It arises from an observation by the Music Director at St. Christopher’s, Avonhead, a large Anglican charismatic parish in Christchurch. Laurie Ennor told me that there were few good contemporary offertory hymns other than the widely used Take my gifts and let me love you by New Zealanders Shirley Murray and Colin Gibson. ‘Give our gifts’ is dedicated to that faith community. As an historian, I wanted to write something drawing on both the bible and tradition.

This is one of a group of three hymns I wrote in the weeks of soul-searching following the attack on the World Trade Centre in New York on 11 September 2001, when issues of life and death were put into very sharp focus. The easy response to this enormity and loss of human life was to demonise people who are different from us. The more demanding and ultimately more fruitful way is to look at all our relationships and do the things today that are really important. Such gift giving can help to create a different economy, one which honours the whole of life. At a time when tightened security at airports can create a climate of fear and people become less willing to trust strangers, this hymn celebrates some of the risk-takers in history.

The music, by Jane Simpson and Peter Low, is syncopated, catchy and lively. The verse is like a ballad in folk style and may be sung by soloists. The refrain can be sung in unison or in SATB.

Our gifts range from acts of costly loving as we follow Christ, to doing the simple everyday things for others that we tend to put off. In verse 1, wise men gave gifts to Jesus, who in turn is God’s gift to us. The birth of Jesus brought both joy and danger, as it threatened the established religious and civil order.

Verses 2 & 3 recall the gifts of the visionary and highly musical medieval leaders Hildegard of Bingen and St. Francis of Assisi. Hildegard (1109-1179) was a German mystic, who had visions from an early age, but only started dictating them at the age of 43. She exerted a wide influence, the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and various kings, prelates and saints being among her correspondents. Francis (1181/82-1226) did not become the bourgeois cloth merchant his father intended him to be, but instead embraced a life of poverty as a holy man, as prophesied by his mother. He had a passionate nature and loved the poor and all God’s creatures. Francis wrote his memorable The Canticle of the Sun when in pain and dying from tuberculosis. His gift to a war-torn Assisi, the second part about pardon and peace, reconciled the civil and religious authorities when it was sung.

The gift of the true fast, as announced by the prophets (verse 4), is found in Is 57.6-8, Zech 7.5, and Mic 6.6-8. This includes welcoming the stranger, something we now find more difficult.

The final verse affirms the gifts we bring in all the circumstances of life. Like Hildegard, who heard the laughter in the grasses, we too can hear and see beyond the surface layer of our sense perception to find the gifts God has already given us.

© Jane Simpson (2002)