Via Crucis Triptych

All the items I've been ordering online lately, and here's yet another that arrived the other day. It's a small triptych, with the stations of the cross on it. Via crucis. The way of the cross. O crux ave, spes unica!

Small, only about 4½ inches tall. Black leather, with embossed panels of oxidized silver. Gold trim. It unfolds to stand on a tabletop, or you can fold it up to just about the shape and size of a billfold. Literally pocket sized, and exquisite workmanship.


This is another one of those items that is so wondrously low-tech, and just such a funky idea. I mean, who would ever have thought of such an item? But once you think of it, it seems like a natural. And timeless: I can almost imagine some English merchant, some Italian noble, some German hawksman, carrying it with him circa 1597.

Two by Two, Hurrah! Hurrah!

Whilst websurfing I stumbled across an interesting piece at A Mule in the Chapter House. An account of an early childhood encounter with the sterile, soul-stifling forces of mid 20th century Liberal Protestantism.

And then people wonder why the Presbyterian Church nationwide has suffered a net membership loss of more than 45% over the past 40 years. As a Presbyterian minister, I'm just damn glad I'm located in a remote and traditional corner of the country where I don't have to contend with such self-dissolute nonsense.

Dang Liberal Protestantism. Millstone around the neck, depths of the sea, etc...

Full of Grace

Just another one of those cool pictures I ran across out there somewhere. This one is for Dean.

All Roads Lead to Rome

This morning over at Dean's World, my friend Dean Esmay writes:

I recently had an interesting conversation with a friend at work... I told her that after a long struggle with Christianity I'd decided to become a Christian because, whatever my mental reservations, this was in my heart. And it was Roman Catholicism that was calling to me.

Welcome home, Dean. I'm very, very happy for you; happier than I know how to put into words.

"But on the First Day of the Week..."

But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel; and as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and on the third day rise." And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told this to the apostles; but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home wondering at what had happened.

 —Luke 24:1-12

Easter

  Most glorious Lord of Lyfe! that, on this day,
  Didst make Thy triumph over death and sin;
  And, having harrowd hell, didst bring away
  Captivity thence captive, us to win:
This joyous day, deare Lord, with joy begin;
And grant that we, for whom thou diddest dye,
Being with Thy deare blood clene washt from sin,
May live for ever in felicity!
And that Thy love we weighing worthily,
May likewise love Thee for the same againe;
And for Thy sake, that all lyke deare didst buy,
With love may one another entertayne!
  So let us love, dear Love, lyke as we ought,
  —Love is the lesson which the Lord us taught.

 —Edmund Spenser (1552-1599)

Good Friday

Two others also, who were criminals, were led away to be put to death with him. And when they came to the place which is called The Skull, there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on the right and one on the left. And Jesus said, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." And they cast lots to divide his garments. And the people stood by, watching; but the rulers scoffed at him, saying, "He saved others; let him save himself, if he is the Christ of God, his Chosen One!" The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him vinegar, and saying, "If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!" There was also an inscription over him, "This is the King of the Jews."

One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, "Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!" But the other rebuked him, saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong." And he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." And he said to him, "Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise."

It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun's light failed; and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit!" And having said this he breathed his last. Now when the centurion saw what had taken place, he praised God, and said, "Certainly this man was innocent!" And all the multitudes who assembled to see the sight, when they saw what had taken place, returned home beating their breasts. And all his acquaintances and the women who had followed him from Galilee stood at a distance and saw these things.

 —Luke 23:32-49

Christ and Our Selves

I wish a greater knowledge, then t'attaine
The knowledge of my selfe: A greater Gaine
Then to augment my selfe; A greater Treasure
Then to enjoy my selfe: A greater Pleasure
Then to content my selfe; How slight, and vaine
Is all selfe-Knowledge, Pleasure, Treasure, Gaine:
Vnlesse my better knowledge could retrive
My Christ; unles my better Gaine could thrive
In Christ; unles my better Wealth grow rich
In Christ; unles my better Pleasure pitch
On Christ; Or else my Knowledge will proclaime
To my owne heart how ignorant I am:
Or else my Gaine, so ill improv'd, will shame
My Trade, and shew how much declin'd I am;
Or else my Treasure will but blurre my name
With Bankrupt, and divulge how poore I am;
Or else my Pleasures, that so much inflame
My Thoughts, will blabb how full of sores I am:
Lord, keepe me from my Selfe; 'Tis best for me,
Never to owne my Selfe, if not in Thee.

