The Internet Monk Archives

Sermon: Advent II – Sinai’s Last Thunder

Sermon: Advent I
Sinai’s Last Thunder

In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of Judea, proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” This is the one of whom the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said,

“The voice of one crying out in the wilderness:
‘Prepare the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight.’”

Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. Then the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region along the Jordan, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bear fruit worthy of repentance. Do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the ax is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

“I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.”

• Matthew 3:1-12

• • •

Sinai’s Last Thunder (Matthew 3:1-12)

What are we going to do with John the Baptist? John is one of the most vividly drawn characters in Scripture and each Advent we come face to face with him again. The four Gospels show us that Jesus’ public work began in the context of John’s ministry, and this text from Matthew summarizes it well.

▪John lived in the wilderness. He lived an ascetic life, living under vows that limited his dress, his diet, and his vocation.

▪John was a prophet to whom the Word of the Lord came.

▪Like the Hebrew prophets who came before him, John preached repentance, urging Israel to turn back to God.

▪John complemented his preaching with the prophetic action of baptism.

▪John came to fulfill God’s promise given through the prophet Isaiah — he came to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord, who was about to arrive, bringing salvation to his people.

How should we approach today’s description of John the Baptist? One way would be to discuss the theological words in this Gospel lesson. Note the rich, profound concepts that are meaningful to our faith: the Word of God, the wilderness, baptism, repentance, the forgiveness of sins, God’s promises through the prophets, the coming of the Lord, God’s salvation. We could meditate on these rich words and concepts this morning.

Another way we could approach John would be to try and understand the historical context of his ministry. We could talk about why he appeared in the wilderness and why he baptized in the Jordan River and what that would have symbolized for the Jewish people. We could discuss Israel’s relationship with the Romans who ruled over them at that time, the Jews’ continuing sense of being a people in exile, and how John was raised up to address that situation.

Today, I’d like to look at this Gospel text from a close and personal angle. You see — and I am going to be frank here — I have an idea that John the Baptist is not a person I would like very much. And I doubt that most of you would care for him either. I’m quite sure he would not be welcomed with enthusiasm in most of our churches today. He was strange, abrasive, different.

▪ First of all, John was a hermit. He lived in the wilderness. He lived under a Nazirite vow which meant he didn’t do a lot of the things you and I consider normal. The Gospels say he dressed in unconventional clothes. He ate a funny diet. It’s likely his personal hygiene was not up to our standards. He looked rough and talked rough — and probably didn’t smell so good. I doubt he was skilled in social graces or manners. He was an outsider and didn’t fit into polite company well.

▪ Second, John was narrow-minded. No matter what subject you brought up, he wanted to talk about one thing: repentance.

▪ Third, John didn’t mind his own business. Not only did he want to talk about repentance, he wanted you to repent! John wasn’t afraid to look you in the eye and tell you what was what. He wasn’t shy about challenging others about their lifestyles, their priorities, their spending habits, their entertainment choices, their religious practices. He was not concerned about winning friends. He believed God had called him to tell the plain truth bluntly and forcefully, and then tell people to get their act together.

▪ Fourth, John didn’t put much stock in religious trappings. The Pharisees were the most conservative and respected religious people in Israel in those days — and John called them snakes! If he came to visit us today, he would not likely be impressed with a beautiful church building, a full slate of good programs, or a group of people who were devoted to their church. He would start asking uncomfortable questions that go beyond the externals and focus on whether a person’s heart and life is right.

▪ Fifth, John put people on the spot publicly. John’s ministry was not a quiet, private business. He called people to profess their repentance right out in the open, in public view. When he called you to turn your life around, he insisted that you had to do that in front of everyone. He said, if you’re serious, come down here to the river, take off your clothes, and I’ll baptize you and wash you clean like a newborn baby. Your mom and dad will know. Your friends and coworkers will know. Everyone will know. John didn’t care about embarrassing people. He believed so strongly in what he was doing that he thought that taking a public stand was worth any discomfort a person might feel.

So, what do you do with people like that? Strong personalities who separate themselves from the way you and other normal people live, who are narrow and negative and severe; who don’t mind their own business but freely speak their opinions and judgments to you and even about you? How do you deal with people who don’t simply accept the way you are but who constantly challenge you to change? Who put you on the spot and embarrass you in front of your family and friends?

This was John the Baptist: and I will be honest with you, he makes me uncomfortable. All his talk about sin and repentance, all his warnings about a God of judgment and the wrath to come, his refusal to accept any excuses from anyone, his rough appearance and uncouth ways, his direct way of confronting people, and his demand that even the most respectable people humble themselves and go down to the river and be baptized — all these things get under my skin and make me want to avoid him.

There is, of course, one positive characteristic that I love about John: he had a strong hope in the Messiah and when the time came he consistently pointed people away from himself to Jesus. When, as John’s Gospel records, John said, “He must increase and I must decrease,” I think that’s just about as good an approach to life as I can imagine.

But what about all this other stuff? Why did he have to break onto the scene like a bull in a china shop, upsetting everything, the way he did?

I think there is a clear theological answer to that: John was God’s LAST prophet to Israel under the covenant with Moses. John was the final peal of thunder from Mt. Sinai. John was the last in a long line of strange men and women who followed God’s unique calling to put themselves outside of mainstream Jewish religion in order that they might get the nation’s attention and call the people of Israel back to God. They called Israel back to the covenant they had entered into under Moses when they received the Ten Commandments and all of God’s laws.

When we lived in the east, and would travel through New York, they had signs that warned you about going the wrong way down a ramp on the highway. At the intersection where the ramp met the road, it would say, “Do Not Enter.” But then, a little farther down the ramp would be another sign — “Wrong Way!” Finally, a bit farther on was a sign with big letters, saying, “Go Back!” After that, you’d be driving down the highway in the wrong direction, in the face of oncoming traffic.

John was the man who was standing at the end of the line, the last warning, holding up a sign saying, “Stop! Turn around! GO BACK!!!” He warned Israel that they couldn’t go any farther in the direction they were going without getting themselves into serious danger of death and destruction.

Now, if that’s your job, you can’t be subtle about it. You have to get people’s attention. You have to speak directly and confrontationally. You can’t beat around the bush. This is not the time for winning personality contests. You have to speak the truth plainly, simply, and without waffling. There is no time to debate, no time to sit around and analyze what’s happening. People are about to plunge to their destruction, and you have to warn them. You have to point them to another way that will lead to life and not death. This was a grave emergency for the people of Israel, the danger was imminent, and God called John to warn Israel about it with a sense of urgency. And that is exactly what John the Baptist was all about.

• • •

And that, my friends, is one thing that Advent is all about.

Advent is the time when God is shouting at us, “Stop!” It is the season in which he points us to the consequences of ignoring him and living selfishly. It is God’s urgent appeal that we will pause, consider our ways, and turn in fresh faith to put our hope in his promises.

We have turned Advent into something else. We’ve made it simply about preparing for Christmas. That certainly is part of it, but it’s not the whole message of this season. Traditionally, Advent has been a penitential season, like Lent. It’s a time for self-examination. It’s a time to confess our sins. It’s a time to humble ourselves and be honest with ourselves and recognize that, in many ways, we’re a mess and our families are a mess, and our churches are a mess, and the nations are a mess, and our world is a mess.

