a poem a day...ish

If you're not in the mood for poetry, read my previous post. It's much funnier.

Batter my heart, three-personed God; for You
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend;
That I may rise and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an ursurped town, to another due,
Labor to admit You, but O, to no end;
Reason, Your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captivated, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be love fain,
But I am bethrothed unto Your enemy.
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again;
Take me to You, imprison me, for I,
Except You enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except You ravish me.
-John Donne

Discuss.

remembering the power

Pastor Sam was sick this morning. Not out sick, exactly, but 'in sick', spreading germs the way that stubborn folks do when they don't want to stay home. He was wheezing, pale, unsteady, and even more distracted than usual. I enjoy his preaching, but speaking to him before the service made me wish he'd stayed home.

Lee-Ann, who leads the singing, was sick too, but she wanted to add songs to the service so that Sam wouldn't have to preach for so long. Obliging pianist that I am, I suggested What Wonderous Love Is This, which I had already prepared for the prelude. (Low range, which is great for sick songleaders... and it's a Lenten song, which made me feel delightfully subversive among the Baptists.) Lee-Ann agreed, and also added O God Our Help In Ages Past. I agreed, chuckling to myself that God has indeed been the help of liturgical leaders across the ages.

So, we have three hymns in a row: What Wonderous Love Is This, Day By Day, and O God Our Help In Ages Past. Had I thought this though, I might have suggested pausing for prayer and reflection between the hymns, so that the songleader wouldn't have to sing so much at a time. This pianist's reelection motto: A Thousand Points of Hindsight.

Halfway through Day By Day, Lee-Ann's voice is giving out. Pastor Sam, conserving energy for the sermon by sitting through the singing, starts singing loudly to cover for her, but then has to duck out the side door for an inconvenient coughing fit. By the time we get to O God Our Help In Ages Past, Lee-Ann has quit singing entirely and I'm playing accompianment for a confused, warbling congregation; sheep without a shepherd.

Wonderful time for me to realize that I don't know how to play O God Our Help In Ages Past, indeed. I simplified the bass line some to emphazise the melody, and was doing better on the second verse, when my hymnal started to swing closed. I should have asked Lee-Ann to adjust my hymnal, since she wasn't singing, but instead I tried to hold it open with my nose. Mercifully, Lee-Ann cut straight to the sixth verse, so we didn't have to sing the whole song.

The text for Pastor Sam's sermon: But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Cor. 12:9, 10)

I'm glad he didn't preach on to verse 11, with I have made a fool of myself, but you drove me to it. That's all the God-sponsored coincidence I can handle.

A poem a day

Via Hugo, by Margaret Kaufman:

Lot's Wife

They had no time—the just man
hurried across the bridge,
followed God’s magistrate
along the black ridge.

His grieving wife lagged behind
as if she had no will,
arms heavy with useless things,
heart heavier still.

She couldn’t recall if she’d shut the door,
turned off the iron; worse guilt,
she’d left behind the baby pictures,
her mother’s ring, her wedding quilt.

One arm raised as if to gather
her whole life in that embrace,
tears blurring the view,
without much thought she turned her face,

became what she had shed. Who grieves
for this nameless woman, Lot’s reflective wife?
I grieve.
I know holding on can cost a life.

preachin'

My first in-class sermon for my preaching class will be next Tuesday. The texts for the sermons are assigned by the professors, and I got Romans 13:1-7...

Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. Therefore it is necessary to be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience' sake. For because of this you also pay taxes, for rulers are servants of God, devoting themselves to this very thing. Render to all what is due them: tax to whom tax is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.

I'm considering preaching out of the Wycliffe New Testament, which reads in part:

Therefore he that against-standeth power, against-standeth the ordinance of God; and they that against-stand, get to themselves damnation. For princes be not to the dread of good work, but of evil. But wilt thou, that thou dread not power? Do thou good thing, and thou shalt have praising of it for he is the minister of God to thee into good. But if thou doest evil, dread thou; for not without cause he beareth the sword, for he is the minister of God, venger into wrath to him that doeth evil.

