tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-151780072024-03-07T21:09:43.281-05:00Magdalene's EggSex. Religion. Politics. All the stuff they don't want you to talk about in public.Father Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18170260624474428623noreply@blogger.comBlogger1737125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15178007.post-91432819324792126302022-12-10T16:58:00.005-05:002022-12-11T13:09:37.350-05:00The Two Christianities<p> It often seems that there are two different religions called "Christianity." </p><p>One of them is stern, hierarchical, dogmatic to the point of fanaticism. It possesses both Catholic and Evangelical forms, marked by differences of style as well as by mutual animosity, but sharing equally in contempt for women, in sexual and financial scandals, in a culture of coverups and an intense resistance to internal criticism, much less external review. This religion divides into cult-like subcommunities in which children are scarred for life, left with gaping wounds in their sense of self which render the church and its ministries unbearable to them. In the public square, its adherents have sought and often attained positions of considerable power, at least in the United States, from which they conspire to impose their theological judgments and apodictic moralities even on those who profess different faiths or none at all. </p><p>This is the Christianity reported daily in the media, both traditional and social. It is quite real. I encounter its refugees often, and have occasionally brushed up against its adherents and apparatus. But I must also say that it seems strange to me, genuinely foreign, and when I encounter it, I feel not a like a compatriot in the same heavenly commonwealth, but like an anthropologist attempting to puzzle out the cultural peculiarities of a people utterly different from himself.</p><p>This is because I was raised, and have lived my life, in the second "Christianity." This religion is superficially similar to the first. It shares the same sacred texts and, for the most part, the same metaphysical tenets. It also comes in Catholic and Evangelical flavors, as well as more exotic mixtures called Orthodoxy and Mainline Protestantism, as yet undiscovered by the mass media but dimly remembered by those of a certain great age.</p><p>I often hear people who are familiar only with the first Christianity wish that there were a second. "If only," they sigh, "there were a Christianity that valued women; that did not make gay people hide in closets shaped like the organ bench; that saw the beauty of science as a means of understanding the Creation; that welcomed dialogue with other faiths; that wrestled honestly with the moral complexity of abortion and warfare; that critiqued itself and remained humble when others challenged it; that was not merely capable of change, but desired to change."</p><p>In fact, such a Christianity does exist, not merely as a movement within the first (although that too), but as a distinct, organized group of churches. It is more or less what is meant by the term "Mainline Protestantism," although large swaths of the Roman Catholic world share in its character as well.</p><p>Mind you, the second Christianity is far from perfect. For half a century or more, much of it has embraced women in leadership with nearly the same passive-aggressive mixture of adulation and resentment it has long offered to men. (More recently, it has extended gay and trans people an equally awkward, stiff-armed side-hug.) It talks, almost incessantly, about the need to create a more just society, while steadfastly failing to accrue or exercise the actual power required to do so. It is by no means immune to missteps and even scandal, the chief difference being that, rather than rushing to denial, its adherents are the first to point the finger at each other, demanding personal repentance and institutional reform. Its ministers are each others' harshest critics, and its official organs are quick to exclude -- like Caesar his proverbial wife -- any who have faltered or even been rumored to falter.</p><p>Imperfect? Yes, indeed. Much of this blog's seventeen-year tenure has been devoted to documenting the imperfections. But the fact is that the second Christianity -- mainline, moderate, ecumenically open and socially engaged -- offers precisely what people complain that they find lacking in the church they see in the news.</p><p>Each time I hear a friend wish that Christianity were different, I cough a little, probably too little, and mutter something like, "Have you considered Lutheranism? Or Episcopalianism? Presbyterianism? The United Church of Christ? American Baptist Convention? Watched some videos by Richard Rohr, or read an essay by Anne Lamott?"</p><p>Because -- and here's my point -- the second Christianity (which is arguably older than the first) exists. It does not often make the news, and it has certainly seen days of greater prosperity, but it exists. It is sitting right where it always has, on the main street of most downtowns, going about the business of loving God and a neighbor. You might visit, sometime, and see if it isn't what you wanted all along.</p><p>We have coffee.</p>Father Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18170260624474428623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15178007.post-34687452967912928512022-09-13T14:18:00.003-04:002022-09-15T14:48:12.918-04:00For Kings and For All That Are in Authority<p>Strolling about our idyllic small town last Saturday, dragging an Impressionable Child, we could not help but notice a pair of dueling political signs, one for a Republican candidate and another for his Democratic opponent. Both signs were extremely large, perhaps 5x7 feet, and mounted a yard or two back from the curb. They faced each other across the street.</p><p>One of them -- the blue one -- had been defaced. Somebody had spray-painted "FJB," a blunt and crude dismissal of America's incumbent president.</p><p>Fr. Anon and Impressionable Child clucked our tongues. We wondered just how unhinged a person needed to have been to resort to trespass and vandalism of private property in order to express a political opinion that was implicit in the very large sign fifteen feet away. We also shook our heads sadly at the vulgarity, which, while a perfectly understandable result of intense passion, is also ... awfully vulgar as signage goes. All in all, we concluded, this particular vandal brought shame rather than honor to his or her cause.</p><p>Days later, the Father and Child were driving through the same small town, and found ourselves behind a black SUV decorated with a yet-more-vulgar expression of the same sentiment. It read "Fuck Joe and the Hoe [<i>sic</i>]," an idea so foreign to our own way of thinking that we took several seconds even to glean its import. We took several seconds longer to grasp that the verb was <i>spelled out using guns</i>. Just like this:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgdvSG8OZdvV4H6wMDpboke8N4UmjpPuFB3c7cZV4sibRCkAGYwazuCdzjyg0bmEi2pQCmK0XR2uusxRB9N2Yz43WSC1UJlYX_hLWxehAgcWk5vo4wxP-nW4dF3XCed9of392TOU8wnGKqAwsKYaiZDn6PcCl1i3APAiFrqiFipPLLswCPnUg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgdvSG8OZdvV4H6wMDpboke8N4UmjpPuFB3c7cZV4sibRCkAGYwazuCdzjyg0bmEi2pQCmK0XR2uusxRB9N2Yz43WSC1UJlYX_hLWxehAgcWk5vo4wxP-nW4dF3XCed9of392TOU8wnGKqAwsKYaiZDn6PcCl1i3APAiFrqiFipPLLswCPnUg" width="240" /></a></div>Classy, eh?<br /><br />In the years 2015-206, we recall a great deal of conversation about whether America was home to an outright Fascist movement. We drew great comfort from an expert on the history of such movements who argued that although many of our compatriots had begun to express crude ethno-nationalist sentiments, with an ideology that actually scorned facts in favor of feelings, and in its worst case extended even to purposeful cruelty toward the marginalized, nonetheless they had not displayed the true hallmark of 30s-style Fascism, a belief in the redemptive power of political violence to purify a nation. <p></p><p> This, of course, was prior to the Epiphany Riot of 6 January 2021. </p><p>It is now pretty clear that the old vision of democracy as a respectful dialogue between Americans who disagree about policy but still regard one another as compatriots and even friends -- the relationship often claimed for President Reagan and Speaker O'Neill -- is a thing of the past. Mob-style threats are now the sort of thing we put on bumper stickers, and political violence is no longer a tool of the extreme fringe.</p><p>We could go on about this sad state of affairs, especially to note that the imagery of violence is not distributed equally among parties (the unvandalized yard sign featured a crosshairs, ostensibly because the commander once captained submarines, but still ...). But it is more pertinent to our vocation to consider the deep challenges presented to such a culture by this coming Sunday's Bible readings.</p><p>Like much of the Bible, the passages for <a href="http://www.textweek.com/yearc/properc20.htm" target="_blank">Lectionary 25 C of the RCL</a> (also known as Proper 20, or the 25th Sunday in Ordinary) deal with questions of public morality -- what it means (for Israel) to be a God-pleasing people, or (for Christians) to be a God-pleasing people who live as citizens of a pagan polity. Parenthetically, we may note, the past few years have taught us to see themes like this -- the question of civic righteousness, or more bluntly of the church and politics -- as the driving force of much of the Bible. Personal morality and spiritual health, while real concerns, seem distinctly secondary. This perspective, of course, challenges another well-known set of interpretive assumptions.</p><p>Anyhoo. In Sunday's lessons, Amos -- one of the prophets most concerned with the treatment of the poor as a marker of the nation's holiness -- lambastes as usual those who place their commercial goals over their religious commitments, who take advantage of the poor, and who deny them even their traditional right to freely collect the remainders of the harvest. This has many possible applications to life in our second Gilded Age, with its unspeakable accumulation of wealth in the loftiest percentiles. </p><p>The Lord's parable concerning the dishonest servant is more complex, and especially its awkward first summary -- "make friends by means of dishonest wealth." But it is possible to find here a hint that Christians cannot stand aloof from public life in order to preserve some notional purity of soul (as might be inferred from the suspiciously tacked-on sounding second summary, about not being able to serve God and Mammon). Rather, this line of thought might go, we are called to engage -- as Christians, so charitably! -- in the gritty and unpleasant business of actual public business, however that is defined.<br /><br />But in the context of America's deeply divided polity, it is the Epistle for the day, from 1 Timothy, that seems most challenging.</p><p>Much of the New Testament envisions an inevitably hostile relationship between the followers of Jesus and the civil authorities in whose dominions they exist. This is certainly apparent in the Lord's warning about "those who are persecuted for my sake," and in stories like those of St. Stephen and St. Paul. It is, at least according to some schools, the entire point of the Revelation.</p><p>It is an academic commonplace that some of the lattermost documents, of which I take 1 Timothy to be an example, suggest a deliberate effort to accommodate Christian communities to the reality of life in an un-Christian world. The notorious household codes (e.g., Eph. 5:22-6:9) seem to mute, if not emasculate, the countercultural message of the older tradition. A movement that once taught followers to leave -- even "hate" -- their parents, now encourages filial piety of a perfectly conventional sort. A movement that once declared "there is neither Greek nor Jew, slave nor free, male nor female," now seems surprisingly invested in head coverings, hair styles, and obedience according to pagan social norms. And a movement that once envisioned confrontation with Empire as an apocalyptic battle now encourages its followers to avoid persecution by performing the social rituals of "good citizenship."</p><p>This often seems despicable on its face -- ersatz "Paul" selling out his echt eponym! -- but it is more than that. After fifteen centuries of hegemony in the West, Christianity and culture have so thoroughly influenced each other that their values can be distinguished only by an act of historical study. That is our context, and it is much like the one sought by the author of 1 Timothy. This writer wants Christians to be good, socially-acceptable Romans. Doing so may well have seemed a matter of life and death, individually and for their movement.</p><p>So, long story short, we are urged to "pray for kings and all in authority." And these prayers are to be "supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings." Through most of the last half-millennium, this was unexceptionable; Anglicans have contentedly prayed until recently for "our most gracious Sovereign Lady Queen Elizabeth," and have now effortlessly exchanged that formula for her less popular but equally royal son.</p><p>But for Americans living in the era of "FJB" graffiti, this may well seem to be impossible, or impossibly distasteful. In our own recent experience, we have had one assisting minister ask permission to omit the name of the then-sitting president from the weekly intercessions, on the grounds that he simply could not utter the name in prayer. From there, it is a short albeit significant jump to crude and threatening denunciations of "Joe and the Ho[e]." </p><p>It is is such a context -- in which one's own deepest values seem sharply at odds with those of the civil realm and its leadership -- that the instruction of 1 Timothy 2:1ff seems most powerful. <i>You don't like your leaders? You think their pagan values threaten you and those you love? You may be right! And guess what? Too freaking bad</i>, says the pseudonymous author. <i>They are still your leaders, and if God does not bless them then you and the people around you are in even worse trouble</i>. As Lutherans might say, it is often difficult to discern God at work in the Kingdom of the Left Hand -- but it is still God's Hand.