The Internet Monk Archives

Music Monday: Bach and the Church Year

Music Monday: Bach and the Church Year

For years now, one of my favorite sites on the internet has been the Bach Cantatas Website.

This comprehensive site covers all of J.S. Bach’s cantatas and vocal works, and many of the instrumental works as well. Here you will find: detailed discussions, texts and translations, scores, commentaries, references, music examples, and discographies. You’ll also find information about performers of Bach’s works, their biographies and discographies. You can find out about poets and composers associated with Bach, and other resources such as calendars tracking the Lutheran church year and associated cantatas and works, chorale texts and melodies, books and movies about Bach, concerts, Bach festivals and tours, etc.

Before I came to write for Internet Monk, one of the blogs I had for awhile was a site called Baching through the Church Year, in which I began the process of exploring various cantatas written by Bach for the Sundays on the annual liturgical calendar. Because of other responsibilities, I had to quit before even making it through the first annual cycle, but I hope to incorporate a weekly cantata post here on Internet Monk in 2017, as we commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation’s beginning.

Yesterday was the 18th Sunday after Trinity on the Lutheran Church Calendar, a Sunday for which Bach wrote two cantatas:

BWV 96: Herr Christ, der einige Gottessohn (“Lord Christ, the only Son of God,” words by Richard Stokes)

BWV 169: Gott soll allein mein Herze haben (“God Alone Shall Have My Heart,” words by Richard Stokes)

I’d like to focus on the second of these cantatas today.

At the site of the Bethlehem Bach Choir, we read this summary of Gott soll allein mein Herze haben: “Cantata 169 was written in 1726 for the 18th Sunday after Trinity. It is one of only two known cantatas written by Bach for that feast day. This is one of four cantatas written by Bach for solo alto, and, according to Schulenberg, it is the last and best of the four.”

An overview of BWV 169: Gott soll allein mein Herze haben

The cantata begins with a lively Sinfonia, which is one of Bach’s best known and most delightful.

An alto Arioso and Aria then expresses how she finds in God her “highest good.”

We do indeed see
here and there on the earth
a small stream of contentment
that flows from the goodness of the Highest;
but God is the source, overflowing with rivers,
from this source I derive what for eternity
can refresh me truly and sufficiently:
God alone should possess my heart.

A Recitative prepares for by the next Aria by meditating on the question, “What is the love of God?” The aria which follows, having considered God’s love, cries out that other loves may die so that she may live fully in that love.

Die in me,
you world and all your loves
so that my heart
on earth for ever and ever
may practise God’s way of love;
Die in me,
arrogance, wealth and greedy lust of the eyes,
you abject promptings of the flesh.

The next Recitative reminds us of an important aspect of what it means for God to have our hearts.

But keep in mind also
to be sincere with your neighbour!
For it is written in the scriptures:
you should love God and your neighbour.

The cantata then concludes with the choral Chorale:

You sweet love, grant us your favour,
let us feel the ardour of love
so that we may love one another from our hearts
and remain with one mind in peace.
Lord, have mercy.

• • •

Here is the version to which I will be listening this week. It is from John Eliot Gardiner’s outstanding Bach Cantata Pilgrimage series, and features alto Nathalie Stutzmann.

Soli deo gloria!

Pic & Poem of the Week: September 25, 2016

(Click picture to see larger image)

From A Dog Has Died

Ai, I’ll not speak of sadness here on earth,
of having lost a companion
who was never servile.
His friendship for me, like that of a porcupine
withholding its authority,
was the friendship of a star, aloof,
with no more intimacy than was called for,
with no exaggerations:
he never climbed all over my clothes
filling me full of his hair or his mange,
he never rubbed up against my knee
like other dogs obsessed with sex.

No, my dog used to gaze at me,
paying me the attention I need,
the attention required
to make a vain person like me understand
that, being a dog, he was wasting time,
but, with those eyes so much purer than mine,
he’d keep on gazing at me
with a look that reserved for me alone
all his sweet and shaggy life,
always near me, never troubling me,
and asking nothing.

By Pablo Neruda

Saturday Ramblings: September 24, 2016 – Grandpa’s Pride Edition

Look what we got this week!

A new grandson! Number 5 grandchild. Little JD broke the tie we had — 2 girl grandchildren, 2 boy grandchildren, and now boys have taken the lead, 3-2. But, God willing, there’s plenty more to come.

At any rate, we’re rambling up in northern Indiana to see the little bugger this weekend and to give our daughter and son-in-law mad love for this indescribable gift.

Thanks be to God!

• • •

WHEN LIFE GETS YOUR GOAT

Just as our family welcomes a new fellow into the human race, here’s a guy who decided to take a break from — well — from being human.

Lydia Ramsey at Business Insider reports:

When life gets unbearably stressful, most of us opt for a vacation that relieves us of the worries of day-to-day life.

