Evangelicals and Memorial Day

(This is what I wrote to my uncle, who is a deacon in the Catholic church, as a preface to the article below.)

I don't know what it is like for Catholics, but this is a real problem for lots of us who are evangelicals. Many of us celebrate the civic year instead of the Church Year: Mother's Day, Memorial Day, Father's Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Veteran's Day, Harvest Festival (the evangelical alternative for Halloween.) We also do not have a formal liturgy, like the Catholics or Orthodox, which would prescribe the texts and practices for our worship. Thus we often mistake our own concerns for those of the Spirit. All this can tempt us to put country before God.

Finally, because Protestants tend to have a more individualistic understanding of their faith, when De Young uses the word "church" below, it might be a worthwhile exercise to substitute "any particular Christian..."

Thinking Theologically About Memorial Day


Posted By Kevin DeYoung On May 26, 2011 @ 5:26 am

This is post probably has something to make everyone unhappy. But here goes.

With Memorial Day on Monday (in the U.S.) and, no doubt, a number of patriotic services scheduled for this Sunday, I want to offer a few theses on patriotism and the church. Each of these points could be substantially expanded and beg more detailed defense and explanation, but since this is a blog and not a term paper, I’ll try to keep this under 1500 words.

1. Being a Christian does not remove ethnic and national identities.

In Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, slave nor free (Gal. 3:28), but this does not mean men cease to be male or Jews ceases to be Jewish. The worshiping throng gathered around the throne is not a bland mess of Esperanto Christians in matching khaki pants and white polos. God makes us one in Christ, but that oneness does not mean we can no longer recognize tribes, tongues, nations, and peoples in heaven. If you don’t have to renounce being an American in heaven, you shouldn’t have to pretend you aren’t one now.

2. Patriotism, like other earthly “prides,” can be a virtue or vice.

Most people love their families. Many people love their schools, their home, and their sports teams. All of these loves can be appropriate. In making us for himself, God did mean to eradicate all other loves. Instead he wants those loves to be purer and in right proportion to our ultimate Love. Adam and Eve should have loved the Garden. God didn’t intend for them to be so “spiritual” that they were blind to the goodness around them. In the same way, where there is good in our country or family it is right to have affection and display affection for those good things.

Of course, we can turn patriotism into an idol, just like family can be an idol. But being proud of your country (or proud to be an American or a Canadian or a Russian or whatever) is not inherently worse than being proud of your kids or proud to be a Smith or a Jones or a Dostoevsky. I find it strange that while it is fashionable to love your city, be proud of your city, and talk about transforming your city, it is, for some of the same people, quite gauche to love your country, be proud of your country, and talk about transforming your country.

3. Allegiance to God and allegiance to your country are not inherently incompatible.

Sometimes Christians talk like you should have no loyalty for your country, as if love for your country was always a bad thing. To be sure, this must never be ultimate loyalty. We must always obey God rather than men. But most Christians have understood the fifth commandment to be about honoring not only your parents but all those in authority over you.

Moreover, Jesus shows its possible to honor God and honor Caesar. This is especially clear if you know some of the Jewish history. The tax in question in Mark 12 is about the poll tax or census tax. It was first instituted in AD 6, not too many years before Jesus’ ministry. When it was established a man by the name of Judas of Galilee led a revolt. According to Josephus, “He called his fellow countrymen cowards for being willing to pay tribute to the Romans and for putting up with mortal masters in place of God.” Like the Zealots, he believed allegiance to God and allegiance to any earthly government were fundamentally incompatible. As far as they were concerned if God was your king, you couldn’t have an earthly king.

But Jesus completely disagreed. By telling the people to “render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s” he was saying there are duties to government that do not infringe on your ultimate duty to God. It’s possible to honor lesser authorities in good conscience because they have been instituted by a greater authority.

If you read all that the New Testament says about governing authorities in places like Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2, you see that the normal situation is one of compatible loyalties. The church is not the state and the state is not God, but this does not mean the church must always be against the state. In general, then, it’s possible to be a good Christian and a good American, or a good Ghanaian or a good Korean. Patriotism is not bad. Singing your national anthem and getting choked up is not bad. Allegiance to God and allegiance to your country do not have to be at odds.

4. God’s people are not tied to any one nation.

When Jesus says “go ahead and give to Caesar what belongs to him” he is effectively saying, “you can support nations that do not formally worship the one true God.” Or to put it a different way: true religion is not bound with only one country. This means–as we see in Revelation 7 and Isaiah 49 and Psalm 87 and Matthew 28 and Acts 1and a hundred other places–the Church will be transcultural and transnational.

While American churches are in America, they must never be only American churches. We must keep in mind (and when applicable, explicitly state) that our congregations are filled with brothers and sisters from all over the world. Likewise, we must work hard to help people see that Christianity is not just a Western religion or American religion. Christianity started in the Middle East and quickly spread to North Africa, and parts of Asia and Europe. The Church was always meant to be international. Today there are more Anglicans in church in Nigeria than in England, more Presbyterians in South Korea than in the United States. The promise to Abraham way back in Genesis is that through his family God would bless the whole world. Christianity is not tied to just one certain nation. Following Christ is not an ethnic thing. You can be from any country and worship Jesus.

5. All this leads to one final point: while patriotism can be good, the church is not a good place for patriotism.

We should pray for service men and women in our congregations. We should pray for the President. We should pray for the just cause to triumph over the evil one. We are not moral relativists. We do not believe just because all people are sinners and all nations are sinful that no person or no nation can be more righteous or more wicked than another. God may be on America’s side in some (not all) her endeavors.

But please think twice before putting on a Star Spangled gala in church this Sunday. I love to hear the national anthem and “God Bless America” and “My Country, Tis of Thee,” but not in church where the nations gather to worship the King of all peoples. I love to see the presentation of colors and salute our veterans, but these would be better at the Memorial Day parade or during a time of remembrance at the cemetery. Earthly worship should reflect the on-going worship in heaven. And while there are many Americans singing glorious songs to Jesus there, they are not singing songs about the glories of America. We must hold to the traditions of the Apostles in our worship, not the traditions of American history. The church should not ask of her people what is not required in Scripture. So how can we ask the Koreans and Chinese and Mexicans and South Africans in our churches to pledge allegiance to a flag that is not theirs? Are we gathered under the banner of Christ or another banner? Is the church of Jesus Christ–our Jewish Lord and Savior–for those draped in the red, white, and blue or for those washed in the blood of the Lamb?