</p><p>In our time of profound political anger and unrest, this message is worth considering seriously, not least while standing in the pulpit. Hatred for our leaders -- including some of the very bad leaders who have held office in recent years -- is still <i>hatred</i>, which is a questionable emotion at best. And it is still hatred for <i>our leaders</i>, meaning the people who -- whether we believe they are capable of doing so or not -- have been called to govern the nation of which we are citizens. While we are not called to pray for the imposition any particular policy (and thank heaven we are not!), that is separable from our call to pray even for those who promote it, if they hold legitimate civil authority.<br /><br />We may well pray that God change their hearts; that God improve their moral character; that God reveal to them a new path in life leading to a period of monastic silence and seclusion. What Christians must not do is cease to pray for our leaders, with love and hope, and in pursuit of a national life marked by "quietness, peace, godliness and dignity." To abandon this practice, especially at a time when carrying it our may be emotionally challenging, is to abandon hope for better times, and to assist in driving the sword more deeply into the heart of our divided nation.</p>Father Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18170260624474428623noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15178007.post-24972851078742702032020-09-08T14:28:00.001-04:002020-09-08T14:28:24.941-04:00"An Awful Thing"<p> "The priesthood is an awful thing."<br /><br />So reads the translator's description of a chapter in John Chrysostom's Treatise On the Priesthood (3:4), as found in the venerable NPNF collection, volume 9. It's a funny remark -- many of us, over the years, have found our vocation to be awful indeed, in the colloquial sense, and yet we soldier on. But that's not the point.<br /><br />Obviously, the word "awful" has changed its sense a bit, as latterly has even "awesome." Chrysostom is trying to say that priesthood inspires awe, particularly in the priests themselves. He is certainly correct, and the way that he says it is worth considering. Here is the passage, lightly edited for clarity:</p><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-indent: 24px;"></span></span></p><blockquote><p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-indent: 24px;">[T]he priestly office is indeed discharged on earth, but it ranks among heavenly ordinances; and very naturally so: for neither man, nor angel, nor archangel, nor any other created power, but the Paraclete himself, instituted this vocation, and persuaded human beings still abiding in the flesh to represent the ministry of angels. This is why the consecrated priest ought to be as pure as if he were standing in the heavens themselves in the midst of those powers. [...]</span></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; text-indent: 24px;">For when you see the Lord sacrificed, and laid upon the altar,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; text-indent: 24px;"> and the priest standing and praying over the victim, and all the worshippers empurpled with that precious blood, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; text-indent: 24px;">can you then believe that you are still among human beings, and standing upon the earth? Are you not, on the contrary, carried at once to Heaven, and casting out every carnal thought from the soul, do you not with disembodied spirit and pure reason contemplate the things which are in Heaven? </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; text-indent: 24px;">Oh! what a marvel! what love of God to the human race! The One who sits on high with the Father is at that hour held in the hands of all,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: inherit; text-indent: 24px;"> and gives himself to those who are willing to embrace and grasp him. And this we all do through </span><a class="page" href="https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf109/Page_47.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; color: white; display: inline !important; margin: -4px -5px; padding: 4px 5px; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Page 47"><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #222222; display: inline !important; font-family: inherit; margin: -4px -5px; padding: 4px 5px; text-decoration-line: none; text-indent: 24px;">the eyes of faith!</span></a></p></blockquote>Father Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18170260624474428623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15178007.post-6159451259470634822020-01-14T16:00:00.000-05:002020-01-15T11:42:21.175-05:00Donne on Luther on BaptismRacking our brains for something new (but not very new, if you take our point) to say about the Baptism of Our Lord last Sunday, we skimmed over a few dusty texts in the Egg's Central Archive, a grand name for such a cramped, poorly-lit newspaper morgue.<br />
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Doing so, we stumbled over this nice passage from a sermon by the Dean:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">[Christian] Baptisme is to us <i>Ianua Ecclesiae</i> as <i>S. Augustine</i> calls it, The Doore of the Church, at that we enter, and <i>Investitura Christianismi,</i> the investing of Christianity as <i>S. Bernard </i>cals it, there we put on Christ Jesus, (and as he whom wee may be bold to match with these two floods of spirituall eloquence for his eloquence, that is Luther, expresses it) <i>Puerpera regni Coelorum,</i> the Church in Baptisme is as a woman</span><span class="highlight highlightSelected" style="box-sizing: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;"> delivered of child, </span><span style="box-sizing: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">and her child is the Kingdome of heaven, and that kingdome she delivers into his armes who is truly baptized. (<i>John Donne, Sermon 41, Preached at S. Dunstan's, Trinity-Sunday 1624</i>).</span></span></blockquote>
The first are splendid, if familiar images: the Door of the Church, the Putting-On of Christianity. But that third image, from Luther, is less familiar: a woman giving birth to the Kingdom of Heaven.<br />
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We ourselves spend a fair amount of time with Uncle Marty, but the phrase rang no bells. So we Googled it, and discovered a couple of interesting things.<br />
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<b>First, the phrase in question is quoted in several 17th-century Lutheran sources. </b>To take them in reverse order:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>The estimable J<b>ohann Gerhard</b> uses it, without attribution, in a commentary on 1 Peter, published at Jena in 1660. (As does Richard Baxter in his 1653 <i>Plain Proof</i>).</li>
<li>It appears in <b>a <i>loci communes</i>, or commonplace-book, taken from Luther's Latin writings in 1651. </b>The citation there is to Tome 3, p. 157a. Presumably, this refers to the Jena edition, but we do not know for certain. (For those unfamiliar with commonplace-books, they were essentially indexed collections of other people's works, based in part on the older <i>gradus ad classsicum</i> -- essentially, a quick reference guide to some compendious body of work.)</li>
<li><b>Christian Dauderstadt</b> quotes it, in the section regarding the Ascension, in his multi-volume neo-Scholastic treatise on Church festivals, published at Jena in 1646.</li>
<li>It appears in another 1617 commonplace published at Wittenberg and gathered by pastor and economist <b>Christian Gilbert de Spaignart,</b> and given the glorious title <i>Stars of Lutheran Piety [Softly shining in the works of blessed Father Luther]</i>. There it is given a different citation, which is 8.3.f.557.a </li>
</ul>
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These are all trivial in themselves, but they do raise an interesting question about Donne's sermon preparation. His sermons are rich with references not only to the Scriptures but to the Fathers and, to a somewhat lesser degree, to medieval and Reformation-era writers, up to and including regular appearances by so unlikely a writer as Bellamine. But did he know them all with equal intimacy?<br />
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Donne's references to Bernard, in particular, are so frequent that one must assume a deep acquaintance. But Luther's name appears only a handful of times in the sermons, often in proximity to the catchword "paradox." It is quite possible that, rather than keeping a stack of Luther's works on hand, Donne consulted de Spaignart or some other commonplace book.<br />
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<b>The second thing that a quick search teaches us about this phrase</b>, and the reason it is likely not as well-known as it might be, is that its source is not one of Luther's major works.<br />
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The only source that we can find for the phrase in question is from a brief sermon (or "<i>coniuncula</i>") on John 3 preached on Trinity Sunday. It was published in volume 7 of the Wittenberg edition, in 1557. It is reprinted in Heinrich Schmidt's 1873 edition, volume 7, pp. 413ff. The phrase occurs in a longer sentence, which changes its grammar from the epigrammatic form in which it is otherwise cited:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Igitur statuendam est, hic aquam esse intelligendam veram aquam, et ut distingueretur ab aliis aquis veris sine verbo, additur: Et Spiritu, ut sciamus, baptismum esse puerperam regni coelorum, ubi aqua, non ut aqua sola, sed Spiritu coniuncto et cooperante, eduntur filii regni coelorum.</i> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>Very roughly:</b> Let us be clear, that this water is to be understood as true water, and so that it will be distinguished from other waters without the Word, is added: <i>And the Spirit (John 3:5),</i> that we may know baptism to be a mother giving birth to the kingdom of Heaven, wherever water, not water alone, but rather joined to and working with the Spirit, the children of the kingdom of heaven are brought forth.</blockquote>
The relative obscurity of the phrase may have a great deal to do with its source. The <i>coniunculae </i>(a rare word, and one not in our trusty little Latin dictionary) are sermons transcribed by Luther's friends. This limits their reliability, as they can be no more accurate than the notes or memories of the transcriptor. So a phrase like this must be treated with caution, as it may not be precisely what Luther said.<br />
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On the other hand, consider the customary sources of the "quotable Luther." Unless we are mistaken, the great majority of popular quotations from Luther come from three sources: (1) <i>The Babylonian Captivity of the Church</i>, an early essay on the sacraments which seems to be the most-assigned-in-class of Luther's works; (2) the Table-Talk, which like the <i>coniunculae </i>are transcriptions from memory, often by people who had been drinking; or (3) one's imagination, like the spurious remark about the apple-tree. A sermon transcript is <i>at least </i>as solid a source as any of the Table-Talk.<br />
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In any case: <i>baptism is a mother giving birth to the Kingdom of Heaven</i>. It's a lovely thought, and one we are a bit surprised has not been more widely taken up by the present era of female-positivity in matters of ecclesiastical imagery. Perhaps it will be, once the masses read this blog post and take heed.Father Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18170260624474428623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15178007.post-60669428031279159122019-03-26T13:01:00.001-04:002019-03-26T13:01:24.767-04:00John Donne on the Prodigal SonThrough a happy coincidence, this coming Sunday falls on 31 October, the commemoration of John Donne. Although the rubrics are quite clear that a Sunday in Lent has precedence over the remembrance of a saint, some preachers may be inspired to say a word or two about the late Dean.<br />
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Of course, our attention will fall, naturally, on the Gospel lesson, the tale of the Prodigal Son. But in doing so, there is no reason on earth that we might not cite one of Donn'e own reflections upon the same text. And Father A. is here to help.<br />
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In <i>Sermon LXXXVII</i>, undated but preached at a christening, Donne deals principally with Galatians 3:27, and the idea that is baptism we "put on" or "are clothed with" Christ. It is in this context that he draws our attention to Luke 15:22, in which the gracious father calls for a long robe -- "the best one" -- to clothe his son:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 17px;">When the prodigal child returned to his father, his father clothed him entirely, and all at once. He put a robe upon him, to cover all his defects -- which robe, when God puts upon us, in clothing us with Christ, that robe is not only </span><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 17px;"><i>dignitas quam perdidit Adam</i>, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 17px;">as Augustine says, but it is </span><span style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 17px;"><i>amictus sapientiae</i>, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Roboto; font-size: 17px;">as Ambrose enlarges it. It does not only make us as well, as we were in Adam, but it enables us better, to preserve that state; it does not only cover us, that is, make us excusable, for our past, and present sins, but it indues us with grace, and wisdom to keep that robe still, and never to return to our former foulnesses, and deformities. <i>(Alford ed., punctuation altered).</i></span></blockquote>