Advent is a time to recognize that unless God saves us we will not be saved.

That is why it has been traditional practice for people to fast during Advent, just as they do during Lent. In worship, many churches don’t sing the “Gloria” during Advent. Advent liturgies and hymns tend to be somber and stark, like the November/December landscape here in the northern hemisphere. The colors of Advent are dark blue and deep purple like the days that are growing darker as we move into winter. Our scripture readings are from the prophets and in the Gospels we meet people like John the Baptist, who hold up God’s Law like a mirror to our lives, tell us where we are falling short, and urge us to turn our lives around.

I remember watching a football game on TV when I was eight years old. It was between the Minnesota Vikings and the San Francisco 49ers. The 49ers had the ball down near their own goal line and their quarterback threw a pass that was complete at about the 30-yard line. When the Vikings defensive back tackled the receiver, he stripped the ball from his arms, causing a fumble. Vikings linebacker Jim Marshall swooped in and picked up the ball and started running toward the goal line.

But there was one huge problem: he was running the wrong way! His teammates chased him down the field, yelling at him. His other teammates on the sidelines did the same. But Marshall was so exuberant about retrieving the fumble and having a clear field in front of him that he just kept running and running and running. He ran for 66 yards, and as he went into the end zone he flung the ball up into the air and out of bounds. It was only as he began to go toward his bench that a teammate finally caught up with him and gave him the bad news: he had gone the wrong way and scored points for the other team.

What a terrible feeling Jim Marshall must have had at that moment! He was out there, playing the game, doing his job and thinking he was doing it well. He was so caught up in the moment that he couldn’t hear the voices all around him screaming at him that he was going the wrong way. He just kept running and running and running until it was too late.

Don’t keep running and running and running during Advent, this season before Christmas. It is entirely possible you might be running in the wrong direction. Stop for a moment and look at where you are on the field. Listen closely. Is God trying to say something to you? Is he trying to point you in another direction?

Maybe we can learn something from this crazy guy named John the Baptist after all.

May God give us grace to hear his Word repentance this Advent season so that our hearts may turn toward Jesus and welcome his coming. Amen.

Advent Pic and Cantata of the Week II

ADVENT II

Bach Cantata 70, “Watch! Pray!”

BWV 70 is an expansion of a cantata Bach wrote seven years earlier in Weimar. The music for this earlier work has been almost entirely lost. It was one of a group of three cantatas (BWV 70a.186a,147a) that Bach produced in December 1716 based on texts by the Weimar court poet Salomo Franck.

BWV 70a was written for the 2^nd Sunday in Advent, however in Leipzig cantatas could only be performed on the 1^st Sunday in Advent but since the readings for both Sundays deal with the end of time and the coming of Christ it was not for the anonymous librettist of BWV 70 to take over Franck’s text without change. Four recitatives were added, based on Matthew’s account of the last judgement (the gospel for the 26^th Sunday after Trinity) and a chorale verse to conclude first part of the cantata. The six movement cantata of 1716 is thus expanded seven years later into an eleven movement work with a two–part structure.

Here is the tenor aria that begins the second part of this expanded cantata. In the Advent season, it calls us to lift up our heads with hopeful anticipation of the coming of Christ and the new creation.

(Source: Bach Cantatas Website)

Hebt euer Haupt empor
Und seid getrost, ihr Frommen,
Zu eurer Seelen Flor!
Ihr sollt in Eden grünen,
Gott ewiglich zu dienen.

Lift up your heads
and be consoled, you devout people,
may your souls blossom!
You are to flourish in Eden
to serve God for ever.

Cantata texts by Salomo Franck, Christian Keymann

Saturday Ramblings: December 3, 2016

RAMBLER OF THE WEEK

As far as we know, there is only one person left in this world who was born in the 19th century. On Tuesday, Emma Morano celebrated her 117th birthday. I think that’s worthy of our Rambler of the Week honor, don’t you?

Ms. Morano, the oldest of eight siblings, was born on the 29th of November, 1899 in the Piedmont region of Italy. According to a report at the BBC, she survived an abusive marriage which started with blackmail, the loss of her only son, and a diet which most would describe as anything but balanced.

It was a regime Morano took up as a young woman, after the doctor diagnosed her with anaemia shortly after World War One. For over 90 years, she ate 3 eggs each day, two of them raw, while consuming very few fruits and vegetables. These days, we are told, she has cut down to just two eggs a day along with a few biscuits.

Ms. Morano’s courage in standing up to her abusive husband and the character quality of determination she showed then and throughout her life inspired a musical show that tells the story of her life in prose and dance. The show is being performed in the northern Italian town of Verbania, where she lived for most of her long life.

This amazing woman has not left her two-room flat for 20 years now but she was surrounded by well-wishers on Tuesday who took part in her birthday celebrations. The New York Times reports that at one point during the festivities, she said, “Hey, isn’t there anything to eat here?” Afterwards, she took a nap.

We join them today and say “Buon Compleanno!” to Emma Morano, our Rambler of the Week.

• • •

ADIOS, FIDEL

On the other hand, one of the world’s most notorious revolutionaries and dictators died this past week. The world bid “Adios” to Fidel Castro, who died this week at age 90. Leftist world leaders joined Raul Castro in a massive ceremony commemorating the late leader.

Millions cheered Fidel Castro on the day he entered Havana. Millions more fled the communist dictator’s repressive police state, leaving behind their possessions, their families, the island they loved and often their very lives. It’s part of the paradox of Castro that many people belonged to both groups.

Few national leaders have inspired such intense loyalty — or such a wrenching feeling of betrayal. Few fired the hearts of the world’s restless youth as Castro did when he was young, and few seemed so irrelevant as Castro when he was old — the last Communist, railing on the empty, decrepit street corner that Cuba became under his rule.

He held a unique place among the world’s leaders of the past century. Others had greater impact or won more respect. But none combined his dynamic personality, his decades in power, his profound effect on his own country and his provocative role in international affairs.

In addition to the comprehensive Miami Herald article linked above, here are a few other places you can go to access information about Fidel Castro.

Here is a BBC overview of Castro’s life and career.
Here is an opinion piece in the Washington Post outlining his “terrible legacy.”
Here is a BBC article showing his life in pictures.
These photos show reactions in Cuba to his death, and these show reactions in Miami.
This article questions whether Castro’s death and other changes will increase the number of people trying to cross from Cuba to the U.S.
Here’s a great article about the thousands of posters that were commissioned by the government to communicate Castro’s vision of a socialist society. Some came to be regarded as works of art.
Castro loved baseball, once attended an open tryout for the Washington Senators, and may have worked out for the New York Giants.

• • •

CHRISTMAS GOAT AFLAME!

Well, I’ll be Gavlebockened.

Each year, people in the in the Swedish town of Gavle erect giant Christmas goat effigy. Each year, said goat becomes a favorite target of arsonists. Last year, the goat, made out of wood and straw, made it to December 27 before getting torched.

This year, it failed to last 24 hours.

It was put up on Sunday, the first day of Advent, but was burnt down soon after despite extra security measures, reportedly by a man who slipped through security while a guard went to take a bathroom break. The torching of the goat has now happened 35 times in the last 50 years. The goat’s construction and attendant festivities cost about $250,000.

What with the Capra-cursed Cubs winning the World Series this year and all, it’s been a bad second half of the year for goats.