 —Francis Quarles (1592-1644)

Good News of a Great Joy

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be enrolled, each to his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to be delivered. And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

And in that region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, "Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

 "Glory to God in the highest,
  and on earth peace among men with
    whom he is pleased!"

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us." And they went with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they saw it they made known the saying which had been told them concerning this child; and all who heard it wondered at what the shephherds told them. But Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

 —Luke 2:1-20

A Christmas Carol

                  I
   The shepherds went their hasty way,
      And found the lowly stable-shed
   Where the Virgin-Mother lay:
      And now they checked their eager tread,
For to the Babe, that at her bosom clung,
A Mother's song the Virgin-Mother sung.

                  II
   They told her how a glorious light,
      Streaming from a heavenly throng,
   Around them shone, suspending night!
      While sweeter than a mother's song,
Blest Angels heralded the Saviour's birth,
Glory to God on high! and Peace on Earth.

                  III
   She listened to the tale divine,
      And closer still the Babe she pressed;
   And while she cried, the Babe is mine!
      The milk rushed faster to her breast:
Joy rose within her, like a summer's morn;
Peace, Peace on Earth! the Prince of Peace is born.

                  IV
   Thou Mother of the Prince of Peace,
      Poor, simple, and of low estate!
   That strife should vanish, battle cease,
      O why should this thy soul elate?
Sweet Music's loudest note, the Poet's story,——
Didst thou ne'er love to hear of fame and glory?

                  V
   And is not War a youthful king,
      A stately Hero clad in mail?
   Beneath his footsteps laurels spring;
      Him Earth's majestic monarchs hail
Their friend, their playmate! and his bold bright eye
Compels the maiden's love-confessing sigh.

                  VI
  'Tell this in some more courtly scene,
      To maids and youths in robes of state!
   I am a woman poor and mean,
      And therefore is my soul elate.
War is a ruffian, all with guilt defiled,
That from the agéd father tears his child!

                  VII
  'A murderous fiend, by fiends adored,
      He kills the sire and starves the son;
   The husband kills, and from her board
      Steals all his widow's toil had won;
Plunders God's world of beauty; rends away
All safety from the night, all comfort from the day.

                  VIII
  'Then wisely is my soul elate,
      That strife should vanish, battle cease:
   I'm poor and of a low estate,
      The Mother of the Prince of Peace.
Joy rises in me, like a summer's morn:
Peace, Peace on Earth! the Prince of Peace is born.'

 —Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)

St. John's Chicken BBQ

Today is the annual St. John's Chicken BBQ. Yesterday some of the fellows helped clean out my garage, since my garage is where carryout meals can be picked up. Or you can eat down in the church basement next door, best barbecued chicken around. We'll be getting ready today, barbecuing chicken up at Lambert's shed I imagine, and then we'll be serving from 4:00 to 7:00 PM.

And don't forget to stop by at the old German schoolhouse next to the church, for the craft and bake sale!

By the way, pictures of the Chicken BBQ from a couple of years ago can be found on my personal website right here.

Update, 12:07 PM: It is in fact a beautiful, perfect sunny day. So they have set up the BBQ pits, and are barbecuing chicken, out in the open back behind my place.

Time for me to reprise my annual role as chicken taste-tester...

"Now on the First Day of the Week..."

Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. So she ran, and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him." Peter then came out with the other disciple, and they went toward the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first; and stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb; he saw the linen cloths lying, and the napkin, which had been on the head, not lying with the linen cloths but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not know the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes.

But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept she stooped to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet. They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him." Saying this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom do you seek?" Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away." Jesus said to her, "Mary." She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabboni!" (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, "Do not hold me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." Mary Magdalene went and said to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord"; and she told them that he had said these things to her.