The quotations are from (1) Augustine's <i>Quaestionum Evangeliorum Libri Duo</i>, 2:33, "the first robe is the dignity which was lost by Adam," and (2) Ambrose's <i>De Cain et Abel,</i> 1:6:24, "the putting on [a garment] of wisdom and piety."<br />
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Please note, preaching companions, that Donne himself is not by any means a type of the Prodigal Son. Although it took him quite a while to discern his vocation, he was a lifelong and extraordinarily devout Christian. From a family of passionate (and sometimes martyred) Roman Catholics, he wrestled mightily with the question of conformity to the established church. But even as a law student and aspiring courtier, he spent his leisure time composing theological tractates both speculative (<i>Biathanatos</i>) and polemical (<i>Ignatius His Conclave</i>).<br />
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In other words, we beg you not to be deceived by Donne's own self-bifurcation, and to be overly sharp in distinguishing "Jack Donne" from "Dean Donne." They were the same man, with the same life-long interests.Father Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18170260624474428623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15178007.post-8536005500120327722018-12-21T13:58:00.002-05:002018-12-24T20:54:44.040-05:00This is Why We Can't Have Nice ThingsIf you listen to some of the idle pre-holiday chatter, this winter as in any of the previous few, you will hear quite a bit of grousing about our folkloric images. Jesus, as most of us know by now, was born in neither a cave nor an outdoor stable. He was almost certainly born in the main room of a private home, because the bedroom -- reserved for guests -- was already taken. Needless to say, it was not winter, at least so far as we have any reason to believe. The Magi were not kings, nor necessarily three in number, nor even necessarily men. Saint Nicholas was Turkish, not elfin. Neither Black Peter nor Krampus has anything much to do with Christianity. And yes, <i>of course</i> the date was chosen to align with a pagan winter festival.<br />
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Old news to most readers. And all legit. But still.<br />
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We are living in an era when the same people argue that Santa Claus should not be a white man, and that Black Peter must become one. And this passes itself off as talking about Christmas.<br />
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It gets tiresome trying to focus on the appearance of God in human form -- the finite proving beyond question that it is capable of the infinite -- when one must also listen to prattle about things that are not That.<br />
<br />
So maybe I won't this year. Let's keep Christmas simple: just the Incarnation, and nothing else.Father Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18170260624474428623noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15178007.post-18026846142132164682018-12-07T14:15:00.003-05:002018-12-07T14:17:04.975-05:00Multiple "O"sIt is the time of year when pastors sometimes teach about the so-called "O-antiphons" which form the basis of the splendid Advent hymn, <i>O Come, O Come, Emmanuel</i>.<br />
<br />
(It is amusing to reflect upon how much attention these little scraps of medieval poetry get even in churches where the Magnificat itself is rarely sung, much less its proper antiphons. But that is a discussion for another day.)<br />
<br />
Father A. has been leading one of these little cottage classes recently, and was delighted, in his antiquarian way, to discover that there are a great many more O-antiphons than he had realized. Most of us are familiar with the seven used in the Roman Breviary during the days before Christmas Eve and imitated, imperfectly, in the lyrics of the hymn:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
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<li><b>O Sapientia (Wisdom)</b></li>
<li><b>O Adonai (Adonai, or Lord)</b></li>
<li><b>O Radix Jesse (Root of Jesse)</b></li>
<li><b>O Clavis (Key of David)</b></li>
<li><b>O Oriens (East, or Dawn)</b></li>
<li><b>O Rex (King)</b></li>
<li><b>O Emmanuel </b></li>
</ol>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
Some of us are also aware that Anglicans add another antiphon:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>8. <span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;">O Virgo Virginum</span></b><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;">O Virgin of virgins, how shall this be?</span> </i><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><i>For never was
there one like you, nor ever will there be.</i></span><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;">O Daughters of Jerusalem, why do
you look wondering at me?</span><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></i><i><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;">What you
behold is a divine mystery</span> </i></blockquote>
Now, this little gem was certainly written after the originals, probably during the flowering of Marian devotion during the 12th century. When sung last, it has the neat effect of changing the acrostic from ERO CRAS (I will come tomorrow) to VERO CRAS (truly tomorrow).<br />
<br />
Fewer of us are aware however, that during the 12th and 13th centuries, and beyond, several more antiphons constructed on the same pattern were in use at many monasteries and some parish churches all over Western Europe. The Twelve "Great Antiphons" include those we have just noted as well as the following:<br />
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<!--StartFragment-->
<!--EndFragment--><blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>9. O Gabriel, Nuntius Coelorum</b><br />
<i>O Gabriel, messenger of the heavens,<br /> who has entered to me through the closed doors, and
announced the word:<br /> “You shall conceive and bear, and he shall be called
Emmanuel.”</i> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>10. O Rex Pacifice</b><br />
<i>O King of Peace, born before the world,<br /> come by the Golden Gate, visit your redeemed ones,<br /><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and call them back to
the place from which they fell by sin.</i> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>11. O Mundi Domina</b><br />
<i>O Lady of the world, sprung of a royal race,<br /> now Christ has come forth from your womb<br /> as a bridegroom from his chamber:<br /> Here lies he in the crib, who also rules the stars. </i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>12. O Hierusalem</b><br />
<i>O Jerusalem, city of God most high:<br /> lift up your eyes around you, and see your Lord,<br />who comes
now to loose you from chains.</i></blockquote>
These are pretty neat, although -- like <i>Virgo Virginum</i> -- they are obviously quite different from the seven familiar Os. They are not directed only to Jesus, but to Gabriel, Mary and Jerusalem. This displays a rather different piety. And, without extensive research, it also seems to us that they are a bit less dense with Biblical allusions than their predecessors. Still, they are lovely in their own way.<br />
<br />
Oh, and here's a lovely trivium: in the Friuli, <i>O mundi Domina</i> was intoned on Christmas Eve by the priest celebrant, after he sang the Gospel and just before the Te Deum. Neat, huh?<br />
<br />
But wait, as the K-Tel advertisements used to say, there's more! It seems that, once this style of antiphon became popular, people couldn't get enough of it. Local variations began to pop up everywhere -- <i>O Thomas Didyme</i> for the feast if that saint replaced <i>O Gabriel</i> after the 13th century, at leas in some places. In Paris, we are told they sang <i>O sancte sanctorum</i> and <i>O pastor Israel,</i> of which we cannot even find texts on the mighty Internet.<br />
<br />
And in some French churches, specifically those that followed the custom established by Lanfranc of Canterbury, <i>O mundi Domina</i> was replaced by this long and curious marvel:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><b>O beata infantia</b></span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
O blessed Infancy,<br />
By which our race<br />
Was restored to life; </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<o:p> </o:p>O sweet and loveable wailing,<br />
by which we have escaped<br />
eternal sobbing </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<o:p> </o:p>O happy swaddling bands<br />
By which we have wiped off<br />
The soil of sin </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<o:p> </o:p>O splendid manger,<br />
In which not only lay<br />
The hay of animals,<br />
But was also found the supper of angels.</blockquote>
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Cool, huh? It's a little late now, but maybe some of our readers can integrate these into their planning for next year's Advent observances.<br />
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-->Father Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18170260624474428623noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15178007.post-49800722844036572782018-12-04T12:41:00.001-05:002018-12-04T12:54:17.833-05:00Sun of JusticeA friend recently asked for a little background on a hymn in With One Voice, and we are happy to oblige to the best of our ability. It is # 659, translated by Peter Scagnelli as "O Sun of Justice." The original is <i>Iam Christe sol iustitiae</i>, a 6th-century hymn (extensively revised in 1632 and now entitled <i>O sol salutis intimis)</i>. The Roman Breviary appoints it for weekday Lauds during Lent.<br />
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<br /></div>
<div>
John Julian observes that in the hymn, Lent "is regarded as a season of waiting and penitential preparation for the Second Creation at Easter," which seems like the sort of thing that should be true of <i>any </i>Lenten hymn. The opening line contains an obvious reference to Malachi 4:2, and the second stanza one to Isaiah 49:8 and 2 Corinthians 6:2.</div>
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<br /></div>
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It has been translated many times. The excellent site <a href="http://www.preces-latinae.org/thesaurus/Hymni/IamChriste.html">Preces Latina</a>e offers a version by John Dryden, which we have printed below. J.D. Chambers version, "O Christ! Thou Sun of Justice, Come," was once in common use. In its revised version, it has also been translated by Edward Caswall as "The Darkness Fleets, and Joyful Earth." We think that the WOV version is faithful enough, except perhaps for its doxology. It does not, however, retain the church-y words like "penance," which is either a gain or a loss, depending upon one's perspective.<br />
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<div>
Here are the original Latin lyrics:</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
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<div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Iam, Christe, sol iustitiae,<br />mentis dehiscant tenebrae,<br />virtutum ut lux redeat,<br />terris diem cum reparas.</i></span></div>
<div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Dans tempus acceptabile<br />et paenitens cor tribue,<br />convertat ut benignitas<br />quos longa suffert pietas.</i></span></div>
<div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Quiddamque paenitentiae<br />da ferre, quo fit demptio,<br />maiore tuo munere,<br />culparum quamvis grandium.</i></span></div>
<div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Dies venit, dies tua,<br />per quam reflorent omnia;<br />laetemur in hac ut tuae<br />per hanc reducti gratiae.</i></span></div>
<div style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-size: 16px; margin-bottom: 24px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Te rerum universitas,<br />clemens, adoret, Trinitas,<br />et nos novi per veniam<br />novum canamus canticum.<br />Amen.</i></span></div>
</div>
<div>
Here is the translation by no less than John Dryden (which is the one we chose for <i>Odd Hours</i>):</div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: #ffffcc; color: #af0000; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white;"><i><span style="text-align: justify;">Now </span><span style="text-align: justify;">Christ, Thou Sun of righteousness,</span></i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><i>let dawn our darkened spirits bless:</i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><i>the light of grace to us restore</i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><i>while day to earth returns once more.</i></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><i>Thou who dost give the accepted time,</i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><i>give, too, a heart that mourns for crime,</i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><i>let those by mercy now be cured</i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><i>whom loving - kindness long endured.</i></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><i>Spare not, we pray, to send us here</i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><i>some penance kindly but severe,</i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><i>so let Thy gift of pardoning grace</i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><i>our grievous sinfulness efface.</i></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><i>Soon will that day, Thy day, appear</i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><i>and all things with its brightness cheer:</i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><i>we will rejoice in it, as we</i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><i>return thereby to grace, and Thee.</i></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><i>Let all the world from shore to shore</i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><i>Thee, gracious Trinity, adore;</i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><i>right soon Thy loving pardon grant,</i></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; text-align: justify;"><i>that we our new-made song may chant. Amen.</i></span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Here is WOV's version:</div>