In some parts of the church, every hint of patriotism makes you a jingoistic idolater. You are allowed to love every country except your own. But in other parts of the church, true religion blends too comfortably into civil religion. You are allowed to worship in our services as long as you love America as much as we do. I don’t claim to have arrived at the golden mean, but I imagine many churches could stand to think more carefully about their theology of God and country. Churches should be glad to have their members celebrate Memorial Day with gusto this Monday. We should be less sanguine about celebrating it with pomp and circumstance on Sunday.

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 The comments are worth reading just as much as the article...

A Saint Caught in the Middle

As I've already written, today was one of my favorite holy days: All Saint's Day. I was looking forward to singing "For All the Saints, to participating in our annual litany, wherein congregants call out names of those Christians who they wish to remember and honor, and receiving communion.

But the Lord had a surprise for me. We were just beginning our discussion of Shane Clairborne's Irresistable Revolution in the adult Christian Ed class when Steve appeared in the doorway. "You have a chance to put what you're reading to practice," he said."Come meet P."

P. was a 60ish mentally ill woman, clad in raincoat, with blue scrub pants and a top that seemed to be constructed of blue Pellon. She was quite agitated, and I soon discovered why. Near her stood C. and A., the pastor and his wife from the Friends church down the street. They have known and been ministering to P. for over five years. Apparently she has been off her meds. She began using inappropriate language in front of the teens this morning. C.--gentlest of souls-- asked her to stop, but she took this as rejection, and left, in great anger, insisting C. was a hypocrite and that she would never set foot in that church again. She then wandered down the street and arrived at VCC, babbling irrationally and with great vehemence. It was at this point that Steve met her.

C. and A. had followed her, and when we arrived, P. was smoking outside under the porch, drinking a cup of coffee Jim had brought. We spent some time trying to calm her down. It was like a scene out of "A Beautiful Mind," for P. was fascinated with numbers. Every few minutes she would fasten onto something we'd said and start investigating its numerological significance. I didn't know whether to go along with some of what she was saying or whether to try to draw her back to reality. It seemed like the latter was causing her greater agitation, so I tried to find ways of affirming her and asking her to tell me about herself.

Gradually she calmed, and agreed she would let A. and I walk her back to her apartment, only a couple of blocks away. "I don't trust men," she spat, and I cringed to think of what past experience prompted that remark. The fall trees were gloriously golden and orange, and trying to keep her distracted and focused on whatsoever was beautiful and good, A. and I remarked about some particularly lovely leaves. Alas, what P. saw were baby's faces staring up from them.

We finally got her settled in her apartment, brought her her meds, refilled her coffee, and let her watch TV. A. promised that she and C. would call in another couple of hours and check up on her. "Don't close the door," P. ordered as we left. "Leave it open a crack."

Walking back with A., I realized that P. was one of those living parables God sometimes gives us. Just as she was caught between delusion and reality, so we Christians are caught between this present world and the world to come, promised in Rev. 21:1-6, the sermon text for today.

P. is a saint in progress, and so am I. Spiritually, I must look to Jesus as confused and belligerent and unstable as P appears to me. I only pray that our love today gave P. a taste of the love He has given us.

I returned to VCC 15 minutes late for worship; but God was not done surprising me. I had missed the praise songs, greeting time and scripture readings, but I hadn't missed "For All the Saints"or the litany!

"The Apostle Peter."
For this one, Lord, we give thanks.
"Hope Anderson."
For this one, Lord, we give thanks.
"Martin Luther."
For this one, Lord, we give thanks.
"Martyrs of Compiègne"
For this one, Lord, we give thanks.
Arezoo
For this one, Lord, we give thanks.
P.
For this one, Lord, we give thanks.

Feast Day of St. Luke: Sirach on Physicians

Our daughter Susan goes to an Anglican church in Toronto. Today was the feast day of St. Luke, and she passed on this reading to us. It is from the book of Sirach, a book that was part of the Septuagint, the Bible that was used by the early Christians. Ben Sirah, a Jewish scribe who had been living in Jerusalem, may have authored the work in Alexandria, Egypt circa 180-175 BC. Catholics, Anglicans and Eastern Orthodox still read Sirach, considering it a "deuterocanonical" work.

Here is the reading:

Honor physicians for their services, for the Lord created them;
for their gift of healing comes from the Most High,
and they are rewarded by the king.
The skill of physicians makes them distinguished,
and in the presence of the great they are admired.
The Lord created medicines out of the earth,
and the sensible will not despise them.
Was not water made sweet with a tree in order that its power might be known?
And he gave skill to human beings that he might be glorified in his marvelous works.
By them the physician heals and takes away pain;
the pharmacist makes a mixture from them. God's works will never be finished;
and from him health spreads over all the earth.

My child, when you are ill, do not delay, but pray to the Lord, and he will heal you.
Give up your faults and direct your hands rightly, and cleanse your heart from all sin.
Offer a sweet-smelling sacrifice, and a memorial portion of choice flour, and pour oil on your offering, as much as you can afford.
Then give the physician his place, for the Lord created him;
do not let him leave you, for you need him.
There may come a time when recovery lies in the hands of physicians,
for they too pray to the Lord that he grant them success in diagnosis and in healing, for the sake of preserving life.
He who sins against his Maker,

will be defiant toward the physician.

(Sirach 38:1-15).

Dust to dust, ashes to ashes

image by Simran Gleason, 1997

Jeanette has alerted me to a fine Lenten devotional resource, Journey to the Cross. It's done by the d365 people. This was tonight's entry into the journey:

Ashes: what the fire leaves behind. Dust: what wind, rain and decomposition leave behind. What can you leave behind on this Journey to the Cross?

Tonight I am thinking of a dear woman who is in a skilled care facility. C.F. has Parkinson's, osteoporosis, dementia and a broken leg. She is turning into dust before our very eyes.

Tonight I am thinking of another dear friend whose husband has left her for another woman, and who now faces the dissolution of her marriage, the sale of her beloved home, worry, anger and loneliness. She is has been tasting ashes for months now.

I'm wondering if Lent is not only about what I choose to leave behind, but about my response to life's storms and firestorms. And I remember how I am dust, and that I will return to dust. I ask for the grace to sit still, so that I can be re-formed, now and in the hour of my death.

"Teach us to care and not to care Teach us to sit still." --T.S. Eliot, Ash Wednesday

Meditation for Worship: February 22, 2009

It is Transfiguration Sunday.

