Seven whole days

The first evening psalm appointed for today is Psalm 42, hence this hymn. We always sing this one at the Great Vigil of Easter. It’s great to sing a capella and savor the harmonies.

As longs the deer for cooling streams,
in parched and barren ways,
so longs my soul for you, my God,
and your refreshing grace.

For you, my God, the living God,
my thirsting soul will pine:
O when shall I behold your face,
your majesty divine?

My tears have been my constant food,
in sorrow I have prayed,
I know the taunts: where is your God,
and where his promised aid?

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I haven’t been watching the Olympics on teevee. Our TiVo is broken, so I’d be stuck watching the heart-warming vignettes, which make me want to yurp. If there were an all-sports live channel, I’d be there. Anyway, I was glad to connect with the games visually today, as the Big Picture blog delivers a veritable feast for the eyes. Wow.

It’s almost enough to make me want to turn on the teevee.

This does not especially relate to today’s readings, but it seems vaguely appropriate for a Friday in Lent. Mostly it was inspired by yesterday’s nod to Martin Luther.

Out of the depths I cry to Thee;
Lord, hear me, I implore Thee!
Bend down Thy gracious ear to me;
I lay my sins before Thee.
If Thou rememberest each misdeed,
If each should have its rightful meed,
Who may abide Thy presence?

Thou grantest pardon through Thy love;
Thy grace alone availeth;
Our works could ne’er our guilt remove;
Yea, e’en the best life faileth.
For none may boast himself of aught,
But must confess Thy grace hath wrought
Whate’er in him is worthy.

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As promised, here is today’s hymn. Look for a new one each day here on 7WD. Today’s hymn is chosen because this is the commemoration of Martin Luther. What kind of Luther College grad would I be if I didn’t pick this one? Bonus — there are videos below the fold.

A mighty fortress is our God,
a bulwark never failing;
Our helper he, amid the flood
of mortal ills prevailing:
For still our ancient foe
doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and power are great,
and, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.

Did we in our strength confide,
our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side,
the Man of God’s own choosing:
Dost ask who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabbaoth, His Name,
from age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.

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It is my intention to post a hymn text here each day of Lent. That will be the Lenten discipline of 7WD. For today, one of my favorites.

Eternal Lord, of love behold your church
walking once more the pilgrim way of Lent,
Led by your cloud by day, by night your fire.
Moved by your love and toward your presence bent.

So daily dying to the way of self,
so daily living in your way of love,
We walk the road, Lord Jesus, that you trod,
knowing ourselves baptized into your death:

If dead in you, so in you, we arise.
You the firstborn of all the faithful dead.
And as through stony ground the green shoots break,
Glorious in springtime dress of leaf and flower.

–Thomas Cain

Yesterday there was a great post over at The Episcopal Cafe, “A few words about Lent.” Here’s a sample:

Lent is a season during which the Church demands more than ordinary devotion from her children. Her services are increased-are of a more solemn character-are such as are best adapted to lead our thoughts away from the things of this world, to contemplate the mysteries of Redemption. Every day she would have her children prostrate themselves in God’s house, and pray that He would “create and make within them new and contrite hearts.” The services of the Church keep two facts prominently before our minds: our sinfulness, Christ’s holiness; our need, Christ’s sufficiency.

We don’t like to face our mortality or our sinfulness, but this is an essential part of the Christian journey. Enter fully into Lent. You will be glad you did.

Each week, we send out an email newsletter at the parish I serve. Here’s what I wrote for the “Thought for the week” in today’s issue.

Today begins the great and holy season of Lent. On this day, the church gathers to remind ourselves that we are desperately in need of God’s redemptive love. We also find hope in God’s gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, offering us true life, radically abundant life.

Our culture doesn’t really understand abundance. We think it comes from big houses or fancy job titles or large salaries. In fact, true abundance comes from the simplest things: faith, hope, and love.

If we want to understand true abundance, we have to face our need of salvation, our own shortcomings. Gratitude and joy only come when we can see that we have received a gift. And we can see that we have received a gift only when we can see what we did not have before it came.

