Be Thou My Vision (Rom 8:26-39)

 

Be Thou My Vision (Rom 8:26-39)

We are talking about the beloved hymn, Be Thou My Vision. It comes to us from England. Be Thou My Vision is a favorite of King Charles. The hymn was sung at his 2023 coronation. Be Thou My Vision has been published in over 200 hymnals through the years. It consistently makes top 10 or 20 lists of popular hymns in Christianity. 

 

St Patrick
Inspiration for Be Thou My Vision

Be Thou My Vision started as a 6^th century Gaelic poem, Rop tu mo Baile. It was written in Middle Irish by a blind monk named Dallán Forgaill. His name means little blind one, for he lost his sight from intense study by candlelight. The poem was used as a prayer among the monks. Forgaill wrote the poem in honor of St. Patrick. It was inspired by an earlier monastic poem St Patrick’s Breastplate. You can hear it in the original 3^rd stanza, which is excluded the United Methodist Hymnal.

 

Be Thou my breastplate, my sword for the fight;
Be Thou my whole armour, be Thou my true might;
Be Thou my soul’s shelter, be Thou my strong tower,
O raise Thou me heavenward, great power of my power.

 

St Patrick’s Breastplate is a morning prayer starting with the words “I arise today through a mighty strength.” It is the strength of the trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the strength of Christ, his miraculous birth, baptism, crucifixion, burial, resurrection, ascension and triumphant return. Patrick prays in the strength of angels and the strength of love. He guards himself in the witness of the saints and the prophets. He draws on the strength of creation, the ocean, the heavens, the sun, moon and fire. He calls on the strength of all these powers, divine and created, to protect him against all foes, demonic or human.

 

Patrick faced severe resistance to the gospel. He was beaten and imprisoned and threatened with execution. God delivered him from every threat.

He died of natural causes at the age of 76, which was a very long life in the 5th century. Most in Ireland were dead before the age of 30 in those days. The close of St Patrick’s Breastplate may be familiar to you.

 

Christ with me,

Christ before me,

Christ behind me,

Christ in me,

Christ beneath me,

Christ above me,

Christ on my right,

Christ on my left,

Christ when I lie down,

Christ when I sit down,

Christ when I arise,

Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,

Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,

Christ in every eye that sees me,

Christ in every ear that hears me.

 

Kidnapped at age of 16 by Celtic pirates, Patrick was taken from his home in Britain to serve as a slave in Ireland. He learned their language and their customs. For six years he slaved as a herdsman. During that time, Patrick drew close to Christ, the Good Shepherd. He had a dream encouraging Patrick to escape. He escaped and made his way back home to Britain. Later, he had another dream in which he heard the Irish asking him to come back and walk among them. He went to France and studied for the priesthood. Patrick eventually was ordained bishop and sent to Ireland as a servant of Christ.

 

As you know, Ireland loves the memory of St Patrick because he completely dedicated himself to the mission of bringing the gospel to the Celts.  One legend says he drove all the snakes out of Ireland. Another says Patrick used the shamrock to teach the doctrine of the Trinity.

 

The poem, Be Thou My Vision by Dallán Forgaill was first translated from Middle Irish into modern English in 1905 by Mary Elizabeth Byrne, a major contributor to the Royal Irish Academy’s Dictionary of the Irish Language. She was also an activist who paved the way for Irish girls to get a decent education.

 

In 1912, Eleanor Hull, another Irish journalist and activist, poetically versified (She tweaked the words to fit a song) Byrne's translation into the rhyming meter sung in churches today.

 

The tune we all know and love is Slane. We do not know who composed the tune. The Irish folk tune was first published in 1909 by Irish music scholar Patrick Weston Joyce, in his book Old Irish Folk Music and Songs. It appeared there as a secular ballad titled "With My Love on the Road" (also related to the traditional air or waltz "The Banks of the Bann")

 

The tune was named Slane in 1919 when Leopold McClintock Lloyd Dix who adapted the melody and paired it with Be Thou My Vision. He named it so based on another story from St Patrick’s life.