Our readings are:
Mark 9:2-9
2 Cor 4:3-6
2 Kings 2:1-12
Psalm 50:1-6

The person who was to have done our mediation has gotten sick, so I am filling in on short notice. I am using this prayer (with minor adaptions) by Bruce Prewer, of the Uniting Church in Australia, at Text This Week

Father,

Our days are spent between light and darkness.
Often, as the result of our own sin, or the evil of others,
we find ourselves in the darkness.
On other precious occasions we find ourselves caught up in your light and love.
More often we are in between, busy in the half light,
trying to make the best of a compromising existence,
stumbling and falling,
rising and achieving.
With your help we make some headway,
but still fall far short from the light of your glory in the face of Jesus Christ.

Most gracious God,
please persist with your mission of saving us all.
By your grace, banish our darkness and enlighten us today.
Do not allow us to linger dolefully in guilt or self pity.
Make us bold to move to where the shadows are fewer,
even though the brighter light shows up more of our flaws.
Please give us more of the light of Christ that our lives may declare your praise.
In his name we pray;

The Episcopal Church and Visual Arts Exhibition

via Brad

"Venite Adoremus" is the title of an online exhibition of artwork inspired by the hymns of Advent, Christmastide and Epiphany. Below are my favorites. Be sure to read the commentary for each work, and the accompanying hymn. (I trust I am not infringing copyright by reproducing these images here...if so, I welcome correction. My sole intent is to give readers a taste of this wonderful exhibition, so that they will want to visit the site for themselves.)

O Antiphons
Digital Art, November 15, 2005
Jan Neal

MIRABLE DICTU (Wonderful to Behold)
gouache on paper board, 1969
15x10 inches
Harvey Bonner


"Rejoice! Rejoice, believers and let your light appear..."
watercolor, ink , and pencil, December 2004
12x9.5 inches
The Rev. Kristy K. Smith

Epiphany
oil on canvas, 2004
48x48 inches
The Rev. Nancy Mills

Southern Baptists and Advent

Sunday will be the first Sunday in Advent, and lately this blog has been getting lots of traffic regarding an entry I wrote a year ago, entitled "When the Southern Baptists Discovered Advent."

I take this to be an indication that Baptists are no longer defining themselves negatively, but are embracing that which has always been rightfully theirs, as Christians.

When I was growing up Southern Baptist in St. Louis in the 60's-70's, we identified ourselves by what we did NOT do or believe. For example:

1) Catholics and Lutherans had Advent and Lent. Baptists did not.
2) Catholics and Lutherans smoked, danced and drank. Baptists did not.
3) Catholics and Lutherans "read" prayers. Baptists did not.
4) Catholics and Lutherans made their kids go to "confirmation." Baptists did not.
5) Catholics and Lutherans sprinkled. Baptists did not.
6) Catholics and Lutherans believed in sacraments. Baptists did not.
7) Catholics were against abortion, therefore Baptists were pro-choice. (Yes, this is not often brought up, but it is true. Look here and here and here and here and here).

I am thankful to be able to live to see my Baptist brothers and sisters identifying with the greater history and larger ecclesiology of Christ's Body, the Church. It will be interesting to see if they continue to live into their inheritence, discovering other treasures, such as the practice of the entire church year and the discipline of the lectionary.

Meanwhile, may our voices join together as we sing. "O Come O Come Emmanuel." That is something we all can agree on!

If you are new to Advent and are looking for resources, here is a good place to start. And here is a helpful view on Advent from "the other side."

Reading Hauerwas' "Reformation Sunday Sermon" on All Saint's Day

What follows is a golden oldie, a sermon preached by the ever-controversial Stanley Hauerwas in 1995. It is a bit elusive to pin down on the internet, so I've reproduced it here in its entirety. Reformation Sunday is commonly celebrated the last Sunday in October, so it would seem that this sermon is "late," but I find it especially appropriate to read as we celebrate All Saints Sunday tomorrow. (At Valley Covenant, we blend All Saints and All Souls, commemorating all the faithful who now see the Lord face to face.)

We Protestants tend to forget that there were reformers before the Reformation. For example: St. Benedict, St. Stephen Harding, St. Robert of Molesme, St. Alberic, St. Bernard of Clairvaux, the Gregorian Reforms of Pope Gregory VII, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Dominic, Erasmus, John Colet, Ximenes de Cisneros, and--arguably--there was Fra Savonarola.

These men prove that reformation was possible without fragmentation and division. On this All Saint's Sunday, let us give thanks for them, rejoice in the unity that they share through Jesus Christ with Basil and Macrina, Wycliffe, Luther, Calvin, the Martyrs of Japan and of Uganda, C.S. Lewis, Oscar Romero, Akbar digal, Fatima Bint Mohamed bin Uthman al Mutairi,Gayle Williams, Margaret Bilynskyj, and countless others who no longer see through a glass darkly.

On this All Saints Sunday, let us pray as our Lord did in John 17;

"As the Father sent you, Lord Jesus, into the world, you also have sent them into the world.
For their sakes you sanctifed Yourself, that they themselves also were sanctified in truth.
You did not ask on behalf of these alone, but for all those who believe in You through their word;
that we may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Christ and Christ is in You, that we also may be in You, so that the world may believe that you are the Christ."

Sermon for Reformation Sunday

29 October 1995
by Stanley Hauerwas
Joel 2:23-32 - 2 Timothy 4:6-8, 16-18 - Luke 18:9-14

I must begin by telling you that I do not like to preach on Reformation Sunday. Actually I have to put it more strongly than that. I do not like Reformation Sunday, period. I do no understand why it is part of the church year. Reformation Sunday does not name a happy event for the Church Catholic; on the contrary, it names failure. Of course, the church rightly names failure, or at least horror, as part of our church year. We do, after all, go through crucifixion as part of Holy Week. Certainly if the Reformation is to be narrated rightly, it is to be narrated as part of those dark days.

Reformation names the disunity in which we currently stand. We who remain in the Protestant tradition want to say that Reformation was a success. But when we make Reformation a success, it only ends up killing us. After all, the very name 'Protestantism' is meant to denote a reform movement of protest within the Church Catholic. When Protestantism becomes an end in itself, which it certainly has through the mainstream denominations in America, it becomes anathema. If we no longer have broken hearts at the church's division, then we cannot help but unfaithfully celebrate Reformation Sunday.