</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
<style type="text/css">
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px 'Times New Roman'}
p.p2 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px 'Times New Roman'; min-height: 11.0px}
span.Apple-tab-span {white-space:pre}
</style>
<br />
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><i>O Sun of justice, Jesus Christ,</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>dispel the darkness of our hearts,</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>till your blest light makes nighttime flee</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>and brings the joys your day imparts.</i></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><i>In this our “time acceptable”</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>touch ev’ry heart with sorrow, Lord,</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>that, turned from sin, renewed by grace,</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>we may press on toward love’s reward.</i></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><i>The day, your day, in beauty dawns</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>when in your light earth blooms anew;</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>led back again to life’s true way,</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>may we, forgiv’n, rejoice in you.</i></span></div>
<div class="p2">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><i><br /></i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><i>O loving Trinity, our God,</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>to you we bow through endless days,</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>and in your grace new-born we sing</i></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;"><i><span class="Apple-tab-span"> </span>new hymns of gratitude and praise. Amen</i></span></div>
</div>
Father Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18170260624474428623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15178007.post-58223456370173583662018-11-30T15:54:00.003-05:002018-11-30T15:54:53.880-05:00Stir Up Your PowerSome days, poor Father A. feels like the dumbest little cleric in the world. There are so many things he ought to know but doesn't and that, when he discovers them, make other -- smarter -- people pause politely and say, "Uh, yeah. Didn't you know that already?"<br />
<br />
In a few days, most of us will say aloud or in our hearts the beautiful and ancient Collect for the First Sunday of Advent:<br />
<br />
<div class="page" title="Page 211">
<div class="layoutArea">
<div class="column">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Excita, domine, potenciam tuam et ueni, et quod aecclesiae
tuae usque in finem saeculi promisisti, clementer operare: per. [Gelasian #1120]</i></blockquote>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Or, in the somewhat impressionistic translation we use these days:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Stir up your power, Lord Christ, and come. By your merciful protection alert us to the threatening dangers of our sins, and redeem us for your life of justice, for you live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.</i></span></span></blockquote>
But here's the thing. Only today -- after decades of reciting that prayer! -- did we grasp that it begins with a direct quotation from Psalm 80 (Vulgate 79:3):<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>Excita potentiam tuam, et veni, ut salvos facias nos.</i></span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i> ("Stir up your might, and come to save us.")</i></blockquote>
So did you all know this already? And nobody thought to tell me? Humph!Father Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18170260624474428623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15178007.post-65158865705143820312018-11-29T16:07:00.000-05:002018-11-29T16:09:08.124-05:00Anarchy and the Virgin's PinionsOne of Father A.'s occasional pastimes is reading -- or rather, trying to read -- the poetry of Geoffrey Hill.<br />
<br />
In the years before his death in 2016, Hill was widely, if somewhat embarrassedly, said to be the most important poet writing in English. The embarrasment in this statement grew from his notorious "difficulty," which means that even among his admirers few are quite certain what he intends to tell us. Reading Hill, except perhaps for a rarefied few experts and initiates, is consideralby harder than, say, reading Greek. We imagine it is more like reading skaldic verse, replete with those pesky kennings.<br />
<br />
Still, one soldiers onward. And from the humility-inducing murk will on occasion emerge something comprehensible and stirring. This happened today, with a passage from his <i>Hymns to Our Lady of Chartres</i> (1982-2012). It is, we think, a wonderful description of St Mary, to hold in one's heart through Advent, and which may inspire a sermon or two come Christmas:<br />
<br />
<i>She, prejudged to common wantonness</i><br />
<i>in a land racked for tribute, takes pity</i><br />
<i>on us by virtue of the Nativity</i><br />
<i>which was not without shock, although faultless;</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>and not devoid, some say, of blood and pain.</i><br />
<i>I place no call to sleeping heresies.</i><br />
<i>The three adventurers whom we deem wise --</i><br />
<i>pedigree of imperious Iran --</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>or Botticelli's angels on the thatch</i><br />
<i>did not deplore the tearlessness of things;</i><br />
<i>lawlessness, yes. Anarchy is what brings</i><br />
<i>the pinions of her grace to fullest stretch.</i><br />
<br />
<br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It still takes a bit of explaining, but not too much. The question
of whether the BVM suffered during childbirth is an old one, but since at least the 4th century reputable authors have said she did not, a view confirmed officiually at Trent, and closely associated with her perpetual virginity. The
"tearlessness of things" reverses Virgil's rather obvious claim that
there <i>are</i> tears of things -- <i>sunt lacrimae rerum</i> (Aeneid
1:462). In other words, a painless childbirth, if that's what she had, reverses the natural order -- but is not the point, to the Magi, the angels or the poet.</span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The point is not whether the birth of Christ violated the laws of nature, but that it was provoked by the rejection of divine law. This, or so we take it, is the anarchy from which Christ comes to take rescue us, and against which Mary spreads her, um, wings. (Okay, we don't pretend to get every line. We said he's difficult.)</span></span></div>
<br />Father Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18170260624474428623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15178007.post-21270803153145525772018-11-27T16:51:00.000-05:002018-11-27T16:59:05.564-05:00Savior of the Nations, ComeThis coming Friday is St. Andrew's Day. Advent begins, according to tradition, "on the Sunday nearest." Soon, then we will break out the glorious Advent hymns, including <i>Savior of the Nations</i>, <i>Come </i>(number 263, for those of us suffering under the yoke of <i>Evangelical Lutheran Worship</i>).<br />
<br />
<i>Savior</i> is a fine hymn, with a complicated history. Its ultimate source is Ambrose of Milan's <i>Veni, Remptor Gentium</i>. No less than Martin Luther translated it into German, and his <i>Nun Komm, der Heiden Heiland</i> was appointed for the first Sunday of Advent, and therefore printed as the first hymn in most of the early Lutheran hymnals. It remains a favorite, at least among us Evangelicals.<br />
<br />
Luther fiddled with his original, adding a stanza, and English translators (including Neale) have fiddled a bit more. You can find their work readily available in hymnals. For the record, though, we will offer the Latin and (medieval) German:<br />
<br />
AMBROSE:<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Veni, redemptor gentium,</i><br />
<i>ostende partum Virginis;</i><br />
<i>miretur omne saeculum:</i><br />
<i>talis decet partus Deum.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Non ex virili semine,</i><br />
<i>sed mystico spiramine</i><br />
<i>Verbum Dei factum est caro</i><br />
<i>fructusque ventris floruit.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Alvus tumescit Virginis,</i><br />
<i>claustrum pudoris permanet,</i><br />
<i>vexilla virtutum micant,</i><br />
<i>versatur in templo Deus.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Procedat e thalamo suo,</i><br />
<i>pudoris aula regia,</i><br />
<i>geminae gigas substantiae</i><br />
<i>alacris ut currat viam.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Aequalis aeterno Patri,</i><br />
<i>carnis tropaeo cingere,</i><br />
<i>infirma nostri corporis</i><br />
<i>virtute firmans perpeti.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Praesepe iam fulget tuum</i><br />
<i>lumenque nox spirat novum,</i><br />
<i>quod nulla nox interpolet</i><br />
<i>fideque iugi luceat.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><br /></i></div>
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Nu kom der Heyden heyland <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>der yungfrawen kynd erkannd.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Das sych wunnder alle welt <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Gott solch gepurt yhm bestelt. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Nicht von Mans blut noch von fleisch <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>allein von dem heyligen geyst <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Ist Gottes wort worden eyn mensch <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>vnd bluet eyn frucht weibs fleisch.</i><br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><i><br style="mso-special-character: line-break;" /></i>
<!--[endif]--><i><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Der yungfraw leib schwanger ward <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>doch bleib keuscheyt reyn beward <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Leucht erfar manch tugend schon <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Gott da war yn seynem thron.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Er gieng aus der kamer seyn <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>dem könglichensaal so reyn.<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Gott von art vnd menscheyn hellt <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>seyn weg er zu lauffen eyllt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Seyn laufft kam vom vatter her <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>vnd keret wider zum vater. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Fur hynvndtern zu der hell <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>vnd wider zu Gottes stuel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Der du bist dem vater gleich <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>fur hynnaus den syegym fleisch <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>das dein ewig gotsgewalt <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>ynnvnns das kranck fleysch enthallt.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Dein kryppen glentzt hell vnd klar <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>die nacht gybt eyn new liecht dar <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>tunckel muß nicht komen dreyn <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>der glaub bleib ymer ym scheyn.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Lob sey Gottd em vatter thon <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Lob sey got seym eyngen son. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Lob sey got dem heyligen geyst <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>ymer vnnd ynn ewigkeyt.</i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now, it will be obvious to most readers that Ambrose is going after the Arians here, as well he might have considering the way they went after his flock. There is a strong emphasis upon the equality of the three Nicene persons. The Spirit has breathed the Word, and the Son is equal to the Father.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The unattributed version in ELW, which is only six stanzas long, has a great deal to accomplish: reflecting the ideas of two important poets, making it fit the familiar meter, and keeping it to a length attractive to modern congregations. It doesn't do a bad job, although we desperately miss the stanza that begins <i>Aequalis aeterno Patri</i>. It both makes the anti-Arian point, and describes the effect of the Lord's earthly ministry upon us human beings:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
