55108, United States
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