Once More it is Eventide. "At sunset, all who were ill with various diseases were brought to Jesus, and laying His hands on each one, He healed them" Luke 4:40 As the sun was going down, and the darkness increasing, people took their loved ones to Jesus to receive his healing touch. There is a hymn based on this bible verse, it is “At Even, ere the Sun was Set”, written by Henry Twells. On Wednesday night of Holy Week I was reading the words of this hymns and was struck by how contemporary events had given them a new and poignant force, here is why… Verse one of the hymn sings the bible’s words, ‘At even, ere the sun was set, the sick, O Lord, around thee lay; O in what divers pains they met! O with what joy they went away!’ Then at the beginning of verse two we sing, ‘Once more 'tis eventide, and we oppressed with various ills draw near.’ So having described the bible scene the hymn writer brings the scene into his own time, the bible characters around Jesus are replaced by those singing the hymn; Henry Twells is saying that we are in need of Christ’s healing touch as much as the people of old, once more it is eventide. In the context of our own times the encroaching darkness of pandemic has left us more in need of healing than ever, Eventide has come round with real force - that is what particularly struck me in reading this hymn. In the second half of verse two the hymn asks, then partially answers, the question that we may well all ask, ‘where in this gathering darkness is the light of Christ?’ The words are, ‘what if thy form we cannot see? The people of the gospels met with the physical presence of Jesus, but we cannot see or touch him in the same way, and more than that, where are the miracles? We are in need of a saviour not a story. Henry Twell’s immediate response in the next line is that ‘we know and feel that thou art here’, not that we may know – but that we do know. This to my mind is problematic, clearly people do not always know and feel the presence of Christ. Twell does however qualify this strong statement as the hymn progresses, adding that ‘some are sick, and some are sad’, ‘some have never loved thee well, and some have lost the love they had’, ‘some have found the world is vain, yet from the world they break not free; and some have friends who give them pain, yet have not sought a friend in thee’, I think he is saying all these griefs can make it harder to know and feel the presence of Christ and to receive his healing touch, or – ‘our woes dispel’ as the Victorian black crepe language of the hymn puts it. Then verse five makes it clear that he is not describing an ‘in crowd’ who know Christ, and an excluded crowd who through their troubles or lack of faith do not, We sing, ‘…none, O Lord, have perfect rest, for none are wholly free from sin; and they who fain would serve thee best are conscious most of wrong within. No one can know the presence of God by any personal merit of which they might like to boast, and each of us have our griefs and short comings. We may hide our flaws from our neighbours and even from ourselves, but as the hymn continues, we cannot hide them from Jesus because he knows our humanity, O Saviour Christ, thou too art man; thou hast been troubled, tempted, tried; thy kind but searching glance can scan the very wounds that shame would hide.’ Then the final verse makes it clear that Jesus offers forgiveness not condemnation, he can heal both our bodily ills and the self-inflicted wounds to our souls, Thy touch has still its ancient power; no word from thee can fruitless fall: Hear, in this solemn evening hour, and in thy mercy heal us all.’ So I think the hymn is saying that despite the difficulties we can, like those in the bible verse who sought his healing presence, know and feel that Jesus is with us. I think Henry Twell is at least in part right, God is always present but like the sun on a cloudy day sometimes we cannot see Him, and often we are keen for the cloud to seemingly hide us from God because we fear that if we step into the light the darkness within us will be seen, forgetting that stepping into the light expels the darkness. As I have been heard to say, on the Situations Vacant notice board of Christianity it says, ‘perfect people need not apply!’ I say that Twells is part right because I think there is more than troubles and a sense of guiltiness that stops people recognising the presence of God, I find often people don’t recognise God because they have been given the wrong description. Henry Twell mentions the humanity of Jesus in the penultimate verse, ‘O Saviour Christ, thou too art man’, but then uses this idea to say that this means Jesus understands us, when it is also true to say that it means we can recognise God through Jesus, Colossians 1:15 describes Jesus as ‘the image of the invisible God.’ All the theologians’ abstract contemplations of the ineffable are short cut by reading the four accounts of the life of Jesus in the bible, as the one written by John says, ‘No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son… has made him known.’ As a Christian I think Jesus makes the idea of God make enough sense for me to live by it, and when atheists describe the God they do not believe in if it doesn’t sound like Jesus then I am inclined to agree with them. More than this, through Jesus I, to use Twells’ phrase, ‘know and feel’ the presence of God. So answering that question, when the darkness of evening is gathering, when we cannot see God and we ask, ‘what if thy form we cannot see?’ I look for the form of Jesus. Jesus commissioned his disciples to continue his work, so his form is displayed in those who bring healing, in John 14: 12 Jesus says, ‘Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.’ The parable told by Jesus of the Good Samaritan, where a foreigner of a different faith brings help and healing to a man in need, when his fellow countrymen of the same faith have merely passed by, shows that Jesus taught that God can work through anyone of compassion and generosity. Jesus’ form is also seen in those who are in need of help and healing, in Matthew 25 we read, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “…‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ Jesus our King stepped out of heaven to walk in humility as a man, and asked us to see that when we are helping those we count as the least we are helping him. The impulse to applaud both health workers and key workers, those who care and those who serve, is godly. Daily miracles are occurring, miracles of technology that would have been unthinkable in the past, miracles of committed service to the community, miracles of simple kindness to one another. But we have been given a description of God as an old man with a white beard sitting on a cloud, and so we don’t recognise His hand at work. I am always puzzled that Christians struggle with the question, ‘how should we respond to suffering?’ Do what Jesus did! That’s what being a disciple means. Pray and bring what help and healing that you can, then people will see God at work in the world. Once more it is Eventide, the darkness is gathering, those who follow the teachings of Jesus should pray and do what they can to help so the light of Christ might be seen. Certainly do not get all judgy and blame innocent people for their misfortunes, the one exceeding dubious merit in doing that is it gets you out of helping. Only God is qualified to judge, and His judgement was made known at Calvary, all have fallen short of His glory and all are offered forgiveness. Jesus commanded his disciples not to judge, although the way down the ages since Christians at times have passed judgement on those they disapprove of one might wonder if Jesus had actually said, ‘Truly I tell you, whenever you judge and condemn one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it for me.’ This isn’t an Easter Reflection so much as a Reflection that has taken so long to write it has come out on Easter day, I had rather hoped to get it done for Good Friday which would have been an appropriate day to write about the gathering darkness – however I proceed slowly these days. Perhaps there is providence in the delay, the story doesn’t end with the encroaching darkness of evening but with the glorious Easter morning. Indeed time has run on, as it says in Romans 13:12, ‘The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.’
Post Script.
I received an E mail from of one of my former parishioners a few days after posting this Reflection, she wrote to tell me that The Rev Canon Henry Twells was the vicar of Waltham, in Lincolnshire, where her great grandparents lived, and that one day he had been at their house for tea, and afterwards wandered into their orchard were he composed " At even ere the sun was set".
What a wonderful family connection to the hymn!
And what a delightful story!
“At Even, ere the Sun was Set”, by Henry Twells.
1 At even, ere the sun was set,
the sick, O Lord, around thee lay;
O in what divers pains they met!
O with what joy they went away!
2 Once more 'tis eventide, and we
oppressed with various ills draw near;
what if thy form we cannot see?
we know and feel that thou art here.
3 O Saviour Christ, our woes dispel;
for some are sick, and some are sad,
and some have never loved thee well,
and some have lost the love they had;
4 And some have found the world is vain,
yet from the world they break not free;
and some have friends who give them pain,
yet have not sought a friend in thee;
5 And none, O Lord, have perfect rest,
for none are wholly free from sin;
and they who fain would serve thee best
are conscious most of wrong within.
6 O Saviour Christ, thou too art man;
thou hast been troubled, tempted, tried;
thy kind but searching glance can scan
the very wounds that shame would hide.
7 Thy touch has still its ancient power;
no word from thee can fruitless fall:
Hear, in this solemn evening hour,
and in thy mercy heal us all.
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