ORSBORNAGAIN (35)
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.
We worship thee, O Crucified!
What glories didst thou lay aside;
What depth of human grief and sin
Didst thou consent to languish in,
That through atoning blood outpoured
Our broken peace might be restored!
We mourn that e’er our hearts should be
One with a world that loves not thee;
That with the crowd we passed thee by
And saw, but did not feel, thee die.
Not till we knew our guilt and shame
Did we esteem the Saviour’s name.
Though with our shame we shunned the light,
Thou didst not leave us in the night;
We were not left in sin to stray
Unsought, unloved, from thee away;
For from thy cross irradiates
A power that saves and recreates.
O loved above all earthly love,
To thee our hearts adoring move;
Thy boundless mercies yearn to save
And in thy blood sin’s wounds to lave.
O speed the day when men shall see
That human hopes are all in thee.
Albert Orsborn
205 The Eternal God – God the Son, The Suffering and Death of Jesus
I have been a fan of the rock band U2 since my early teenage years (which is a bit more than 10 years ago). At first, it was all about their energy and passion. The opening guitar riff of “I Will Follow” was like nothing I had ever heard before.
As I grew up with the band, I became a fan of their faith journey in addition to the art they were making. Some Christians dismissed the fact that Bono, The Edge and Larry Mullen Jr. professed a belief in Jesus. Granted, none of them will be signing the articles of war or putting on a Salvation Army uniform anytime soon, but neither will the majority of Jesus followers. For many, U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” was all the proof they needed that these four Irish lads were on shaky spiritual ground. For me, that song struck a chord that still reverberates. Especially the last verse:
You broke the bonds
And you loosed the chains
Carried the cross of my shame
Oh my shame
You know I believe it
In the Orsborn song we consider here, the author, like Bono, is contemplating the cross, and all that it means to him, to every believer and to the world. Both Orsborn and Bono are well aware of their own shame and the sacrifice of their Savior. This song is found in the section of The Salvation Army Song Book dedicated to the atoning work of Jesus Christ. The theological jargon of what exactly happened on the cross can get pretty thick. That’s why for many (myself included), poets are relied upon to help us understand the magnificence and majesty of it all.
Orsborn does a masterful job describing what happened on the cross to make salvation available to all of humankind. The “depth of human grief and sin,” our “broken peace,” our oneness with a world that doesn’t love Jesus, our propensity for light-shunning, all of this spelled out a well- deserved death. But there is one who would “not leave us in the night,” but laid aside his glories to become obedient to death, even death on a cross (Phil. 2:6-8). And the “atoning blood outpoured” by the “Crucified” restores us. “For from thy cross irradiates / A power that saves and recreates.”
He “carried the cross” of our shame, in Bono-speak. And by doing so, he “broke the bonds” and “loosed the chains” of all who believe it. You know I believe it!
Watchman Nee said, “What ground is left for accusation since sin’s penalty has been fully paid? The blood of the Lord has atoned for all the sins of a believer; hence there is no more condemnation in the conscience.” I’m sure it seems odd to go directly from a Watchman Nee quote to New York’s Waldorff-Astoria Hotel, but that’s where, on March 14, 2005, U2 was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. During Bono’s acceptance speech, he told this story:
We’d been campaigning for Dr. King, for his birthday to be a national holiday. And in Arizona, they’re saying no. We’ve been campaigning very, very hard for Dr. King. Some people don’t like it. Some people get very annoyed. Some people want to kill the singer. Some people are taken very seriously by the FBI, and they tell the singer he shouldn’t play the gig, because tonight, his life is at risk, and he must not go onstage. The singer laughs. You know, of course we’re playing the gig, of course we go onstage. And I’m standing there, singing ‘Pride in the Name of Love,’ and I’ve got to the third verse, and I close my eyes, and I know I’m excited about meeting my maker, but maybe not tonight. I don’t really want to meet my maker tonight. I close my eyes, and when I look up, I see Adam Clayton standing in front of me, holding his bass like only Adam Clayton can hold his bass. And you know, there’s people in this room who tell you they’d take a bullet for you, but Adam Clayton would’ve taken a bullet for me, and I guess that’s what it’s like to be in a truly great rock and roll band.
I’m so grateful (and U should be 2) that when our eyes were closed, just at the right time, in the name of love, Jesus stood in between us and the death that awaited us. I will follow!
Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends (John 15:13).