Category Archives: theology and doxology

February 3, 2012 · 12:18 pm

Hide and Seek

Dear Readers,

I have previously written about Simple Pleasures:  Some of my fondest childhood memories include playing games with my siblings, cousins, and friends.  Borrowing a page from  Anne of Green Gables, we played outdoor games for hours:  “Hide & Seek,”  “Tag,”  “Sack Races,”  “Rover, Rover,” etc.

One day, I grew up and became “too old” for such games but I hope to watch my grandchildren play these games.

Like Rachel Lynde, from  Anne of Green Gables, “I am known as a woman who speaks her mind.”

So, brace yourself:

I’ve been dismayed about a phrase that I frequently hear: “God showed up.”  

If you use that phrase, please do not assume I am talking about you, personally.  I have heard this phrase from various sources, for several years.

I have been searching for a response to that phrase and here it is:

“If it is I who determines where God is to be found, then I shall always find a God who corresponds to me in some way, who is obliging, who is connected with my own nature.  

But if God determines where he is to be found, then it will be in a place which is not immediately pleasing to my nature and which is not at all congenial to me.  

This place is the Cross of Christ.  And whoever would find him must go to the foot of the Cross, as the Sermon on the Mount commands.  

This is not according to our nature at all; it is entirely contrary to it.  But this is the message of the Bible, not only in the New, but also in the Old Testament . . . “

~Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from Bonhoeffer:  Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy, by Eric Metaxas

Dear friends, let us grow up and leave behind childish thinking and speaking, such as “God showed up.”

For, who are we to determine and declare this?

The Holy Trinity is indeed omnipresent!  He searches for us before we ever begin to search for Him.  He found us when we were lost.

Our immortal God is invisible.  Yet, our wise God is unceasingly at work in His creation.  Let us sing this hymn [below] and praise His Name!

Coram Deo,

Margot

Immortal, Invisible, God Only Wise

Immortal, invisible, God only wise,
In light inaccessible hid from our eyes,
Most blessed, most glorious, the Ancient of Days,
Almighty, victorious, thy great name we praise!

Unresting, unhasting, and silent as light,
Nor wanting, nor wasting, thou rulest in might;
Thy justice like mountains high soaring above
Thy clouds which are fountains of goodness and love.

To all life thou givest to both great and small;
In all life thou livest, the true life of all;
We blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree,
And wither and perish but nought changeth thee.

Great Father of glory, pure Father of light,
Thine angels adore thee, all veiling their sight;
All laud we would render: O help us to see
‘Tis only the splendour of light hideth thee.


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May 25, 2011 · 2:09 pm

A Letter from Marmee

Dear Family & Friends,

Stephen & I are blessed with two children, two grandchildren [and one on the way], two god-children, nieces and nephews, and children of our friends.  This is the season not only for congratulations and celebrations but also for changes and challenges:  graduations, baccalaureates, commencements, parties, and vacations will soon segue into packing up for college, traveling, settling into a new city, making new friends, finding a new church, etc.  This letter is my encouragement to all the young people whom I love, who are going through this transition:

Dear ___________:

It is an honor for me to write to you a letter of encouragement.  I extend to you a hearty “Well Done!”  and I wish you joy and every success, in your future education and vocation.  I also desire to impart some truth and wisdom that will [hopefully] serve you, long after the excitement of the celebration is over.

During this season of transition, it is possible that you will move away from your family, friends, church home, and youth group.  Who will you choose to be?  What will be your character, virtue, and strength?  Will you decide to love the Triune God with “ALL of your heart, soul, mind, and strength?”  What or Who will be your constant and guiding North Star?

When you are parted from all that is familiar, you will need more than fond, warm, positive memories.  You will need to choose and establish community, based upon the rock-solid foundation of creed.  In fact, you will flourish only when you find “community and creed.”

The ancient and historic creeds of the church are most simply stated as The Mystery of Faith:

Christ has died.

Christ is risen.

Christ will come again.

These three historical acts [the Death/Atonement, Resurrection, and Second Coming] are the “irreducible minimum” central truths of Christianity.  St. Thomas said, “Truth is the conformity of the mind to reality.”   This historic truth is the reality of the Triune God invading space and time, in the grand redemptive narrative.  If these historical acts are true, then Christianity is true.  Regardless of what you experience in life, the transcendent truth of The Mystery of Faith is the unmovable anchor of Christianity.

Christianity is true because it represents reality, regardless of our “experience.”   As challenges and changes, trials and tribulations, disappointments, and losses occur in your life, the one constant that remains is the truth of Christianity.  This truth is the North Star, regardless of your own subjective and personal experience.