For example, note what the Reformation has done for our reading texts like that which we hear from Luke this morning. We Protestants automatically assume that the Pharisees are the Catholics. They are the self-righteous people who have made Christianity a form of legalistic religion, thereby destroying the free grace of the Gospel. We Protestants are the tax collectors, knowing that we are sinners and that our lives depend upon God's free grace. And therefore we are better than the Catholics because we know they are sinners. What an odd irony that the Reformation made such readings possible. As Protestants we now take pride in the acknowledgement of our sinfulness in order to distinguish ourselves from Catholics who allegedly believe in works-righteousness.

Unfortunately, the Catholics are right. Christian salvation consists in works. To be saved is to be made holy. To be saved requires our being made part of a people separated from the world so that we can be united in spite of-or perhaps better, because of-the world's fragmentation and divisions. Unity, after all, is what God has given us through Christ's death and resurrection. For in that death and resurrection we have been made part of God's salvation for the world so that the world may know it has been freed from the powers that would compel us to kill one another in the name of false loyalties. All that is about the works necessary to save us.

For example, I often point out that at least Catholics have the magisterial office of the Bishop of Rome to remind them that disunity is a sin. You should not overlook the significance that in several important documents of late, John Paul II has confessed the Catholic sin for the Reformation. Where are the Protestants capable of doing likewise? We Protestants feel no sin for the disunity of the Reformation. We would not know how to confess our sin for the continuing disunity of the Reformation. We would not know how to do that because we have no experience of unity.

The magisterial office-we Protestants often forget-is not a matter of constraining or limiting diversity in the name of unity. The office of the Bishop of Rome is to ensure that when Christians move from Durham, North Carolina to Syracuse, New York, they have some confidence when they go to church that they will be worshipping the same God. Because Catholics have an office of unity, they do not need to restrain the gifts of the Spirit. As I oftentimes point out, it is extraordinary that Catholicism is able to keep the Irish and the Italians in the same church. What an achievement! Perhaps equally amazing is their ability to keep within the same church Jesuits, Dominicans, and Franciscans.

I think Catholics are able to do that because they know that their unity does not depend opon everyone agreeing. Indeed, they can celebrate their disagreements because they understand that our unity is founded upon the cross and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth that makes the Eucharist possible. They do not presume, therefore, that unity requires that we all read Scripture the same way.

This creates a quite different attitude among Catholics about their relation to Christian tradition and the wider world. Protestants look over to Christian tradition and say, 'How much of this do we have to believe in order to remain identifiably Christian?' That's the reason why Protestants are always tempted to rationalism: we think that Christianity is to be identified with sets of beliefs more than with the unity of the Spirit occasioned through sacrament.
Moreover, once Christianity becomes reduced to a matter of belief, as it clearly has for Protestants, we cannot resist questions of whether those beliefs are as true or useful as other beliefs we also entertain. Once such questions are raised, it does not matter what the answer turns out in a given case. As James Edwards observes, "Once religious beliefs start to compete with other beliefs, then religious believers are - and will know themselves to be -mongerers of values. They too are denizens of the mall, selling and shopping and buying along with the rest of us."

In contrast, Catholics do not begin with the question of "How much do we need to believe?" but with the attitude "Look at all the wonderful stuff we get to believe!" Isn't it wonderful to know that Mary was immaculately conceived in order to be the faithful servant of God's new creation in Jesus Christ! She therefore becomes the firstborn of God's new creation, our mother, the first member of God's new community we call church. Isn't it wonderful that God continued to act in the world through the appearances of Mary at Guadalupe! Mary must know something because she seems to always appear to peasants and, in particular, to peasant women who have the ability to see her. Most of us would not have the ability to see Mary because we'd be far too embarrassed by our vision.

Therefore Catholics understand the church's unity as grounded in reality more determinative than our good feelings for one another. The office of Rome matters. For at least that office is a judgement on the church for our disunity. Surely it is the clear indication of the sin of the Reformation that we Protestants have not been able to resist nationalistic identifications. So we become German Lutherans, American Lutherans, Norwegian Lutherans. You are Dutch Calvinist, American Presbyterians, Church of Scotland. I am an American Methodist, which has precious little to do with my sisters and brothers in English Methodism. And so we Protestant Christians go to war killing one another in the name of being American, German, Japanese, and so on.

At least it becomes the sin of Rome when Italian Catholics think they can kill Irish Catholics in the name of being Italian. Such divisions distort the unity of the Gospel found in the Eucharist and, thus, become judgements against the church of Rome. Of course, the Papacy has often been unfaithful and corrupt, but at least Catholics preserved an office God can use to remind us that we have been and may yet prove unfaithful. In contrast, Protestants don't even know we're being judged for our disunity.

I realize that this perspective on Reformation Sunday is not the usual perspective. The usual perspective is to tell us what a wonderful thing happened at the Reformation. The Reformation struck a blow for freedom. No longer would we be held in medieval captivity to law and arbitrary authority. The Reformation was the beginning of enlightenment, of progressive civilizations, of democracy, that have come to fruition in this wonderful country called America. What a destructive story.

You can tell the destructive character of that narrative by what it has done to the Jews. The way we Protestants read history, and in particular our Bible, has been nothing but disastrous for the Jews. For we turned the Jews into Catholics by suggesting that the Jews had sunk into legalistic and sacramental religion after the prophets and had therefore become moribund and dead. In order to make Jesus explicable (in order to make Jesus look like Luther - at least the Luther of our democratic projections), we had to make Judaism look like our characterization of Catholicism. Yet Jesus did not free us from Israel; rather, he engrafted us into the promise of Israel so that we might be a people called to the same holiness of the law.

I realize that the suggestion that salvation is to be part of a holy people constitued by the law seems to deny the Reformation principle of justification by faith through grace. I do not believe that to be the case, particularly as Calvin understood that Reformation theme. After all, Calvin (and Luther) assumed that justification by faith through grace is a claim about God's presence in Jesus of Nazareth. So justification by faith through grace is not some general truth about our need for acceptance; but rather justification by faith through grace is a claim about the salvation wrought by God through Jesus to make us a holy people capable of remembering that God's salvation comes through the Jews. When the church loses that memory, we lose the source of our unity. For unity is finally a matter of memory, of how we tell the story of the Reformation. How can we tell this story of the church truthfully as Protestants and Catholics so that we might look forward to being in union with one another and thus share a common story of our mutual failure?