.<i>..The weakness of our mortal state</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>With deathlesss might invigorate.</i> (Neale)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But the stanza that concerns us most is the third, dealing with the Blessed Virgin. In ELW, this is:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Wondrous birth -- o wondrous child -- </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>from his throne, a virgin mild!</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Very God, and Mary's Son, </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>eager now his race to run.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Now, for starters, we despise the frequent rhyme "Virgin mild." Mary is <i>not</i> mild in Luke's Gospel. The Magnificat is not the utterance of a sweet little nothing. It is a declaration of holy war against injustice. If one must rhyme with "child," we think the only word for Mary is "wild."</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That said, other translations of this hymn use the more timeworn "undefiled," which we freely admit comes closer to St. Ambrose's original idea. And we recognize that several stanzas are being compressed into one here. But on the whole, this stanza is weak. Crudely <span style="font-size: 12pt;">translated, Ambrose says:</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<i>The Virgin's womb swelled;</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>The door of chastity remained and,</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Virtue's flags waving,</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i>Was turned into God's Temple.</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That's quite a powerful set of images. It combines the physicality of birth -- the swollen belly and miraculously intact hymen -- with the sort of waving military flags that, in later years and courtesy of Venantius Fortunatus, Christians would associate with Palm Sunday. As much as Jesus marching to his death is a battle against death and hell, so too is his mother's pregnancy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And bluntly put: <i>Mary's uterus becomes God's Temple</i>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is a stirring idea, utterly lost in our English version. It is also lost in Luther's. He says that "her chastity remained," and reminds us that Mary's body is the Lord's "throne." He's certainly working on the same idea, but, in our opinion, loses the graphic power of Ambrose.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Still, even watered-down, it is worth singing. We hope you will.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment--><br />Father Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18170260624474428623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15178007.post-35322433031339656832017-10-25T18:43:00.002-04:002017-10-25T20:55:18.110-04:00How Much Did The Reformation Cost?The old joke runs:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Two priests are visiting Rome. As they look up in awe at the splendor of St. Peter's basilica, one asks, "How much do you think it cost?"</i> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>His companion answers, "Oh, about half of Europe."</i></blockquote>
The joke, of course, is that the Reformation was prompted in part by John Tetzel's sale of indulgences, and that the money from the indulgences was meant to pay for the construction of St. Peter's. German princes, unhappy about sending their treasure across the Alps to support the lavish spending of a Medici prince, were at least somewhat inclined to support a troublesome monk who made a case for keeping German gold in German pockets.<br />
<br />
But how much money are we talking about, here? How much cash had to cross the mountains before the situation became intolerable to those in power? How much were the indulgences actually worth?<br />
<br />
It's hard to say, but we can at least begin to estimate.<br />
<br />
Tetzel was working for Albrecht of Brandenburg, a prince and bishop who needed money to pay off a massive loan to the House of Fugger. Albrecht had taken out the loan in order to pay Pope Leo X for the archiepiscopate of Mainz. The sale of the archiepiscopate was big business, which like most big deals required financing. The financing model was that the pope would license a campaign to sell indulgences in Albrecht's territory, and that the profits would be divided evenly between Leo himself and Albrecht, who would pay the Fuggers.<br />
<br />
Ultimately, of course, this means that the plan was for the indulgences to bring in double the cost of Albrecht's loan. So the critical question is: How much had Albrecht borrowed?<br />
<br />
This information is not readily available, but that doesn't mean it is unavailable. Ludwig Freiherr von pastor's <i><a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=Y1QZaRY6Q4UC&pg=PA331&lpg=PA331&dq=albert+of+brandenburg+debt+to+fugger&source=bl&ots=f1peKWnya9&sig=IzF5M3nNfHBGvPpJWXDD14OwE50&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjOwrbjzIzXAhVqiFQKHQxECKsQ6AEITTAG#v=onepage&q=albert%20of%20brandenburg%20debt%20to%20fugger&f=false">History of the Popes,</a></i> vol. 7, p. 331 (in the English edition) says that the see of Mainz cost Albrecht 14,000 ducats, and then another 10,000 ducats of "extraordinary fees" for the privilege of occupying not only Mainz but also the sees of Magdeburg and Halberstadt. He cites Albrecht's "bond for 29,000 Rhehish gulden" in Aloys Schulte's 1904 <i>Die Fugger in Rom 1495-1523</i>.<br />
<br />
So, assuming he had borrowed the entire cost of his new position, Albrecht owed 24,000 ducats or, perhaps, 29,000 Rhenish gulden. Nice to know, but as Americans often ask when traveling, "How much is that in real money?"<br />
<br />
Marc Carlson is a librarian at the University of Tulsa and, apparently, a man fascinated by vast quantities of random information. Although he admits it is very, very rough, he presents <a href="http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/history/coin.html">a table estimating the approximate value of various ancient and medieval currencies</a>. According to Carlson, both a ducat and a gulder, in 16th-century Germany, were worth approximately $500 in money circa the year 2000.<br />
<br />
So, whipping out our calculators, we find that Albrecht borrowed between $12 million and $14.5 million to finance his ecclesiastical ambitions. In which case, <b>Tetzel was apparently expected to bring in between $24 and 30 million.</b><br />
<br />
That's a lot of money, to be sure, especially for one guy with a wagon and some cheaply-printed sheets of paper. It is even more money when you consider that, if Luther was right, Tetzel had <i>absolutely nothing</i> to sell.<br />
<br />
On the other hand, consider this. An historian named John James (<a href="https://fau.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/fau%3A1433/datastream/OBJ/view/How_much_did_Gothic_churches_cost_.pdf">see page 10 of Amy Denning's fascinating BA thesis)</a> has devoted vast energy to estimating the construction costs of medieval French cathedrals, and comes in which a price tag of $548 million (in 2011 dollars) for Chartres. Barcelona's Sagrada Familia cathedral has been under construction for over a century, and is estimated to have cost $1.3 <i>billion </i>so far. A modern nuclear power plant costs several times as much.<br />
<br />
So, yes, St. Peter's was expensive. But if its cost had been limited (as it was certainly not) to the value of Tetzel's indulgence campaign, it might have at least been a decent value.Father Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18170260624474428623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15178007.post-67583818540646576942017-09-26T13:29:00.000-04:002017-09-26T13:29:06.447-04:00Double-Dipped Collects"Double-dipping" is a funny expression. In accounting, it means to obtain income from two sources, perhaps illicitly; in snacking, to stick a half-eaten chip into the sour-cream-and-onion. Neither of these is very nice. But we at the Egg love our ice cream cones dipped in cherry sauce, of the sort that forms a thin hard shell, and we can only imagine how good a double-dipped cone might be.<br />
<br />
And lately, we have discovered double-dipping in the world of liturgical prayer.<br />
<br />
One of our hobbies, over the past year, has been comparing the Prayers of the Day printed in <i>Evangelical Lutheran Worship</i> (2006) to their originals. Our guide to this antiquarian endeavor is the book <i>Keeping Time</i> by Gail Ramshaw and Mons Teig, especially Index B, which offers a citation for each prayer, along with a modest (*) for prayers that have been altered or (**) for prayers that have been heavily altered. Those acquainted with the language of our still-new service book will already know that asterisks abound.<br />
<br />
Like most Lutheran service books printed in the United States, ELW's prayers are drawn from a variety of sources and languages, both ancient and modern. The greatest number are probably from the Gelasian Sacramentary, but many are taken from other sources -- including a fair number by important historical figures, previously anthologized in Dorothy Stuart's 2002 Westminster Book of Christian Prayer. Curiously, <i>Keeping Time</i> doesn't offer any citations to the Reformation church-orders, although it is possible that prayers from those sources have slipped in through the LBW or Herbert Brokering's adaptations.<br />
<br />
Today, we were looking at the propers for this coming Sunday, identified in our books by the ungainly title of Lectionary 26 A. The Prayer of the Day is:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><i>God
of love, giver of life, you know our frailties and failings. Give us your grace
to overcome them, keep us from those things that harm us, and guide us in the
way of salvation, through Jesus Christ, etc. </i></span></blockquote>
<br />
According to Ramshaw and Teig, this one is from the Gelasian Sacramentary, specifically #1213 in the Mohlberg collection (and III:ix:x in Henry Austin Wilson's older edition). Somewhat absent-mindedly, we turned to the appropriate page and began to translate:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Custodi, domine, quaesumus, aecclesiam tuam propitiacione perpetua, et
quia sine te labitur humana mortalitas, tuis semper auxiliis et abstrahatur a
noxiis et ad salutaria dirigatur: per ...</i></span></blockquote>
Let's see. <i>Watch, O Lord we beseech thee, over thy Church</i> -- standard stuff. <i>And since without thee, human labor</i> -- no, that's a passive verb, <i>is sliding </i>or<i> gliding</i>. Hey. Waitasecond. Some of these forms are odd, and I'd swear I saw them just the other --<br />
<br />
Yup. A quick glance at Index B reveals that Old #2013 was indeed the basis for an entirely different Prayer of the Day, proper to Lectionary 23 A. In other words, the one we prayed just three weeks earlier!<br />
<br />
And yet the two English prayers derived from the one Latin source are quite different. The Prayer of the Day for Lectionary 23 A reads:<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><i>O Lord God, enliven and preserve your church
with your perpetual mercy. Without your help, we mortals will fail; remove far
from us everything that is harmful, and lead us toward all that gives life and
salvation, through Jesus Christ ...</i></span></blockquote>
23 A is far, far more literal than 26 A. The former is a single-asterisk prayer, where the latter is decidedly double-asterisk. Indeed, we would be inclined to regard 26 A as an original composition. It adds substantial material (the pairings of love/life and frailites/failings; the all-important word <i>grace)</i> and removes the central image of the original (<i>labitur humana mortalitas</i>, which is not easy to translate but may mean something on the order of "humanity inclines toward death," and seems best rendered in phrases like Cranmer's "the frailty of Man cannot ... but fail").<br />
<br />
It may seem to reflect a lack of originality on the part of the editors to have used the same prayer twice in a few weeks. But of course they didn't use the same prayer; they used two quite different prayers with a common inspiration. We Lutherans do not, generally speaking, share the Anglican conceit of producing <a href="http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bcp/Latin1979/Latin_1979.htm">a Latin edition of our English service book</a>. If we did, it would require us to create an entirely new Latin prayer based on 26 A. But we don't.<br />
<br />
So it seems curious, but also strangely creative, that ELW has taken this route. it is double-dipping, but not in the pejorative sense used by an accountant. Rather, the same tasty cone has been dipped in two flavors of sauce, to create something new and unusual.Father Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18170260624474428623noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15178007.post-23948654473038779362017-08-11T13:42:00.000-04:002017-08-11T13:42:25.300-04:00Ban Children from the Church!It's for their own good, mind you.<br />
<br />
For decades, if not centuries, Christians have wrestled with the questions surrounding young people and attendance at worship. <i>They can be a little disruptive</i>, say some; <i>but they are part of our community</i>; say others. <i>They don't want to to be here,</i> say the permissive; <i>it is good for them,</i> say the rigorous. <i>They are our future</i>, say the anxious; <i>they are our present</i>, say the affirming. (The one thing all seem to agree on is that their presence serves the salutary purpose of preventing preachers from speaking with any frankness about sex, death or Santa Claus.)<br />
<br />
But what if we just cut the Gordian knot? If we took a deep breath and tossed the little rugrats out on their diapered bums? Jane Watkins suggests that this might not be the worst thing for anybody.<br />
<br />
If you have not yet had the pleasure, we warmly commend to your attention the <a href="http://www.philrickman.co.uk/merrily/">novelist Phil Rickman</a> and his books about the Rev. Merrily Watkins. Merrily is a priest in the Church of England, serving both as a village vicar and as the diocesan exorcist -- or, in modern church-speak, "minister of deliverance."<br />
<br />
Near the beginning of our current Rickman, <i>The Prayer of the Night Shepherd,</i> Merrily takes up the question of children in church with her 17-year-old daughter Jane who, as she points out, was recently a child herself. Jane is Rickman's own voice in the books, a quasi-pagan distant from but respectful of her mother's faith. This is her answer:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
‘Who needs kids in church, anyway? Look at it this way – kids are not supposed to drink in pubs until they’re eighteen, so pubs are slightly mysterious... therefore cool. So like, obviously, the best way to invest in the future would be to ban the little sods from the church altogether. That way, they wouldn’t turn out like me.’ </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