Thomas Thwaites, a UK-based designer, decided to take that a step further and take a break from being a human entirely. He became a goat — or at least he tried to, through some pretty extreme measures.

And now he has an Ig Nobel Award to show for it. The Ig Nobels, not to be confused with the actual Nobel Prizes, are designed to recognize achievements and studies that “first make people laugh then make them think.” Thwaites won the biology award alongside Charles Foster, who also lived as a number of different animals.

With the help of a team of researchers and the financial support of London-based biomedical research group Wellcome Trust, Thwaites built himself a suit to achieve goat status and cross the Alps, all of which he chronicled in his book, “GoatMan: How I Took a Holiday from Being a Human.”

• • •

FROM WHENCE THE FIRST HUMANS?

Meanwhile, CBS News ran a story this week about three studies of modern DNA from around the world, released Wednesday by the journal Nature, which suggests that the genetic ancestry of people living outside Africa can be traced almost completely to a single exodus of humans from that continent long ago

In addition, a tiny legacy from an earlier exit may persist in some native islanders in the southwestern Pacific Ocean.

Our species, Homo sapiens, arose about 200,000 years ago in Africa. From there, it colonized the world, and scientists are still trying to understand the timing of that expansion.

The new work takes advantage of the fact that human DNA accumulates tiny changes over time. That can be used like a clock to estimate how long ago two populations split off from each other. The approach can’t reveal every migration out of Africa, just those that left a genetic legacy that has been handed down to this day.

Scientists have long traced one such exit to a single population that left around 40,000 to 80,000 years ago, probably over time rather than all at once. But some other work has turned up potential signs of a previous migration as early as 120,000 to 130,000 years ago.

…Overall, the evidence shows that the vast majority of modern human ancestry outside of Africa comes from a single exit from Africa, said David Reich of Harvard Medical School.

• • •

QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK

Who was the worst President of the U.S. ever?

Shouldn’t it be harder to press a button like this?

Should kids be forced to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance?

How did grape juice come to be used for communion?

Why does Tony Campolo no longer want to be called an “evangelical”?

Was Elizabeth Warren’s epic excoriation of Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf overwrought?

Are we reaching the end of the trend for longer, healthier lives?

Would homeschoolers be better off attending public schools?

Isn’t this way cool?

• • •

THE AMERICAN RELIGIOUS EXODUS

A striking headline tops a story at the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) this week: Exodus: Why Americans are Leaving Religion—and Why They’re Unlikely to Come Back.

The American religious landscape has undergone substantial changes in recent years. However, one of the most consequential shifts in American religion has been the rise of religiously unaffiliated Americans. This trend emerged in the early 1990s. In 1991, only six percent of Americans identified their religious affiliation as “none,” and that number had not moved much since the early 1970s. By the end of the 1990s, 14% of the public claimed no religious affiliation. The rate of religious change accelerated further during the late 2000s and early 2010s, reaching 20% by 2012. Today, one-quarter (25%) of Americans claim no formal religious identity, making this group the single largest “religious group” in the U.S.

…The growth of the unaffiliated has been fed by an exodus of those who grew up with a religious identity. Only nine percent of Americans report being dd in a non-religious household. And while younger adults are more likely to report growing up without a religious identity than seniors (13% vs. 4%, respectively), the vast majority of unaffiliated Americans formerly identified with a particular religion.

No religious group has benefitted more from religious switching than the unaffiliated. Nearly one in five (19%) Americans switched from their childhood religious identity to become unaffiliated as adults, and relatively few (3%) Americans who were raised unaffiliated are joining a religious tradition. This dynamic has resulted in a dramatic net gain—16 percentage points—for the religiously unaffiliated.

While non-white Protestants and non-Christian religious groups have remained fairly stable, white Protestants and Catholics have all experienced declines, with Catholics suffering the largest decline among major religious groups: a 10-percentage point loss overall. Nearly one-third (31%) of Americans report being raised in a Catholic household, but only about one in five (21%) Americans identify as Catholic currently. Thirteen percent of Americans report being former Catholics, and roughly 2% of Americans have left their religious tradition to join the Church. White evangelical Protestants and white mainline Protestants are also witnessing negative growth, but to a much more modest degree (-2 percentage points and -5 percentage points, respectively).

…The reasons Americans leave their childhood religion are varied, but a lack of belief in teaching of religion was the most commonly cited reason for disaffiliation. Among the reasons Americans identified as important motivations in leaving their childhood religion are: they stopped believing in the religion’s teachings (60%), their family was never that religious when they were growing up (32%), and their experience of negative religious teachings about or treatment of gay and lesbian people (29%).

Fascinating. As the headlines about this study highlighted this week: the main reason people are leaving religion is simply this — they don’t believe it any more.