• • •

NATIONWIDE “SECRET SANTA”

I love this story. In New Zealand this year, thousands of people are participating in a “Secret Santa” gift exchange sponsored by country’s postal service.

How do they organize it?

When a person signs up, they submit a Twitter handle along with their information. The Post Office then shares that (and no other personal information) with a person assigned to give them a present. The giver then can read their gift partner’s tweets and try to figure out what he or she might like for a gift.

The gifts get sent to a “Santa Storehouse” run by the New Zealand Post, rather than give out any addresses, and then distributed accordingly. And if people don’t send a gift for the exchange, the gift meant for them will instead be donated to charity.

What a great idea!

• • •

PROUD PAPA BELL

Longtime friend and contributor to iMonk, Michael Bell, sent us this video of his daughter Kaitlyn in a performance of “Inside Out,” from A from Gentlemen’s Guide To Love and Murder.

Excellent job, Kaitlyn! So expressive, and what a beautiful voice.

• • •

COLOSSAL AFRICAN SOLAR FARM

Sandrine Ceurstemont writes about a visit to a vast power plant at the door to the Moroccan desert that may help to define the energy future of the world.

She reports:

Hundreds of curved mirrors, each as big as a bus, are ranked in rows covering 1,400,000 sq m (15m sq ft) of desert, an area the size of 200 football fields. The massive complex sits on a sun-blasted site at the foot of the High Atlas mountains, 10km (6 miles) from Ouarzazate – a city nicknamed the door to the desert. With around 330 days of sunshine a year, it’s an ideal location.

As well as meeting domestic needs, Morocco hopes one day to export solar energy to Europe. This is a plant that could help define Africa’s – and the world’s – energy future.

…After many years of false starts, solar power is coming of age as countries in the sun finally embrace their most abundant source of clean energy. The Moroccan site is one of several across Africa and similar plants are being built in the Middle East – in Jordan, Dubai and Saudi Arabia. The falling cost of solar power has made it a viable alternative to oil even in the most oil-rich parts of the world.

…The country plans to generate 14% of its energy from solar by 2020 and by adding other renewable sources like wind and water into the mix, it is aiming to produce 52% of its own energy by 2030.

…The success of these plants in Morocco – and those in South Africa – may encourage other African countries to turn to solar power. South Africa is already one of the world’s top 10 producers of solar power and Rwanda is home to east Africa’s first solar plant, which opened in 2014. Large plants are being planned for Ghana and Uganda.

I read a book once which posited that the truly epochal changes in world history occur when humans move from one dominant form of energy to another. Perhaps we are seeing the early stages of one of those changes, one that will be experienced by our grandchildren and great grandchildren and the generations that follow them.

• • •

QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK

Will the Roman Catholic Church split over marriage?

How will Castro’s death affect Cuba’s Christian revival?

What can churches learn from public schools about changes that might make teaching children more effective?

Could Tiger Woods mount a comeback?

Was “Lucy” a tree climber?

What’s so funny about Jewish humor?

Who’s on the American Family Association’s 2016 “Naughty or Nice” list of stores that measures “Christmas friendliness”?

Why is Starbucks always in the center of culture war debates?

• • •

WORD OF THE YEAR 2016

The Oxford Dictionary announced a couple weeks ago that “post-truth” is its 2016 word of the year.

Post-truth is described as “an adjective defined as ‘relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief’.

Though the word has been around for awhile, it gained increased usage this year through the “Brexit” controversy in the UK and the US presidential elections. “Post-truth politics” is the phrase in which it is heard most often.

• • •

TO TREE OR NOT TO TREE?

We got our (real) Christmas tree put up last weekend and are in the process of decorating it. On Wednesday night we had a “hanging of the greens” service at the church where I’m preaching to put up and trim the tree in the sanctuary.

Edwin and Jennifer Woodruff Tait at Christian History have an article answering the question, “Why Do We have Christmas Trees?”

Not all Christian leaders have looked so kindly at the practice. Take Tertullian, for example:

Let them over whom the fires of hell are imminent, affix to their posts, laurels doomed presently to burn: to them the testimonies of darkness and the omens of their penalties are suitable. You are a light of the world, and a tree ever green. If you have renounced temples, make not your own gate a temple.

Nevertheless, the tree has prevailed. The Taits give a good overview of the history of the Christmas tree, how presents came to be associated with it, and how our family celebrations around the tree today owe a lot to Victorian English traditions.

• • •

DECEMBER MUSIC SPECIAL

In December on Sat. Ramblings, I want to feature some of my favorite “winter” or “December” songs. Last year I did a post on my December playlist (which I update every year), and I look forward to this season so I can listen to it most every day.

Each week I’ll post one of my favorite songs off that list. Today, one of the most sublime songs Alison Krauss has ever sung — and that’s saying something. Along with Natalie MacMaster on fiddle (and make sure you listen to the end for her magnificent solo), this is “Get Me Through December.”

Fridays with Michael Spencer: December 2, 2016

Today, Michael Spencer’s classic post, “Lo, How a Rose:” Experiencing The Power of Beauty.

• • •

It was Christmas of 1968. I was a seventh grader at Estes Junior High School. School was a huge part of my world. My father was beginning down the road to depression. I was an only child, and my life wasn’t full of the activities of a typical middle school boy today. My dad didn’t want me to play sports, so I came home every day and watched television, or played with my friends up the street. Looking back, there was a simplicity and goodness to my life, and there was also, right in the center, an emptiness.

My parents were uneducated and unsophisticated “country” people. Mom had grown up on farms in rural western Kentucky. Dad was an eastern Kentucky mountain boy who wound up making his way to the oil fields of western Kentucky where, after a painful divorce, he met and married my mother. We had a good family in many ways and a broken one in others, but it was completely devoid of anything you would call beauty; artistic beauty. There was no music. There were only a few cheap wall decorations. There were almost no books. Because I was an only child, I was treated as special, but I wasn’t introduced to the world of beauty. My parents knew the beauty of nature, but they lived in a city. They knew the beauty of family, and shared that with me. But what they knew of the beauty of music was the sound of folk music in the hollers and on the porches of farmhouses, and I was not there.

My parents did not know the world of artistic beauty. They were strangers to it, and would remain so throughout their lives. I went with dad to stock car races and with mom to Gospel quartet shows. At church, I heard the choir and sang hymns, but there was no awareness in my life of the beauty of great music; music that moved the soul and told the mind and heart of a greater beauty beyond. Every week, we would go to a friend’s home and hear a little country band play in the basement while my parents played Rook. I never knew there was anything else or anything more.

School was my only hope of an outlet from this world. It was at school a year before that I had first watched a real play; “Macbeth,” no less. I never forgot that introduction to Shakespeare and that bloody story of evil unfolding before my childish eyes. And it was at school that I first discovered the beauty of music, in “Lo! How a Rose, E’re Blooming.”

Seventh graders were required to take music class. We were not music enthusiasts, to say the least. There was about us all the sense of artistic compulsion, but in the cause of sheer endurance. Nothing more. Our teacher was Mr. Waite, the assistant principal. Mr. Waite was a towering, imposing, intense force to be reckoned with. He managed rooms full of junior high students with a firmness that produced consistent results. Fear of impending doom concentrates the mind wonderfully, and sometimes, in our case, frees the voice to do great things.

