God of Grace and God of Glory

I had the privilege of worshiping this past weekend with some friends who attend a very old, historical Methodist Church in DE. The old structure has a small but lovely sanctuary with beautiful stained glass windows.  It’s been a while since I’ve worshiped in a church with stained glass windows and I loved ‘feeling’ as though I was really in church.  As the organ played the prelude, I sat and listened with ears hungry to hear more of such a pleasant sound.

Like so many others in the past decade, although I grew up in a very traditional church, I have chosen to worship on a weekly basis in a more contemporary setting.  But at times I wonder if we haven’t thrown the baby out with the bath water in our attempt to come to make worship more appealing to the masses of younger generations, more “culturally relevant”, as my son would say.  As we sang the hymns this past Sunday, I really paid attention to the words.  These are the hymns that are the foundation of most traditional worship services.  To me they seemed truthful, timeless and yes, extremely relevant to our culture today.  It made me ask the question, “Are we robbing our modern contemporary worshipers of hearing and singing these hymns that are so richly steeped in timeless theology?”

Below, I have printed the words to our closing hymn, God of Grace and God of Glory.  If you would like to sing along with music, copy and paste the following link :  http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/g/o/godgrace.htm

But at the very least, read through these words.  Stop and meditate on them.  Reflect on their meaning and how they might apply to you in the context of your life at the present time.  Grant us wisdom.  Grant us courage.  How much more relevant can you get?

God of grace and God of glory,
On Thy people pour Thy power.
Crown Thine ancient church’s story,
Bring her bud to glorious flower.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
For the facing of this hour,
For the facing of this hour.

Lo! the hosts of evil ’round us,
Scorn Thy Christ, assail His ways.
From the fears that long have bound us,
Free our hearts to faith and praise.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
For the living of these days,
For the living of these days.

Cure Thy children’s warring madness,
Bend our pride to Thy control.
Shame our wanton selfish gladness,
Rich in things and poor in soul.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
Lest we miss Thy kingdom’s goal,
Lest we miss Thy kingdom’s goal.

Set our feet on lofty places,
Gird our lives that they may be,
Armored with all Christ-like graces,
In the fight to set men free.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
That we fail not man nor Thee,
That we fail not man nor Thee.

Save us from weak resignation,
To the evils we deplore.
Let the search for Thy salvation,
Be our glory evermore.
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,
Serving Thee Whom we adore,