Seven whole days

Here’s our second hymn for Palm Sunday, something a bit more somber than the joy of the triumphal entry.

My song is love unknown,
My Savior’s love to me;
Love to the loveless shown,
That they might lovely be.
O who am I, that for my sake
My Lord should take, frail flesh and die?

He came from His blest throne
Salvation to bestow;
But men made strange, and none
The longed for Christ would know:
But O! my Friend, my Friend indeed,
Who at my need His life did spend.

Sometimes they strew His way,
And His sweet praises sing;
Resounding all the day
Hosannas to their King:
Then “Crucify!” is all their breath,
And for His death they thirst and cry.

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For what it’s worth, this is what I preached this morning. This is shorter than my usual sermons, but then again the Palm Sunday liturgy doesn’t require a lot of commentary.

This is the obvious choice for Palm Sunday. I’ll have another one (a bonus!) ready for you later in the day, more appropriate for the later part of the liturgies of Palm Sunday. Check the videos, below.

All glory, laud, and honor,
To Thee, Redeemer, King,
To Whom the lips of children
Made sweet hosannas ring.

Thou art the King of Israel,
Thou David’s royal Son,
Who in the Lord’s Name comest,
The King and Blessèd One. All glory…

The company of angels
Are praising Thee on High,
And mortal men and all things
Created make reply. All glory…

The people of the Hebrews
With palms before Thee went;
Our prayer and praise and anthems
Before Thee we present. All glory…

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Over on CNN.com, I noticed an article called “Why we should ditch religion”. It fits into the recent fad of prominent atheists denouncing religion. And, like many of these books and articles, the author is battling a straw man (or straw woman, if you prefer). Religion causes us, the argument goes, to focus on moral matters of relative unimportance, rather than great problems such as the alleviation of dire suffering.

Religion has convinced us that there’s something else entirely other than concerns about suffering. There’s concerns about what God wants, there’s concerns about what’s going to happen in the afterlife, and, therefore, we talk about things like gay marriage as if it’s the greatest problem of the 21st century. We even have a liberal president who ostensibly is against gay marriage because his faith tells him it’s an abomination. It’s completely insane.

There are, of course, two problems with this philosophers logic. First, there are plenty of self-centered atheists who — free from the ostensible oppression of religion — lack a significant moral compass. Second, to quote something I have read, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress”.

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Over at Fr. Tim Schenck’s blog, it’s down the wire in Lent Madness. We’re at the Final Four, and George Herbert has been pitted against T(h)eresa of Avila. George Herbert needs your vote.

Here’s why you should vote for George:

• He’s one of the greatest English-language poets. You love his hymns. Think “Let all the world in every corner sing” or “Come my way, my truth, my life” or “King of glory, king of peace”.
• Herbert wrote one of the best books ever about the life of a priest. He’s inspired generations of clergy to more ably care for their congregations.
• He’s got other good attributes, as I mentioned in a previous post.
• He’s cool.
• He is the man behind the name of this blog.

Here’s why you should not vote for T(h)eresa of Avila.

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Now you’ll have the skinny next time someone says, “That’s like comparing apples and oranges”.

Squeeze of the juicer for the NGM Blog Central.

Our hymn today is based on the Gospel appointed for the commemoration of Charles Henry Brent. There are lots of verses here, many of which would not fit with modern sensibilities. Feel free to talk amongst yourselves about whether that is a good thing or a bad thing.

O Zion, haste, thy mission high fulfilling,
To tell to all the world that God is light,
That He who made all nations is not willing
One soul should perish, lost in shades of night.

Refrain
Publish glad tidings, tidings of peace;
Tidings of Jesus, redemption and release.

Behold how many thousands still are lying
Bound in the darksome prison house of sin,
With none to tell them of the Savior’s dying,
Or of the life He died for them to win. Refrain

Proclaim to every people, tongue, and nation
That God, in Whom they live and move, is love;
Tell how He stooped to save His lost creation,
And died on earth that we might live above. Refrain

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Unlike most of my Lenten hymn selections, this hymn has nothing to do with today’s lections. This is a plug for the poetry of George Herbert — hoping you’ll cast a vote for him in Lent Madness. You see, he’s made it to the Final Four, and he needs your support.

Now, in its own right, this is a fantastic text. Episcopalians won’t know the text much as a hymn, because the editors of the Hymnal 1982 did it no favors with their tune selection. Check the videos for an oustanding tune/text pairing from England, and also a couple of anthem settings of this inspiring poem.

Let all the world in every corner sing, my God and King!
The heavens are not too high, His praise may thither fly,
The earth is not too low, His praises there may grow.
Let all the world in every corner sing, my God and King!

Let all the world in every corner sing, my God and King!
The church with psalms must shout, no door can keep them out;
But, above all, the heart must bear the longest part.
Let all the world in every corner sing, my God and King!

Words: George Herbert, 1633

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Gizmodo had a photography contest: snap a photo that involves a reflection. The results are beautiful.

Here’s a bonus hymn on this Feast of the Annunciation. If it seems too “Christmasy”, tough. That’s the way it works with incarnation. Emmanuel gets right up into your Lent-face.

Coffee is my vice, so I’m always glad to read about how it’s good for me. As Wired reports:

Even though several studies have found a cup-a-day habit imparts health benefits such as decreased risk of obesity, Alzheimer’s and colon cancer, many coffee lovers drink decaf or forgo the beverage altogether because it irritates the stomach or spurs heartburn.

Great! It’s good for me. I don’t have irritation problems, and perhaps now I know the reason. My preference for dark roasts has been affirmed.

Roasting coffee beans doesn’t just impart bold, rich flavor. It also creates a compound that helps dial down production of stomach acid, according to research presented on March 21 at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society. The discovery may explain why dark-roasted brews are gentler on the stomach than their lighter peers, and could lead to a new generation of tummy-friendly coffees.

Women appear to benefit from drinking three cups or more each day, according to Psychology Today.

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Today being the Feast of the Annunciation, here’s a Marian hymn. Video below. Bonus hymn coming later today.

Sing we of the blessed Mother who received the angel’s word,
and obedient to the summons bore in love the infant Lord;
sing we of the joys of Mary at whose breast that child was fed
who is Son of God eternal and the everlasting Bread.

Sing we, too, of Mary’s sorrows, of the sword that pierced her through,
when beneath the cross of Jesus she his weight of suff’ring knew,
looked upon her Son and Savior reigning from the awful tree,
saw the price of our redemption paid to set the sinner free.

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