It’s Saturday. I would normally be checking charts, charging ipads, emailing and praying for tomorrow’s volunteers, and reviewing the worship songs for Sunday morning. But, I don’t have a worship service to prepare for this week, so here’s another obscure hymn coming at you!
First, a trivia question. Today’s hymn is called Begone Unbelief, written by John Newton (1725-1807). Does anyone know another hymn he’s famous for?
Here’s my version of the hymn. I wrote a new melody for it, combined some verses to create a refrain, and dropped a few of the original 7 verses. Take a listen!
There are a couple lines from this hymn that resonate with me especially today.
First one… “With Christ in the vessel I smile at the storm” You can read about Jesus calming a storm in Mark 4:35-41, but the gist of the story is that the disciples were with Jesus in a boat when a big storm came up. They were certainly not smiling, even though Christ was in their vessel. They woke Jesus up and said, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?” And then Jesus gets up, calms the storm, then asks them – “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith.” And guess what – those words and Jesus’ actions do not really make the disciples less fearful, but instead filled them with more fear – like what kind of a man are we dealing with here? Even the wind and the waves obey him.
This stands out to me today because the whole world is facing the storm of this virus together at the moment. I think a lot of us might be asking, “Jesus, don’t you care if we drown?” But instead, this hymn suggests that we can smile. Now, I’m not advocating that we shrug it off or minimize it. Instead, we can smile at the storm because of the anticipation of how God will show his power in the midst of it. I’ve seen people sharing food, sewing masks, checking in with friends and family. And that’s just in my small corner of the world. God is showing up and will continue to do so in the future. Guaranteed. So even if I’m scared, I can smile knowing that God is at work.
Second one… “Though dark be my way, since he is my guide / ‘Tis mine to obey and His to provide” This line resonates because I have no clue what comes next in this story of quarantine, social distancing and Corona Virus. The way seems pretty dark. It’s helping me to remember who is in charge of what. God is in charge of providing a way through this. It’s my job to obey. I’m obeying the health and government officials by staying home. I’m obeying Jesus call and invitation to care for people around me. I can’t provide any answers, but I know that God can and will. I just have to keep trucking through the dark way until some answers crop up.
To wrap this up, I want to skip ahead to another story in Mark 9:14-29. A man is pleading with Jesus to heal his son and here’s their conversation:
But if you can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” 23 And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” 24 Immediately the father of the child cried out[a] and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”
Mark 9:22b-24
Maybe we’re asking Jesus a similar question about this virus. And maybe Jesus is telling us I can, I will and and I am doing something. Nothing is impossible for me. And to that, I say with John Newton, “begone unbelief, the Savior is near!”
Tattered Hymnal 