‘So the monthly Family Service, with kids doing readings, the quiz...’ </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
‘Totally crap idea, I always said that. It just makes the Church look needy and pathetic. You have to cultivate the mystery. If you don’t bring back the mystery, you’re stuffed, Mum.’</blockquote>
It smacks of modest proposal, to be sure. But there is a kernel of truth there, too, and don't you deny it. Ban the children, and the church is a place where adults can speak freely, of adult matters. Ban the children, and the church is a place children wonder about, and long for.<br />
<br />
But, children or no children, pagan Jane is onto the most important matter, the one that sociologists and intellectual historians sometimes call "re-enchantment." A church that is preoccupied with worldly things -- even good and important things, like care for the poor and welcoming strangers -- is at base a rational creature, comprehensible by the world on the world's terms. A church preoccupied by works of civil righteousness is just another nonprofit, with fancier costumes than most -- and less effective fundraising.<br />
<br />
But a church that offers what some pagans call a "<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/travel/thin-places-where-we-are-jolted-out-of-old-ways-of-seeing-the-world.html">thin place</a>," what others simply call temple, altar and sacrifice -- in either instance, a place where the mortal encounters the eternal, where the rational is set momentarily aside in favor of the irrational, where the numinous overwhelms the prosaic -- that is something else entirely. A place that offers the sort of savage, ecstatic, extra-rational mountaintop experience that most modern people can only find on a dance floor or a sports arena? That is something that people need, long for, and will travel far to find.<br />
<br />
So listen to pagan Jane. Keep the kids, if you like. But above all, cultivate the mystery.Father Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18170260624474428623noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15178007.post-58319611040388045002017-07-22T14:25:00.003-04:002017-07-22T14:25:29.517-04:00Il Tassista e La Sua EminenzaOur new favorite bit of Roman humor comes courtesy of John L. Allen Jr., at <a href="https://cruxnow.com/analysis/2017/07/20/latest-vatican-trial-opens-time-dust-off-doctrine/">the very fine news site Crux</a>. It goes like this:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; letter-spacing: 0.5px; line-height: 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 14px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">For those old enough to remember the mid-1960s, the Vatican II era in Catholicism, Italian Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani was the stuff of legend. He was the head of the Holy Office, later renamed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and was perceived as the leader of the conservative opposition at Vatican II. Even his episcopal motto hinted at intransigence: <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">Semper Idem</em>, meaning “always the same."</span><span style="background-color: transparent;"> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; letter-spacing: 0.5px; line-height: 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 14px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">An old joke about that Ottaviani, which was a favorite during Vatican II, went like this:</span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #3e3e3e; letter-spacing: 0.5px; line-height: 24px; outline: 0px; padding: 14px 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">One day, Ottaviani is across Rome for lunch with friends and needs to get back for the afternoon session of Vatican II. He hails a cab, gets in, and says, “Take me to the council.” The cabbie looks around, sees that it’s Ottaviani, and promptly drives him to Trent!</span></blockquote>
Father Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18170260624474428623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15178007.post-87594417765332034242017-06-29T14:26:00.000-04:002017-06-29T15:09:45.282-04:00Slaves of LoveThis is actually the title of my sermon this Sunday, based on Romans 6:22. I will probably resist using this image in any parish publicity, however.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV1WceV6Q0_HGI_lKcucO1jcJUouR6CRGZypyH30kT-B1kgMybmcnZo-cm8g7m0lhl5ll_UWqo_Hir9nl1GQsQx-iGPfJZjgLrmOLJcCJwgb-SQgcWoYb6umL_BvzQcoVct_2W/s1600/slaves-of-love-movie-poster-1970-1020209011.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="796" data-original-width="580" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV1WceV6Q0_HGI_lKcucO1jcJUouR6CRGZypyH30kT-B1kgMybmcnZo-cm8g7m0lhl5ll_UWqo_Hir9nl1GQsQx-iGPfJZjgLrmOLJcCJwgb-SQgcWoYb6umL_BvzQcoVct_2W/s640/slaves-of-love-movie-poster-1970-1020209011.jpg" width="465" /></a></div>
<br />
My favorite part of this image, by the way, is that in the three lower panels, the bra and panties have been shopped in. There's another version floating around the webs without them, but we're a modest blog and will leave the fi-leaves be.Father Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18170260624474428623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15178007.post-86503675149636481482017-06-28T15:21:00.001-04:002017-06-28T15:21:23.351-04:00Wages of SinWell, this probably won't be the bulletin cover for Sunday's sermon on Romans 6:12-23. But one might wish it were so!<br /><br /><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgepaVDpQdymVLsQ2C7UkSLGAjnf5nWb88Y6a4VHTG75ebb4NDzEX1Xc-Bu5DeIRGWW-MXz15DnraZMirNuS7wfC9f_L3sV9_G-LnidKxFFquMrjJr6tFWOlFvlNoe4u5TyQkXq/s1600/WagesSin.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="511" data-original-width="250" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgepaVDpQdymVLsQ2C7UkSLGAjnf5nWb88Y6a4VHTG75ebb4NDzEX1Xc-Bu5DeIRGWW-MXz15DnraZMirNuS7wfC9f_L3sV9_G-LnidKxFFquMrjJr6tFWOlFvlNoe4u5TyQkXq/s640/WagesSin.jpg" width="312" /></a></div>
Father Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18170260624474428623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15178007.post-90319400178092775962017-05-19T12:40:00.004-04:002017-05-19T12:40:59.840-04:00Unrepentant: A Tale of Two Drunk-Driving Manslaughtering Protestant Bishops<span style="background-color: white;"><i>When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ``Repent'' (Mt 4:17), he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.</i></span><br /><br />
This is, of course, the first of Luther's 95 Theses, and foundational document not just for us Evangelicals but for Protestants of all stripes, including (with however much hemming and hawing they claim the label) members of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the USA. This fact seems lost on former suffragan (or subordinate) bishop of the Baltimore, Heather Cook.<br />
<br />
A few days after Christmas in 2014, as readers may recall, Ms Cook struck and killed a cyclist named Tom Palermo. She was driving; he was biking. Her blood contained more than twice the legal alcohol content. And she was texting (although, as GR points out, we still do not know with whom).<br />
<br />
Ms Cook appears to have been an habitual drunk. She had been arrested for DUI (with an even higher BAC) in 2010, and her boss, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/episcopal-bishop-pleads-not-guilty-in-hit-and-run-death-of-bicyclist/2015/04/02/5ad6c23a-d890-11e4-b3f2-607bd612aeac_story.html?utm_term=.308ea88cfee6">Bishop Eugene Sutton, had told the Presiding Bishop that Cook seemed to be drunk</a> at a party in her own honor, given just before her consecration in September 2014.<br />
<br />
All this may sound depressingly familiar to Egg readers. Two years before Cook killed Palermo, a Lutheran bishop named Bruce Burnside struck and killed a pedestrian named Maureeen Mengelt. Burnside was also driving drunk and texting. Burnside was sentenced to ten years in prison, Cook to seven. Oh, and both bishops left the scene of their crimes.<br />
<br />
But there is a signal difference between the two. At his trial, Burnside pled guilty, and <a href="http://www.channel3000.com/news/local-news/burnside-i-am-responsible-for-what-happened_20161116032834939/162729020">took responsibility for his crime. He said:</a><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">I am responsible for what happened. No one else. I have never been so sorry. Sorry is such an insufficient word for this kind of guilt. ... </span><span style="background-color: white;">I do daily return to that everlasting split second. I will be a prisoner of that. I will be another kind of prisoner in a cell as well.</span></span></blockquote>
<br />
In contrast, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/episcopal-bishop-pleads-not-guilty-in-hit-and-run-death-of-bicyclist/2015/04/02/5ad6c23a-d890-11e4-b3f2-607bd612aeac_story.html?utm_term=.308ea88cfee6">Cook pled not guilty</a> at her arraignment, which was her perfect legal right (and in fairness, she later pled guilty as part of a plea bargain). But at no time does she appear to have taken responsibility for her actions. Nor, it seems, does she now. The Baltimore Sun reports that, at a recent parole hearing, Cook <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">"took no responsibility" for her actions and displayed a "lack of remorse." It further reports that she</span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">... spoke at length, calling her alcoholism a disease and describing the parole process as a "brutal irony," but never apologized to Rachel Palermo, Thomas' widow and the mother of his two children.</span></span></blockquote>
Palermo was sitting a few feet away in a small room.<br />
<br />
Bear two things in mind: (1) Cook was not likely to be paroled in any case, according to an official quoted in the story; but also (2) parole boards are known to take displays of remorse and acceptance of responsibility quite seriously in hearings like this. Had Cook wanted to increase her chances of parole, she would have sucked it up and pulled a Burnside.<br />
<br />
But she didn't. Instead, she went on -- the report suggests at unusual length -- about her disease, and about the process itself. In other words, she acted against her own best interest, both legally and morally.<br />
<br />
The only real conclusion to be drawn is that she is genuinely unrepentant. She seems to feel that her disease killed Thomas Palermo, rather than she herself. So firm is she in this sentiment that she will not betray it, even to get herself out of prison.<br />
<br />
We cannot begin to imagine this woman's spiritual life, nor would we choose to if we could.Father Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18170260624474428623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15178007.post-16474674594913754482017-04-28T12:52:00.000-04:002017-04-28T13:39:04.706-04:00Newman on Reaching the HeartThe relationship of science to religion, or reason to faith, may well prove the defining question of our time. It is certainly no new subject.<br />
<br />
In 1841, the once and future Prime Minister, <a href="http://www.visittamworth.co.uk/sir-robert-peel-and-the-peel-family/">Sir Robert Peel</a>, offered a dedicatory speech at the opening of a new reading-room at Tamworth, in Staffordshire. <a href="http://www.historyhome.co.uk/peel/education/tamread.htm">It is a curious document</a>, which begins with the tedious story of how the library was established and a request for subscriptions, and proceeds to sing the praises of books on drainage, wheat disease, and emigration to the colonies.<br />
<br />
Toward the end, Peel launches an argument against "t<span style="background-color: white;">hose who anticipate injurious consequences, either to the moral or religious characters of the people from imparting to them such knowledge." Did such people exist, or are they invented for the sake of argument? It is hard to imagine that many people were concerned about the moral decadence that might result from reading about wheat blight, then one rarely goes broke overestimating the anxiety of the morally scrupulous.</span><br />
<br />
Either way, Peel's speech reaches its climax in a defense of scientific reading against its supposed religious despisers. Marshaling quotations from Newton and Sir Humphrey Davey, as well as Charles James Blomfield, then Bishop of London, he proposes that study of the natural sciences will tend to make people admire their Creator, that<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white;">..<i>. science and knowledge will not merely impress upon the mind a cold conviction of the truths of Natural Religion - but that they will temper and prepare it for the better conception and comprehension of the great scheme of human redemption[,] that new sources of conviction will be opened, independent of the overwhelming force of historical testimony - independent of that assent of the heart and conscience which instinctively discovers in the pure system of Christian morality, the internal evidence of a Divine origin.</i></span></blockquote>
This is an audacious proposition: to establish in Science a basis for Christian religious faith (and morals) independent of the Bible and any other "historical testimony." But it is not, to be honest, so very far from the arguments one hears today among many Christians, nor among those early Christian students of natural philosophy who sought to read, alongside, Scripture, "the Book of Nature." Frankly, we ourselves are not unsympathetic to Peel on this matter.<br />
<br />
But do you know who was very unsympathetic indeed? Newman.<br />
<br />
John Henry Newman, in those days still (if marginally) an Anglican, took instant umbrage. He sensed behind Peel's speech the work of thinkers to whom he was hostile -- Lord Brougham, Jeremy Bentham -- and more generally the emerging tendency to give revealed religion a secondary place in intellectual affairs. Newman responded with a series of seven anonymous letters to the <i>Times</i> (in the clubby world of Victorian intellectuals, they were, one imagines, about as "anonymous" as this blog). <a href="http://newmanreader.org/works/arguments/index.html">You can read the letters here</a>. They are quite readable, even when one disagrees.<br />