I later learned that he was, in fact, a boisterous, happy and spontaneous man who could make anyone smile, but we rarely, if ever, saw that smile. He was turning seventh grade Philistines into singers, and this was war. His entrance into our tiny music room was like the arrival of a holy prophet bound and determined to convert the captive heathen to the true faith. He did not abide any misbehavior, and we would sing whether we liked it or not. We were there to sing, and we would learn to sing and we did sing. Or else…I’m not sure what would have happened, but I didn’t want to find out.

I couldn’t read a note of music, and though Mr. Waite diligently taught us, and I surely nodded at every lesson, I never learned to actually read music. But that didn’t mean I didn’t learn to sing. I was blessed with a good voice and memory. I loved to sing with a group. If we couldn’t read the music, we could still memorize our part, and I did.

Christmas approached that seventh grade year, and we prepared for a Christmas music program for our parents. I am sure I was in the choir and sang several pieces, but I only recall one piece. Mr. Waite used a small, seventh grade boy’s choir, and among other things, we sang a classic arrangement of “Lo, How a Rose E’re Blooming.”

I knew the usual Christmas Carols from church, but I had never heard this song or anything of its kind. I didn’t understand the text. I didn’t understand the scriptural references. I certainly didn’t understand the beautiful arrangement by German composer Michael Praetorius. I did know that this song was an experience of beauty that moved my young soul like no other music I’d ever heard. The mysterious moving of the notes, slipping in behind one another, created an interaction and harmony unlike anything in my hymn-singing tradition. (Think “When We All Get To Heaven” and you have my total experience.) I was captivated. I couldn’t explain what I was feeling, but it was what C.S. Lewis called “longing for joy.” Having once experienced it, we are never the same, and we are pointed toward God with our sails to the wind of joy.

I remember our performance well. There was a small group of us formerly rowdy boys, all standing in white shirts, singing words from the 15th century, in almost complete ignorance, but now under Mr. Waite’s tutelage, becoming instruments of beauty despite our depravity and barbarian natures. My mother was there, and I am sure she was proud of me in my shirt, tie and cowlick, but I could never tell her, or anyone else, what I was really feeling. I didn’t have words for it myself. I couldn’t have told Mr. Waite what happened to me in those rehearsals and in that performance, but I had entered a whole new world.

I wonder how many people in my world have never been moved by music? They listen to the radio or CDs and are excited, or manipulated, but never moved by pure beauty like a visit from a spirit. How many have never been drawn into the beauty and the mystery of wondrous art like this seventh grade boy? Perhaps that day was my biggest step toward believing that God was real, good and loved me. Could the empty universe of the scientists have produced such a sound, and such a feeling to accompany it? Was this all there was, or was there more? And when this world is exhausted, is that all there is, or is there more beside? Is there what Lewis called a heaven of music and silence?

Mr. Waite, I owe you a great debt. You transformed us into the conduits of beauty, and you put the music of the gods on our lips when we were too young to know what it all meant. You rescued me from an artless world and showed me worlds beyond. You did what every educator should long to do- bring the experience of truth, beauty and wonder into young hearts and minds, and so capture us that we can never be happy again without tasting more of that miracle. You gave me a great gift, a gift that life, with all its pain and loss, will never take away. I will always have that song. And now, I have the Rose of whom the poet wrote, and the beauty that made that wonderful song beautiful is mine as well.

• • •

Photo by Karen Eck on Flickr. Creative Commons License.

Mike the Geologist: On the Grand Canyon and the Flood (5)

Grand Canyon Sunrise. Photo by Casey Reynolds

Previous posts in the series:

• • •

The Grand Canyon, Monument to an Ancient Earth: Can Noah’s Flood Explain the Grand Canyon?
By Gregg Davidson, Joel Duff, David Elliott, Tim Helble, Carol Hill, Stephen Moshier, Wayne Ranney, Ralph Stearley, Bryan Tapp, Roger Wiens, and Ken Wolgemuth.

✧

Chapter 10 –– Missing Time; Gaps in the Rock Record deals with unconformities which are time gaps between adjacent layers of rocks.

Usually an unconformity implies erosion, but not always. Figure 10-1, reproduced from the book shows the 19 unconformities recognized by geologist in the Grand Canyon and the estimated time gap they represent. The total missing time for just the unconformities above the Great Unconformity is 190 million years.

This means that out of the total time represented from the Tapeats to the Kaibab (about 255 million years) that roughly 75% of the rock record is missing. That is why flood geologist are so desperate to deny the presence of unconformities other than the Great Unconformity; because that would mean repeated periods of exposure and erosion in the midst of their continuous year-long flood.

The most obvious evidence of erosion is found in the Great Unconformity where titled layers abruptly terminate against overlying horizontal strata.

The only way to generate such a contact is to tilt originally horizontal layers, erode material off the top to a relatively flat surface, and then deposit new material horizontally on top. The Great Unconformity is one that flood geologists acknowledge, and they put it at the beginning of the flood when the land supposedly was being scoured by the floodwaters.

Another obvious clue to the existence of an unconformity is the presence of channels carved out of a lower stratigraphic unit that are filled with material from an upper unit. Scour channels in the Redwall Limestone are filled with deposits from the Surprise Canyon formation that in places are 400 feet deep. How do you scour a 400 foot channel in SOFT sediment (hint; you don’t it has to be solid rock).

There are well known and documented paleokarst features in the Redwall Formation in the Grand Canyon. Karst features result from the exposure of solid limestone to open-air chemical weathering and above-ground and underground water flow over prolonged time. It is a landscape. Karst features such as erosional surfaces, river channels, sinkholes, caverns, and collapse structures would not have time to form on soft sediment in the middle of a flood sequence. There are unmistakable paleokarst features in the Redwall Formation, a thick limestone layer in the middle of the Paleozoic sequence of the Grand Canyon. In other words; it was a karst landscape at one time. The Surprise Canyon Formation, which overlies the Redwall, completely fills in the elaborate network of river channels, karst sinkholes, collapse features, and even caverns on the upper portion of the Redwall forming unconformities. How could any of these events have occurred within the context of a single-year flood? Such a sequence isn’t just unlikely—– IT IS IMPOSSIBLE.

Chapter 11 –– Plate Tectonics; Our Restless Earth is a wonderful primer on plate tectonics; the science that studies the movement of the Earth’s crust. How do the continents form, how do mountains form?

The basic driving forces for plate tectonics are heat, gravity, and density. The theory is that our planet’s crust is composed of relatively rigid plates that are in constant motion due to convective currents in our planet’s mantle. The mantle is very hot and therefore is not quite liquid but not quite solid; it is plastic like putty. Rising magma in the middle of the ocean spreads the sea floor creating new crust while colliding plates create mountains.

The Pacific Plate is moving to the northwest at a speed of between 7 and 11 centimeters (cm) or ~3-4 inches a year. The North American plate is moving to the west-southwest at about 2.3 cm (~1 inch) per year driven by the spreading center that created the Atlantic Ocean, the Mid Atlantic Ridge. The resulting plate collision creates the famous San Andreas Fault zone.

gc5 — Aerial View of the San Andreas Fault

Flood geologist claim that all the continents were jammed together in one super-continent at the start of Noah’s flood and moved into their present position within the one flood year. But moving plates create friction; try a home plate slide across your carpet without a shirt on and see what happens- it’s not called carpet BURN for nothing. The heat generated by such supposed movement would have boiled off most if not all the world’s oceans. Catastrophic plate tectonics, as described by flood geologists, is physically impossible with the laws of physics as we know them.