The New Testament assures us that “He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how will he not, with him, freely give us all things?” [Romans 8.32.]

 The Cross of Christ is the assurance, the proof of the love of the Holy Triune God.

How are we to respond to this sacrificial love?

The New Testament instructs us:  “You are not your own; you have been bought with a price.  Therefore, glorify God in your body.” [1 Corinthians 6.19-20]

The love of Christ compels us to live a life of costly discipleship, honoring and obeying the Holy Triune God.

As you enter adulthood, I pray that you will live as one who understands what true freedom is:  “The capacity to do none other than obey God.”

If a person does not become what he understands, he does not really understand it.  [Soren Kierkegaard, 1813-1855].  Know what your believe and live what you believe, in thought, words, and action.  Become a person of integrity.

This is a bittersweet time for you, as you say “goodbye” to your high school years and enter your college/university years.  If you have been blessed with a great family, good friends, a solid church, and a supportive youth group, then you are indeed fortunate.

However, when the memories of those years fade and when the transformed life becomes difficult, pick up this letter and read it again.

Remember the rock upon which your faith is founded:  the Cross of Christ.

Remember the truth of the sacrifice of Christ.

Remember the truth that “you are not your own; you have been bought with a price:”   Therein is found true wisdom and freedom.

From the Book of Common Prayer:

A Prayer for Young Persons:

God our Father, you see your children growing up in an unsteady and confusing world:  Show them that your ways give more life than the ways of the world, and that following you is better than chasing after selfish goals.  Help them to take failure, not as a measure of their worth, but as a chance for a new start.  Give them strength to hold their faith in you, and to keep alive their joy in your creation; through Jesus Christ, our Lord.  Amen.

For Schools and Colleges:

O Eternal God, bless all schools, colleges, and universities [and especially ___________], that they may be lively centers for sound learning, new discovery, and the pursuit of wisdom; and grant that those who teach and those who learn may find you to be the source of all truth, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

For Travelers:

O God, our heavenly Father, whose glory fills the whole creation, and whose presence, we find wherever we go:  Preserve those who travel [in particular, __________] surround them with your loving care; protect them from every danger; and bring them in safety to their journey’s end; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

For Protection:

Assist us mercifully, O Lord, in these our supplications and prayers, and dispose the way of thy servants towards the attainment of everlasting salvation; that, among all the changes and chances of this mortal life, they may ever be defended by thy gracious and ready help; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Coram Deo,

“Marmee”

Margot Blair Payne, May 2011 and Revised January 2013.

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April 21, 2011 · 3:06 pm

Holy Week

Giotto, The Arena Chapel Frescoes: Palm Sunday

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As in all the synoptic gospels, the people spread their clothes out before Jesus as He approaches Jerusalem, a gate of which is shown on the right. Giotto here shows them removing their clothes in order to do so, although the gospels do not include this detail. As in the gospels of Matthew and Mark, others cut branches from the trees to strew in His path. As in John, they are specifically palm trees and a branch is being used, by the second figure to the right of the colt, to acclaim Jesus. The haloed figures following Jesus are, of course, the apostles.
More of Palm Sunday
Source: Web Gallery of Art

Holy Week:  Why We Do the Things We Do,

by Father Eric Dudley, St. Peter’s Anglican Church, Tallahassee, Florida

Palm Sunday:

Palm Sunday marks the end of Lent and the beginning of Holy Week.  As with all Liturgical Seasons, our objective is to trace the steps of Jesus, that our lives might be marked by His.  Palm Sunday traces his steps, as He entered Jerusalem for the last time.  We begin outside of the church [as He began outside of Jerusalem], where we bless the palms.  We joyously process into the church, where we celebrate the end of our Lord’s earthly ministry.  The people waved palm branches, as they shouted, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!  Because the jubilant waving of fronds is soon followed by betrayal, it is our custom to save the palm crosses we receive on Palm Sunday and return them to the church before the next Ash Wednesday [the first day of Lent] so that they might be burned and ground into the ash that is placed on our foreheads.
Confession:
Opportunities for private Confession with a priest are available the first three days of Holy Week.  As we follow the steps of Jesus toward the Cross, we come face to face with our own betrayal of the Lord.  Reconciliation of a Penitent [page 447 of the Book of Common Prayer] is the form we use for private Confession.  The confession is made in the privacy of a prayer room and the priest is committed to maintaining utter confidentiality.  [We fully realize that Confession with a priest is not necessary to know the forgiveness of God. It is just as legitimate to kneel by your bed and offer your confessions. However, for some it is enormously powerful and cathartic to be able to say aloud to another human being the particular things that reflect that person’s separation from God and to hear a priest say aloud to those particular things, God has forgiven them!]
Maundy Thursday
The name Maundy Thursday comes from a Latin word, Mandatum, which means command.  This is the day that commemorates the Last Supper in the Upper Room, where Jesus commanded the disciples to love one another and then showed them an example of that love, by washing their feet.  Because this day commemorates the first Last Supper, the Holy Eucharist is the centerpiece of the Liturgy.  After communion, participants have the opportunity to have their feet washed, and/or wash someone else’s feet, downstairs in the Parish Hall.  [This takes place during Communion, so that people are coming and going downstairs, while Communion is happening upstairs.  This Washing of Feet is a very simple and solemn exercise, which is guided by a Verger in the Parish Hall.

