Hymn of the Week: May 24, 2024
We Have Come at Christ’s Own Bidding
Glory To God: 191
Text: Carl Daw, 1988
Music: BREWER
We have come at Christ’s own bidding
to this high and holy place,
where we wait with hope and longing
for some token of God’s grace.
Here we pray for new assurance
that our faith is not in vain,
searching like those first disciples
for a sign both clear and plain.
Light breaks through our clouds and shadows;
splendor bathes the flesh-joined Word;
Moses and Elijah marvel
as the heavenly voice is heard.
Eyes and hearts behold with wonder
how the law and prophets meet:
Christ, with garments drenched in brightness,
stands transfigured and complete.
Strengthened by this glimpse of glory,
fearful lest our faith decline,
we like Peter find it tempting
to remain and build a shrine.
But true worship gives us courage
to proclaim what we profess,
that our daily lives may prove us
people of the God we bless.
I keep coming back to the hymns of Carl Daw.
I don’t know if it’s his Baptist upbringing or just his innate sense for poetry and setting text that speaks so clearly of our faith while creating poetry that will stand the test of time. It’s hard to know why, but all I can tell you is, I love just about everything he has written. Today’s thoughts on this hymn come from a site I have used before: Michael Hawn’s Discipleship hymn series. Enjoy the thought-provoking commentary on this hymn.
“We Have Come at Christ’s Own Bidding”
was commissioned by the Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration in Dallas, Texas, in 1988. The late Howard E. “Buddy” Ross (1937-2005), commissioned the text as part of a series of Transfiguration-themed works. Ross was then serving as the parish’s music director.
This text by the Rev. Carl P. Daw Jr. (b. 1944) also appears in its poetic form in the Epiphany portion of his hymn collection, A Year of Grace (1990, Hope Publishing Company). The book is designed to follow the church year, beginning with Advent and moving through Easter and Pentecost.
Appropriately this hymn appears as the last text in the Epiphany section. It is an appropriate placement because the Transfiguration serves as a hinge between the Incarnation cycle (Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany) and the Paschal cycle (Lent, Easter, and Pentecost).
The Tune
The text was composed with the idea in mind that a tune would also be commissioned for it. Dr. Daw, thinking practically, followed a commonly used metric pattern, 87.87.D, so that it would work well with several well-known tunes that follow that pattern. For a while, it was sung primarily to the Welsh tune HYFRYDOL.
Joel Martinson (b. 1960), now director of music and organist at the Church of the Transfiguration, wrote a new tune for the text in 1991. The tune is appropriately named TRANSFIGURATION.
Stanza one focuses on the parallels between the disciples on the Mount of the Transfiguration and present-day Christians as they worship. Dr. Daw says that their attitudes and assumptions parallel our expectations as we gather for worship.
In stanza two, according to Dr. Daw, the Transfiguration narrative is treated as a form of anamnesis—remembering and reliving the past. The images of being bathed in light and “brightness” are parallel to Christ’s baptismal narrative. Dr. Daw credits the Rev. Thomas Talley for pointing out that these two narratives represent the first and last Sundays after the Epiphany and both were events when God spoke of his approval of Christ to the people gathered.
Though Dr. Daw does not mention it, the image of light breaking in on darkness seems to suggest Christ is the light that “breaks in upon our darkness.” He mentions the “flesh-joined Word,” a direct reference to the incarnation in John 1 (“the Word became flesh”).
Stanza three turns its focus from Christ, Moses, Isaiah, and the Transfiguration to the church. He uses Peter as a representation of God’s people, calling him “the spiritual ancestor of everyone who has been granted some special religious experience and then hopes to recreate it by going back to the same place or reading another book by the same author or singing the same hymn again.”
The text appears in hymnals across denominations from United Church of Christ to Baptist and United Methodist, those with a strong lectionary tradition, and those with thematically driven Sundays.
Though the text commonly appears set to the tune HYFRYDOL, it has also been set to ABBOT’S LEIGH and PLEADING SAVIOR. It can also be sung to several other well-known tunes, making it easier to introduce to congregations. Whatever tune is selected, the text is highly accessible and its “compact theology” makes it a quality choice for a Transfiguration Sunday hymn.
Dr. Daw is the son of a Baptist preacher and was born in Louisville, Ky. An Episcopal priest, he was educated at Rice University, the University of Virginia, and the University of the South. He recently retired as executive director of the Hymn Society in the United States and Canada. He is now curator of hymnological collections and adjunct professor of hymnology at UM-affiliated Boston University School of Theology.
Sources:
* © 1988 Hope Publishing Company; Carol Stream, IL 60188. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Ms. Sanders is a candidate for the Master of Sacred Music degree, at Perkins School of Theology, and studies hymnology with Dr. C. Michael Hawn.