At least 4 different tectonic episodes would have impacted the Grand Canyon. Two occurred when the oldest rocks below the Great Unconformity were formed, and two happened after all the horizontal layers had been deposited and hardened. The Laramide Episode, between 80 and 40 million years ago was the major tectonic event that formed the Rocky Mountains by plate collision. The Basin and Range Episode started about 20 million years ago and was a tension event or the plates pulling apart. Tension causes the crust to stretch apart, rift, and form rift valleys and other distinct types of faults, fractures, and folds.

Which brings us to Chapter 12 — “Broken and Bent Rocks; Fractures, Faults, and Folds.” So in the last chapter the movement of the Earth’s plates was discussed. This movement causes earthquakes and forms mountains. In Chapter 12 the focus is on what evidence can be seen in the fractures, folds, and faults of the Grand Canyon and how we can deduce its history from them. The chapter explores two fundamental differences between flood geology and conventional geology. Flood geologist insist:

All deformation of rocks above the tilted Supergroup layers occurred in soft sediments and;
Most of the deformation was caused by catastrophic plate tectonics during a one year flood.

The conventional view holds:

The layers were solid rock when most of the cracking, faulting , and folding took place, and;
Different types of forces were at work on the rocks (pulling them apart or pushing them together) at different times during their history.

Fractures. Fractures are nothing more than cracks. Cracks can form in soft sediment, like dried clay, though they are limited in size and tend to reseal or heal when they become wet. Long fractures that extend across multiple layers are a clear indication that all the layers were already rock before the fractures formed.

gc6 — View of the Eastern Wall of the Palisades

In the Grand Canyon, the eastern wall of the Palisades provides a dramatic example of heavily fractured rock, that had become hard and brittle before tectonic forces fractured it. The nearly vertical lines covering the cliff face are innumerable fractures space only 1 to 3 feet apart, with many extending through the entire cliff.

Faults. Faults are fractures in the rock where one side has moved relative to the other.

Normal faults result from extension– from rock being pulled apart. Reverse faults result from compression- rocks being pushed together. Strike-slip faults result from plates sliding past one another.

In the Grand Canyon, if the flood geology model were true, we should expect to see just one type of faulting. Recall that plates are said to been violently thrust apart at the onset of the flood, with residual plate motion continuing right up to the present. With North America suddenly thrust to the west, one would reasonably expect that the American Southwest would experience compressive forces as the continent plowed into the Pacific Ocean plate, such that reverse faults should be the norm. What we actually find is that reverse and normal faults are both present, suggesting there were different periods of compressive and tensional forces. From Chapter 12, page 126:

Faults in rock look very different from those in soft sediment. In rock, a relatively clean break occurs that is often filled with angular fragments of broken rock (called breccia), or with pulverized rock as one side of the fault grinds past the other. Where bending of the rock occurs, cracks are readily visible in the deformed rock. In soft sediments, however, there is no clean break and sediments are spread out along the blurred rupture zone. Because the material is soft, there is little or no breccia, nor do we find pulverized material lining the sides. Faults in the Grand Canyon are characterized by sharp breaks filled with rock fragments, and bent layers adjacent to faults are fractured. Faults in soft sediment don’t look like this.

• • •

Photo by Casey Reynolds at Flickr. Creative Commons License.

Another Look: Go forth to meet him

Tomorrow is the beginning of December. We are a few brief weeks away from welcoming the Christ-child at his birth.

As we face this season and event, here are some words from Brother Thomas Merton that make me think. For Christmas will come this year, just as it did long ago in Bethlehem. And, as on that occasion, some will be ready to welcome the infant King, while others will be unprepared.

“What is uncertain is not the ‘coming’ of Christ but our own reception of Him, our own response to Him, our own readiness and capacity to ‘go forth to meet Him.’” (Seasons of Celebration)

I love this quote. This quote terrifies me. I believe these words. I cannot believe these words.

On the one hand, since we know the story so well and have celebrated the Christmas feast so often, it is not hard to feel that one is preparing to “go forth to meet him” by simply participating in the annual preliminaries. We all know such activity gives no guarantee that our hearts will be receptive. That should give us pause.

It is also scary when I remember that few, if any, went forth to meet him at his first coming. Certainly none went of their own initiative. It took a heavenly host of angels to get the drowsy shepherds’ attention. The magi would never have made their journey without a certain astrological alignment. Those who housed visitors in Bethlehem did not make room for him. Even those faithful people who were “ready” — Mary, Joseph, Anna, Simeon, and so on — were surprised when God broke in upon them.

I want to be ready. I long desperately to be ready. With God’s people I fill my heart with divine promises, lift up my prayers, sing carols, light candles, and decorate my home. I prepare a room for the Holy Family. Through confession and absolution I sweep it clean, and by the word of the gospel it is made ready. Within my heart and life I build a cradle in which the infant King can find rest. I watch out my window and prepare to go forth to meet him.

When suddenly — through the back door? — he appears! How did he get in? And how did I miss his arrival? What happened to my carefully prepared words of welcome? I am stunned to silence. Overwhelmed, I fall to my knees. My Savior is here, and I did not know it!

All my carefully devised hospitality plans are moot. There will be no going forth to meet him, for he has met me first. The greeting will not be my “Welcome!” but his “Fear not!” I will not be his host, but his favored guest. I planned a wonderful meal in his honor, but he sits down at the head of the table, breaks bread, blesses it, and gives it to me as though this were his home and he is feeding me.

And so, Brother Thomas, I hear what you are saying. But in the end, my response will always be uncertain, my readiness and capacity to “go forth and meet him” always overwhelmed by his epiphany — sudden, serendipitous, startling. Somehow, I think you know this too.

In this context, I am reminded of another quote:

Then the Lord you are seeking will suddenly come to his Temple. The messenger of the covenant, whom you look for so eagerly, is surely coming,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “But who will be able to endure it when he comes? Who will be able to stand and face him when he appears?” (Malachi 3:1-2, NLT)

One might as well go forth to meet the whirlwind.

Or a baby that takes your breath away.

“Mindfulness” and other contemporary legalisms

Life in contemporary America is full of “should.”

And how can it not be? We are forever “shoulding” all over each other.

Modern American life is, at times, almost suffocating in self-righteousness and legalism. We may be the most judgmental people in history. And I’m not just talking about church folks, though I think this is one of the ways that the church in the U.S. is “worldly” in the bad kind of way. Freedom of speech and freedom of the press may be wonderful gifts in the big picture, but on the ground the liberty we have to share our ideas and feelings without constraint often leads us to voice relentless opinions that those around us fall short and would be better off if they would just embrace our particular quest for continuous improvement. Usually for a price.

I was reminded of this when I read Ruth Whippman’s eloquently commonsensical opinion piece in the New York Times over the weekend, “Actually, Let’s Not Be in the Moment.”

I’m making a failed attempt at “mindful dishwashing,” the subject of a how-to article an acquaintance recently shared on Facebook. According to the practice’s thought leaders, in order to maximize our happiness, we should refuse to succumb to domestic autopilot and instead be fully “in” the present moment, engaging completely with every clump of oatmeal and decomposing particle of scrambled egg. Mindfulness is supposed to be a defense against the pressures of modern life, but it’s starting to feel suspiciously like it’s actually adding to them. It’s a special circle of self-improvement hell, striving not just for a Pinterest-worthy home, but a Pinterest-worthy mind.