After the Eucharist, the Sacrament is reserved:  [all the bread, left over from Communion, representing the Living Presence of our Lord, is taken from us and placed on an Altar in the Parish Hall, which has been set up as a Chapel] and the Altar in the Sanctuary is stripped.  The Stripping of the Altar can be a very moving event, as a solitary priest removes everything beautiful from the Sanctuary [the area around the Altar] and then removes his own vestments.  This process represents the stripping of our Lord, as he was prepared for Crucifixion.  The Altar is left bare, until Easter Day.  After the service, a Vigil is kept, in the Parish Hall, where the reserved Sacrament remains on the Altar:  [a representation of the disciples waiting with the Lord in Gethsemane.]  Some wait for ten minutes and some wait for the remainder of the evening.  However long one is able to wait, this is a lovely time for quiet meditation.  A priest enters the Parish Hall at midnight, consumes what is left of the sacrament, and extinguishes the candles.  Good Friday has begun.
Good Friday:
On Good Friday, there is a simple service [one at Noon and one at 7.00 PM], where the Passion Gospel is read and a large wooden Cross is processed.  The Cross is placed at the Altar and the clergy and congregation kneel, in silent veneration.  Veneration is followed by a series of prayers and said anthems, which offer our confessions and give thanks for the sacrificial love of God in Christ.  The Cross is draped in black and we depart.
Easter Day:
The joy of Easter Day is startling, after the solemn observances of Holy Week.  The Lord is Risen and the church is full of flowers, bells, trumpets, and Allelluias!  This is the central Feast of the Church:  the celebration of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.  This is the day that gives meaning to all the other days and we pull out all the stops!

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December 24, 2010 · 2:47 pm

“And Every Stone Shall Cry”

stained_glass_angel_image_yfly

 

Dear Readers,

In the Anglican Church, we sing Advent hymns, all during the Advent Season, the season of reflection, contemplation, longing, waiting, and watching.

Only on Christmas Eve do we begin to sing Christmas hymns and we continue to do so, until the Feast of the Epiphany on January 6.

One of the Christmas Eve hymns that we sing is variously known as:

“A Christmas Hymn” or

“And Every Stone Shall Cry” or

“A Stable Lamp Is Lighted”

This hymn appears on Page 104 of The Hymnal, 1982, Oxford Press.

The poet, Richard Wilbur, wrote the words to that hymn.

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Richard Wilbur, born 1921, was an American poet and literary translator. He was appointed the second Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress in 1987. He twice received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry: 1957 and 1989. He died in 2017, aged 96.

~~~~~~

A Christmas Hymn

Words:  Richard Wilbur [born 1921]

And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, “Master, rebuke the disciples.”

And he answered and said unto them, “I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.”

~Luke19:39-40

remains_of_the_roman_road_at_egnazia

A stable lamp is lighted

Whose glow shall wake the sky;

The stars shall bend their voices,

And every stone shall cry.

And every stone shall cry,

And straw like gold shall shine;

A barn shall harbor heaven,

A stall become a shrine.

This child through David’s city

Shall ride in triumph by;

The palm shall strew its branches,

And every stone shall cry.

And every stone shall cry,

Though heavy, dull and dumb,

And lie within the roadway

To pave his kingdom come.

Yet he shall be forsaken,

And yielded up to die;

The sky shall groan and darken,

And every stone shall cry.

And every stone shall cry,

For stony hearts of men:

God’s blood upon the spearhead,

God’s love refused again.

But now, as at the ending,

The low is lifted high;

The stars shall bend their voices,

And every stone shall cry.

And every stone shall cry,

In praises of the Child

By whose descent among us

The worlds are reconciled.

 ~~~~

“All good theology begins and ends with doxology” and “[Good] hymns are [good] theology set to music.”  

This hymn,  A Christmas Hymn, is one of the finest examples of solid theology and doxology.