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It turns out that talking on your mobile phone whilst driving is not only dangerous, but you miss out on the conversation. Wired has a delightfully titled post, “Driving Distracts Cellphone Users“.

Routine driving impedes a person’s ability to relay information from a cellphone call accurately to a conversation partner and to remember key elements of that information, say psychologist Gary Dell of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and his colleagues. Although many drivers regard talking while cruising a straightaway as no harder than walking while chewing gum, “that intuition is incorrect,” Dell says.

So there’s another reason not to be on the phone whilst driving. And it’s another nail in the coffin of the myth that humans can multitask. More and more evidence suggests that when we “multitask” we are simply doing multiple tasks less effectively.

Image from here.

A BBC article on incense generated a lot of interest on Facebook among my churchy friends last week. Why? The article suggests that frankincense could be a cure for cancer! (Before you set up a giant thurible, read this article from 2001.)

Fighting cancer isn’t the only possibly benefit of incense, of course. Blogging friend Nicholas Knisely tweeted an article which claims that people get along better when places smell good. So maybe a few 360s from a clever thurifer are just the ticket to heal that nasty conflict in your parish.

But of course, these are not the best reasons to use incense in church. If we only cared about fighting cancer or being nice, we’d eat macrobiotic meals in subdued lighting while hearing guided meditations. No, we gather in worship, and we use incense, to manifest God’s presence for us. We use incense and we worship to glorify God. I found a brilliant leaflet with a clever title, “Why is incense used?” on the website of St. John’s, Detroit. Among other things, it says,

Incense is not used merely because it is pretty, or because it smells sweet, or because we like “high church”, but rather because, as a living link with Christians and Jewish antiquity, it assures us that the early Christians believed as we believe, that when we gather together in his Name, God is in our midst, that we do not merely remember a dead Jew but have Communion with a Living Christ, that we do not merely long for a heaven that is “up yonder” or “in the sweet by and by,” but adore an Eternal Lord who is “right here and now.” It adds to our service an atmosphere of mystery – and well it might. For it signifies an invasion of the Eternal into time, of the Infinite All Holy into the midst of his people.

That’s it! It always strikes me as odd that people will object to incense — or to chanting, or to music they don’t know, or to anything out of their experience — with an “I don’t like it.”

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Asked to name a single newspaper or magazine she reads, Sarah Palin couldn’t do it. Instead she kept up the they-hate-me mantra, “All of ‘em, any of ‘em that have been in front of me over all these years.” She said this to Katie Couric on October 1, 2008.

You might wonder, then, why Leonard Pitts really wants Palin to run for president. Pitts thinks it’s time for the US to decide what kind of country we intend to be. In an open letter to Palin, Pitts says,

Something is wrong when we celebrate mental mediocrity like yours under the misapprehension that competence or, God forbid, intelligence, makes a person one of those “elites” — that’s a curse word now — lacking authenticity, compassion and common sense.

So no, this is not a clash of ideologies, but a clash between intelligence and its opposite. And I am tired of being asked to pretend stupid is a virtue. That’s why I’d welcome the moment of truth your campaign would bring. It would force us to decide once and for all whether we are permanently committed to the path of ignorance, of birthers, truthers and tea party incoherence you represent, or whether we will at last turn back from the cliff toward which we race.

I couldn’t agree more. If we’re going to celebrate the triumph of the dumbification of America, I want out.

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A musical and visual treat for the Last Sunday after the Epiphany. Sing alleluia!

I despise Valentine’s Day. It would be boring for everyone, including me, to list all the reasons. Short version: it commercially exploits love, somehow subverting it into consumption; and the day suggests that we should somehow love others especially on this day above others. Why not every day?

It especially annoys me when churches do goofy things on Valentine’s Day, as if this day were anything other than a Hallmark holiday ever since the Church figured out that this celebration was made from the stuff of legend. Fr. Bosco Peters covers that pretty well on his excellent Liturgy blog.

Still, I am not above making gift recommendations for those of you who do not share my disdain. If you’re going to buy something, why not get something cool. Forget fake heart shapes. Get a real heart shape. All the details are here.

Shot of Cupid’s arrow toward BoingBoing.