We know, after all, that the prophecy of Joel has been fulfilled. The portents of heaven, the blood and fire, the darkness of the sun, the bloody moon have come to pass in the cross of our Savior Jesus Christ. Now all who call on that name will be saved. We believe that we who stand in the Reformation churches are survivors. But to survive we need to recover the unity that God has given us as survivors. So on this Reformation Sunday long for, pray for, our ability to remember the Reformation - not as a celebratory moment, not as a blow for freedom, but as the sin of the church. Pray for God to heal our disunity, not the disunity simply between Protestant and Catholic, but the disunity in our midst between classes, between races, between nations. Pray that on Reformation Sunday we may as tax collectors confess our sin and ask God to make us a new people joined together in one mighty prayer that the world may be saved from its divisions.

http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles/20493.htm

The Shyness of God

this is via the Gauthiers....

The 'Shyness' of God

When the Son of God was on earth, one argument that broke out often among his followers was "Who's the greatest?" In our day, this line is most closely associated with Muhammad Ali, who once told a flight attendant that he refused to wear a seat belt because he was Superman and "Superman don't need no seat belt." Her response: "Superman don't need no airplane."

This is the original temptation ("You shall be as God"), and it continues to infect both families and small groups, congregations and denominations. Whenever we insist on our own way, take credit for a group's accomplishment, or walk away hurt because we weren't consulted, we're struggling with this form of self-centeredness and self-glorification.

By way of contrast, think about life within the Trinity. How do Father, Son, and Holy Spirit relate to each other? Are there lots of arguments over who's the most omniscient, the most omnipresent, or the oldest? In that absence there is a lesson.

Dale Bruner, in an essay on the Trinity, begins with the person of the Holy Spirit:

"One of the most surprising discoveries in my own study of the doctrine and experience of the Spirit in the New Testament is what I can only call the shyness of the Spirit …

What I mean here is not the shyness of timidity (cf. 2 Tim. 1:7) but the shyness of deference, the shyness of a concentrated attention on another; it is not the shyness (which we often experience) of self-centeredness, but the shyness of an other-centeredness.

It is, in short, the shyness of love. Bruner points out the ministry of the Spirit in the Gospel of John, a ministry constantly to draw attention not to himself but to the Son—the Spirit comes in the Son's name, bears witness to the Son, glorifies the Son (cf. John 14:26; 16:13)."

The ministry of the Spirit could be pictured, Bruner says, by my drawing a stick figure (representing Jesus) on a blackboard. Then, to express what the Spirit does, I stand behind the blackboard, reach around with one hand, and point with a single finger to the image of Jesus: "Look at him, listen to him, learn from him, follow him, worship him, be devoted to him, serve him, love him, be preoccupied with him." This is what Bruner calls the shyness of the Holy Spirit.

But when we look at the Son, oddly enough we see that he didn't walk around saying, "I am the greatest." He said, "If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing" (John 8:54). He said he came not to be served but to serve. He submitted to the Spirit, who Mark tells us "drove him into the wilderness." He told the Father in his climactic struggle, "not my will, but yours be done." Jesus, too, has this same "shyness."

Then there is the Father. Twice in the synoptic Gospels we hear the voice of the Father: once at baptism and again at the Transfiguration. Both times his words are a variation of this message: This is my priceless Son. I am deeply pleased with him. Listen to him! It is worth noticing, Bruner writes, that this voice does not say, "Listen to me too, after listening to him; don't forget that I'm here too; don't be taken up with my Son." Because "God the Father is shy, too. The whole blessed Trinity is shy. Each member of the Trinity points faithfully and selflessly to the other in a gracious circle."

I was raised in some ways to think of God as a proud, almost arrogant being who could get away with his pride because he was God. The doctrine of the Trinity tells me it is not so. God exists as Father, Son, and Spirit in a community of greater humility, servanthood, mutual submission, and delight than you and I can imagine. Three and yet One. Oneness is God's signature. The whole blessed Trinity is "shy."


It's not just in relation to one another but in relation to us that God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—shows forth a stunning humility. For example, what cost does God pay for us to have fellowship with him?

The Son says, "I will leave heaven to come to earth." This is something more than leaving a really nice location (like southern California) for a less desirable one (Chicago). In some way we don't fully understand, the Son freely chooses to leave the perfect oneness he has known for all eternity, to become like human beings in their brokenness and aloneness, to die on a cross, and to experience what Luther called "godforsakenness": "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

But it's not just the Son who pays a price. The Father says, "I will offer my Son whom I love beyond words. I will see him be broken and rejected and killed. I, who have known only perfect oneness with him through eternity, will take on the anguish of estrangement. I will know the broken heart of a father."

And the Holy Spirit pays a price as well. The Spirit says, "I will be poured out on earth, and in mostly silent, invisible ways I will offer to lead and guide; never exalting myself, always pointing to the Son." To a large extent, the Spirit's promptings will be ignored or even denied. The Spirit will be quenched on Earth. The Spirit, to use New Testament language, will be grieved. The Spirit had never known grief through all eternity, but he will be grieved now, day after day, century after century. The Spirit says, "This price I will pay so that any who will might enter our fellowship."

Of course, comprehensive information about the inner life of the Trinity is beyond our grasp. Attributing to Trinity human kinds of emotions—like all our language for God—involves analogies at best. Still, there is a biblical sense in which God is anguished by the unbelief of his people, such as the wonderful reversal in Hosea 11: After a wrenching description of Israel's faithlessness and deserved judgment, the Lord says, "How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel?"

Occasionally Christians—even those who have been in the faith for many years—wonder why the doctrine of the Trinity matters all that much. Dallas Willard writes,

"The advantage of believing in the Trinity is not that we get an A from God for giving the right answer. Remember, to believe something is to act as if it is so. To believe that two plus two equals four is to behave accordingly when trying to find out how many apples or dollars are in the house. The advantage of believing it is not that we can pass tests in arithmetic; it is that we can deal much more successfully with reality.

The doctrine of the Trinity teaches us that at the core of reality lies not an isolated self but a community of humble love. So self-serving and disunity are not just wrong but doomed. To paraphrase G.K. Chesterton, this reality is like the law of gravity—we can never break it, we can only break ourselves against it."

---John Ortberg


Concluding Prayer

O God and Father, by sending the Word of truth
and the Spirit of holiness into the world
you revealed to mankind the great mystery of your being.
Grant that we may profess the true faith,
acknowledge the eternal glory of the Trinity,
and worship your Unity of majestic power.

Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God for ever and ever.
Amen.

Meditation for Worship: Trinity Sunday, 2008

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...I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through a belief in the Threeness,
Through confession of the Oneness
Of the Creator of creation.

