New Hymns for the Lectionary
Proper 28C Gospel, November 14, 2004
• TEXT FILE OF HYMN • MIDI FILE • HYMN INDEX
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By their endurance the saints have
been blessed. They bore true witness of all that
they’d known— Faces were lifted when meeting such
fear We are no diff’rent in calling
today. This is our grand opportunity, Friends. |
The Lesson - Luke 21:5-19
So
much is owed to the saints of old. Consider for a moment, just
one man: John Wycliffe. He was born in Yorkshire, England, in
1324, nearly two centuries before the Reformation. Nevertheless,
he was already preaching and teaching against the false doctrines
of the Roman church. Because he was doing so almost 200 years
before Luther, Wycliffe is called the Morningstar of the Reformation.
Of special note is his translation of the New Testament from the
Latin of the Roman church into the common language of the English
people. The church forbade scripture in the common tongue, but
Wycliffe did it anyway.
His translation was
a forerunner of later English Bibles, such as Tyndale, the Great,
Geneva, and even the King James. It was not the church’s
laws, but that economical printing processes had yet to be invented
in Europe, that kept Wycliffe’s hand-lettered New Testament
from becoming widespread like the later printed translations.
Still, it was his stand for truth that tindered the later fires
of the Reformers—and thus, the presses of Gutenberg’s
successors.
For his stand, Wycliffe
was excommunicated from, and posthumously burned by the church.
Luther would say in another century and another land, “Here
I stand.” Wycliffe said it too—with his life. What do
you say? Are you making a stand for God? Are you speaking for
Him? Are you living for Him in such a manner that you are summoned
to speak to the hope of your calling? So much held down Wycliffe
but he stood up for God anyway. What’s holding you down?