Abide With Me

Last night at our Lenten Vespers service, we closed by singing Abide With Me (CW 588). I’m guessing that hymn makes just about everybody’s top 10 hymn list ― everyone who actually has a top 10 hymn list, that is. It also happens to be one of my favorites.

My paternal grandfather, William Pluger, was a faithful churchgoing man who raised his children (and, by extension, his grandchildren) in the “discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6). One of his many favorite hymns was also Abide With Me. As an elder in his congregation, he helped establish the tradition of singing it on New Year’s Eve. What a great hymn to sing as the old year is remembered, confessed, forgiven, and the new year is welcomed with all the blessings of God. I’m guessing he was especially thinking of the stanza:

Swift to its close ebbs out life’s little day;
Earth’s joys grow dim, its glories pass away;
Change and decay in all around I see;
O Thou who changest not, abide with me.

Grandpa died in 1984. I was ten. At his funeral, my cousin and I made a deal that we weren’t going to cry ― for some reason, we didn’t think it was right to be sad. Maybe we felt it was inappropriate, considering he was in heaven. Whatever, we were missing the point, and clearly forgetting the example of Jesus himself. At any rate, I was doing OK through the entire service: Psalm 23, the sermon, Jerusalem The Golden, and all the Lutheran funeral stand-bys. Until Abide With Me. Grandma had explained to us how meaningful that hymn had been to grandpa, what an important part of his faith-life it had been. And knowing that made it impossible to sing these words without completely losing it (in a good way):

I fear no foe, with Thee at hand to bless;
Ills have no weight, and tears no bitterness.
Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory?
I triumph still, if Thou abide with me.

Grandma outlived grandpa by a good number of years. She saw her little congregation through many ups and downs, the calling of another pastor, and about fifteen more New Year’s Eve services. And in her own faithful way, she upheld the memory of her husband and his belief in God’s faithful gracious presence by gently and quietly making sure that Abide With Me still made it into the service every New Year’s Eve. Grandma died in December of 2003, from complications following a heart attack she suffered while cooking Thanksgiving dinner for her family. When we buried her on Christmas Eve morning, Messiah Evangelical Lutheran Church sang Abide With Me one week early.

I need Thy presence every passing hour;
What but Thy grace can foil the tempter’s power?
Who, like Thyself, my guide and stay can be?
Through cloud and sunshine, Lord, abide with me.

In the summer of 2004 I took six of the best students I’ve ever had to Peru. We spent 12 days driving around the Andes mountains, traveling from village to village teaching Bible stories to little children and old men, doing crafts, singing songs, and learning more about faith and hope and love than we ever could have possibly taught. (You can read more about our trip to Peru here.) It’s hard to have an experience like that and not be changed forever, but when you get back it’s even harder to pinpoint what, exactly, about the trip so affected you. One moment, though, stands out above all the emotions and experiences of that odyssey. We had woken up early on our “free day” and gone to climb a glacier. We rode horses. We climbed and climbed and climbed. I fell in a little. We made it to the top ― 16,886 feet above sea level (which is really really high). Then we walked back down, and ate the best sandwiches any of us had ever eaten. Then we drove about three hours down the worst road ever. We were all bone-tired but no one could sleep. So we sang. Lifetime Lutherans all, we knew our hymnody pretty well. We started at the beginning, Advent, and worked our way through the Church Year. We did a pretty good job (I could try to remember all the hymns that we sang, but it would spoil the moment). We could usually get at least the first and last verse of any hymn anyone could remember at least the first line of. Eventually (remember, it’s hymn 588) we got to Abide With Me. Everyone knew it, of course. The memory of a van full of tired, happy, young missionaries singing a cappella as the sun set slowly behind the snow-covered peaks of South America still brings a smile to my lips and puts a lump in my throat. Simply beautiful…

Abide with me, fast falls the eventide;
The darkness deepens, Lord with me abide!
When other helpers fail and comforts flee,
Help of the helpless, O abide with me.

Which finally brings me back to last night. The sermon text was “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23). Jesus’ words from the cross, from his hours of excruciating agony, were words of pardon and forgiveness. We, who manage to be thrown into a rage at the slightest provocation, whose words are a rain of curses when being cut off on the freeway, could learn much from the words of the God-Man as he was being cut off from the land of the living.

But Jesus’ ministry on earth and his trip to the cross were more than just exemplary, to show us how to live. If Jesus’ ministry were primarily to give us an example to follow, “we are to be pitied more than all men” (1 Corinthians 15), because no one could even come close to perfectly following his example.

