Sweet Peace – Peter P. Bilhorn

Sometimes, a song is born through various episodes over an extended period, and such is the case of Peter Philip Bilhorn’s “Sweet Peace (The Gift of God’s Love)” in 1887. The two incidents that bookended Peter’s hymn began with one that we would readily say was sweetly suggested to Peter, but the second one that transpired months later was at the opposite end of the spectrum, something so horrible that it would cause nightmares. Evidently, the second one was what Peter really needed to prompt his hymn’s conclusion, a work that was inspired by his thoughts of Christ shedding blood (and shown in the painting Penitent, also known as Christ Bearing the Cross, by Niccolo Frangipane, in 1574). Does the nightmarish reality of what Jesus experienced really hit us the way He intended, and does that spur us devotionally forward? My response to Him is submission and sacrifice, but mine – unlike His – is on the other side of the crucifixion event. I need not die and endure the horrible as He did, and as my sin would otherwise cost me. He did it for me, and that great divine heart of His transports me into His own sacrifice and then onto a joyous, eternal plane – an upending of death into life.

 

Peter began this musical journey in New Jersey and then completed it in Illinois. He took part in a camp singing event that ended one evening with a friend suggesting that he write a song to suit her voice better; she casually remarked that ‘any sweet piece’ would do, a phrase that Peter copied down, intending to indeed meet her request by respelling piece into peace. Only the music and the new hymn’s title emerged following that episode, however. Months later, as Peter accompanied Dwight Moody and others on a train ride in Illinois, the train tragically hit and killed an old woman, whose blood covered a ditch alongside the tracks. As Peter and one of his companions (Daniel Whittle) considered what they’d just witnessed, thoughts of Jesus’ last hours crossed their minds, and how His death gave us ‘sweet peace’, an atonement that no human could acquire on his own. With these thoughts in mind, Peter wrote the words to this hymn on the concluding phase of the train trip. Peter’s thoughts in his hymn’s verse two are of Christ’s ‘death’, with ‘cross’ juxtaposed to ‘peace’. It’s not just peace, but sweet peace, a two-word expression that comes from deep within the soul that has first viewed the bloodied Messiah and realized His sacrifice’s import. Not even the horror of such a scene – crucifixion is often called one of the most gruesome methods of execution ever inflicted on humanity -- can blot out the thrill and the rapture of what He did three days later. Mangled bodies can be regenerated, even if flogged and nailed to a piece of wood, or hit by a train. 

 

Perhaps those two otherwise unrelated incidents that Peter beheld in New Jersey and in Illinois were not so inconsistent after all, but rather necessary to remind Peter of what Jesus did at Calvary and then later at the tomb of Arimathea. We don’t know what might have been said at the funeral of the woman hit by the train near Wheaton, Illinois in 1887, but perhaps it could have helped grief-stricken family to compare her death to the Lord’s, and then to be reminded that He rose in glory. One’s exit from life doesn’t have the last word. He does. Indeed, Jesus gave Himself up (Matthew 27:50/John 19:30), showing that He was in control of that episode. Sickness and pain and even death won’t trample my hope. His path to Golgotha had to be awful, so that His rising could demonstrate Divinity’s superiority over even the vilest penalty that could be imagined. Death cannot ever hold you and me, because our God has muted its evil voice. What more needs to be said? 

 

See more information on the song story in these sources: The Complete Book of Hymns – Inspiring Stories About 600 Hymns and Praise Songs by William J. Petersen and Ardythe Petersen, Tyndale House Publishers, 2006; Amazing Grace: 366 Inspiring Hymn Stories for Daily Devotions by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1990; and 101 More Hymn Stories, by Kenneth W. Osbeck, Kregel Publications, 1985.

