Seven whole days

It’s an obvious choice for St. Andrew’s Day, and I’m sure not a few readers will cringe. But perhaps there’s a worthwhile message even in a sappy gospel hymn. Verse three seems especially apt in this season. Just, please, do not ever make me sing this to the lamentable tune Galilee.

Jesus calls us over the tumult
Of our life’s wild, restless, sea;
Day by day His sweet voice soundeth,
Saying, “Christian, follow Me!”

As of old Saint Andrew heard it
By the Galilean lake,
Turned from home and toil and kindred,
Leaving all for Jesus’ sake.

Jesus calls us from the worship
Of the vain world’s golden store,
From each idol that would keep us,
Saying, “Christian, love Me more!”

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This hymn has nothing particularly to do with the readings of the day, but I was still basking in its glow from yesterday.

Rejoice, rejoice, believers, and let your lights appear.
The evening is advancing, and darker night is near.
The Bridegroom is arising, and soon He draweth nigh.
Up, pray, and watch, and wrestle: At midnight comes the cry.

See that your lamps are burning; replenish them with oil.
And wait for your salvation, the end of earthly toil.
The watchers on the mountain proclaim the Bridegroom near.
Go meet Him as He cometh, with alleluias clear.

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Advent simply couldn’t get off to the right start without this hymn. Enjoy (and the bonus verse too)!

Lo! he comes, with clouds descending,
once for our salvation slain;
thousand thousand saints attending
swell the triumph of his train:
Alleluia! alleluia! alleluia!
Christ the Lord returns to reign.

Every eye shall now behold him,
robed in dreadful majesty;
those who set at nought and sold him,
pierced, and nailed him to the tree,
deeply wailing, deeply wailing, deeply wailing,
shall the true Messiah see.

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Maybe we should all stay awake tonight, as we prepare to celebrate Advent Sunday. Who doesn’t love the urgency of this hymn? And who doesn’t love the Bach cantata setting?

Wake, awake, for night is flying;
The watchmen on the heights are crying:
Awake, Jerusalem, at last!
Midnight hears the welcome voices
And at the thrilling cry rejoices;
Come forth, ye virgins, night is past;
The Bridegroom comes, awake;
Your lamps with gladness take;
Alleluia! And for His marriage feast prepare
For ye must go and meet Him there.

Zion hears the watchmen singing,
And all her heart with joy is springing;
She wakes, she rises from her gloom;
For her Lord comes down all glorious,
The strong in grace, in truth victorious.
Her Star is risen, her Light is come.
Ah come, Thou blessèd One, God’s own belovèd Son:
Alleluia! We follow till the halls we see
Where Thou hast bid us sup with Thee.

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Hello, dear readers. Once again, you will have noticed a long period of neglect and cobwebs here on 7WD. Life has been “very full” as they say. So in order to get some life back here on 7WD, I have decided to commit to posting things here every day of Advent. Mostly you’ll get hymns and other poetry. And some updates on the (mostly good) things that have been keeping me from blogging.

Expect the first installment in a bit, as we celebrate the vigil of the First Sunday of Advent. Then you can expect to see, not in this order:

• Mockery of Anglican ridiculousness around the world
• Rants (and raves?) about the Anglican Covenant
• Thoughts on politics and culture as we Americans stare into an abyss of pre-Christmas worship of consumption and orgy of excess
• Accumulated funny things and bits of techo-geekery from the blog hopper
• And, of course, your requests

I look forward to re-engaging here. Mea culpa for my extended absence.

A lovely setting of the hymn text for which this blog is named.

Thanks to choralcathedral1. By the way, this video comes from the webcast of a Sunday service at Washington National Cathedral. I’d encourage you to tune in regularly for some excellent music and fine preaching.

Please don’t bother me by saying this isn’t in the Bible. Plenty of things people ascribe to God are not in the Bible, so I’m sticking with this one. You will not see Times New Roman in any parish I am serving. Ever. In fact, if I didn’t mind liturgical creativity, I’d add these two lines to our baptismal liturgy:

Do you renounce Times New Roman and other ugly fonts?
I renounce them.

Will you use attractive fonts and pay attention to kerning?
I will, with God’s help.

From a wonderful collection of signs seen at the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear.

If you live in the USA, tomorrow is not just All Souls’ Day. It is election day. I hope every American reader of 7WD will vote tomorrow. This is a privilege that not enough of us exercise, to the detriment of the common good. Now that our nation is a bit more sane, perhaps some good will come of tomorrow’s elections?

I live in one state and spend lots of time in another. Both Massachusetts and Rhode Island have ballot questions in addition to candidate elections. The crack team of politicos at 7WD has been huddled in meetings, and we are prepared to offer opinions on the ballot questions in MA and RI.

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An Open Letter to Standing Committee Members and Bishops with Jurisdiction:

We’re writing today because we know Dan Martins, priest in the Diocese of Northern Indiana and bishop-elect of the Diocese of Springfield.

A number of us disagree with him on many things. But we agree with him about many things too. We all believe with Fr. Martins that Jesus is Lord, for example. We also believe with Fr. Martins that clergy and bishops of The Episcopal Church are bound by their vows to uphold the doctrine and discipline of the church and to abide by The Episcopal Church’s constitution and canons.

We know Fr. Martins as a person of integrity, who is honest almost to a fault. He has made no secret of it when he has disagreed with us. That’s part of why we take him at his word. But more importantly, his actions speak volumes about how seriously he takes his vows and how faithfully he will strive to fulfill them as a bishop. He served in the Diocese of San Joaquin at a point at which its power structures were discussing how, not whether, to distance themselves from TEC. Fr. Martins consistently argued against placing TEC apart from the Anglican Communion. He advocated against joining a para-TEC structure. But more importantly, he’s still here. When the power structures of his former diocese were trying to set an unalterable course to leave TEC, Fr. Martins left his diocese, not TEC.

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