  —John 20:1-18

Resurrection, imperfect

Sleep sleep old Sun, thou canst not have repast
As yet, the wound thou took'st on friday last;
Sleepe then, and rest; The world may beare thy stay,
A better Sun rose before thee to day,
Who, not content to'enlighten all that dwell
On the earths face, as thou, enlightened hell,
And made the darke fires languish in that vale,
As, at thy presence here, our fires grow pale.
Whose body having walk'd on earth, and now
Hasting to Heaven, would, that he might allow
Himselfe unto all stations, and fill all,
For these three daies become a minerall;
Hee was all gold when he lay downe, but rose
All tincture, and doth not alone dispose
Leaden and iron wills to good, but is
Of power to make even sinfull flesh like his.
Had one of those, whose credulous pietie
Thought, that a Soule one might discerne and see
Goe from a body,'at this sepulcher been,
And, issuing from the sheet, this body seen,
He would have justly thought this body a soule,
If not of any man, yet of the whole.
        Desunt cætura

  —John Donne (1573-1631)

Good Friday

And they compelled a passer-by, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. And they brought him to the place called Golgotha (which means the place of a skull). And they offered him wine mingled with myrrh; but he did not take it. And they crucified him, and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take. And it was the third hour, when they crucified him. And the inscription of the charge against him read, "The King of the Jews." And with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left. And the scripture was fulfilled which says, "He was reckoned with the transgressors." And those who passed by derided him, saying, "Aha! You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross!" So also the chief priests mocked him to one another with the scribes, saying, "He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe." Those who were crucified with him also reviled him.

And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" And some of the by-standers hearing it said, "Behold, he is calling Elijah." And one ran and, filling a sponge full of vinegar, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, "Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down." And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that he thus breathed his last, he said, "Truly this man was the Son of God!"

  —Mark 15:21-39

Goodfriday, 1613. Riding Westward

Let mans Soule be a Spheare, and then, in this,
The intelligence that moves, devotion is,
And as the other Spheares, by being growne
Subject to forraigne motions, lose their owne,
And being by others hurried every day,
Scarce in a yeare their naturall forme obey:
Pleasure or businesse, so, our Soules admit
For their first mover, and are whirld by it.
Hence is't, that I am carryed towards the West
This day, when my Soules Forme bends toward the East.
There I should see a Sunne, by rising set,
And by that setting endlesse day beget;
But that Christ on this Crosse, did rise and fall,
Sinne had eternally benighted all.
Yet dare I'almost be glad, I do not see
That spectacle of too much weight for mee.
Who sees Gods face, that is selfe life, must dye;
What a death were it then to see God dye?
It made his owne Lieutenant Nature shrinke,
It made his footstoole crack, and the Sunne winke.
Could I behold those hands which span the Poles,
And turne all spheares at once, peirc'd with those holes?
Could I behold that endlesse height which is
Zenith to us, and our Antipodes,
Humbled below us? or that blood which is
The seat of all our Soules, if not of his,
Made durt of dust, or that flesh which was worne
By God, for his apparell, rag'd, and torne?
If on these things I durst not looke, durst I
Upon his miserable mother cast mine eye,
Who was Gods partner here, and furnish'd thus
Halfe of that Sacrifice, which ransom'd us?
Though these things, as I ride, be from mine eye,
They'are present yet unto my memory,
For that looks towards them; and thou look'st towards mee,
O Saviour, as thou hang'st upon the tree;
I turne my backe to thee, but to receive
Corrections, till thy mercies bid thee leave.
O thinke mee worth thine anger, punish mee,
Burne off my rusts, and my deformity,
Restore thine Image, so much, by thy grace,
That thou may'st know mee, and I'll turne my face.

  —John Donne (1573-1631)

Palm Sunday

And when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples, and said to them, "Go into the village opposite you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat; untie it and bring it. If any one says to you, 'Why are you doing this?' say, 'The Lord has need of it and will send it back immediately.'" And they went away, and found a colt tied at the door out in the open street; and they untied it. And those who stood there said to them, "What are you doing, untying the colt?" And they told them what Jesus had said; and they let them go. And they brought the colt to Jesus, and threw their garments on it; and he sat upon it. And many spread their garments on the road, and others spread leafy branches which they had cut from the fields. And those who went before and those who followed cried out, "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that is coming! Hosanna in the highest!"

And he entered Jerusalem, and went into the temple; and when he had looked round at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

  —Mark 11:1-11

He — They — We

They hailed Him King as He passed by,
  They strewed their garments in the road,
But they were set on earthly things,
  And He on God.

They sang His praise for that He did,
  But gave His message little thought;
They could not see that their souls' good
  Was all He sought.

They could not understand why He,
  With powers so vast at His command,
Should hesitate to claim their rights
  And free the land.

Their own concerns and this world's hopes
  Shut out the wonder of His news;
And we, with larger knowledge, still
  His Way refuse.

He walks among us still, unseen,
  And still points out the only way,
But we still follow other gods
  And Him betray.

