Lead kindly Light
A Sermon by Revd Richard Carter
Readings for this Service: Luke 21.5-19
Lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom,
Lead thou me on;
The night is dark, and I am far from home;
Lead thou me on;
Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene: one step enough for me.
I was not ever thus, nor prayed that thou
Shouldst lead me on;
I loved to choose, and see my path; but now
Lead thou me on.
I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears,
Pride ruled my will: remember not past years.
So long thy power hath blest me, sure it still
Will lead me on,
O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till
The night is gone,
And with the morn those angel faces smile,
Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile.
These are the well-known words of a poem by John Henry Newman who was canonised by Pope Francis on 13 October of last month. The poem, of course, became one of the most popular hymns in the English language, often sung in times of struggle, or at funerals, indeed sung at our remembrance service here last week. This is how it came to be written: In 1833, the young theologian and Anglican vicar John Henry Newman was travelling in the Mediterranean when he was struck down by a fever that nearly killed him. ‘My servant thought I was dying and begged for my last directions,’ he recalled in his autobiography. ‘I gave them as he wished, but I said, “I shall not die, for I have not sinned against light.”’
Newman recovered slowly, but felt desperately homesick and uncertain of his own path ahead. He recalls sitting on his bed sobbing bitterly. My servant, who had acted as my nurse, asked what ailed me. I could only answer “I have a work to do in England.” On the way back to England, he took an orange boat from Palermo to Marseilles which was becalmed. Thus stranded, and in an exhausted and emotional state, Newman was impelled to write this verse as a meditative poem expressive of his longing for consoling Christian certainties in an age of mounting doubt. Later on, when challenged about the puzzling nature of the ‘kindly light’ and the identity of the ‘angel faces’ in the last line of the hymn, Newman replied crisply; ‘I am not bound to remember my own meaning’! Despite playing down his own insights, John Henry Newman knew exactly what these things meant, the ‘Kindly Light’ was Christ, his guiding star throughout his long life and his navigating light. The light which when buffeted by storm or struggle or delusion or sin that can lead one off course, is still there to guide us through the darkness. And the angel faces- perhaps his deep friendships and those whose love and companionship was revealed to him on a lonely path and which were so vital to Newman.
Newman’s words embodied the spirit of an age of uncertainty seeking even in fear and doubt to hold fast to God. It is recorded that Queen Victoria asked it to be read to her as she lay dying.
But perhaps more surprisingly Lead Kindly Light became the favourite hymn of a soon to be famous Indian lawyer. On the10 February 1908, a gang cornered this 38 year old man in Johannesburg. They beat him so badly that he was unable to speak through the cuts and welts on his face. He must have thought his time was up and that his life would end there. But he was saved by his friends. This lawyer was Mahatma Gandhi. His friends took him to the house of Joseph Doke, a Baptist minister, where Gandhi signalled for a pen and paper. He wrote down three requests. The first was about his struggle for Indian rights in South Africa. The second urged the Attorney General to release his attackers without charge. And in the third he asked that Doke’s daughter, Olive, sing his favourite hymn before he rested his bruised body.
Lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom,
Lead thou me on;
The night is dark, and I am far from home;
Lead thou me on;
Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene: one step enough for me.
When Gandhi returned to India, after two turbulent decades in South Africa, he decided that “Lead, kindly Light” would be the motto of the independence movement. He meditated daily on the lyric and encouraged his supporters to do the same. “He broke fasts with the singing of the hymn,” “In my daily prayers,” he told a friend, “I earnestly pray to God to lead me from untruth to truth. Isn’t the same idea conveyed in ‘Lead, kindly Light’?”
Cynics might argue that the hymn’s words are little more than sentimental or maudlin banalities you might find on a sympathy card bought in a service station. Yet Gandhi believed these words contained a deeper truth. They nourished Gandhi as he suffered imprisonment, assault and near-death fasts. The Indian leader thought the phrase “one step enough for me” contained an entire political philosophy.