Perhaps the single philosophical consensus of our time is that the key to contentment lies in living fully mentally in the present. The idea that we should be constantly policing our thoughts away from the past, the future, the imagination or the abstract and back to whatever is happening right now has gained traction with spiritual leaders and investment bankers, armchair philosophers and government bureaucrats and human resources departments. Corporate America offers its employees mindfulness training to “streamline their productivity,” and the United States military offers it to the Marine Corps. Americans now spend an estimated $4 billion each year on “mindfulness products.” “Living in the Moment” has monetized its folksy charm into a multibillion-dollar spiritual industrial complex.

Circles of self-improvement hell. An apt description of life in today’s America, exemplified by this ostensibly “helpful” counsel to be always mindful. Here, by special offer, is another one of those “keys” or “secrets” or “steps” or “paths” that are being urged on us constantly so that we can climb another rung or two up the ladder to a life of righteousness and self-fulfillment.

Along with Ms. Whippman, I find it increasingly annoying that I am always being preached at by people like this.

But still, the advice to be more mindful often contains a hefty scoop of moralizing smugness, a kind of “moment-shaming” for the distractible, like a stern teacher scolding us for failing to concentrate in class. The implication is that by neglecting to live in the moment we are ungrateful and unspontaneous, we are wasting our lives, and therefore if we are unhappy, we really have only ourselves to blame.

This judgmental tone is part of a long history of self-help-based cultural thought policing. At its worst, the positive-thinking movement deftly rebranded actual problems as “problematic thoughts.” Now mindfulness has taken its place as the focus of our appetite for inner self-improvement. Where once problems ranging from bad marriages and work stress to poverty and race discrimination were routinely dismissed as a failure to “think positive,” now our preferred solution to life’s complex and entrenched problems is to instruct the distressed to be more mindful.

This is a kind of neo-liberalism of the emotions, in which happiness is seen not as a response to our circumstances but as a result of our own individual mental effort, a reward for the deserving. The problem is not your sky-high rent or meager paycheck, your cheating spouse or unfair boss or teetering pile of dirty dishes. The problem is you.

But maybe we haven’t really advanced beyond “positive thinking,” whose converts still evangelize us relentlessly. Barbara Ehrenreich leveled a devastating critique against this form of thought-policing in her 2009 book Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America.

Ehrenreich was diagnosed with breast cancer, and soon encountered a world she didn’t know existed. She became part of the “pink-ribbon culture.” There she discovered, “Positive thinking seems to be mandatory in the breast cancer world, to the point that unhappiness requires a kind of apology.” Any talk of being a “victim” is proscribed in favor of always describing those with breast cancer as “brave” or “fierce” individuals who are “battling” or “fighting” their disease. Those who beat it, or who appear to do so, are crowned as “survivors,” though strangely there seems to be little acclaim for “martyrs.”

Indeed, she writes,

The cheerfulness of breast cancer culture goes beyond mere absence of anger to what looks, all too often, like a positive embrace of the disease. As “Mary” reports, on the Bosom Buds message board: “I really believe I am a much more sensitive and thoughtful person now. It might sound funny but I was a real worrier before. Now I don’t want to waste my energy on worrying. I enjoy life so much more now and in a lot of aspects I am much happier now.” Or this from “Andee”: “This was the hardest year of my life but also in many ways the most rewarding. I got rid of the baggage, made peace with my family, met many amazing people, learned to take very good care of my body so it will take care of me, and reprioritized my life.” Cindy Cherry, quoted in the Washington Post, goes further: “If I had to do it over, would I want breast cancer? Absolutely. I’m not the same person I was, and I’m glad I’m not. Money doesn’t matter anymore. I’ve met the most phenomenal people in my life through this. Your friends and family are what matter now.”

One author went so far as to give her book the title, The Gift of Cancer: A Call to Awakening, in which she claimed, “Cancer will lead you to God. Let me say that again. Cancer is your connection to the Divine.”

In the seamless world of breast cancer culture, where one Web site links to another— from personal narratives and grassroots endeavors to the glitzy level of corporate sponsors and celebrity spokespeople— cheerfulness is required, dissent a kind of treason. Within this tightly knit world, attitudes are subtly adjusted, doubters gently brought back to the fold.

Barbara Ehrenreich valiantly dissents against this “tyranny of positive thinking.”

Breast cancer, I can now report, did not make me prettier or stronger, more feminine or spiritual. What it gave me, if you want to call this a “gift,” was a very personal, agonizing encounter with an ideological force in American culture that I had not been aware of before— one that encourages us to deny reality, submit cheerfully to misfortune, and blame only ourselves for our fate.

In the recent election, cries from the right against “political correctness” rose to a fever pitch. What those people failed to see when they labeled one form of political advocacy the way they did is that all America is and has always been the land of innumerable political correctnesses.

In the world of psychology, spirituality, and self-help there is the “mindfulness” political correctness and “positive thinking” political correctness we’ve discussed today. But there’s a lot more. Right and left-wing politics political correctnesses. Pro-life and pro-choice anyone? The political correctnesses of the elite and the hoi polloi. Various types of Christian political correctness as well as atheistic political correctness. And a multitude of other varieties, and tribes within tribes, all with their own thought-police and many with their own stores and merchandise.

Anywhere you have people who think they are right and that others would be better off by just following them — thinking “correctly,” speaking the right code words, staying within the designated boundaries that mark a person as acceptable, you have “political correctness” — the moralistic, legalistic enforcement of endorsed speech and behavior.

America, the land of the free? Hah! We are the land of a thousand different tribes, each proclaiming its own righteousness and doing its best to sell its vision of how each one of us ought to think and behave.

I have only one thing to say: Stop “shoulding” on me.

Sermon: Advent I — The Days Before

Sermon: Advent I
The Days Before

You thought God was an architect, now you know
He’s something like a pipe bomb ready to blow
And everything you built that’s all for show goes up in flames
In twenty-four frames

• Jason Isbell

“But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. For as the days of Noah were, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark, and they knew nothing until the flood came and swept them all away, so too will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two will be in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. Two women will be grinding meal together; one will be taken and one will be left. Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.

• Matthew 24:36-44

• • •

Today is the first Sunday in the Advent season, and most of us probably think of it as the season in which we prepare to celebrate the birth of the Christ-child at Christmas. It is that of course, but it is also much more.

The word “advent” means a coming, and so what Advent focuses upon is the coming of Christ into the world and into our lives. He did that at Christmas, but that is not the only way Jesus comes to us.

Theologians remind us that there are three basic ways Jesus comes to his people.

First, he came to us in the Incarnation, when he took on flesh and was born in this world to be our Savior and Lord. We usually call this his first coming.
Second, Jesus will come to us at the culmination of the ages, when the dead will be raised and God will make a new heaven and earth. We confess this when we say the Apostles’ Creed: “He will come again to judge the living and the dead.” This is usually called his second coming.
Third, Jesus comes to us now through the Word and Sacraments. When we proclaim the gospel, Jesus moves into people’s lives. He creates faith and nourishes us in God’s promises. When we receive the Sacraments, Jesus comes to us. He comes to us with cleansing and regeneration in Baptism and he comes to us in Communion to continue his work of salvation and renewal in our lives.