  —John Oxenham (1852-1941)

Good News of a Great Joy

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be enrolled. This was the first enrollment, when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be enrolled, each to his own city. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the city of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to be delivered. And she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

And in that region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. And the angel said to them, "Be not afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will come to all the people; for to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a babe wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

 "Glory to God in the highest,
  and on earth peace among men with
    whom he is pleased!"

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us." And they went with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they saw it they made known the saying which had been told them concerning this child; and all who heard it wondered at what the shephherds told them. But Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

 —Luke 2:1-20

And So 'Tis Christmas

Well, I've got worship services this morning at Mt. Hope and St. John's. Then I pack my bags, and it's off to Wisconsin to visit family.

I'll be on vacation most of this week, so you can expect my blogging to be light. Merry Christmas!

From "Hymn on the Morning of Christ's Nativity"

It was the Winter wilde,
While the Heav'n-born-childe,
  All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies;
Nature in aw to him
Had doff't her gawdy trim,
  With her great Master so to sympathize:
It was no season then for her
To wanton with the Sun her lusty Paramour.

Only with speeches fair
She woo's the gentle Air
  To hide her guilty front with innocent Snow,
And on her naked shame,
Pollute with sinfull blame,
  The Saintly Vail of Maiden white to throw,
Confounded, that her Makers eyes
Should look so neer her foul deformities.

But he her fears to cease,
Sent down the meek-eyd Peace,
  She crown'd with Olive green, came softly sliding
Down through the turning sphear
His ready Harbinger,
  With Turtle wing the amorous clouds dividing,
And waving wide her mirtle wand,
She strikes a universall Peace through Sea and Land.

No War, or Battails sound
Was heard the World around,
  The idle spear and shield were high up hung;
The hookèd Chariot stood
Unstain'd with hostile blood,
  The trumpet spake not to the armèd throng,
And Kings sate still with awful eye,
As if they surely knew their sovran Lord was by.

But peacefull was the night
Wherin the Prince of light
  His raign of peace upon the earth began:
The Windes with wonder whist,
Smoothly the waters kist,
  Whispering new joyes to the milde Ocean,
Who now hath quite forgot to rave,
While Birds of Calm sit brooding on the charmèd wave.

The Stars with deep amaze
Stand fixt in stedfast gave,
  Bending one way their pretious influence,
And will not take their flight,
For all the morning light,
  Or Lucifer that often warn'd them thence;
But in their glimmering Orbs did glow,
Untill their Lord himself bespake, and bid them go.

And though the shady gloom
Had given day her room,
  The Sun himself with-held his wonted speed,
And hid his head for shame,
As his inferiour flame,
  The new enlightn'd world no more should need;
He saw a greater Sun appear
Then his bright Throne, or burning Axletree could bear.

The Shepherds on the Lawn,
Or ere the point of dawn,
  Sate simply chatting in a rustick row;
Full little thought they than,
That the mighty Pan
  Was kindly com to live with them below;
Perhaps their loves, or els their sheep,
Was all that did their silly thoughts so busie keep.

When such musick sweet
Their hearts and ears did greet,
  As never was by mortall finger strook,
Divinely-warbled voice
Answering the stringèd noise,
  As all their souls in blissfull rapture took.
The Air such pleasure loth to lose,
With thousand echo's still prolongs each heav'nly close.

Nature that heard such sound
Beneath the hollow round
  Of Cynthia's seat, the Airy region thrilling,
Now was almost won
To think her part was don,
  And that her raign had here its last fulfilling;
She knew such harmony alone
Could hold all Heav'n and Earth in happier union.

At last surrounds their sight
A Globe of circular light,
  That with long beams the shame-fac't night array'd,
The helmèd Cherubim
And sworded Seraphim,
  Are seen in glittering ranks with wings displaid,
Harping in loud and solemn quire,
With unexpressive notes to Heav'ns new-born Heir.

Such musick (as 'tis said)
Before was never made,
  But when of old the sons of morning sung,
While the Creator Great
His constellations set,
  And the well-ballanc't world on hinges hung,
And cast the dark foundations deep,
And bid the weltring waves their oozy channel keep.

Ring out ye Crystall sphears,
Once bless our human ears,
  (If ye have power to touch our senses so)
And let your silver chime
Move in melodious time;
  And let the Base of Heav'ns deep Organ blow
And with your ninefold harmony
Make up full consort to th'Angelike symphony....

