9 December On Jordan’s bank the Baptists cry (StF 182)
If you have a hymn book handy, just sit and read the words slowly, absorbing the story it gives.
The hymn came to us from the pen of Charles Coffin, born in 1676 in France. He went on to become Rector of the University of Paris, and a hundred or so years later, John Chandler – a Vicar in the Church of England – translated it to English. The hymn tackles the fundamental decisions we all have to make as we follow Christ and work through the Advent season.
I remember standing in the River Jordan at the site where Jesus was baptised, feeling all the tiny little fish swimming around my ankles. I wonder if Coffin or Chandler ever had the experience of standing in the Jordan? Possibly not, given the time in which they lived. But I remember focusing my mind, on that day, on the words of this hymn, and the story it tells.
Focus today on the words of the original last verse:
‘All praise to you eternal Son,
whose advent has our freedom won,
whom with the Father we adore,
and Holy Spirit evermore’.
Chris Cheeseman
Loving Lord,
as we recall again during this Advent season your coming to birth
for each one of us – a familiar story – let it be fresh in our minds
as we commit ourselves to your service again.
Let us, in all things, be open to the movement
and challenge of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