I bind unto myself this day
the strong name of the Trinity.
The Creator’s gifts of earth and sky,
the flowing creeks and fertile land,
the winter sun and summer moon,
the roaring sea and golden sand.

I bind unto myself this day
the Christ who wears our human clay.
The Baby sleeping in a stall,
the Healer touching our disease,
the Man of love upon the Cross,
the risen Friend who hears our pleas.

I bind unto myself this day
the Spirit who is here to stay.
The Breath that makes the broken whole,
the Truth that flows like liquid light,
the Wind that sweeps my dusty soul,
the Fire that warms the darkest night.

I bind unto myself this day
the Fellowship that’s our mainstay.
The Grace that holds us all in thrall,
the Love than links us one and all,
the Peace that sweeps away our fears,
the Joy that wipes away all tears.

From now unto infinity,
The strong name of the Trinity.
( B D Prewer. Inspired by St Patrick)

Meditation: Thoughts on Ash Wednesday

Mysteries aren't only proper to divinity, but also to the things God has created in His image. But evil is not a mystery: it is an absence, a "privation" in what ought to be. It is absurd. Evil is the cavities in the teeth of the universe, the eating away of what was real and true and good and beautiful, leaving only spiritual, intellectual and moral holes.

I'm certainly not a Calvinist fulminating about total depravity, but I'm also not a "happy pagan" who is oblivious to sin. Wherever things are not the way the Lord meant them to be, there is sin, and where there is sin, there is death, and where there is death, there is evil. (Remember that line, "evil" is "life" spelled backwards?) --my message to J., 2-6-08.

"...Every disability conceals a vocation, if only we can find it, wh.[sic] will 'turn the necessity into glorious gain.'" --C.S. Lewis, A Severe Mercy, chapter 6, pp. 147-148.

Today I am being reminded I have been created as an agent, in the image of God, not simply as an object or event. But I am desperately ill. That image is being eaten away by sin. I am disabled. Tonight, I will be invited to name my disabilities, and to find my vocation. The ashes on my forehead signify not only my penitence but alert the world to my true condition, and the way I will be healed.

Lord,

deliver me from evil,

so that death might not erupt in me, with its fallout of sin.

Forgive me, and turn my spirit around

to Your goodness and truth,

so that Your life will surge in me,

with its abundant crop of virtue and works pleasing to you.

Let me hear your call, so that I might discover my vocation;

A vocation that leads to transfiguration.

Your kingdom come.

Your will be done.

In me--in us-- on earth;

and it will be heaven.

Ash Wednesday Humor

(Thanks to Dave Walker,
www.cartoonchurch.com/blog/2006/02/ )

If it is true that Satan hates to be laughed at, then let's use humor as a spiritual discipline this Lent.

Update: (or why I've been incommunicado)

Susan left for SPU on January 2.

Every year, Steve takes vacation time off between Christmas and New Year's. This year we didn't go anywhere, but stayed home watching episodes of Lost, (much better to follow a show on DVD without commercials), talking, baking, and reading. Perfect! Susan spent hours at my computer preparing grad school applications and dunning professors for recommendations. It will be exciting to see where the Lord plants her.

We sold the sofa so I can get the car back in the garage

Of course that meant cleaning the garage, getting rid of all the boxes and junk that had accumulated on and around the sofa, so the wonderful people coming from Craig's List could actually see it. That entailed some trips to St. Vinnie's. It also meant putting away all the Christmas decorations that had been piled beside the sofa, waiting for there to be space so the ladder could get to the storage space above the garage doors. Amazing how one thing leads to another...

I've been providing/arranging care for A.

So there's this interim between E's departure on Jan. 1 and A's mother's arrival from Teheran on Jan. 16. I've been trying to work with A's husband H to see that A. is not alone with their two year old son M. They wake up between 10 and 11 and A. is usually rested and somewhat energized, but quickly fades after an hour or two. I put out an appeal and it looks like between a CNA friend at Church of the Servant King and a few of us at VCC, we will be able to assist A. Now if H. would only let us know if A. is going to have more chemo, and when we should come.

Epiphany Open House: January 6

Enlivened by Steve's Famous Home-made Egg Nog (eggs, whipping cream, half and half, powdered sugar and lots of vanilla) and wonderful friends, I am now back to my blog. Every year we throw an open house. We've done it during Advent, between Christmas and New year's, on New Year's Day, and even for Valentine's Day; but this year we had it on the Twelfth Day, Epiphany Proper. Lots of candles, gold and white, and star motifs for decorations. Susan made two pans of golden baklava before she had to leave, and I made Judy's extraordinary lemon bars. Now though the Swedish meatballs are but a memory, the fellowship will fortify us for another year!

EBC Winter quarter begins

As if to make up for being laid off from NCC, the Lord has given me an absolute dream class for Intro to Philosophy. Twelve of the brightest, best, most dedicated Christian students I know gathered around the table in Bryan 102 this morning, after being double booked for Bryan 101 with Bonnie Lee's class. I am SO excited to have such a concentration of faith and intellect. This is going to be fun.

Tomorrow at 8:00 am we'll have Fundamentals of Reasoning. What a cruel hour; and that's a class that involves a ton of focus and hard work. Oh well, the good thing is that is will be done with early on, leaving the rest of the day for less demanding fare.

Bulldozers and Beatitude (A Meditation for Epiphany)

Bulldozer rampage in Colorado

Friday, June 4, 2004 Posted: 10:47 PM EDT (0247 GMT)

(CNN) -- A man reportedly angry about a zoning decision drove a large bulldozer fortified with steel plates through Granby, Colorado, Friday afternoon, demolishing parts of the town center and exchanging gunfire with authorities, officials said....

See also:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na1_welzfxo

http://www.leechvideo.com/video/view1080098.html

Marvin Heeyemer was angry. So he decided to destroy Granby.

"I think God will bless me to get the machine done, to drive it, to do the stuff I have to do...." he said. "I'm trying to be as prepared as I can be to do what I believe needs to be done. What God has inspired me to do.....it's definitely in God's hands. It's not in my hands. Without a doubt I'm building it, but there's a reason why I am successful at continuing this project....When you visit evil upon someone, be assured it will revisit you....How come they didn't catch me? I wasn't supposed to get caught."

Why do people always seem able to hear God telling them to take revenge, but never when He tells them to forgive? How is it that we are so ready to claim divine inspiration confirming our own desires, but never want to test what we think we are hearing it against the scriptures, which are indeed God's word?

Epiphany is a time of revelation, but what is being revealed is neither a program nor an intuition but a Person. And whether it is Epiphany or not, we should always take time to compare our private illuminations to Christ, the Truth.