When we as a church celebrate Advent, the scriptures we hear, the hymns we sing, and the emphasis of the liturgy may be on any or all of these “comings” of Jesus.

In today’s Gospel reading most people think this is about Jesus’ second coming at the end of the world. But as I preached a few weeks ago, I think these passages near the end of the Gospels more likely refer to the cataclysmic events that Jesus saw coming in the destruction of Jerusalem that would occur in the year 70AD. We can hardly imagine what a devastating and significant event this was for the people of Israel. It was such a transformative event for the nation, that they did not return to their land until 1948. It was the “end of an age” for the Jewish people.

The imagery in this text is from the OT book of Daniel, where the prophet saw a vision of the Son of Man coming on the clouds. The vision in Daniel 7 speaks of a divine judgment that would come on a pagan kingdom and it describes how this Son of Man would be vindicated before God and would receive an everlasting kingdom. It does not portray the Son of Man coming down through the clouds to earth, but it pictures him up in the clouds going before God to be vindicated and exalted.

In the context of that imagery from Daniel, Jesus talked here about how things were going to get difficult for the Jewish people. And he wanted his disciples to be ready for the coming distress. So he told them to be ready for the troubles that were about to commence lest they be caught unawares. The onslaught would fall quickly, in a surprising manner, like the flood came in Noah’s day, and like when a thief breaks in in the middle of the night and startles those who are in the house.

He was warning them that many in Israel were going to suffer when the Roman armies would break in upon them, and that many Israelites would choose a course of action – a broad road – resulting in destruction. However, on the other hand, Jesus had gathered around himself as the Son of man a community of righteous followers who would make it through, though they would endure much suffering for his sake. This community would eventually be vindicated for having chosen the alternative way of life following him and taking up his cross.

I think we forget that Jesus’ first coming was first of all for the people of Israel and that his ministry grew out of the story of Israel in the OT. He came to be their Messiah, to announce that the kingdom they had long awaited was dawning, and that their hope lay in following his teaching and joining him in the cross-shaped way. John’s Gospel tells us, sadly, that by and large, “He came to his own, and his own received him not.” However, there were some who did receive him, who became counted as children of God.

Many people simply missed Jesus the first time around, and it’s important to remember one reason for that is that the manner of his first advent was so unexpected, so different than what the people anticipated, that they couldn’t grasp it.

In todays’ gospel, Jesus warns his disciples that the judgment that was about to come on Israel would come in an unexpected fashion also.

It seems that, whenever Jesus comes to us, he does so in a surprising fashion.

Think about it. He came as a baby in a manger. He came to a young, as yet unmarried couple. He came to live in a backwater town. He came to minister without a penny to his name. He came and hung around with sinners and not with the righteous people. He came and allowed himself to be arrested, tried, and crucified. He came and became the first person raised from the dead. Jesus’ first coming was full of surprises.

When we think about how Jesus comes to us today, perhaps it is the same. It just may be that today, through this message, through Communion, that Jesus will come to you unexpectedly. He may speak to you about an issue in your life, or something about which you are afraid. He may rain comfort upon your troubled spirit, or he may convict you of some error in your life that you need to put right. He may call you to minister to someone who needs help and love right now. You might just hear him say, “Fear not!” and realize that everything is going to be all right. When you come to church, it’s best to expect the unexpected when you meet Jesus here. We’re not just here to go through the same services again and again, we’re here to meet with Jesus. And it’s hard telling what that might mean.

There has, of course, also been a lot of speculation about what it will be like when Jesus returns in his second coming. Many prophecy teachers think they know, but I doubt if they have a clue. I happen to think Jesus’ second coming will be just as surprising as his first. It will likely catch us all off guard and we’ll be puzzled and confused and we’ll have to figure it out just like the people of Israel did in the days of Jesus’ life.

So when you think of Advent and the discipline of making yourself ready for the coming of Jesus, remember that. He’s likely to circumvent our best laid plans and come in a manner that takes our breath away and causes us to scratch our heads.

Well, you might say, how then should we approach Advent, this season of preparation? If Jesus is just going to surprise us all anyway, what’s the use of getting ready for his coming?

My friend Michael Spencer once wrote an amazing article called, “There’s Always a Day Before.” In it he said,

We all live the days before. We are living them now.

There was a day before 9-11.

There was a day before your child told you she was pregnant.

There was a day before your wife said she’d had enough.

There was a day before your employer said “lay offs.”

We are living our days before. We are living them now.

Some of us are doing, for the last time, what we think we will be doing twenty years from now.

Some of us are on the verge of a much shorter life, or a very different life, or a life turned upside down.

Some of us are preaching our last sermon, making love for the last time, saying “I love you” to our children for the last time in our own home. Some of us are spending our last day without the knowledge of eternal judgment and the reality of God. We are promising tomorrow will be different and tomorrow is not going to give us the chance, because God has a different tomorrow entirely on our schedule. We just don’t know it today.

Who am I on this day before I am compelled to be someone else? What am I living for? How am I living out the deepest expression of who I am and what I believe?

My life is an accumulation of days lived out of what I believe is true every day.

What Michael is saying is that, when it comes right down to it, all we have is today. The day before. None of us knows what the next day will bring. We hope for the next day. We prepare for the next day. We look forward to the next day. But, in reality, we do not know if the next day will come or, if it does, what it will be like.

In Advent, we mark the days before. It is therefore, our task — our Advent task — to be ready for whatever tomorrow may bring by living today with faith, hope, and love. By making this day count. By trusting Jesus today. By embracing our loved ones today. By loving and serving our neighbors today. By living out what we know to be true and right and loving and just today.

As Jesus said in today’s Gospel passage: “Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.”

There is always a day before — and who knows what is coming? Advent calls us to wake up and live today.

• • •

Tracey Thorn’s lovely song, Joy, captures facing the unknown with the resolve that comes from embracing the spirit of the season.

Advent Pic and Cantata of the Week

31111022231_bbe1c8cef0_k — Advent Sycamore

ADVENT I

Bach Cantata BWV 36, “Soar in your joy”

♕

Auch mit gedämpften, schwachen Stimmen
Wird Gottes Majestät verehrt.
Denn schallet nur der Geist darbei,
So ist ihm solches ein Geschrei,
Das er im Himmel selber hört.

Even with subdued, weak voices
Gods majesty is honoured.
for if only the spirit resounds,
there is such a cry to him
that he himself hears it in heaven.

Cantata texts by Martin Luther, Philipp Nicolai,
and Christian Friedrich Henrici (Picander)

• • •

Here is the incomparable Kathleen Battle singing this beautiful aria.

Saturday Ramblings: November 26, 2016

RAMBLER OF THE WEEK

Tomorrow marks the first Sunday in Advent, the beginning of a new liturgical year for Christians. During this year, we here at Internet Monk will be exploring many of Bach’s cantatas on Sundays. I thought it fitting, therefore, that we honor Johann Sebastian Bach as our Rambler of the Week today in preparation for our posts.

The following information about Bach’s cantatas comes from a Classic FM article.