But see the Virgin blest,
Hath laid her Babe to rest.
  Time our tedious Song should here have ending,
Heav'ns youngest teemèd Star,
Hath fixt her polisht Car,
  Her sleeping Lord with Handmaid Lamp attending:
And all about the Courtly Stable,
Bright-harnest Angels sit in order serviceable.

 —John Milton (1608-1674)

The Five Luminous Mysteries

The other day I was just randomly googling around, and I discovered something I did not know until now. Namely, in October 2002 Pope John Paul II added five new mysteries to the Rosary. The five Luminous Mysteries:

• The Baptism of the Lord
  
  
• The Wedding at Cana
  
  
• The Proclamation of the Kingdom
  
  
• The Transfiguration
  
  
• The Institution of the Eucharist

Thus bringing the total number of mysteries to twenty. The Luminous Mysteries come after the Joyful Mysteries, with the Sorrowful Mysteries and the Glorious Mysteries following. And I was like, "Why didn't I know this before?!" I repeat, it came as total news to me.

Back when I was in college my friend Bruce, who lived down the hall from me in the dorm, was a devout Catholic. We used to discuss religion, and Bruce taught me how to say the Rosary. He even gave me a very nice Rosary with cocoa wood beads which had been blessed by Padre Pio, and a book about the Rosary: I still have both to this day.

I think Bruce thought he was going to turn this Presbyterian into a Catholic. A few years later, he entered a monastery out on the West Coast. For some years we used to exchange Christmas cards. He would always write in his Christmas card, "If you have any questions about the Blessed Virgin, please feel free to ask me."

Anyhow. Three years ago that the Pope added five new mysteries to the Rosary, and I didn't catch up with it until just the other day. I usually try to keep up on things like this. I'd think I would've heard about it before now. The five Luminous Mysteries.

The 125th Anniversary of St. John's

St. John's United Church of Christ celebrated its 125th anniversary this weekend. We had quite the get-together— three worship services in two days, people coming from far and near...

It was 125 years ago, in 1880, that settlers came from Germany to the countryside of northeast Iowa and southeast Minnesota, and founded St. John's. The Rev. F.W. Spindler officiated at a service to dedicate the church building on August 15, 1880. By the time he left in 1882, there was a church building, a parsonage, and a barn for the pastor's livestock(!). The same church where the descendants of those pioneers gather to worship God to this day. The same parsonage next door where I live. (No, I don't have any livestock. ;-)

The church used to be known as the Bush Kirche. In 1895 the German schoolhouse was built next to the church, and for many years the youth of the congregation attended this school where they learned their catechism, hymns, and other religious instruction. Of course German was the language used in both church and schoolhouse, on up into the 1930s.

St. John's was originally a Lutheran congregation. In 1885 it affiliated with the German Evangelical Synod of North America, which eventually merged into the Evangelical & Reformed Church, which in turn merged in 1957 into the United Church of Christ. The old German heritage is still strong out here on Wheatland Ridge.

Since 1954 St. John's has been yoked with Mt. Hope Presbyterian Church, several miles down the road. I came here in the summer of 1999, and it's been a real privilege to live and serve here as pastor.

This weekend we had a Confirmand Reunion worship service Saturday evening, with a former pastor, the Rev. Laura Odegard, preaching, and then we gathered in the church basement and in a large tent outside for lunch afterwards. (In these parts, "lunch" is any meal at any time of the day or night, other than the usual three a day.) Folks who'd been confirmed at St. John's came from far away, indeed from all around the country, and we had confirmands present from as far back as the class of 1921.

Sunday morning we had our Quasquicentennial worship service, with a former interim pastor, the Rev. Jan Bodin, preaching. The Rev. Dick Scheerer was also present, to bring greetings from the Minnesota Conference of the UCC. (St. John's is in Iowa, two cornfields south of the state line, but is in the Minnesota Conference.) The service concluded with a procession to the church cemetery, where we all joined in singing "For all the saints who from their labors rest." Afterwards, in basement and tent, we had a huge catered meal— beef and ham and pork, I had all three.

Sunday afternoon we had a Service of Consecration and Rededication, with a former pastor, the Rev. James Parker, preaching. The St. John's Choir sang "The Church on the Ridge," a song originally written for the centennial celebration in 1980 by the Rev. Milton Kading. Rev. Kading was also present for our celebration this weekend.