• • •

ARTICLE OF THE WEEK FROM THE ONION

Reports are circulating — and it remains to be seen how accurate they are — that Chaplain Mike was the actual inspiration for this article…

Mr. Autumn Man Walking Down Street With Cup Of Coffee, Wearing Sweater Over Plaid Collared Shirt

The twigs and acorns crunching pleasurably beneath his boots, Mr. Autumn Man Dennis Clemons, 32, reportedly strolled down Massachusetts Avenue on Wednesday wearing a gray sweater over a plaid collared shirt as he cradled a cup of pumpkin-spiced coffee and relished the crisp October morning.

“Nothing beats autumn in New England,” said His Excellency, the Duke of Fall, who began the day swaddled in a warm flannel blanket, gazing out the window at the golden-hued landscape, as is his custom this time of year. “Everywhere the leaves are changing and the temperature is starting to drop off. You can smell it in the air.”

“Tonight it may even dip into the 30s,” added the cozy autumnal personage, who at several points wrapped both hands around his warm container of coffee and inhaled deeply. “Perfect weather for building a fire.”

Mr. Fall, who sources speculate loves Thanksgiving, butternut squash soup, homecoming parades, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” apple-picking, and haunted hayrides, emerges reliably every year around this time in his traditional uniform, sometimes alternating his iconic sweater with a fleece vest or pullover.

The Autumnal Ambassador is also believed to be an avid consumer of seasonal produce, his home and hearth redolent of roasting Indian corn, gourds, and other root vegetables.

“I’m thinking about taking a trip to Salem with my girlfriend this weekend,” said Mr. Autumn Man, trying to decide whether to wear beige or brown corduroy pants for the excursion with his leather-gloved counterpart, Ms. Autumn Woman. “The variety of colors is incredible once you get out of the city.”

“Between the trees and the forest floor, it’s like a giant mural,” continued the veritable High Priest of the Harvest Season, adding that he would soon have to rake his driveway, an activity for which he will most certainly don a cashmere scarf.

Sources said that in addition to snuggling up on the couch sipping hot apple cider and watching Meet Me In St. Louis on DVD, Mr. Autumn Man will also spend part of the weekend meeting up with his friends, the Autumn Gang, to watch fall sports and eat fall snacks.

“Getting together with the guys for football and wings is kind of like a tradition,” said the walking, talking essence of the Northern Hemisphere’s annual tilt away from the sun. “From pretty much September onwards, no Sunday afternoon feels complete without it.”

“You’ve got to take it all in and enjoy it while you still can, though, because December will be here in the blink of an eye,” he added.

According to reports, Mr. Fall will then put on a down jacket with a fur-trimmed hood, buy a lift ticket at a local ski slope, and start getting short with people at work because the early sunset “affects his mood,” thus signaling the completion of his metamorphosis into Mr. Wintertime Asshole Man.

• • •

Have a great weekend. I have to go hug a baby.

Fridays with Michael Spencer: September 23, 2016

Note from CM: Over the next season on Fridays, we will focus on some of what Michael wrote about the church and church-shaped vs. Jesus-shaped spirituality.

• • •

I am going to disagree in some fundamental ways with the following statement.

“My passion isn’t to build up my church. My passion is for God’s Kingdom.” Ever heard someone say that? I have. It sounds large-hearted, but it’s wrong. It can even be destructive.

Suppose I said, “My passion isn’t to build up my marriage. My passion is for Marriage. I want the institution of Marriage to be revered again. I’ll work for that. I’ll pray for that. I’ll sacrifice for that. But don’t expect me to hunker down in the humble daily realities of building a great marriage with my wife Jani. I’m aiming at something grander.”

If I said that, would you think, “Wow, Ray is so committed”? Or would you wonder if I had lost my mind?

If you care about the Kingdom, be the kind of person who can be counted on in your own church. Join your church, pray for your church, tithe to your church, participate in your church every Sunday with wholehearted passion.

We build great churches the same way we build great marriages — real commitment that makes a positive difference every day.

• Ray Ortlund

✥

Someone is saying “You’re going to disagree with probably the most respected, spiritually passionate guy in the Christian blogosphere? You really are out in left field knocking down the fence.”

I am a big Ray Ortlund fan. I’m not on his level as a Christian or a minister, much less as a blogger. I’m not really here to disagree, but I want to respond to what is an important issue for me and many others in our pursuit of Jesus Shaped Spirituality.

1) A passion for a marriage is not at war with a passion for marriage. The two are related. A passion for the welfare of my family or the success of my vocation are derived from some larger, defining passion.

2) If my marriage should fail, would my faith in marriage vanish? If my children go astray, does my belief in the importance of parenting end? No. In both cases, I will find hope to move on, to encourage others, to garner wisdom and even to try again from love that is greater than even my love for my marriage or children.

3) If you care about the Kingdom, faithfully care for your church. I agree completely. But if your church ceases to preach the Gospel or compromises its purpose and mission for relevance and worldly success, what will be the larger framework that will allow you to know something is wrong? It will be a passion for Christ and his Kingdom, applied to a specific situation.