 

At certain times of the year Celtic pagans practiced something known as the central fire. During seasonal equinoxes and moon phases, the Celts would all extinguish the fires in their homes. They would come together in religious celebration and light torches from the central fire. They returned home and relighted their personal fireplaces. This ritual was symbolic of their communal life and connection to the gods. Fire was symbolic of this sacred connection.

 

The lighting from the Christ candle on Christmas Eve, then passing the light from worshipper to worshipper is a similar tradition. It, too, speaks of community in the light of Christ.

 

 

Legend has it that on Easter Sunday in 433 A.D., a local Irish High King, Logaire of Tara, issued a decree in observation of a Druid festival that prohibited anyone from lighting a flame or candle until the central fire was lit upon Tara Hill. Patrick, refusing to honor anyone but Christ, stood against the king. Before dawn during the Easter vigil, Patrick risked his life by climbing to the tallest hill in the area and lighting a huge fire.

 

That hill was known as Slane Hill. Slane in Gaelic means health or safety, wholeness. It’s where we get the traditional Irish toast still used to day Sláinte!

 

As the Irish woke, they all saw Patrick's defiance of the king. He could not hide his light. Patrick wanted to show the world that God’s light shines in darkness, and that only He deserves praise.

 

Irish liturgy and ritual scholar, Helen Phelan, points out how the language of this hymn is drawn from traditional Irish culture:

"One of the essential characteristics of the text is the use of 'heroic' imagery to describe God. This was very typical of medieval Irish poetry, which depicted God as the 'chieftain' or 'High King' (Ard Ri) who provided protection to his people or clan. The lorica is one of the most popular forms of this kind of protection prayer and is very prevalent in texts of this period."

 

The original chieftain language of the "High King of heaven" has given way to the more inclusive "Great God" in the UM Hymnal.

 

And so a blind monk, inspired by St Partick, wrote a poetic prayer asking God to be his vision. He literally could not see because Dallan Forgaill lost his sight studying the scriptures in candlelight. God would now be his sight.

 

 

We sometimes talk about a lens or window by which we view the world. Some people wear rose colored glasses and see everything in a rosy positive light. We may criticize them for sugar-coating the world and not honestly acknowledging its corruption. Cynics look through a negative lens. Their vision is glass half empty. They view matters in a pragmatic and negative light. They are the Eeyores among us. “Probably rain.” We live between these two extremes. Some of us have very good reasons for a cynical worldview. We’ve been hurt and disappointed enough in life that hope seems a foolish waste of energy. Some of us are tired of the struggle to find peace and happiness. Some of us have good reason for looking at the world through rose-colored glasses. It is our defense against darkness. We have trained ourselves to think positively, to find the silver lining in all things.

 

The writer of Hebrews encourages us to fix our eyes upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. The hymn Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus suggests that the discouraging things of this earth will grow dim in the light of the glory and grace of Jesus.

 

I think the best lens to look at life is the lens of scripture. If you know the Word of God, you will be able to embrace the world in all its goodness and brokenness. Like God who loves the world and sent Jesus to save it, we can love the world, too, by accepting it as it is and working to transform it in the love of Christ.

 

In Romans 8, Paul wrote a beautiful Christian worldview. God is setting the world free from its bondage to decay. All its war, violence, sickness and poverty are only labor pains giving birth to a new heaven and earth set free. And so let your hope in God be your vision. Let His promises be the lens by which you see.

 

It’s no wonder some have called Romans 8 the Mount Everest of the New Testament.

 

Who will separate us from the love of Christ, who died for us and intercedes for us at God’s right hand?

Will trouble, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? No!

 

I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor heavenly rulers, nor things that are present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

Let that be your lens! Noting will separate you from the love of God in Jesus Christ. No power on earth, no power in hell or heaven can stop God from loving you and transforming your life.

 

Be Thou my vision of Lord of my heart!

 

Let’s praise the High King of heaven!