In the schoolhouse there was also a historical display on the history of the congregation, and souvenir St. John's 125th anniversary Red Wing crocks on sale. (If you'd like a souvenir crock, shoot me an e-mail.)

125 years that folks have been living here in this corner of Iowa and Minnesota, worshiping and serving God. On the front cover of the bulletin for our Quasquicentennial weekend was Habakkuk 2:20: "Aber der Herr ist in seinem heiligen Tempel. Es sei vor ihm stille alle Welt!" ("The Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence before him!")

You can find more about St. John's, including pictures and a complete history of the congregation, on our St. John's Quasquicentennial website.

Six Years Here

It was six years ago today that I started out as pastor of Mt. Hope and St. John's. July 1, 1999. I'd come over here to Iowa a couple of days before to drop off my car and a few other items. And actually it was July 2 that I arrived with the U-Haul truck. I remember it was incredibly hot. Folks helping me carry boxes out of the truck down the gangplank into the house.


Mt. Hope Presbyterian Church

July 3 and 4, the big Lions Fourth of July event in the neighboring town of Eitzen. I remember it was incredibly hot. Between the heat and the exhaustion of moving in, I came back to the house afterwards and slept for 18 hours straight.


St. John's United Church of Christ

That was then. This is six years later. And these past six years have been a real blessing. The best six years of my life. God willing, I hope to be living here and ministering here for many years to come.

In addition to the pictures above, you can find plenty of pictures of the people of St. John's and Mt. Hope here.

Theological Quiz

So I took the quiz, and it sez...

You scored as Neo orthodox. You are neo-orthodox. You reject the human-centredness and scepticism of liberal theology, but neither do you go to the other extreme and make the Bible the central issue for faith. You believe that Christ is God's most important revelation to humanity, and the Trinity is hugely important in your theology. The Bible is also important because it points us to the revelation of Christ. You are influenced by Karl Barth and P T Forsyth. Neo orthodox 86% Evangelical Holiness/Wesleyan 75% Roman Catholic 68% Emergent/Postmodern 61% Reformed Evangelical 54% Classical Liberal 36% Charismatic/Pentecostal 32% Modern Liberal 25% Fundamentalist 18% What's your theological worldview? created with QuizFarm.com

Yeah, that came out exactly as I would've predicted: Karl Barth and neo-orthodoxy at the top of the list, followed by Pietism (actually, more à la the older German mystical pietism than anything Wesleyan); with fundamentalism and theological liberalism in a distant last place.

(h/t Little Miss Attila)

Habemus Papam

I see a new Pope has been elected. No word yet on who he is, but they ought to be announcing it soon.

11:53 AM: Well, that was quick. It's Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger— more or less who I expected. I know some of my more liberal Catholic friends will be disappointed; though, sometimes mellow and sometimes cantankerous Presbyterian that I am, I feel a resonance with anyone who says the following:

"We are moving toward a dictatorship of relativism which does not recognize anything as for certain and which has as its highest goal one's own ego and one's own desires," said Ratzinger, 78, who has been the Vatican's chief overseer of doctrine since 1981.

"Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church, is often labeled today as a fundamentalism," he said, making clear that he disagrees with that view.

Sounds to me like my long-standing "Burgess's Law": "Relativism is the intellectual equivalent of disarming you through gun control: for when absolutes are outlawed, only relativists will have absolutes."

12:04 PM: And he will go by the name of Pope Benedict XVI.
 

Pope John Paul II

In the fall of 1978 I was in graduate school, a teaching assistant in the math department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I was living in an apartment on Langdon Street in Madison. And— somehow this is the way it sticks in my memory— I clipped two articles to save, just weeks apart, out of Newsweek. One article had to do with the steep decline in the number of breweries in the United States. The other had to do with the election of a new pope.

Actually, it was the second new pope in a matter of weeks. When Paul VI died, Pope John Paul I was elected: looking back now, a quarter of a century later, I'm trying to remember how long it was, but it seems to me that John Paul I died after only about a month in the papacy. So soon the cardinals were meeting again, and this time Karol Wojtyla of Poland became Pope John Paul II.

And now, after a papacy of 26½ years, John Paul II has died. He was truly one of the giants.

He was a spiritual giant. Agree with him or disagree with him, he was a spiritual giant. One of the quirks of contemporary Western culture— and it is greatly to our discredit— is the incapacity of many to see greatness except where the "great" is already in seamless agreement with them (or except where the "great" is even further to the left than they are, which is even more to our discredit). I like to think that Pope John Paul II, by his sheer presence and by his unyielding and personable witness, stood as a sign of contradiction against this tendency in our culture.