"Against-standeth power." I just like the way that sounds, but I still want more wiggle room to discern when a governmental exercise of authority is in line with the ordinance of God, rather than simply assuming that against-standing it will lead to damnation. Otherwise, it seems that Paul is wrong- rulers certainly can be a cause for fear over good behavior.

The preceeding context of Romans 13:1-7 lends an intriguing light:

Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay,"says the Lord. On the contrary:
"If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

"As far as it depends on you..." I don't yet see how to square that idea with Romans 13:1-7. Thoughts? Comments? Hail Marys?

big thoughts

It's a sunshiny, depressing day.

Which literature classic are you?

Umberto Eco: The Name of the Rose. You are a mystery novel dealing with theology, especially with catholic vs liberal issues. You search wisdom and knowledge endlessly, feeling that learning is essential in life.
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I really should read this book over break.

pacifism

I've thought and thought about this, but graham has the clearest distinction between pacifism and a committment to nonviolence that I've read recently:

Pacifism, particularly in anabaptist circles, can simply be a way to avoid violence. Yet, nonviolent resistance - which is what Christ teaches us and is at the heart of our faith - looks Violence in the eye and squares up for battle.

It's not about not fighting- it's about putting on the armor of God and preparing for battle. This is a sort of nonviolence that I could get behind.

grandmothers

Lovely post from pastordan:

...when people tell me that I am stupid or insane for believing in God, they're not just insulting me. They're insulting my sainted dead grandmother. Both of them, in fact. And my dead grandfather, though he was considerably more difficult to get along with.

And not just that: they're insulting the grandmothers (and grandfathers) I preach to Sunday mornings in a tiny Baptist church in tiny Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania, forty-five minutes from the nearest small-to-middling nowhere. They're not the most progressive folks, though they might surprise you, and most of them wouldn't know an enlightenment ideal from a turnip. But they're good, solid people, salt of the earth folks who try to be generous, tolerant, and fair...

He's writing in response to a recent stir-up that I won't bother to describe, but The Green Knight has details if you're interested.

irrational hatred

What is it with Duke, anyway?

postmodern intelligensia

Randomly generate postmodern pseudoanalysis here. They'll even give you a permanent link, in case you want to officially cite the paper somewhere.

not-so-broken link

Like so many things in this Administration, it works, and yet it doesn't.

sapir-whorf?

New Scientist is a registration required magazine, but here's a quote from their teaser:

They've no myths, numbers or colours and few words for past or present - no wonder the Pirahã people defy our most cherished ideas about language

"How was your world created?" asks the young anthropologist in Portuguese. He awaits the translation into Pirahã. "The world is created," replies one of the assembled men in his own language. "Tell me how your god made all this?" the anthropologist presses on. "All things are made," comes the answer.

Sounds like a reasonable alternative to our Darwinism/creationism nonsense. I'm not going to pay for the article in order to read it, although it looks good, but I'm definitely intrigued by the whole idea. From The Globe and Mail:

They have no written language, and no collective memory going back more than two generations. They don't sleep for more than two hours at a time during the night or day[...] They communicate almost as much by singing, whistling and humming as by normal speech[...] They do not believe that outsiders understand their language even after they have just carried on conversations with them[...]

"Why they have been resistant to adopting Western number systems is beyond me," Ray Jackendoff of Brandeis University, a past president of the Linguistic Society of America, said in an interview.

The lack of ability of Pirahã men to learn algebra seems generally in line with the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, although there's always a question of motivation in such artificial tests. The Economist says yea. Others probably don't, but I've put too much work into this already. Let me know if you happen across the actual article, and I'll link to it.

repenting made easy

Click on over to iGod and repent for yourselves.

german words

The theme of the week at A.Word.A.Day is German words, one of which I've decided to share:

weltschmerz (VELT-shmerts) n., World weariness; pessimism, apathy, or sadness felt at the difference between physical reality and the ideal state.

Plato would have loved German. As would Rapture enthusiasts, come to think of it. So, Plato and a televangelist walk into a bar... and then what?

advice to venezuela

From the annals for pistachio related ponderings:

Venezuela should take a leaf out of my book: when I fancy a pistachio, I just go right ahead and eat one. If Bush doesn’t like it, he can fuck off.

Read it in context, for all the good it'll do ya.