<br />
But one passage in particular stands out, in which Newman comes right to the core of the attack on "historical testimony":<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;">Science gives us the grounds or premisses from which religious truths are to be inferred; but it does not set about inferring them, much less does it reach the inference;—that</span></span> <span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">is not its province. It brings before us phenomena, and it leaves us, if we will, to call them works of design, wisdom, or benevolence; and further still, if we will, to proceed to confess an Intelligent Creator.</span> </i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">We have to take its facts, and to give them a meaning, and to draw our own conclusions from them. First comes Knowledge, then a view, then reasoning, and then belief. This is why Science has so little of a religious tendency; deductions have no power of persuasion.</span> </i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-style: italic;">The heart is commonly reached, not through the reason, but through the imagination, by means of direct impressions, by the testimony of facts and events, by history, by description. Persons influence us, voices melt us, looks subdue us, deeds inflame us. Many a man will live and die upon a dogma: no man will be a martyr for a conclusion. A conclusion is but an opinion; it is not a thing which </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">is</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-style: italic;">, but which </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">we are</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"> "</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">certain about</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">;" </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-style: italic;">and it has often been observed, that we never say we are certain without implying that we doubt. To say that </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">a thing </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">must</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"> be</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-style: italic;">, is to admit that </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;">it may not</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit;"> be</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: inherit; font-style: italic;">. No one, I say, will die for his own calculations; he dies for realities. </span></blockquote>
We at the Egg are not altogether certain that we take Newman's side on this, but we do admire his style.Father Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18170260624474428623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15178007.post-59486839857853371732017-04-27T14:44:00.003-04:002017-04-27T14:44:50.589-04:00A Blessed Nullification: John Donne on Hearts Warmed and MeltedOn February 12, 1629, the Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral went to Whitehall, and preached a Lenten sermon before the King. The Dean was John Donne; the King was Charles I, and the text was Matthew 6:21, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."<br />
<br />
The sermon is a typical bravura performance. <a href="http://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/cdm/compoundobject/collection/JohnDonne/id/3261/rec/1">Read it</a>, if only for the opening image. Donne talks about the smallest hour-glass, a minute-glass, which would give him more time than he needs to describe a worldly man's treasure; it passes quickly, like the sand. But for a godly man? Donne says he could not describe that person's treasure if he had<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="letter-spacing: -0.5px; white-space: pre-line; word-wrap: break-word;">
<i><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">... a secular glass: a glass that would run an age. If the two hemispheres of the world were composed in the form of such a glass, and all the world calcin'd and burnt to ashes, and all the ashes and sands and atoms of the world put into that glass, it would not be enough to tell the godly man what his treasure and the object of his heart is.</span></i></blockquote>
Those preaching this week (the Third Sunday in Easter of Year A) may also read the sermon because it contains Donne's single homiletic reference to the disciples encountering Christ en route to Emmaus. <br />
<br />
He gets there in the midst of a disquisition on what it means to have "a heart." This is the sort of question, as you can imagine, that is like candy to Donne. It gives him an opportunity to divide up the meanings of a word, list them and draw together his Biblical and patristic allusions. <br />
<br />
So he says: God calls us to have a fixed, a faithful heart; but to this there are many impediments, which he reduces to three: <i>Cor nullum</i>, or heartlessness; <i>Cor duplex</i>, an irresolute heart; <i>Cor vagum</i>, a wandering heart. The reference to Emmaus comes in the discussion of <i>cor nullum</i>:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.5px; line-height: 1.4em; white-space: pre-line; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><i>... for the fire of God's Spirit may take hold of me and, as the disciples that went with Christ to Emmaus were affected, my heart may burn within me when the Scriptures are opened -- that is, when God's judgements are denounced against my sin and this heat may overcome my former frigidity and coldness, and overcome my succeeding tepidity and lukewarmness, and may bring my heart to a mollification, to a tenderness, as Job found it: "The Almighty hath troubled me and made my heart soft."</i></span></blockquote>
It may be counterintuitive for modern Christians, or at least for Lutherans, to think of Emmaus as a story of judgment against sin; there is nothing about that in the text, and we are more accustomed to focus upon the image of Christ as a loving and supportive companion. But of course the "scriptures" that Jesus opened are our Old Testament, which is never short of judgment.<br />
<br />
And when we think of hearts burning within us, many Protestants (at least) recall the story of John Wesley's Aldersgate experience -- when his heart was strangely warmed by hearing Luther's Preface to Romans, and the consequent trust that God "<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death."</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> </span>This is not, really, far from Donne's point -- hearing the Law drives us to the Gospel, which turns our hearts from ice to fire.<br />
<br />
Even if that's no help, there is a nice little prayer in the midst of it, which you may find useful. Having been warmed, even melted, Donne says that he is at last pliable stuff, ductile metal, in the hands of his Maker, at which point he can say:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="font-family: Georgia, serif !important; font-size: 16px; letter-spacing: -0.5px; line-height: 1.4em; white-space: pre-line; word-wrap: break-word;">
<i>Lord, though I be nothing, yet behold I present thee as much as thou hadst to make the whole world of; O Thou that madst the whole world of nothing, make me that am nothing in mine own eyes a new creature in Christ Jesus.</i></blockquote>
He calls this self-abnegation, this <i>kenosis</i> if you like, a "blessed nullification." It is all close in tone to his famous sonnet, "Batter my heart, O thou Three-person'd God." But the grammar alone may render it a little easier to use in the pulpit or even -- who knows? -- in one's own devotions.Father Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18170260624474428623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15178007.post-81416513380067768392017-04-12T16:22:00.001-04:002017-04-12T16:28:07.954-04:00Luther on the Blissful Tree<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9nmZmShuM3_5inCJmSL1FTmSAbZz0aND3qcVXN7WVQs6mIfjTo01oK1zWvgBJF3Qlcu4hDkMCsxxUumTKO0y8KnuaYVp_XBX6IfXng6Az1bdpjVIvsGSjrx_dXUNt7E-XltA3/s1600/cross-pacino-di-bonaguida.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9nmZmShuM3_5inCJmSL1FTmSAbZz0aND3qcVXN7WVQs6mIfjTo01oK1zWvgBJF3Qlcu4hDkMCsxxUumTKO0y8KnuaYVp_XBX6IfXng6Az1bdpjVIvsGSjrx_dXUNt7E-XltA3/s320/cross-pacino-di-bonaguida.jpg" width="201" /></a></div>
In 1871, the Augustana Book Concern published a volume of Luther's Passion sermons (<a href="https://archive.org/stream/sermonsonpassion01luth#page/n3/mode/2up">via Internet Archive</a>). It was intended for devotional rather than scholarly use, and gives no sources nor even the name of the translator. We haven't time just now to track it all down in the American edition.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
But the Tenth Passion Sermon, as given in this little volume beginning on p. 159, has a few memorable bits right near the end, which we may work into our own Good Friday sermon this year.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Luther considers the age-old question of whether the Cross, an instrument of shame, should give offense to Christians. At first, he suggests that it is indeed offensive to us, because on it Jesus took upon himself our own curse. Moreover, since God had already cursed anyone who should die on a cross (Deuteronomy 21:23), the Son now hangs there, <span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">"<span style="font-size: 12pt;">as</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">one
condemned, and as one whom God hates and</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">visits now with shame and want and agony."</span></span></div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
But wait, says Luther: Let us look beyond first appearances, and judge not according to human reason, but to the Word of God. </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">This
we find to be</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">altogether different from
that which we can see</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">with the bodily
eye. This disgraceful death which</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">God
has cursed is an offence to the eye, but to us it</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">is a blessed death, for it takes the curse
away from</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">us and brings God's blessing
to us.</span></span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">The
tree which in itself is an accursed
tree, is for us a blissful tree. It is
that precious altar, upon which God's Son offers Himself to God, His Father,
for our sins. It is that glorious altar, at which He appears as the true and eternal priest. For He is brought to
the tree, and He makes it a blessed
altar, that we might be released from
sin, and receive God's grace and be
God's children.</span></blockquote>
<!--EndFragment--><br />
<div>
Luther is not saying that the Cross is not the sign of a curse, because that would contradict God's Word. He is saying that, in addition to a curse, it is also the sign of a blessing.</div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
He then launches into a touching encomium for the Cross of Christ: </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "athelas regular";">No
wonder, then, that the old teachers entertained such excellent thoughts about
the cross and the accursed tree.</span> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "athelas regular";">There in Paradise, they say, a beautiful tree
occasioned our falling into sin and
death ; here, however, an old, dry -- yes, <i>accursed</i> -- tree occasioned our deliverance from sin and our
receiving everlasting life. Here hangs God's Son with arms extended as a testimony that He will
cast no one out, but gladly receive every
one and draw all unto Him, as He says He will (John 12). </span> </span></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; tab-stops: 45.8pt 91.6pt 137.4pt 183.2pt 229.0pt 274.8pt 320.6pt 366.4pt 412.2pt 458.0pt 503.8pt 549.6pt 595.4pt 641.2pt 687.0pt 732.8pt;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-family: "athelas regular";"></span><span style="font-family: "athelas regular";">His head is lifted toward heaven, pointing out to us
the way of life eternal. His feet reach
toward the ground where they bruise the head of Satan, that old serpent
creeping on the earth, forcing from him all his power. </span></span></blockquote>
<div>
There's a lot for a preacher to work with in this passage, especially the antitheses between "there" and "here," as well as between Christ's head and feet.. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
As an example of "the old teachers," we might look to <a href="https://www.hymnary.org/person/Adam_deSaintVictor">Adam of St. Victor</a>, whose <i>Laudes Crucis atollamus</i> was called by John Mason Neale "the masterpiece" of "the greatest Latin poet." It is not impossible that Luther had this hymn in mind as he wrote, particularly the passage Neale translates this way:</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Hail, the Tree that brings salvation,<br />
Tree of Beauty, Tree of Life!<br />
O how glorious, how transcendent<br />
was this Altar! How resplendent<br />
In the life-blood of the Lamb!<br />
Of the Lamb immaculate<br />
that redeemed our ancient state<br />
From its sin and from its shame.</blockquote>
Father Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18170260624474428623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15178007.post-76463054010523176072017-04-04T12:03:00.005-04:002017-04-04T14:57:13.639-04:00Judica Down, Palmarum ComingDear Friends of the Egg,<br />
<br />
This is the time of year when a parish pastor's life is very much like driving a Formula 1 car through a long, dark tunnel at top speed.<br />
<br />