High Holy Day Hardships

From the looks of things on "Covenant Blogs," evidently the Holy Day Hardships are upon us. Over the past two decades of ministry, I have observed that the Enemy chooses Holy Week and Advent as his favorite times to target Christ's flock. This phenomenon has become so unmistakeable that I finally thought it deserved a name, so I have called it the "Holy Day Hardships."

And it has settled upon us at Valley Covenant, just as it has settled upon Quest and Christ the King and countless other kingdom outposts. Just in the past 24 hours:

• V. died early this morning, leaving his wife and three kids


• A. has lost 12 more pounds, and now weighs only 100 lbs. We are waiting to hear from the drs. if they will allow her to continue her chemotherapy.


• E, a single mom's little toddler has been diagnosed with a staph infection.


• P., a beloved high school teacher, was taken to the ER with intense stomach pains. At first they thought it was appendicitis; perhaps it is diverticulosis, or c. difficile? He is home awaiting a diagnosis.


• J.'s brother is on his deathbed in California.


• B. is divorcing D, because D. is having an affair and won't end it.

Once again I am reminded of Nouwen's words:

"Our emotional lives move up and down constantly. Sometimes we experience great mood swings from excitement to depression, from joy to sorrow, from inner harmony to inner chaos. A little event, a word from someone, a disappointment in work, many things can trigger such mood swings. Mostly we have little control over these changes. It seems that they happen to us rather than being created by us.

Thus it is important to know that our emotional life is not the same as our spiritual life. Our spiritual life is the life of the Spirit of God within us. As we feel our emotions shift we must connect our spirits with the Spirit of God and remind ourselves that what we feel is not who we are. We are and remain, whatever our moods, God's beloved children.

We have feelings, but they do not define us entirely. What we feel is necessary for making us who we are, but doesn't sufficiently contain all that we are.

Christ weeps over Jerusalem, and at Lazarus' tomb, and in the garden. He is the Man of Sorrows, but that is not all that He is. The truth is that He was, and is, God's beloved Son, in whom the Father is well-pleased. We weep with V., A., E., P., J., B and D. but we live this truth: we are Christ's flock, and He is our shepherd. We believe that Christ is the Truth and that He has told the truth:

"You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy...I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world."

Just Wondering: Barna on Designer Faith

The Dec. 3, 2007 Barna report "identifies several patterns that are significantly affecting the development of American culture. Those transformations were described as Americans’ unconditional self-love; nouveau Christianity; the five Ps of parenting; and designer faith with rootless values." Today I want to wonder about this one:

Designer Faith, Rootless Values

"As young adults, teenagers and adolescents have become accustomed to radical individualism, they have introduced such thinking and behavior into the faith realm, as well. Faith is an acceptable attribute and pursuit among most young people. However, their notions of faith do not align with conventional religious perspectives or behavior. For instance, young people are still likely to claim the label "Christian," but the definition of that term has been broadened beyond traditional parameters.

In fact, the values that young people are prone to embrace are often consistent with Christian beliefs but are not based on biblical foundations. For instance, while young Americans have adopted values such as goodness, kindness and tolerance, they remain skeptical of the Bible, church traditions, and rules or behaviors based upon religious teaching."

Hmm. Is Barna confirming what I have only informally observed? "Radical individualism" seems to be another way of talking about nominalism. While it is interesting to see this sociological evidence, I would like to see it taken further, because I don't think nominalist thinking is found only among young people.

Is it possible to be a Christian (no matter young or old!) and be skeptical about the Bible and church traditions and teachings? Can one be a Christian without the "baggage" of a community? I have a refrigerator magnet that says, "Friends are the family you choose for yourself." It may be proper for Jesus to call us His friends, and establish His church, but do we have the same power to pick and choose? As I read John 15:16, we do not. Yet this is the great question of our time: is the church a gift, or is it the product of social contract? If it is a gift, then it is not ours to design, but receive and grow into.

Remember those bulky sweaters Aunt Hortense used to knit as Christmas presents? They were always too big in December, but by fall the following year they fit just fine. Is it the same way with Christ's body? The church may contain all sorts of doctrines, people, and practices that may not immediately "fit" us--and indeed, which may feel uncomfortable, causing us to scratch and chafe--but nevertheless they are good for us, and eventually we are grateful. They transform us to reflect Christ.

However, if the church is not a gift, but instead is socially constructed, then we can design the Bible, traditions, teaching, and behaviors however we please. We can have faith without religion; church without institution, spirit freed of the limiting confines of body. I can re-invent myself, as often as I feel the desire to do so, answering to no one but myself. Ultimately, Christianity boils down to Me and Jesus, and Jesus begins to look a lot like Me.

Are Christ and Christmas (and by extension, Christ's body) a gift we receive? Or are Christ and Christmas (and by extension, Christ's body) a product of my own choice and construction?

Let all mortal flesh keep silence
And with fear and trembling stand
Ponder nothing earthly minded
for with blessing in his hand,
Christ our God to earth descendeth,
our full homage to demand.

King of kings, yet born of Mary
As of old on earth he stood,
Lord of lords in human vesture
In the body and the blood,
He will give to all the faithful
His own self for heav'nly food.

O how shall I receive you, how greet you Lord aright?
All nations long to see you, my hope, my heart's delight!
O kindle Lord most holy your lamp within my breast,
To do in spirit lowly all that may please you best.

When the Southern Baptists Discovered Advent

The times they are a-changing.

Growing up as a Southern Baptist in St. Louis in the 60's and 70's, I had no idea what "the church year" meant. We celebrated Christmas, Easter, Mother's Day, Father's Day, and the Fourth of July, but words like "Advent," "Epiphany" and "Lent" never crossed our lips.

However, my dad was Catholic. He was always off to some holy day worship, and my mom was forever having to make fish (which I hated) for dinner. Imagine my shock when, in the early 90's, I was back home accompanying my mother at a Christmas Eve service where, there on the altar stood an Advent wreath, complete with burning candles!

By this time I was a Covenanter, and well aware of Advent traditions. "Mom!" I whispered. "Since when do Baptists have Advent wreaths?""Oh, we've had that for a while now," she replied proudly. "Each Sunday in December we light another candle and remember another part of the prophecies about Christmas. It's really very nice. You should try it at your church." Talk about reinventing the wheel! And yet, thank God this tradition is being rediscovered.