He also provided the Roman Catholic Church with an infusion of backbone, at a time when Catholicism seemed to be headed pell-mell toward imitating and recapitulating many of the most dismal traits of mainline Protestantism. Don't get me wrong, I'm a Presbyterian and I can't imagine myself as a Catholic; but I'm grateful that the Roman Catholic Church today is something more than just a pale "stay in tune with the times" imitation of the Presbyterian or Methodist church down the street.

(Now when are they going to bring back the Latin Mass? Never happen, I know; but I'm only halfway joking. Also, why can't Catholics sing??!)

And of course there's John Paul II and the fall of Communism. If today there is no longer an Iron Curtain or a Soviet Union, and if today Communist ideology has been consigned to the dustbin of history, this pope certainly deserves a share of the credit.

Pope John Paul II. Born May 18, 1920. Ordained November 1, 1946. Became a bishop, July 4, 1958; archbishop, December 30, 1963; cardinal, June 26, 1967; pope, October 16, 1978. Died April 2, 2005.

Easter

And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week they went to the tomb when the sun had risen. And they were saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the door of the tomb?" And looking up, they saw that the stone was rolled back— it was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe; and they were amazed. And he said to them, "Do not be amazed; you seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen, he is not here; see the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going before you into Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you." And they went out and fled from the tomb; for trembling and astonishment had come upon them; and they said nothing to any one, for they were afraid.

—Mark 16:1-8

Easter Song

I got me flowers to straw Thy way,
I got me boughs off many a tree;
But Thou wast up by break of day,
And brought'st Thy sweets along with Thee.

The sunne arising in the East,
Though he give light, and th'East perfume,
If they should offer to contest
With Thy arising, they presume.

Can there be any day but this,
Though many sunnes to shine endeavour?
We count three hundred, but we misse:
There is but one, and that one ever.

—George Herbert (1593-1632)

Good Friday

And they compelled a passer-by, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. And they brought him to the place called Golgotha (which means the place of a skull). And they offered him wine mingled with myrrh; but he did not take it. And they crucified him, and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take. And it was the third hour, when they crucified him. And the inscription of the charge against him read, "The King of the Jews." And with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left. And the scripture was fulfilled which says, "He was reckoned with the transgressors." And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads, and saying, "Aha! You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, save yourself, and come down from the cross!" So also the chief priests mocked him to one another with the scribes, saying, "He saved others; he cannot save himself. Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross, that we may see and believe." Those who were crucified with him also reviled him.

And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" which means, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" And some of the bystanders hearing it said, "Behold, he is calling Elijah." And one ran and, filling a sponge full of vinegar, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, "Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down." And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that he thus breathed his last, he said, "Truly this man was the Son of God!"

—Mark 15:21-39

Vox Ultima Crucis

Tarye no lenger; toward thyn herytage
Hast on thy weye, and be of ryght good chere.
Go eche day onward on thy pylgrymage;
Thynke howe short tyme thou hast abyden here.
Thy place is bygged above the sterres clere,
Noon erthly palys wrought in so statly wyse.
Come on, my frend, my brother most entere!
For thee I offered my blood in sacryfice.

—John Lydgate (1370-1450)

bygged ] built.
palys ] palace.

A Blessed Christmas!

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came for testimony, to bear witness to the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light.

The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth; we have beheld his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father.

  —John 1:1-14

The Nativity

Unfold thy face, unmaske thy ray,
Shine forth, bright Sunne, double the day.
Let no malignant misty fume,
Nor foggy vapour, once presume
To interpose thy perfect sight
This day, which makes us love thy light
For ever better, that we could
That blessèd object once behold,
Which is both the circumference,
And center of all excellence:
Or rather neither, but a treasure
Unconfinèd without measure,
Whose center and circumference,
Including all preheminence,
Excluding nothing but defect,
And infinite in each respect,
Is equally both here and there,
And now and then and every where,
And alwaies, one, himselfe, the same.
A beeing farre above a name.
Draw neer then, and freely poure
Forth all thy light into that houre,
Which was crownèd with his birth,
And made heaven envy earth.
   Let not his birth-day clouded be,
   By whom thou shinest, and we see.

  —Christopher Harvey (1597-1663)