4) What concerns me is a tendency to sound like we are saying “the Kingdom (as far as you are concerned) = your local church and what it’s doing.” I do not believe this is the teaching of scripture, and I don’t believe sound local churches even leave this as an option. It is, to use Ortlund’s phrase, a destructive error.

5) I would go further. I don’t believe a Biblically sound church restricts service to the Kingdom to service/involvement in that particular local church. In my book, I’ll be calling this “church shaped spirituality,” and I’ll have quite a lot to say about it. Isn’t a church that is making disciples sending those disciples into the world? Isn’t the church the disciple-making, initiatory fellowship, but not the primary place where discipleship takes place?

6) Tithing to a local church, for example, is a practice that I can’t see being scripturally required in any new covenant sense. I was taught my entire life that God commanded me to tithe to my local church. Awareness of the larger needs of the Kingdom, of other ministries, of individuals and even of other causes supported by my church was always laundered through the “tithe to the local church” first rhetoric.

Shocker: I don’t trust many local churches to spend that much money in a kingdom-savvy way. Insurance. Utilities. Salaries. Facilities. With a percentage to “missions.” I can no longer believe that is how I, as a Christian, am to be a steward of my financial resources. My church should help me manage and spend that money by showing me many different ways I can make it count for the Kingdom and teaching me to be a Kingdom investor in all of life. They should teach me to see the world with Kingdom eyes and my resources through the priorities of Jesus, which include the local church but certainly isn’t restricted to it.

If an American church has 10,000 members, and they would all tithe, what would most of those churches do? Build bigger buildings and hire more staff to do more programs. Let’s support the church, but let’s not buy whiskey for proven alcoholics.

7) The Kingdom economy is one where the local church is a demonstration of the Kingdom, and the church prepares and equips Christians to live Kingdom-useful lives. That life can’t be restricted to a local church. The marriage analogy depends on an exclusive vow as the moral center of marriage. Only one relationship. That exclusive vow is with Christ, not with a local church.

8) Don’t accuse me of “either/or,” because I am not saying that in any way. Christians have responsibilities and commitments to their local churches, but that relationship is relative to 1) Christ, 2) the Kingdom of Christ and his purposes. The local church has a place and a role in the Kingdom, but that is relative to the ultimate claims of Jesus Christ and the call of all disciples to seek first the Kingdom.

9) The claim that “the church is the way disciples seek first the Kingdom” is a claim made by churches and church leaders. I think it has to be questioned, not because there aren’t great churches and pastors like Immanuel and Ortlund, but because there are worldly and compromised “churches” and “shepherds” as described in Revelation 2-3, Ezekiel, etc.

10) I greatly appreciate and affirm Ortlund’s words. There is a lot of wisdom there. I think he is expressing some things which many of us need to talk about in the context of our own rather different experience of church.

Open Mic: September 2016

Open Mic: September 22, 2016

It has been awhile since we’ve hosted an Open Mic day, but today provides a good opportunity for one.

I’ll be playing in the annual Daniel Mercer Foundation charity golf tournament to support youth services here in our area. Daniel was a young man in our community who died ten years ago from a brain tumor. He was bright, vibrant, and athletically gifted, and our families became close through the experience of walking together through something no one wants to face. For me, it was one of most formative experiences of my life, and it happened during the time when I was transitioning from parish ministry to hospice chaplaincy. It is an honor every year to gather with friends and loved ones to honor Dan’s memory and to enjoy the fellowship of those who love him still.

This also gives you an opportunity to bring topics to the table and discuss them.

Just remember a few simple guidelines, which represent simple courtesy:

Know that you are welcome here. You don’t have to agree.
Try to be concise and clear in your comments.
When in a conversation, stay on topic.
Don’t dominate the discussion.
Listen well.
Watch your language and how you treat others.

With these simple parameters in place, the floor is yours today.

Enjoy God’s gift of conversation…and each other.

Wednesdays with James: Lesson Sixteen (final)

Late Summer Corn, Photo by David Cornwell

Wednesdays with James
Lesson Sixteen: The Pastoral Community

We have come to our final study in the Epistle of James. Here, once again, is our diagram of the entire letter, and as you see, it closes with a group of closing exhortations.

Are any among you suffering? Let them pray. Are any cheerful? Let them sing psalms. Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church, and they should pray over the sick person, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. Faithful prayer will rescue the sick person, and the Lord will raise them up. If they have committed any sin, it will be forgiven them. So confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. When a righteous person prays, that prayer carries great power. Elijah was a man with passions like ours, and he prayed and prayed that it might not rain— and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. Then he prayed again, the sky gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit. My dear family, if someone in your company has wandered from the truth, and someone turns them back, know this: the one who turns back a sinner from wandering off into error will rescue that person’s life from death, and cover a multitude of sins.

• James 5:13-20

• • •

You may notice that I made one choice in identifying this section that differs from many commentators, who put James 5:12 in this final section, or as a standalone verse forming a transition to the concluding exhortations. I think it goes better as a conclusion to the preceding section, with its emphases on the speech believers use and the coming judgment.

