It is no secret

I grew up in the Los Angeles area of California. We didn’t exactly live within LA’s city limits. My family was one of the many pushing the boundaries outward in the city’s great suburbanization.

Entertainment-wise, black-and-white TV was commonplace in homes by the 1950s, 33rpm long-playing vinyl albums were popular, and the more affordable two-sided 45rpms made listening to the latest hits affordable for many teens.

And then there was AM radio, with a variety of programming, from live serial dramas, to early talk-radio, to ball games, to popular music.

My favorite station was KLAC, and one of my favorite programs in the 1970s was Stuart Hamblen’s Cowboy Church of the Air, and everyone knew to leave me alone for that hour.

Hamblen was a fixture of the Western-themed programming of that era.

Cowboy Church offered a melange of faith, spirituality, country/western music, stories, and Hamblen’s Christian message.

He made it very clear that he wasn’t a preacher. Rather, Hamblen said, he told stories instead of sermons. He mixed religious songs with homespun tales and a Christian message.

He also was a songwriter, with one of his best-known being It is No Secret.

Hamblen was a friend of a popular Hollywood cowboy, John Wayne. As the story goes, the two were visiting late one night at Wayne’s Orange County home. Hamblen was down in the dumps, and the Duke was trying to cheer him up.

The gist of Wayne’s message was: “God is good and we all know examples of God’s goodness. It’s not like it’s a secret…” Or words to that effect.

Later that night, now in his own home, Hamblen reflected on the conversation with his good friend.

Just then, the clock on his mantle started to chime its countdown to midnight.

Hamblen grabbed a pencil and started writing:

The chimes of time ring out the news, another day is through.

Someone slipped and fell, was that someone you.

You may have longed for added strength, your courage to renew. Do not be disheartened

I have news for you… It is no secret what God can do, what he has done for others he’ll do for you

With arms wide open he’ll pardon you. It is no secret what God can do.

Here is a link to one of the most popular recordings: 

The Canaanite Woman

My mother was the middle of three sisters. There was one brother, also, but he’s not part of this story.

The eldest sister was named Trela; the youngest was Betty Lou. My mother’s name was Della Mae, and she was the source of sparkle and light for the entire family.  

Betty Lou was mildly cognitively delayed, and Trela was emotionally crippled. Their parents considered neither of them capable of living on their own, or even having normal life experiences such as going out to the movies, or even a walk in the park. Or a boyfriend.

Timid in ways her kids knew her to be, for her sisters Della Mae was always bold, funny, and loving. Della Mae worked hard to become a registered nurse, though for six months of that schooling time she was flat on her back in a TB sanitarium.

In other words, Della Mae had her share of setbacks, but somehow her sisters saw only her wins. 

Years ago, when my family visited them, I was singing old hymns for entertainment. I was 10-ish and, in a rare moment of extroversion, I asked Betty Lou what was her favorite hymn. “I’ll sing it for you,” I said.

I didn’t sing it because I didn’t know it. But I promised to learn it. I have to say that Pass Me Not became and remains one of my favorites, too.

They lived with their father Elmer until the day he died, napping in his rocker after a satisfying supper. They were well into their fifties by then, having never lived one moment on their own.

With the help of some social agencies, they carved out pretty good lives for themselves. And they finally found boyfriends.

When I now recall Betty Lou naming Pass Me Not as her favorite hymn, I understand why so much better than I did at ten.

Its words speak for so many who are cut off from a robust life through no fault of their own.

***

The Gospel this past Sunday was Matthew’s version of the Canaanite woman (Syrophoenician woman elsewhere). Her daughter has a demon, and the mother asks Jesus for healing. He declines, presumably because the woman and her daughter are Gentile, and Jesus lets her know that he was sent only to benefit the Jewish peoples.

She is not timid and continues to badger Jesus, who eventually heals her daughter because, he said, of the mother’s faith.

***

Hers was a first century version of Pass Me Not, and it takes me all the way back to my aunt, deprived of so many opportunities because she was differently abled.

It was written in 1868 by prolific lyricist Fanny Crosby, who was blind. The tune is attributed to William Howard Doane, and the hymn appears today in 1,078 hymnals.

Here’s a recording. See what you think:

Stand By Me

Mary Patricia Trainor 

If  you’re one of those showing up at mainline Protestant churches yesterday, there’s a good chance you heard about Jesus walking on water. It was the Gospel selection from Matthew.

Maybe your preacher rolled it into his or her sermon, as I did at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Coolidge, Arizona.

Walking on water is Jesus’ splashiest miracle yet. Not only because no one else can do it, but also because many of the thousands of people he has just fed in the wilderness are watching. Talk about an eyewitness list!

As spectacular as this aquatic miracle is, I am especially moved by how a hymnwriter in 1905 incorporated it into the words of Stand By Me, not to be confused with Ben King’s 1961 popular song of the same title. King’s work was essential to the popularity of the 1984 movie, also of the same title. It is also a soulful song that speaks to this same human need for human companionship and loyalty.

But—for me—it doesn’t have the power of the hymn. Charles Albert Tindley wrote his Stand By Me, with a heart for the broken, the lonely, the aging. Everyone who has encountered defeat, loss of purpose, and discouragement.

My favorite version is performed by Elvis Presley. Album: How Great Thou Art,Track 5.

See what you think:

https://ElvisPresley.lnk.to/listenYD

Then choose YouTube.