During his time as concert master at the Weimar court (1714-16) and again in his years as Cantor at Leipzig’s St Thomas Church (1723-29), Bach was expected to supply short, multi-movement choral works to accompany regular and occasional church services. He raised his already superior game to produce cantatas for Sundays, feast days, weddings and funerals, stamping his particular genius on a new form of dramatic religious music popular with Germany’s Lutheran congregations. The church cantata took its lead from Italian models, which in many ways amounted to sacred mini-operas.

…Devotional poetry, biblical quotations and verses from Lutheran hymns, all strong on emotion and vivid expressions of mankind’s suffering, were used by Bach as cantata texts. The published sources of words provided scope for choruses, solo songs, dramatic recitatives and congregational hymns. For his second cantata cycle (1724-25), Bach broke with convention to invent a unified form of cantata based on the words and music of seasonal hymns. He used the first and last verse of the appropriate hymn for the opening and closing movements, arranging and paraphrasing the words of the middle verses to suit setting as recitatives and arias.

…It is the sheer variety of Bach’s writing that catches the ear. One could listen to six or seven of his cantatas and never tire of the inventive brilliance of his music….

…the music sounds fresh and alive to modern ears in ways that so many compositions completed only last year do not. Above all, the essential humanity of Bach’s genius touches his entire cantata output and turns each work into a sacred offering in sound.

We’ll be “Baching” through the Church Year in the days to come, and in preparation for that, we award J.S. Bach our Rambler of the Week award today.

• • •

QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK

Why should people extend the practice of giving thanks beyond the Thanksgiving table?

What’s behind the U.S. “turkey pardoning” ritual?

Is Thanksgiving constitutional? (and those who said “no” long ago)

Why are most Christmas TV specials so bad?

Can anything be called “racist” without controversy?

Scientists are beginning to understand the relationship between aging and disease, but can they do anything about it?

What can we learn from this Orthodox nun?

Can our children tell the difference between “fake” news and “real”?

Are pastors discarding the ‘Evangelical’ label?

Is France the next country to experience a populist election upset?

• • •

NEWS & NOTES FROM THE WEEK

Kicking off a “joyous” Christmas season…

The New York Post reports:

An Atlantic City man was fatally shot and his brother was wounded in the parking lot of a New Jersey mall – one of at least two fatal Black Friday-related shootings nationwide, officials said.

In Reno, Nev., a Walmart customer was gunned down during a fight over a parking spot just after doors were opened Thursday night.

And in Tennessee, a person also was shot Thursday at a Memphis mall while shoppers were taking part in early Black Friday sales.

Finally, our country is returning to a traditional Christmas.

????

And then there’s these communists…

While some people acted like true Americans and attacked the stores Friday, USA Today reports that some Scrooges were commemorating “International Buy Nothing Day.”

International “Buy Nothing Day” falls on the day after American Thanksgiving each year. Celebrated since the 1990s, the day is meant to inspire worldwide action against mass consumerism, according to Adbusters, a not-for-profit anti-consumerism magazine.

“Buy Nothing Day isn’t just about changing your habits for one day it is about rediscovering what it means to live freely,” according to Adbusters. “Join millions of us in over 60 countries on November 25, 2016, for Buy Nothing Day and see what it feels like to take a stand against corporate domination.”

The magazine encouraged people to organize a credit-card cut up or a zombie walk through a mall to boycott mass spending during the holidays.

I bet they voted for Bernie Sanders too.

????

Then, from the other end of the spectrum comes this advice to businesses…

At Forbes, William Vanderbloemen strongly encourages businesses not to participate in Black Friday or other such “bottom-end” sales. To build a strong business, one should instead focus on quality, excellence, and not appealing to customers’ baser instincts.

Do good work, deal with others responsibly, sell quality products, build customer loyalty, offer your clients items or services they can view more as an investment in long-term satisfaction.

When you’re deciding what to do about your business plan for Black Friday this year, keep a clear focus on what you want to achieve. Chances are, you’ll find that the most business-sustaining and customer-satisfying work won’t be found in a glossy Black Friday advertisement with the lowest prices. Excellence comes at a high price, but the chances you’ll regret that decision are low.

Pretty good advice, I’d say.

Now, let’s begin to more effectively address how more of us can access those kinds of goods and services.

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From the great gifts for Christmas dept…

The Hipster Nativity Set

With gluten free feed for the animals, and Joe and Mary preparing to post their selfies to FB, of course.

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Troubling reports about Tullian…

Here we go again. Another celebrity pastor in the crosshairs of his critics. I had hoped better for Tullian Tchividjian (Billy Graham’s grandson) when he became the Sr. Pastor at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church, where D. James Kennedy had been a general in the culture wars for the Christian Right for many years. I thought it was “a ray of hope in South Florida” at the time, but the trajectory has been downward from there.

In particular, I thought his teaching on grace from a more Lutheran perspective might help set some people free, but it may only have covered for his own abuse of freedom.

After losing his church and wife last summer to an adultery scandal in which he admitted to having at least two affairs, Tchividjian has re-emerged in the pulpit and with a possible new book, as well with a new wife and a message about God’s “magnificent intervention.”

Here is a timeline of Tullian’s alleged abuses.

Nate Sparks has called Tchividjian a “master of manipulation” and has written several articles exploring how he “groomed” various women in inappropriate ways and manipulated others in his churches to cover up his abuses.

Another sad day in evangelical Christianity.

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Inside a “Fake News” creator’s world…

An NPR reporter tracked down Jestin Coler, who creates fake news for a living, and did an interview with him recently. Coler’s company, Disinfomedia, owns many faux news sites — he won’t say how many. But he says his is one of the biggest fake news businesses out there, which makes him kind of like a godfather of the industry.

He was amazed at how quickly fake news could spread and how easily people believe it. He wrote one fake story for NationalReport.net about how customers in Colorado marijuana shops were using food stamps to buy pot.

“What that turned into was a state representative in the House in Colorado proposing actual legislation to prevent people from using their food stamps to buy marijuana, based on something that had just never happened,” Coler says.

But it was during the recent presidential election season that Coler’s work really expanded. However, he says this isn’t just about Donald Trump; it has been a long time coming, especially with regard to the world of conservative politics.

Well this isn’t just a Trump supporter problem. This is a right-wing issue. Sarah Palin’s famous blasting of the lame-stream media is kind of record and testament to the rise of these kinds of people. The post-fact era is what I would refer to it as. This isn’t something that started with Trump. This is something that’s been in the works for a while. His whole campaign was this thing of discrediting mainstream media sources, which is one of those dog whistles to his supporters. When we were coming up with headlines it’s always kind of about the red meat. Trump really got into the red meat. He knew who his base was. He knew how to feed them a constant diet of this red meat.

We’ve tried to do similar things to liberals. It just has never worked, it never takes off. You’ll get debunked within the first two comments and then the whole thing just kind of fizzles out.

Though Coler says he will be getting out of the fake news business, he thinks it is even going to grow bigger and will be harder to identify as it evolves.

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THIS WEEK IN MUSIC…

Finally, forty years ago, on Thanksgiving Day, 1976, The Band gave its farewell concert at Winterland in San Francisco. On hand to help say goodbye to this influential rock group were some of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 1960s and ’70s.

The event was turned by Martin Scorcese into what many think is the greatest rock concert film of all time, The Last Waltz. In honor of that night and the magnificent film that continues to help us enjoy it today, here is a stage full of some of the best rock musicians of that era singing “I Shall Be Released.”