Above all, my brothers and sisters, do not swear. Don’t swear by heaven; don’t swear by earth; don’t use any other oaths. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. That way, you will not fall under judgment.

However, verse 12 does also form an effective transition to what he says next, for James now concludes his letter with a series of appeals focusing on other, healthier forms of speech and action that the believing fellowship should practice.

James thus says goodbye by encouraging his friends to live in true community with each other.

This epistle, which has unveiled the various “stress fractures” threatening these congregations, concludes with appeals to practice love in simple, meaningful, down-to-earth ways.

Pray and sing together. Commiserate and celebrate with one another.
Visit and call for help from one another in times of sickness and trouble.
Practice confession and forgiveness.
Care and intercede for each other in ways that will promote healing.
Reflect on the lessons of scripture together (as James does here on the story of Elijah).
Love the “leavers” — don’t abandon those who have left the fellowship, but reach out to them.

As Patrick J. Hartin writes in his commentary, the letter ends with “a vision for true pastoral care.” He is not just referring to the work of those who are called “pastors,” but to a pastoral community, a fellowship of people that cares for each other, that seeks to be with one another through good times and bad for each other’s benefit.

We all know how dysfunctional such a community can be, how fragile and unsupportive, especially when under pressure. There is plenty of evidence of that in this very epistle.

In the end, James raises our sights to something better. But isn’t it interesting how simple and unsophisticated his counsel is? Pray. Sing. Visit. Confess. Forgive. Pray some more. Care.

Don’t make it any harder than that.

• • •

Wednesdays with James

The Complete Series

Wrestling with Scripture

I was reading Walter Brueggemann’s book, An Unsettling God: The Heart of the Hebrew Bible, today, and I came across this quote: ”

“I suggest that a Christian reading of the Old Testament requires, in the present time, a recovery of the Jewishness of our ways of reading the text.”

He goes on to suggest that Jewish scholars have always seen our interpretations of Scripture as provisional, not final. There is always more to the text. My view may be challenged, and I welcome the challenge as a means by which we all learn more in the process of interpretation. We wrestle with the text, and we recognize the value of continuing to wrestle in the pursuit of wisdom.

This brought to mind some things Pete Enns said in his wonderful book, The Bible Tells Me So. In the course of his own journey, Pete learned to appreciate the much different dynamic of Jewish biblical studies and their willingness to tolerate differences and tensions within the Jewish community.

In other words, reading and studying the Bible ought to open and encourage conversations, not shut them down.

I thought it might be good to think about that today.

…the history of Judaism is a lively tradition of wrestling openly with scripture and coming to diverse conclusions about how to handle it. More so than the Christian tradition, Judaism embraces debate as a vital part of its faith. Disagreements are preserved (not silenced or marginalized) in official core texts of Judaism, like the Talmud and medieval commentaries on the Bible. Opposing opinions sit side by side as monuments to this wrestling match with scripture— and with God.

As I mentioned, I was influenced at Harvard by Jewish professors as they introduced me to this rich history of struggling with the Bible. Though I still handle the Bible as a Christian, through their influence I also came to appreciate and embrace the spiritual benefit of keeping conversations open rather than closing them. That influence is written all over this book.

The Bible isn’t a cookbook— deviate from the recipe and the soufflé falls flat. It’s not an owner’s manual— with detailed and complicated step-by-step instructions for using your brand-new all-in-one photocopier/ FAX machine/ scanner/ microwave/ DVR/ home security system. It’s not a legal contract— make sure you read the fine print and follow every word or get ready to be cast into the dungeon. It’s not a manual of assembly— leave out a few bolts and the entire jungle gym collapses on your three-year-old.

When we open the Bible and read it, we are eavesdropping on an ancient spiritual journey. That journey was recorded over a thousand-year span of time, by different writers, with different personalities, at different times, under different circumstances, and for different reasons.

In the Bible, we read of encounters with God by ancient peoples, in their times and places, asking their questions, and expressed in language and ideas familiar to them. Those encounters with God were, I believe, genuine, authentic, and real. But they were also ancient— and that explains why the Bible behaves the way it does.

This kind of Bible— the Bible we have— just doesn’t work well as a point-by-point exhaustive and timelessly binding list of instructions about God and the life of faith. But it does work as a model for our own spiritual journey. An inspired model, in fact.

Music Monday: Rock Music’s Most Formative Year

Note from CM: We are going to move our classic Michael Spencer posts back to Fridays for a while, and renew our “Music Monday” theme to start each week.

• • •

Fifty years ago. 1966. I was ten years old.

An article in The Guardian asks the question, “Was 1966 Pop Music’s Greatest Year?”