Postscript: look here for an update.
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All Saints Day and the Sistine Chapel

Today is All Saints Day, and on this day in 1512 - Michelangelo's paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel were first exhibited to the public.

I wonder if this was done intentionally. Certainly the Last Judgement scene gives us a meditation on the place of the saints with Christ through eternity. But there are twelve figures painted upon the pendentives that are also worth thinking about on All Saints Day. All twelve prophesied or represent some aspect of the coming of Christ. Seven of them are male: prophets of Israel. Five of them are female: the prophetesses (sibyls) of the classical world.

They are:
Persian Sibyl (PERSICHA) representing Babylonia
Erythraean Sibyl. (ERITHRAEA) who was from Chaldea and prophesied in Ionia, an area of present day Turkey.
Delphic Sibyl. (DELPHICA) who prophesied near Delphi, but was not associated with Pythia, the oracle.
Cumaean Sibyl. (CVMAEA) prophesied at a Greek colony near Naples
Libyan Sibyl (LIBICA) who prophesied at an oasis in the Libyan desert.

From a Protestant perspective, these five should have no such place of honor, but I love the way Michaelangelo includes them. They remind me of Matt. 8:11, where Jesus says,

"I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven."

Won't it be wonderful when we get to meet all those folks at the Feast?

In-spired: Pentecost, 2007

It is a tradition at VCC that Acts 2 be read in the many different languages persons in our congregation are able to speak. This year we had the following lineup:

Greek -- Steve
Farsi -- A.M.
Latin -- Susan
English -- Kent
French -- the Honns
Spanish -- Emma
Italian -- Rob, David F. and me
German -- Jeff
Czech -- Lubos
Swahili -- Carl
Japanese -- (a last minute save by David S!)
Norwegian -- Elizabeth, the Shepherd's exchange student

Each person reads a verse or so , and then everyone joins in to simultaneously read verses 22-24 together, to recreate the "sound" of what it must have been like that first Pentecost.

What was even more amazing is that A. was able to stand with us, and that she did not read her verse: she had memorized it! A. is a living parable among us; certainly the embodiment of Steve's
message that morning:

"Breathe in God’s breath. Breathe in the Bible. Come listen to the Word taught in Christian formation and worship on Sunday mornings. Join or form a small group and study together during the week. Open up the Scriptures and read some of it every day. Draw the Bible into you regularly, and you will find it easier to draw God’s breath of life to you when you need it most. May God’s Word constantly be for you the fresh breath that you need to live. May it fill and inspire you to the new life we have in Jesus." (May 27, 2007 Sermon MP3, "Fresh Breath")
http://www.valleycovenant.org/sermons.htm

Yesterday, we were all in-spired!

Akathist of Creation for Creation Sunday

This Sunday at Valley Covenant, Steve is thinking about using part of the Creation Akathist, "Glory to God for All Things"to observe Creation Sunday.

According to OrthodoxWiki, this hymn is often attributed to Priest Gregory Petrov who died in a Soviet prison camp in 1940, but also to Metropolitan Tryphon (Prince Boris Petrovich Turkestanov) +1934. The title is from the words of St. John Chrysostom as he was dying in exile. It is a song of praise from amidst the most terrible sufferings.

Steve selected and arranged parts of it as a responsive reading, pasted below.

If anyone's interested in the whole enchilada, they can go here:
http://www.goarch.org/en/ourfaith/articles/article8228.asp

CREATION AKATHIST HYMN

(parts selected and arranged responsively; N= north side of congregation, S=south side. From the Eastern Orthodox Church.)

All: Incorruptible Lord, your right hand controls the whole course of human life, according to the decrees of your Providence for our salvation.

We give you thanks for all your blessings, known and unknown:

N: for our earthly life and for the heavenly joys of your kingdom which is to come.

S: Henceforth extend your mercies towards us as we sing:

All: Glory to you, O God, from age to age!

I was born a weak, defenseless child, but your angel, spreading his radiant wings, guarded my cradle. From my birth, your love has illumined my paths, and has wondrously guided me towards the light of eternity. From my first day until now, the generous gifts of your providence have been wonderfully showered upon me. I give you thanks, and with all those who have come to know you, I exclaim:

N: Glory to you for calling me into being.

S: Glory to you for spreading out before me the beauty of the universe,

N: Glory to you for revealing to me through heaven and earth the eternal book of wisdom,

S: Glory to you for your eternity within this fleeting world,

N: Glory to you for your mercies, seen and unseen,

S: Glory to you for every sigh of my sorrow,

N: Glory to you for every step in my life's journey, for every moment of joy,

S: Glory to you, O God, from age to age.

All: O Lord, how lovely it is to be your guest:

N: Breeze full of scent; mountains reaching to the skies;

S: Waters like a boundless mirror,

N: Reflecting the sun's golden rays and the scudding clouds.

S: All nature murmurs mysteriously, breathing depths of tenderness,

N: Birds and beasts bear the imprint of your love,

S: Blessed are you, O earth, in your fleeting loveliness,

N: Which wakens our yearning for happiness that will last for ever

S: In the land where, amid beauty that grows not old,

All: Rings out the cry: Alleluia!

How glorious you are in the triumph of spring, when every creature awakes to new life and joyfully sings your praises with a thousand tongues: you are the source of life, the con­queror of death. By the light of the moon night­ingales sing: the plains and the woods put on their wedding garment, white as snow. All the earth is your promised bride awaiting her bridegroom who does not know decay. If the grass of the field is clothed like this, how glori­ously shall we be transfigured in the coming age of the resurrection: how radiant our bodies, how resplendent our souls!

N: Glory to you, bringing from the darkness of the earth an endless variety of colors, tastes and scents,

S: Glory to you for the warmth and tenderness of the world of nature,

N: Glory to you for surrounding us with thousands of your works,

S: Glory to you for the depth of your wisdom: the whole world is a living sign of it,

N: Glory to you: on my knees, I kiss the traces of your unseen hand,

S: Glory to you for setting before us the dazzling light of eternal life,

N: Glory to you for the hope of the unutterable, imperishable beauty of immortality,

S: Glory to you, O God, from age to age.

All: How filled with sweetness are those whose thoughts dwell on you: how life-giving your holy Word; to speak with you is more soothing than anointing with oil, sweeter than the honeycomb. Praying to you refreshes us and gives us wings: our hearts overflow with warmth; a majesty filled with wisdom permeates nature and all of life! Where you are not, there is only emptiness. Where you are, the soul is filled with abundance, and its song resounds like a torrent of life: Alleluia!