Be Thou My Vision

One of my favorite hymns is the 8^th century Irish hymn “Be Thou My Vision”.  The words to the first verse are:

Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.

The hymn is a wonderful poetic reminder that God and Christ are to be first in our minds when we consider any act, any decision, and especially any ministry.

Therefore I was excited that Bishop Beisner had chosen it as the closing hymn for the Bishop’s Conference last month.  The theme of the conference was “Discerning God’s Call”, specifically God’s call for the Diocese of Northern California by:

• sharing significant moments of encounter with God,

• discerning our core identity and,

• identifying what we value most in our Church to release new energy in our congregations and break ground for our diocese-wide discernment work.*

The conference participants, including myself and Janice Freeberg, divided up into about 6-10 interest groups such as "Worship and Liturgy", "Youth and Young Adults", "Direct Experience of God in Church", and "Evangelism".

I went to the Evangelism group and was really excited to see how enthusiastic the members were to get out and get going in responding to "The Great Commission".  I was also very gratified that the group immediately saw that the reason to evangelize is not to gain more members to gain more pledges, but instead to spread the Good News of Jesus.  The words "Be Thou My Vision" sounded quite loud in my mind throughout the discussion.

Evangelism is really not just a sideline activity but a central mission of the church.  Episcopalians have historically had a bit of a difficult time with the "E" word, but this meeting really gave me hope that the tide may be turning!

It is quite risky to share your faith to others, especially in this cynical and highly secular society.  But risk-taking is what faith requires and what it makes possible.

I recently had the opportunity to pour over the early chapters of the Book of Acts with the Disciples class.   The stories of Stephen, the first deacon and the first Christian martyr, and Paul, the former violent persecutor of the early church and then its greatest evangelist, reminded me of just how risky faith in Jesus can be.  But also how exciting!

Keeping Jesus as our vision helps keep us on track, and more important, gives us support in whatever risks we may feel called to take as we walk our faith journey.

*From the diocesan website dncweb.org

 Teri +