I hesitate to say it was the best in my lifetime, but I would say that perhaps it was the most formative. In particular, it was in 1966 that the public was introduced to the concept of the album. That is, a record that was more than a mere compilation of songs, but rather a song set that equalled more than the sum of its parts, made to be listened to in one setting, inviting the listener to take a journey of sounds, thoughts, feelings, and imaginings that truly “took” him/her somewhere.

During that year I bought my first album (“The Best of the Kingston Trio”) and became a fan of one of the British Invasion groups (The Dave Clark Five) — HERE is a post about those days. I was too young to appreciate the Beatles fully. Dylan was a total mystery. The Beach Boys were all about fun in the sun, mediated through my little AM radio. But in 1966, these three acts put together albums for the ages.

May 16, 1966 may have been one of the most auspicious days in rock music history. The Beach Boys released Pet Sounds and Bob Dylan gave us Blonde on Blonde on the same day.

Pet Sounds. Brian Wilson, who stayed at home because of a panic attack he had suffered on a flight while the rest of the Beach Boys toured Japan, was inspired by the Beatles album, Rubber Soul, to compose his introspective masterpiece. Rubber Soul may be seen as the wellspring for all these albums, as Rolling Stone said, “We’re all living in the future this album invented.” Rubber Soul was released in December, 1965, and it represented a new day in studio recording. The Beatles grew up at that moment and began an incredible run of mature creative output in the second half of the decade. When Wilson heard Rubber Soul, it sparked something deep in his soul. As Charles J. Moss at Cuepoint writes:

When Brian Wilson first heard the Beatles’ 1965 album Rubber Soul, he was so astonished by the album that the next morning, he went straight to his piano and started writing “God Only Knows” with his songwriting partner Tony Asher.

Wilson knew that Rubber Soul — an album that contained the most mature songwriting from John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison yet, and exhibited the beginnings of a studio effects revolution — was a glimpse into the future of rock music, and that the Beatles were at the forefront. As cofounder of the Beach Boys, he knew that music was changing and for his group to stay on top in the industry, he would have to make something just as good, or better.

The result was Pet Sounds, released May 16, 1966. It was the Beach Boys’ greatest artistic achievement; one that would never be reached by the group again.

The studio history of Pet Sounds is the stuff of rock music mythology. Wilson called in the best unknown band in rock music history — a group of master studio musicians who became known as the Wrecking Crew — and worked as a composer, arranger, and producer with them, often spontaneously, until the “feel” of each arrangement was right. Sessions were long and costly and often frustrating, but the end result is one of the greatest albums of all time. The Rolling Stone review said, “With its vivid orchestration, lyrical ambition, elegant pacing and thematic coherence, Pet Sounds invented – and in some sense perfected – the idea that an album could be more than the sum of its parts.”

On the same day, Bob Dylan released his masterpiece, Blonde on Blonde.

This album is also famous not only for its content, but for its recording sessions. Blonde on Blonde is the record that put Nashville, TN on the map as the place to record. Dylan assembled a great band that included guitarist Wayne Moss, guitarist/bassist Joe South and keyboardist Al Kooper, along with legendary blind pianist Hargus “Pig” Robbins. Dylan also brought in Robbie Robertson of The Band for some sessions. Once again, the recording procedure was strange to studio musicians who were used to getting full arrangements and finishing their work in an allotted time. Instead, they would often find themselves sitting around while Dylan was working on lyrics and ideas until he was ready, sometimes late into the evening or overnight. The schedule was always unpredictable. However, as per the musicians, the atmosphere was also fun and low pressure, which you can hear in the album’s buoyant spirit.

Of the first Nashville session, Dylan has said: “The musicians played cards, I wrote out a song, we’d do it, they’d go back to their game and I’d write out another song.” Actually, the band was often woken up and summoned to the studio in the middle of the night. The musicians were arranged in a circle, so as to feed off one another. And most of the songs from those first sessions were indeed completed by a first or second take: Fourth Time Around, Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat and the record’s two haunting and haunted masterpieces: Visions of Johanna and Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands. (Ed Vulliamy)

Vulliamy also reminds us of the context in Bob Dylan’s career for this album: “Five months before recording began, Dylan had made arguably the most significant step in his career, and perhaps in all rock music, when on Sunday July 25, 1965, he played the Newport folk festival with a band that included Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield and proceeded to rip the night apart with searing electric accounts of Maggie’s Farm, Like a Rolling Stone and It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry.”

This is Dylan the rebel, refusing to fit into people’s preconceived notions of who he was or should be. From the opening raucous strains of Rainy Day Women #12 and 35 (Dylan was enamored of obscure titles) to the remarkable Sad-Eyed Lady of the Lowlands, which took up one entire side of an LP, Bobby the court jester thumbs his nose at conformity, saying essentially, “Do what you want. This generation is going to have its pipe and smoke it too.” Blonde on Blonde is one wild ride as we try to keep up with Dylan during the most productive and creative period of his youth.