No. Jesus’ suffering and death on the cross were not exemplary, rather they were primarily substitutionary. Jesus hung on the cross so I wouldn’t have to. Jesus suffered the Father’s wrath so I wouldn’t have to. Jesus paid for my sins so I wouldn’t have to. Try as I might to do the right thing, try as I might to make up for my sins, the fact of the matter is that I “don’t know what I do.” It’s all Jesus’ work that I am saved. Salvation is completely outside of me.

“Father, forgive them,” Jesus said, talking about me as much as about the Roman soldiers who were nailing him up. “Father, forgive them,” Jesus said, talking for me as my perfect substitute. “Father, forgive them,” Jesus said, talking to me with words of promise that I am forgiven, because he lived and died for me. “Father, forgive them,” Jesus said, talking to all who would believe in him, calling out to us and looking forward to Easter morning. “Because I live, you also will live” (John 14).

And so our prayer, last night and every night until the end of the world, is the prayer that points us to Christ, always to Christ:

Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;
Shine through the gloom and point me to the skies;
Heaven’s morning breaks, and earth’s vain shadows flee;
In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Chris, you words still amaze me. I wish I was still in your class. Ohio is so far away. Now I am in college and have to deal with professors who think they are smart but they really aren't. You are the smartest person I know! I am so glad you asked me to go to Peru with you guys, even if I was 50th choice. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to grow in faith and love. I guess that's what made you leaving so difficult. I hope everything is going well in Ohio. see you soon!
oh by the way I joined Grace and I absolutely love it there!And abide with me is definitley on top for me!
love
Hills

Anonymous said...

Thanks Chris, "Simply beautiful..."

--Sarah Lynn

Anonymous said...

Chris...I would usually make a joke now about how fat you are, or how only you could fall through the earth, but I simply cannot at this moment. It was actually difficult for me not to cry. Pretty much impossible, in fact. Thinking about that whole trip, I think you may have actually summed it up best. "In the summer of 2004 I took six of the best students I’ve ever had to Peru". Well, I like to think of it this way..."in the summer of 2004, THE best teacher I've ever had took 6 students and made them the best they ever could be, simply by leading through example". Your words continue to move me, Chris. The things you've done for me are simply too numerous to count. You will always and forever be more than a teacher, more than a advisor, more than a chaperone to me. You will always be remembered as my dear friend, Chris. ~Shawn

Anonymous said...

Thank you Chris. Thank you for the trip, the memories, the coffee, for everything. You're right about Jesus, He is our substitute. Perfection is God's business, but you've been a good living example. You've done a lot for a man who "Knows not what he does". I hope you'll continue to be a good living example because the only thing better than going to Peru is going to Peru twice.

Anonymous said...

amazing Pluger...amazing. I think it was 2 wednesdays ago my friend Melody and I were trying to sing hymns from memory and the only one we got around to singing was Abide With Me. All we ended up doing for the rest of the night was talk about how amazing that hymn is. It seems like everything you find so memorable, I have been too. Whether you consider that a good thing or a bad thing, thanks for bringing up such awesome topics!
Love
Jess

ps sounds like i really did miss the experience of a life time...i'm happy that all of you guys got to experience it though and that by me not going, Hillary got to. there's always a bright side to every sucky situation.

Anonymous said...

Chris,
I have always found it difficult to completely understand my experience in Peru. I never understood why I felt homesick once the trip was over and I was safe in my own warm bed in Wisconsin. How had "home" so quickly become the amazing people I had met and spent time with on our trip? (that's you guys). I also never understood why a trip that was exhausting and difficult in many ways could also be the most simple and pure experience I've ever had in my life. But maybe I do understand. How often here (in WI, in OH, in MN) do we spend our time telling others in the simplest way how Jesus' "Father, forgive them" applies to us? How many times do we let ourselves sing "Abide With Me" with such simple faith and happiness as we did on that bumpy car ride? Thanks for the message, Chris. Because as I go through my day today studying for future tests, for a future job, that will hopefully lead to future productivity and happiness, I am reminded how close the peace and happiness I felt in Peru really is. While Peru may be "Mas de cinco mil kilometros!" away, Jesus is not. All I need to do is look to the cross. Now where's my hymnal?

Anonymous said...

what awesome memories you have of grandpa & grandma! this would have made them proud!