I remember hearing this hymn too at a time in my life of deep uncertainty, when I was very unsure of the way forward. It was one of those defining moments. I was in my mid-twenties and knew I could not go back to a past I had loved but left behind. I was deeply unsure of the path ahead. I was struggling with depression, something that at the time made me feel even depressed about being depressed, because no one talked about such things and it felt like weakness. I was lonely and far from home. “Lead kindly light amidst the encircling gloom, lead though me on.” It was the point in my life when I really decided to be led by Christ. Not led as in a brave act of self-determination but more as someone who could not see , held by a loving hand and guided along a path I did not know. It was the beginning of my path to ordination.
It is often not in strength but in weakness that we know truth, not in certainty but uncertainty, in the fog of our inner confusion. It is when we do not know the future that the path of faith begins. It is at such times that the now is all that matters- the one step enough for me, the step, perhaps with Christ. It was not ever thus because how often in pride we turn away and think we can manage alone- that we are self-sufficient and can seize our own destiny. But in the wilderness we begin over again. We begin not trapped in the past or overwhelmed by the uncertainty of the future- we begin NOW. And for this we need a truth that comes from beyond self, indeed beyond the world- and our guide who holds the kindly light is Christ. We may lose sight of the path but God does not lose sight of us. Heaven is not of our doing or of our making- it is gift that never ceases to surprise. And astonishingly it is in our lostness that we find ourselves most loved by God- for the emptiness and the failure of self has made room for that love. God loves you while you are still lost. What Newman describes is the way in which we are found by God when we cannot find ourselves. If you are lost you will only be found by love.
Today’s Gospel reading is one of those readings you look at and say O help! Insurrections, nations dividing against nation, earthquakes, famines and plagues, arrests and persecution, betrayal, families dividing against each other, some being put to death. It’s frightening, apocalyptic stuff, it sounds like the end is coming. The time where in WB Yeats’ poem The Second Coming the poet writes “ Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold, Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world. People of course have always been predicting the end is neigh not least the early Christian Church many who believed the final judgment and the second coming was going to take place during their lifetime and Paul addresses this belief with great urgency. In Thessalonians the lawlessness and evils of the present time were seen as a manifestation of Satan who would be overthrown when the Lord Jesus Christ would come again in power. Those facing this time of trial and tribulation are called upon to stand firm in their faith and await the time when the Lord Jesus is revealed inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God.
If we look around us now, just is in times past, it would be easy to see those same portents of chaos – be it in Syria, or the Yemen, or Hong Kong or the Holy Land, or indeed the exploitation and destruction of the planet, the deforestation, raging fires, the tsunamis and earthquakes the floods, the rising sea levels. Are these not real warnings that the end could be neigh unless we choose another path. Nations divided against themselves cannot stand.
When will Jesus come again? But what if Jesus is already here now how then shall we live? Karl Bart argued that there is only one coming of Jesus in threefold form. Barth argues the resurrection of Jesus at Easter, the imparting of the Holy Spirit to the church, and the general resurrection at the end of time are three forms of the same event, and are not three separate events. The resurrection Of Christ has already taken place.
We are living in the light of Christ’s resurrection now. And it is now in uncertainty, when we do not know what the future holds, when the destruction of the world is not an act of God’s vengeance but the very possible consequence of our human pride and our own godless despair, it is now that faith once more becomes not only a possibility, but our salvation. “Kindly light” it sounds too gentle a force to combat the fears of any age. But is it not now, more than ever, one step at a time- that we need to be lead by that kindly light?
Lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom,
Lead thou me on;
The night is dark, and I am far from home;
Lead thou me on;
Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene: one step enough for me.
Before we hear this sung I would like to end with a prayer written by our vicar for our own times of uncertainty:
God of justice and mercy
In your son you warned that a house divided against itself would fall
look with grace upon this country.
Bring wisdom in the face of haste
and humility in the context of dispute.
At this time of division and anxiety
Show your people a true way, a deep truth, and an abundant life;
That in years to come we might look back on these moments
and say this is when we understood who you are and discovered who we are.
Through the light, guidance, and love of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