Lent is, for most of us, a great deal of work, not the least of which is the preparation for Holy Week and Easter. The goal is clear, and closer than it seems, but to change course even a little bit -- sometimes, even to divert one's attention from the road for a moment -- is to invite disaster.<br />
<br />
Of course, an F-1 driver doesn't have to think about people who are ill or dying or dead, or inconsiderately being born, nor about councils and committees and even an ELCA Malaria Initiative executive who all insist on meeting during Holy Week, or on any of the million other routine matters that, in a rightly-ordered world, would be suspended until a week or two past Easter. Not to mention income taxes, due the day of the Vigil. So pastoring this time of year is more like driving that race car through the tunnel while juggling pie pans on broomsticks and singing "O Susanna."<br />
<br />
It's busy. That's all we're saying here. It's a frantic, exciting, joyful time to be a servant of the servants of God.<br />
<br />
And yet, astonishingly, the world keeps turning. Bad prayers continue to be published, ugly vestments to be worn; the President of the United States continues to lie like an Oriental carpet, and Congress continues to do nothing in the most malicious and belligerent way possible. Which means that we at the Egg have work to do, devils to mock, opinions to offer as if they were facts, all under the thin-worn cloak of our putative anonymity.<br />
<br />
But not this week, and not next week either. Maybe during Bright Week, when we take a few blessed hours of rest. Until then, beware the forces of darkness, and remember us in your prayers.Father Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18170260624474428623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15178007.post-47685884678782348602017-03-22T16:20:00.000-04:002017-03-22T16:21:41.067-04:00Prayer of the Day -- Now With Extra Clauses!The Prayer of the Day offered by <i>Evangelical Lutheran Worship</i> for the fourth Sunday in Lent during Year A of the lectionary is as follows:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><i>Bend your ear to our prayers,
Lord Christ, and come among us. By your gracious life and death for us, bring
light into the darkness of our hearts, and anoint us with your Spirit, for you
live and reign with the Father ... </i></span></blockquote>
It's not a terrible prayer. But doesn't it seem a little cluttered? Of course it does! And why? because, as we never tire of pointing out, the ELW editors never saw a prayer they didn't think could be improved by more words.<br />
<br />
The Latin original comes from the Gelasian Sacramentary (#1173), where it reads:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;">Uoci nostrae quaesumus, Domine,
aures tuae pietatis accomoda et cordis nostrae tenebras lumine tuae visitationis inlustra; per</span></i><span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;">
… </span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;">Or in rough English:</span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>O Lord, we ask that the ears of your mercy might hear our voices, and the light of your presence brighten the darkness of our hearts; through Jesus Christ, etc.</i></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">It is easy enough to see where the ELW team got their extra ideas. (i) Christ's "coming among us" -- a fair translation of <i>visitatio</i> - is defined here as his life and death. (ii) The Spirit's unction is probably an allusion to Christ's "smearing" mud on the eyes of the Man Born Blind, in the Gospel reading for the day. (The NRSV's "smeared" is a weak translation of the Greek <i>epichrisen</i>, "anointed," found in the major manuscripts apart from Vaticanus.) But the fact that an addition can be explained does not mean it should have been added in the first place. The original prayer was noble in its brevity, and surely easier for listeners to follow.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">It is also possible that the editors are attempting to conform the original prayer to a common model, according to which the form of a collect requires an invocation, which in turn includes a relative clause identifying God's action -- for instance, "O God, who became incarnate among us." The problem with conforming ancient prayers to this model, obviously, is that the model is drawn from analysis of the ancient prayers. If some of them lack the "right" parts, it isn't the prayers that are wrong, it is the model.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "times new roman";">The sad thing is that, as we look ever more closely at the ELW collects, we can see just how much labor went into reading a variety of classical prayers and then padding them with unwelcome fluff.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span>Father Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18170260624474428623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15178007.post-32830460336860804302017-03-08T20:11:00.003-05:002017-03-08T20:11:31.406-05:00A Nice Little Post-Communion PrayerLooking for something to use at our Saturday vigil Mass (you remember, the one our congregation insists on calling its "Contemporary Service"), we stumbled across a nice little post-communion prayer. The Gelasian Sacramentary prescribes it for certain weekdays in Lent. In Latin, it reads:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Quaesumus, omnipotens Deus, ut inter eius numeremur membra, cuius corpore communicamus et sanguine; per ...</i>.</blockquote>
A straightforward translation is:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>We ask, almighty God, to be be counted among the members of Him whose body and blood we share; [even Jesus Christ our Lord.]</i></blockquote>
This can be prettied up a bit if one wishes -- <i>Count us, almighty God</i>, or <i>we have shared</i>. But it is admirable in its brevity, and really does not need any decoration.<br />
<br />
Please do not rework it in the style of <a href="http://www.dailycatholic.org/lent3sat.htm">this Roman Catholic resource</a>, which renders it thusly:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: small;">Grant, we beseech Thee, O Lord, that having received these helps unto salvation we may everywhere be protected by the patronage of blessed Mary ever Virgin, in veneration of whom we have offered this sacrifice to Thy majesty. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: small;">For ever and ever. </span></span></i></blockquote>
Seriously, guys? We are ourselves partial to Baroque prose and stilted syntax, but everything must have its limits. And much as we love the BVM, she seems to have hijacked the prayer.Father Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18170260624474428623noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15178007.post-64155090677380800372017-02-09T16:04:00.000-05:002017-02-10T10:44:08.135-05:00Keep Christianity Weird<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi92ifi0bMfYvR8_OntChflzw-IMhqqJHEQRTlnOq-JvRy2IG9JaaOcO3Y6BHemV2WHGcOfjKAzdnvuJPY8fOmYwyKQX2_C_mfz6eIcRJI-brtaOpAT1_sjA09WyovxILW-NiQi/s1600/Saturday+Booklet+Advent+Cover+Skeleton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi92ifi0bMfYvR8_OntChflzw-IMhqqJHEQRTlnOq-JvRy2IG9JaaOcO3Y6BHemV2WHGcOfjKAzdnvuJPY8fOmYwyKQX2_C_mfz6eIcRJI-brtaOpAT1_sjA09WyovxILW-NiQi/s320/Saturday+Booklet+Advent+Cover+Skeleton.jpg" width="220" /></a>Of late, Father Anonymous has been assembling covers for the worship bulletins at his Saturday night vigil Mass, which the congregation insists upon referring to as its "Contemporary Service." (Let's not open <i>that </i>can of semantic worms.) To be brutally honest, he doesn't create the images; he steals them, and makes a collage. The arrangement is his own work, but nothing else.<br />
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Upon reviewing a few of the said covers, the rotund cleric has has noted that they share a distinctive character. The images and layout may vary a bit, but the aesthetic is consistent from week to week, and it is one that merits consideration.<br />
<br />
In a word, our bulletin covers are <i>weird</i>. Here are a few samples.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKr8raxU3mu-GtMFozIcTCigIE9UEynxu9iPhnwAoWKJi7tVUdZ_U1jrWYY3Y4Pk8oLO8cn5OJobccN9Ocr-AmPsy06ghszG8WRTc0GIGzNqWbW7uPU9HbOmRFxCFy3kaEfQ_0/s1600/Saturday+Night+Bulletin+6+Epiphany+Sermon+Mount+Eye.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKr8raxU3mu-GtMFozIcTCigIE9UEynxu9iPhnwAoWKJi7tVUdZ_U1jrWYY3Y4Pk8oLO8cn5OJobccN9Ocr-AmPsy06ghszG8WRTc0GIGzNqWbW7uPU9HbOmRFxCFy3kaEfQ_0/s320/Saturday+Night+Bulletin+6+Epiphany+Sermon+Mount+Eye.jpg" width="169" /></a>We've got a skeleton swinging an axe (an image of autumn, and reminder of John the Baptist); a giant disembodied eye (did it offend somebody and get plucked out?); random dead people on a church sign; a newspaper announcing the Apocalypse; and a virgin learning that she is pregnant with God's baby. <br />
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That last one does not seem so weird until you think about it.<br />
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In fact, Christianity as a whole doesn't seem so weird ... until you think about it. But the moment you start thinking about it, our faith starts to sound like a bad acid trip, or a disjointed Italian horror movie. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ5QoHBa0NBgg_x2HVDxHOlgwerxf19CGrwBbHh7YHqzhV8BCzPu5GdAVq3YOfELaR7Eu56FSyGZj6DQ28lKIfotZ7pvyTnRJu0tlfcxHMJQOb9DoaEt_VtlEiHGL1Cy79dIy-/s1600/Saturday+Night+Bulletin+Blank+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ5QoHBa0NBgg_x2HVDxHOlgwerxf19CGrwBbHh7YHqzhV8BCzPu5GdAVq3YOfELaR7Eu56FSyGZj6DQ28lKIfotZ7pvyTnRJu0tlfcxHMJQOb9DoaEt_VtlEiHGL1Cy79dIy-/s320/Saturday+Night+Bulletin+Blank+3.jpg" width="170" /></a>A baby is born who turns out to be God; he dies and then comes back to life; people are plunged into the water and told they have died and been reborn; then they eat a meal that is supposed to be the flesh and blood of the man-God. Everybody who has ever done this, living or dead, is connected and will get together again when the man-God returns as a judge and, not coincidentally, the world ends.<br />
<br />
Yeah, it's weird. And that's without the medieval "extras" -- relics, purgatory, monasticism, and the whole "is-it-an-apple-or-is-it-a-codeword-for-sex" thing.<br />
<br />
This is no new observation. In Irenaeus' Lyons, the early Christians were accused of Thyestean banquets and Oedipean marriages -- cannibal meals and "brothers" marrying "sisters. " Julian the Apostate dismissed churches built over the remains of a saint as "charnel houses."<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQEiGYb_XmFe-zUzTjf-47j6FePuJ4pK3Rk4AXMFAxnFTpr8Xuq3q3ggnVNdu-4gFWQue0wRVJ4U6NcbDPZwb9So5DzA6STYCkBkXXg_lwTVjUbNByAHZ6z4H67OBJFj1Rua_r/s1600/Saturday+Night+Bulletin+16+Nov+16.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQEiGYb_XmFe-zUzTjf-47j6FePuJ4pK3Rk4AXMFAxnFTpr8Xuq3q3ggnVNdu-4gFWQue0wRVJ4U6NcbDPZwb9So5DzA6STYCkBkXXg_lwTVjUbNByAHZ6z4H67OBJFj1Rua_r/s320/Saturday+Night+Bulletin+16+Nov+16.jpg" width="164" /></a>Nor is it at all novel to represent in art the disorienting strangeness of Christianity. From the Alexamenos graffito to Serrano's "Piss Christ," our imagery has been used with Brechtian power by critics of the faith. But it has been used to no less disorienting an effect by ardent supporters. Think of Christ as Noah on the catacomb walls, or the profusion of ever-gorier Crucifixes in the later Middle Ages or the entire oeuvre of Hieronymus Bosch. Not to mention reliquaries, ossuaries, or church walls painted with dancing skeletons and tortured souls.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheITcw1N-_3MTmf3BLMo5dlTSadJK-0NGp3wBrzBk8flywtSny_SqXDNeabV3ydWi9DDY6FIlAtqJGfB-GxSl9dEonxfWD8cMWWxoQbWSXhDc66jLp1T44eLt_9CY97JGIWItZ/s1600/Saturday+Night+Bulletin+Advent+4+2016.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheITcw1N-_3MTmf3BLMo5dlTSadJK-0NGp3wBrzBk8flywtSny_SqXDNeabV3ydWi9DDY6FIlAtqJGfB-GxSl9dEonxfWD8cMWWxoQbWSXhDc66jLp1T44eLt_9CY97JGIWItZ/s320/Saturday+Night+Bulletin+Advent+4+2016.jpg" width="170" /></a>We Christians are the inheritors of a vast treasury of grotesque, macabre, disturbing imagery. Much is symbolic, some is didactic, more than a little is violent, sexual, or frightening.<br />
<br />
But come to church most weekends, and what's on the cover of the bulletin? A butterfly.<br />
<br />
Or a flower, or a field of waving grass with a rising sun. Or a statue of Martin Luther (or your own tradition's favorite saint). Stop by the local Bible Bookstore, and you can find more of the same: ichthys-fish with clever responses to Darwin, Jesus-bobbleheads, Thomas Kinkade calendars. A shopper drowns in saccharine, suffocates in the atmosphere of phoney comfort.<br />
<br />
A large portion of the world, both Christian and otherwise, recognizes the Christian faith not in the blackness of Hell or the red of Christ's blood, but in the cool pastels of a dentist's office. Much of the world, Christian and otherwise, identifies Christianity with images that are tame, domestic, even schmaltzy.<br />
<br />
This really has to end. The Goth movement has long since poached passionate, violent, imagery of the Church for its own purposes, which are not infrequently at odds with those of the Church. Perhaps we should reclaim it for ourselves. But, for all the Romanticism which inspires the Egg itself, the situation calls for more than medievalist nostalgia -- we tried that in the nineteenth century, and it was good, but not good enough. No; the present degraded, sentimental, therapeutic representations of Christianity really must be replaced in the popular imagination by something more aesthetically demanding.<br />
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How else to put this? Perhaps with a motto: If it looks familiar, it isn't the Trinity; if it looks safe, it isn't the Cross; if it looks easy, it isn't really the Church.<br />
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<br />Father Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18170260624474428623noreply@blogger.com2