 

See here for brief information about song’s story background: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/htm/s/w/e/e/t/p/sweetpgg.htm

 

See information on the author here: http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/b/i/l/h/bilhorn_pp.htm

 

See information on the picture here: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Niccol%C3%B2_Frangipane_Penitent.jpg …The author died in 1600, so this work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer. This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1931. …found inside this document -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crucifixion_of_Jesus

 

Overcome -- Jon Egan

 

The year between late 2006 and late 2007 might be one that members of this church would rather forget. Two tragic events struck, and the people at New Life Church in Colorado Springs (see the flag of Colorado Springs here) were stunned and distraught, until they were moved to remember that He had “Overcome”, and that they could do the same. Nothing is irredeemable in God’s kingdom, so these people clung to that belief that was rooted in reality. The song helped this church community heal, and that was something that only a Spirit-filled body could do, because the events that led to one leader’s downfall and to the deaths of two members of the church could not be taken back. Those things made even the author-composer of the song, Jon Egan, once feel deep inside as if the church could not recover from these twin calamities. And then they sang the song, three days after their lowest point, when a shooter had done the unthinkable within their spiritual community. Let Him and the example of His life – and death and resurrection – speak over you when you feel that hope is missing. That’s what Jon and this Colorado church did.

 

When trust is broken, and when two innocent people are struck down, that’s when many people might ask if something is terribly wrong with the ways of a church. Jon Egan apparently had written ‘Overcome’ in the aftermath of the church’s senior pastor’s dismissal, a consequence of drug-related and sexual sin in which he had engaged. ‘Shock waves’ was how the emotions of the church were described (see the video link below) at that time in November 2006. And yet, that did not overwhelm this group. Instead, they leaned on Him through prayer, trust, and worship in order to persevere. The band that Jon Egan and his friends had been using to minister to the church (since 2001) was aptly named Desperation, and they could not possibly have known just how desperate this church was about to become through this year-long period. Barely a year later (December 2007), a gunman entered the church building and shot five people, including two sisters who were killed. Does life get any more brutally unfair than that? Jon really thought the church was suffering irreparably, that his and others’ faith had sunk too low. That was when they sang to remind themselves of the once-desperate nature of another death that had rocked other believers…and, that Jesus overcame. The words of the song were never more meaningful for New Life than when they met just days after the shooting occurred. That Wednesday night was described as the time when ‘Overcome’ became their ‘anthem’, and Jon later retells how the church was rising and living ‘in the truth’ that God was not going to leave them, that He would pull them through, whatever happened. Instead of desolation, they leaned on words like ‘victory’, ‘awesome’, ‘power’, ‘great’, and of course the song’s title word that described Christ’s resurrection. The resurrection did not wipe out the events that lead to Jesus’ sacrifice, but it gave His death new perspective…that the lowest point of someone’s experience can be outdone by the height of His redemption in God’s kingdom.

 

Jon and the New Life Church remembered it all, the depth of their despair, but also the recovery that brought a resurgence of life in Him. God’s ways cannot be defeated, even by the indiscretions of we who are weak in our sin natures, or by bullets fired by gunmen tragically lashing out in uncontrolled rage. Jesus also encountered sinful and rage-filled people – that is what lead to his own death. He did not shrink from it, and though none of us would likely move willingly toward such danger, His ability to overcome what befell Him provides you and me something we would not otherwise have. I don’t have to live in dread of hazards that might ensue and overtake me. He’s already made sure – unshakably so – that I too will overcome, no matter what happens to me here on earth. Make sure that you too can assert that. Jesus is the way.

 

See the song story retold in this video: Bing Videos

 

See one retelling of the story here: overcome Jon Egan | Devotions by Chris Hendrix

 

Read about the church through which the song emerged here: New Life Church (Colorado Springs, Colorado) - Wikipedia

 

Read about Jon Egan’s band at the church here: Desperation Band - Wikipedia

 

See information on the flag here: File:Flag of Colorado Springs, Colorado.svg - Wikimedia Commons…This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1930. The following statement is also attached to the photo’s information: I, the copyright holder of this work, release this work into the public domain. This applies worldwide. In some countries this may not be legally possible; if so: I grant anyone the right to use this work for any purpose, without any conditions, unless such conditions are required by law.

