I Bind My Heart
Kathryn Kinjo Duncan
This Sunday we return to our tradition of having one of our communion hymns repeat for multiple weeks in a row. I usually choose hymns for this space whose text is timely and profound and worth hearing many times over. I love it when y’all come to me and say “that song has been in my head all week!” because that’s exactly my intention. :)
The hymn I have chosen for these next few weeks is “I Bind My Heart This Tide.” (You can listen to a choral arrangement of it here.) This hymn originates from the Mennonite hymnal, and was written by Lauchlan Watt. Watt was a published poet and author, a chaplain in World War I, and eventually the minister of the Glasgow Cathedral in the 1920s and 30s.
The second verse is my favorite. It reads: “I bind my soul this day to the neighbor far away, and the stranger near at hand.” This wording reminds me that when God commands us to love our neighbor, that encompasses more than just the people we see everyday… but the people who look and live and love and believe differently than us too. How does that idea change the way we live out our faith in the world today? How is that idea illustrated in our gospel reading this Sunday, which is the parable of the Good Samaritan?
Hymn texts often double as prayer, and this one is no different:
I bind my heart this tide
to the Galilean’s side,
to the wounds of Calvary,
to the Christ who died for me.
I bind my soul this day
to the neighbor far away,
and the stranger near at hand,
in this town, and in this land.
I bind my heart in thrall
to the God, the Lord of all,
to the God, the poor man’s friend,
and the Christ whom he did send.
I bind myself to peace,
to make strife and envy cease.
God! Knit secure the cord
of my thralldom to my Lord!
Amen.
