Of all the classes I taught
In Bethel then, of all I thought
Would be remembered when the years
passed, a single class appears
clearer, sweeter, more precious than
the rest. I remember and scrutinize
Six happy years teaching Greek,
But I can’t find a higher peak
Between the mountains of those days
That this one class that God set on fire.
I had my back to the board
And then, as if God touched the string,
As I drew one last arc above
The story of sovereign love,
The bright class became a choir,
And to the light was added fire.
You sang the great doxology
to celebrate the mystery
Of God’s design: to burn
our joy, and make his name great.
O depth of riches, of wisdom, of truth,
inscrutable in age and in youth,
unsearchable in all your ways!
No one advises you since ancient times,
Nobody gives you gifts in return,
None have their own to trade with,
Only from you comes everything,
For you we live, to you we sing.
Of everything we learned, this was the summary,
And it set a theme for years to come.
It’s a priceless keepsake
The first of what God wanted to be
Perhaps a life of double praise
together in the last days
Of this old age and dawn of the kingdom
Of God. I tried to make it clear
From early that wide pain
And the tribulation will remain
Until the King wipes away every tear
Outside. I tried to make it clear
The day you were at Nazareth Hall
In front of me with your girlfriend, a good couple
And beautiful as I have never married:
I quoted Jesus’ words, and said:
“Affliction ye shall have in this world,
but your spirit is good; deployed
There it waves over the fallen fight
The banner of my triumphant life.”
And so we have learned early:
The kingdom comes like the rays of dawn,
The kingdom of God, already here,
They still don’t show up fully now.
The end has come for sin and pain,
However, they remain for a while.
We have learned it well, I think, first hand:
The pressures and the power to stand.
Four years passed, and in that time
You gave your heart and mind to climb
The pinnacles where the truth is clear,
Behind a master mountaineer,
And came to love a man with me
Whose weakness magnifies what he can
To be done by sovereign grace alone.
The glory of the Lord shone.
And from this vessel land that
we’ve taken more of the truth
and of the love that from a thousand streams
we have tested in so many books.
It was a gift to me that you
I must know and love the man I knew.
Because the common joy unites our song,
And common love makes love stronger.
And then ten years ago we came
to Bethlehem. we share the same
Big house for three good years. And there
God built a bond so deep and rare
I believe that as men can dare to reach,
And yet may Jesus Christ remain
The one on whom our life depends,
The Treasure and the Friend of friends.
God built by day and built by night,
He built in darkness and in light.
He made the brotherhood grow,
In tranquility and times of peace.
But he gave us a deeper and more love
In dangers and in times of war.
We have learned why Jesus sent his men
To battle two by two. And when
I think of the time we fought
With demons through the night, I am carried
to bow down and give God his due,
that you were there and prayed for me.
And I could name a hundred times
(And press the limit of my rhymes)
that you have carried me with hope
When you yourself could barely handle everything.
This is the Spirit of the Lord
Who when he suffered still begged:
“Forgive them, Father, all of them;
They don’t know what they’ve done.”
And mix this with holy dreams,
With global reach and mission teams,
With fire and passion for the Name,
And tenderness for all the lame.
And I’m not surprised tonight
That now you must take flight
And after ten years in this place
Enlarge your field with truth and grace.
This is what Christmas means, we know.
And so, with hope, we let you go
And we light for you our candle one;
It will burn brightly until you’re done,
Then I’ll take you home still full of grace
To send two thousand in your place.