Hope of the Nations -- Brian Doerksen

 

He was trying to write a song, and had a brain cramp as he tried to finish it off. Then Sep 11, 2001 happened, and who could forget the images (including this one shown here, when an airliner slammed into one of the World Trade Center towers in New York City’s Manhattan district) that we all saw on television and other video screens. Brian Doerksen found his “Hope of the Nations” amidst a great terrorist tragedy, and perhaps more people than ever were open to listening to who Brian said was the source of hope. To watch thousands of people die violently no doubt changes how we humans think about life and how quickly it can be snuffed out. Where can you and I turn if this existence is so fragile and uncertain? That was the mental and emotional torment so present on that day, a reality that many of us experienced near the scenes in New York; Arlington, Virginia; and the rural countryside of southwestern Pennsylvania. What Brian wanted was to recenter our attention on another scene, one which showed the opposite of what was seared in memories on that terrible day in September 2001.

 

The scene Brain wanted to draw for people in the wake of 9-11 was in fact a face – a divine one, the only one which could possibly take the sting out of what had happened so unexpectedly in the space of two hours. Brian says he’d been thinking about writing a song of hope since 1999, in expectation of the angst many people might have felt as the turn of the century approached. Y2K had people on edge, for who could really know which computers and other electronic devices might crash as January 1, 2000 arrived, and which ones would still work? But, evidently those fears were not enough to stimulate Brian’s creativity, and his musical project stalled, though he kept trying. By early September 2001, the juices were once again flowing for Brian, allowing him to write much of the song, at least until he hit another creative block. Brian knew that Jesus was the source of hope in what he wanted to communicate, including the thought that this God-Man was needed by all nations, and yet the song remained in limbo for a few days. The tragic events of terrorism a few days hence seemed to crystallize the message in Brian’s spirit, and with newfound clarity he finished the song’s chorus section. In short, Brian said lyrically that Jesus is a ‘hope (that is) living…’ even amidst so many deaths that had horrified those in North America and around the world. Brian’s strategy was to say musically what Jesus provides for stunned people. ‘You are…’ so many things, Brian said to God in that moment. He is ‘hope’, ‘the rock’, ‘the light’, and ‘truth’ (pre-chorus and chorus). Before the 9-11-inspired chorus section, Brian had already written that Jesus is the ‘comfort (for) mourn(ers)’, and ‘Heaven’s hope (for those) on earth’ (v.1), a message that provides for those who suffer, but especially and most poignantly for people in the wake of 9-11. To know that ‘in history, (Jesus) lived and died…(then) rose to life’ cannot but speak intimately to anyone who’s lost someone close. Nothing is more important, as Brian described it, than having a God who ‘conquered fear’ by coming out of a grave that was so brutally imposed upon Him. It doesn’t matter how unfair death is – Jesus is stronger.   

 

Brian Doerksen was in a special place, a place he’d probably have preferred to not be in, in September 2001. And yet, his experience really highlights how supreme is the Creator of life. His is the last say-so, and that is something that Brian counted on as he mused about the calamity that was before his eyes. No death could hold Him down, and that is indeed a ‘light in the darkness’, capable of overcoming the gloom that had enveloped the public who were glued to horrific scenes broadcast in living color. Brian was no doubt as shocked as anyone by what he could see via his television that day, but he didn’t stay there. Imagine a day when all death is swallowed up by life, by the One who gives life. Trust in His benevolent nature, and in His almighty hand. He’s led the way out of the grave already. Get ready to follow, no matter how you went there.       

 

See the song story here: BRIAN DOERKSEN HOPE OF THE NATIONS LYRICS | JustSomeLyrics

 

Read here about the author-composer: Brian Doerksen - Wikipedia

 

See information on the World Trade Center image here: File:Explosion following the plane impact into the South Tower (WTC 2) - B6019~11.jpg - Wikimedia Commons…This image is in the public domain in the United States because it is a work of the United States Federal Government, specifically an employee of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, under the terms of Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 105 of the US Code.