On August 5, 1966, The Beatles released Revolver, which many consider their finest album. George Harrison was quoted as saying he saw it as Rubber Soul, part two, a continuation and extension of the creativity and possibilities explored in the first record. It was also a further foray into psychedelia and spirituality, aided by the band’s experiments with LSD, that introduced an entire era in the 1960’s.

A rock song accompanied by a string quartet? Yes. Eleanor Rigby. Sitar and strains of Indian classical music? Yes. Love You To. Sweet and sentimental love song? Yes. Here, There, and Everywhere. Blistering social commentary? Yes. Taxman. A description of an LSD trip, complete with lyrics from Timothy Leary’s version of The Tibetan Book of the Dead? Sure, why not? Tomorrow Never Knows. Something, on the other hand, for the kiddies? Yes. Yellow Submarine.

Creative studio techniques? How about replaying McCartney’s guitar solo in Taxman backward in Tomorrow Never Knows? Multilayering of voices automatically rather than manually? It started on this record. Tape loops? Yep.

The album also saw the rise of George Harrison, who wrote several of the songs, and Ringo Starr, who sang Yellow Submarine, to new places of prominence within the group. Ringo said, “”Musically, I felt we were progressing in leaps and bounds. Some of the stuff on this and the Rubber Soul album was brilliant. There was nothing like it.”

And it all came together in a coherent, satisfying whole, preparing the way for the next album, the one everyone thinks of as the epitome of “the album” genre: Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

• • •

How good are these three albums, and how do they hold up over time?

Well, if you take Rolling Stone’s voting committee seriously, Blonde on Blonde is #9 of their top 500 albums, Revolver is #3, and Pet Sounds is #2. In 1966, they all prepared the way for Sgt. Pepper, which RS ranks #1.

For those of us who grew up in the 1960’s, these are the formative sounds of our lives. Though some may ask how these “secular” influences could be healthy or make any contribution toward a Jesus-shaped spirituality, it seems a foolish question to me. For each of us is also more than the sum of the parts and influences that have shaped us. As a human being of a particular age, I find in this music the experiences and cries that my own generation has felt. These songs, these feelings, these thoughts, these pursuits of creativity and longing are mine. A part of the life God is in.

Pic & Poem of the Week: September 18, 2016

Early Evening Train — Westbound Train at Sunset

(Click picture to see larger image)

From Out of Metropolis

We’re headed for empty-headedness,
the featureless amnesias of Idaho, Nebraska, Nevada,
states rich only in vowel sounds and alliteration.
We’re taking the train so we can see into the heart
of the heart of America framed in the windows’ cool
oblongs of light. We want cottages, farmhouses
with peaked roofs leashed by wood smoke to the clouds;
we want the golden broth of sunlight ladled over
ponds and meadows. We’ve never seen a meadow.
Now, we want to wade into one—up to our chins in the grassy
welter—the long reach of our vision grabbing up great
handfuls and armloads of scenery at the clouds’
white sale, at the bargain basement giveaway
of clods and scat and cow pies. We want to feel half
of America to the left of us and half to the right, ourselves
like a spine dividing the book in two, ourselves holding
the whole great story together.

By Lynn Emmanuel

Saturday Ramblings: September 17, 2016 — National League Central Champions Edition!

Step one: complete.

Chicago Cubs fans like me are hoping for an end to a 108-year drought in World Series championships this year. I have rambled around for 60 of those years, and it is one of the great longings of my lifetime to see my team become world champs at least once.

And what shall I say of my sainted grandfather? He was born the year the Cubs played in their first World Series, 1906, losing to the “Hitless Wonders,” the crosstown White Sox. They then won consecutive championships in 1907 and 1908 over the Detroit Tigers. So he was too young to enjoy those, and he never saw it happen again.

I used to sit with him in his recliner when I was a small boy, watching the Cubs on WGN TV, mostly grumbling when they lost, but enjoying every moment with him. The picture on the right shows me at as a toddler with my Grandpa Mercer and my cousin. I’m the one wearing the Cubs hat. This is my life, folks.

Well, I’m happy to say that the Cubs completed the first step toward a World Series title this year by winning the National League’s Central Division on Thursday night.

There is a lot more to be done, and October baseball is never a sure thing, always full of surprises. There are no guarantees; the games must be played. But this is the best chance the Cubs have had for a long time, and I can’t wait to see how it works out.

Go Cubs Go!

• • •

WHAT IS AMERICAN RELIGION WORTH?

Brian Grim, associate scholar at Georgetown University’s Religious Liberty Project, recently presented a new study on the worth of religion to American society. Grim tabulated that religion is worth a whopping $1.2 trillion to our economy.

To put a value on the work of the nation’s 344,000 religious congregations — representing all faiths — Grim looked at the schools they run, the soup kitchens, the addiction recovery programs and their impact on local economies. Churches, synagogues, mosques and other houses of worship mostly spend locally — employing hundreds of thousands of people and buying everything from flowers to computers to snow removal services.

