ORSBORNAGAIN (2)
A devotional series by Major Rob Birks
ORSBORNAGAIN is meant to introduce the poetry of the first Poet General, Albert Orsborn (1886-1967) to a new audience and to reintroduce his works to dyed-in-the-(tropical)-wool Salvationists.
These are not new songs.
However, the lyrics are jam-packed with new life, which may be missed during corporate worship. Re-examined through scripture and experience, Rob Birks intends through an examination of these scared songs to renew the spiritual fervor of believers, and point seekers to their Savior.
My life must be Christ’s broken bread,
My love his outpoured wine,
A cup o’erfilled, a table spread
Beneath his name and sign.
That other souls, refreshed and fed,
May share his life through mine.
My all is in the Master’s hands
For him to bless and break;
Beyond the brook his winepress stands
And thence my way I take,
Resolved the whole of love’s demands
To give, for his dear sake.
Lord, let me share that grace of thine
Wherewith thou didst sustain
The burden of the fruitful vine,
The gift of buried grain.
Who dies with thee, O word divine,
Shall rise and live again.
Albert Orsborn
610 Our response to God – Holiness – Devotion
A misconception makes its way around our section of the universal church that we are non-sacramental. SO NOT TRUE! What is true is this: For reasons that you may or may not agree with, The Salvation Army made a decision fairly on that two of the traditional sacraments of the Church – baptism and communion – would not be practiced in our corporate worship services. To think that this decision leaves us sacrament-less not only misses the point entirely, but relegates sacramental living to merely a weekly, bi-monthly or monthly ritual. In the sacramental song we are considering here, Orsborn obliterates that way of thinking: “My life must be Christ’s broken bread/My love his outpoured wine.”
These are some of my favorite words in the song book of The Salvation Army. And I’m not alone. Many followers of Jesus in our movement would cite this as their favorite work of Orsborn’s, if not their favorite hymn altogether. Putting aside the fact that this is beautiful poetry (and it is beautiful poetry), these words speak of a sacramental way of life, a life that does everything in remembrance of the One whose body was broken and whose blood was shed so that whosoever partakes in Jesus would have full life now, and eternal life for….well, for eternity.
We, all of us, have a choice. We can choose to only see holy things in church (Holy Bible, Holy Communion, the holiness table), or we can worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness (1 Chron. 16:29 KJV) wherever we are, whatever we’re doing, whoever we’re with, and whenever we find ourselves there. As A.W. Tozer wrote, “When we have so learned to live in God and to experience His continual presence, everything in our lives becomes spiritual. What before had seemed mundane and nonspiritual now shines with a new light. God is found to be inhabiting our simplest acts as surely as our most lofty ones.”
That must be what Minnesota songwriter Peter Mayer was going for in his song “Holy Now”:
When I was a boy, each week
On Sunday, we would go to church
And pay attention to the priest
He would read the holy word
And consecrate the holy bread
And everyone would kneel and bow
Today the only difference is
Everything is holy now.
It would be a sin at worst and a shame at best if we only used this Army classic as a kind of proof text for our position on the sacraments. The real power of the song is the location in which the songwriter places himself beneath the name and sign of Jesus, sharing the life of Jesus, in the hands of Jesus, sharing the grace of Jesus, dying, rising and living again with Jesus.
It’s not enough to give assent to a position statement on the sacraments. That matters little compared to whether or not each of us receive Jesus, continually place ourselves in the hands of Jesus, and consecrate ourselves to a life of refreshing and feeding the souls of OTHERS “for his dear sake.” I reject the label “non-sacramental.” Instead, by sharing “that grace,” I aspire to be “full-on sacramental”! How about you?