Here I speak of a hymn that has remained precious to my mind and heart for many years; a hymn I first heard in the beautifully inspired and inspiring Chapel of the Cowley Fathers at their Newburyport MA home. And yes, it’s a definite for my memorial/funeral service.
The text is below the video and below the video is another video of the hymn being sung.
Sermon preached at St. Stephen’s, Goldsboro, NC
Sunday July 11 2021
The Reverend Alan Neale
A Life of Grace
“I have never ever done this before in a sermon”… congregations rarely want to hear these words, especially when spoken by someone with a preaching history of nearly fifty-five years – yes, I was invited to preach in an Anglican pulpit in my mid-teens! And some kind folk have commented that I have never stopped preaching since then… whether in the pulpit or not!
And yet despite over five decades in this privileged vocation, “I have never done this before in a sermon” – and what is this novel, original, pristine experience?
Well, today my sermon’s text is a hymn, our first hymn in worship today (#686) – “Come, thou fount of every blessing.”
Let me read these three verses to you and, I beg you, make these words your prayer:
1. Come Thou Fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of God’s unchanging love.
2. Here I raise my greatest treasure (Ebenezer);
Hither by Thy help I’m come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood.
3. O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let that grace now like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.
The author of these words, Robert Robinson, suffered a sad turn of events as a young boy. His father died when he was eight; and his maternal grandfather bequeathed to him a measly 10 shillings and sixpence all because he regretted what he saw as his daughter’s lowly marriage to Robert’s father.
As soon as possible, Robert became the family’s breadwinner as he became apprenticed to a local barber! He received no formal education whatever for he had no time, no money, no interest. As he reflected on his life so he saw the gentle and good hand of God… “here I raise my greatest treasure, hither by Thy help I’m come”.
As he grew older, Robert came under the influence of the Anglican minister, George Whitefield (The Prince of Pulpit Orators). In one year (1739-1740) Whitefield preach 5,000 times across North America; he visited New Bern, though thought little of the morals of the place!
Whitefield’s message was truly GPS (Gospel, Pure and Simple), and this message drove hard and fast into Robert’s heart. He was soundly converted, began a preaching and pastoral ministry, and his church (at one time) numbered over 1,000 members. At the heart of Robert’s message was Grace, God’s undeserved favor towards each and every one of us. Listen “O to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be; Let that grace now like a fetter bind my wandering heart to thee.”
At some stage in his life Robert strayed, relapsed, fell away and this he did “big time”. Kenneth Osbeck writes that “he associated with a notorious gang of hoodlums and lived a debauched life for years”, he became unstable and unhappy and his Christian beliefs and training seemed of little importance– listen to these words “prone to wander, Lord, I feel it; prone to leave the God I love…”
And then… divine intervention. He finds himself the fellow passenger of a young lady on a stage-coach. It is reported that she began to sing to break the monotony of the trip. And what did she sing? “Come, Thou fount… O to grace how great a debtor’. When she finished, she asked Robert, “What do you think about the song?”. “Madam, I am the unhappy man who wrote that hymn years ago; and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, if I could feel now as I felt then.”
What a story! Robert’s hymn is definitely one for my memorial/burial service.
As I walked with Robert these past days, I have thought about a text from our second reading… Ephesians 1:4 “God chose us in Him/in Christ…”
God – the constant originator, initiator, architect of our call; whose love will never let us go.
God chose us – ekelogomai… God our Creator, our Father/Mother, God has picked us (you, me, Robert) out for her/himself. The word suggests a very deliberate choice, no mere whim; the word suggests a real heart/emotional preference.
And God chose us in Him/in Christ – here is our beginning (before even the foundation of the worlds), here is our life (follow me says the Lord) and here is our destiny (that one day we shall see Him as He is and be transformed into that glory).
We may not be gifted writers of hymns and tunes, but surely there is in our hearts a song of praise and thanks and love to God… the One who has chosen us in Him/in Christ.
AMEN