Grim came up with three estimates and settled on the middle one — the $1.2 trillion — as what he called a “conservative” appraisal of the work of religious organizations in American society annually.

The following chart, presented in another article on the study in CT, shows the breakdown of various religious organizations and what they contribute.

Religion, as it turns out, is good for the economy.

• • •

NON-DENOM SEMINARY NOW OFFERING SEX ABUSE AWARENESS TRAINING

An article at RNS reports:

In the wake of the Catholic Church’s clergy sexual abuse crisis, many Catholic as well as Protestant seminaries began offering training on abuse prevention as part of ministry ethics, pastoral care or personal formation classes. And seminaries work with denominations on this kind of clergy training.

Now, Dallas Theological Seminary, a non-denominational evangelical seminary, has made it a graduation requirement that students intending to become ministers must take a short training class in sexual abuse awareness. This is unique among evangelical schools.

The one-hour “Ministry Safe” class is described as “entry-level certificate training” by the seminary. In the spring semester, the school plans to offer a fuller course on the subject, with more than 40 hours of instruction on abuse prevention in ministry settings.

Good for them.

• • •

COMING OF AGE — AT AGE 113!

CBS News reports that the world’s oldest man, 113-year-old Yisrael Kristal, will finally get the chance to have his bar mitzvah.

Kristal was born in 1903 in Poland, but World War I got in the way of his original bar mitzvah.

During World War II, he spent time in the Auschwitz concentration camp, and survived the Holocaust.

Kristal lost his family in the Holocaust and moved to Israel where, this week, a hundred relatives are gathering to celebrate his 113th birthday and to hold that overdue bar mitzvah.

“We will bless him. We will dance with him. We will be happy,” his daughter said.

Mazel Tov!

• • •

QUESTIONS OF THE WEEK

Should Edward Snowden be pardoned?

Did the NCAA make the right call in North Carolina?

Are American Christians really persecuted?

Is it easy to visit Cuba?

What does it feel like to ride in a self-driving Uber car?

Will there be a resolution soon to the Dakota pipeline controversy?

• • •

PIX OF THE WEEK: STREETS OF BLOOD SACRIFICE

In case you’ve ever wondered what a culture of animal sacrifice looks like, the Times of India has posted a graphic story and pictures from Dhaka, the capitol of Bangladesh.

Large-scale animal sacrifices marking the Islamic festival of Eid al-Adha combined with heavy rains have turned the streets of Bangladesh’s capital into rivers of blood.

Muslims traditionally mark Eid al-Adha, or the Feast of Sacrifice, by slaughtering livestock. Usually a goat, sheep or a cow is killed to commemorate Prophet Ibrahim’s test of faith.

The meat of the sacrificed animals is shared among family and friends and poor people who cannot afford to sacrifice animals as a gesture of generosity to promote social harmony. Dhaka residents used parking lots, garages and alleys to kill the animals and the blood flowed into the flooded streets, turning them into rivers of blood.

• • •

THE POLAR BEARS STRIKE BACK

TASS, the Russian news agency, reports that some scientists are going to be stuck for awhile.

About a dozen polar bears have besieged a weather station located on the remote Troynoy island in the southern part of the Kara Sea, the station’s head told TASS on Monday.

“A female bear has been sleeping under the station’s windows since Saturday night. It’s dangerous to go out as we have run short of any means to scare off the predators,” Vadim Plotnikov explained. “We had to stop some of the meteorological observations.”

He said some ten adult bears, including four female bears with cubs, were spotted around the the weather station.

“On August 31, the bear killed one of our two dogs and has not left the station since then,” he added.

Plotnikov said he had informed the Arkhangelsk-based Northern Meteorological Department of the bear dilemma but was advised to act independently.

The Mikhail Somov expedition vessel delivering cargo to Arctic weather stations will reach the island only in a month, while the station’s five staff members need flares to scare off the polar bears.

Apart from that possible solution, the crew are hoping that by the end of October, or in the beginning of November the near-shore waters will freeze and the bears will leave the island in search for food.

• • •

EXTREME BAPTISM

Oh yeah, an alert reader sent me a link to this…this…well, whatever it is.

• • •

IN-COWG-NITO

Internet privacy is, apparently, not something that humans alone worry about.

In August 2015, Google Street View captured images along the banks of the River Cam, in Cambridge, England. As the cameras snapped their way through a meadow called Coe Fen, a cow crossed the road.

Google apparently decided it would behoove it to add an identity-protecting blur.

When an editor at The Guardian found the blurred face this week, he took a screenshot and shared it on Twitter, much to the Internet’s delight.

• • •

THIS WEEK IN MUSIC

The late, great singer-songwriter Steve Goodman (“City of New Orleans”) was a die-hard Chicago Cubs fan. After every Cubs home win, his anthem, “Go Cubs Go” is played at Wrigley Field and the fans revel in joining in.

In honor of their National League Central championship in 2016, here’s Steve singing his heart out for them. Wish you were here to see it, friend.