Listen to a choral recording of the hymn. There are three different links below. [I apologize for any advertisements via YouTube]:

A Stable Lamp Is Lighted

A Stable Lamp Is Lighted

A Stable Lamp Is Lighted

“A Stable Lamp Is Lighted”  by Richard Wilbur.  [The tune is  Andujar, by David Hurd, born 1950.]

Biographies:

Richard Wilbur [Wikipedia]

David Hurd [Wikipedia]

Mars Hill Audio Journal:

Click here to learn more, subscribe, and to search the Archives of  Mars Hill Audio Journal.  Click the link below to see a list of the Archives which feature Richard Wilbur:

Richard Wilbur: Mars Hill Audio Journal

Listen to the mellifluous voice of Richard Wilbur:

Click here and listen to Selection #67:  Richard Wilbur interview clip

Click here and listen to Selection #68:  Richard Wilbur reads “A Christmas Hymn”

Some Questions to Ponder:

Jeffrey Johnson, in “Harbors of Heaven” says about this hymn:  “I like the paradox in it, the hard-working biblical metaphors that carry meaning across the seasons and across the course of life.”  

  • With this quote in mind, study the paradoxes and the metaphors.  
  • What are the “seasons” and the “course of life,” to which Johnson refers?   
  • Should we relegate this hymn to one Season of the Liturgical Church Year? Why or why not?
  • How well has Wilbur conveyed the “Grand Narrative of Redemption,” within this hymn?
  • Which “two worlds” are reconciled?
  • How does this hymn enlarge your vision of the meaning of the Season of Advent and Christmastide? 
  • What does this poem mean to us, as we live between the First and Second Advent?
  • How effectively has Wilbur conveyed this theme:  “The Cross casts a shadow over the Incarnation?”
  • Among the three various titles of this hymn, which title best fits the hymn?

Coram Deo,

Margot

This choral CD includes the selection, “A Christmas Hymn:”

 

G-49074-2

 

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December 6, 2009 · 10:07 pm

A Gift from My Parents

The First Week of Advent

Dear Readers,

During Advent, I thought you might enjoy hearing about the best gift that I ever received from my parents.  [In this blog, I’ve previously written about and included photographs of my parents.  See The Heroes Among Us:  First in a Series.]

I come from a long line of sacred choral music singers [from Winston-Salem, NC]:  My grandfather, R. E. Blair, was a professional choir member at the downtown Episcopal Church.  My great-grandfather, D. I. Long, was the Choir Master at a Reformed Church, where most of his [eight] adult children sang in the choir, including my grandmother, Hope Susan Long Blair [see The Heroes Among Us:  Second in a Series.]

My father & mother met at Guilford College, NC, while both were in the choir, where they sang a wide range of sacred choral music, under the expert direction of Dr. Ezra Weiss.  For the next three decades, the years they invested in various church choirs provided for my parents some of their richest memories and most lasting friendships.

Once every Advent, my parents performed in Handel’s Messiah Oratorio and we four Blair children attended every performance.  As a young child, I was probably motivated out of a sense of familial duty more than a love of sacred choral music.  However, over the years, I learned to thoroughly enjoy every aspect of the performance:  the libretto, the music, the soloists, the conductor, the instruments, the pipe organ, the candlelight in the church sanctuary, the Advent Chrismon decorations on the evergreen tree — all of it combined to offer a sense of the sublime and majestic!

I suppose a happy mixture of “nature and nurture” bestowed upon me a love of sacred choral music, an ear to appreciate it, and a voice to sing it.  As an adolescent, I enjoyed singing in the church youth choir and in the school choir.  [In the 60’s, you may remember, we sang sacred music in secular schools.]

Now, fast-forward from the 1960’s to 35-40 years later, when Stephen and I began to study theology. It was then that I realized that everything that I knew about theology, up to that point, I had learned from the libretto of Handel’s Messiah Oratorio:  the grand redemption narrative, the prophecies, the integration of the Old and New Testaments, the historical events of the Triune God:  the Creation, Incarnation, Crucifixion, Resurrection, and the Second Coming.

My parents introduced me to Handel’s Messiah Oratorio when I was a child and, over the years, both the music and words shaped and formed my young life, in a gradual inclination of my “heart, mind, soul, and strength” toward knowing and loving the Triune God.

So, every Advent, in my parents’ memory, and for my own enjoyment, I will listen to the complete CD of Messiah and I will participate in the community-wide Messiah Sing.  I may silently weep during part of the Messiah Sing, as I think about my parents.  However, I will be in sympathetic company.  At the 2005 Messiah Sing, the alto sitting next to me whispered, “I may weep a little because I lost my mother this past year.”  I squeezed her hand and whispered, “Me, too.” 

My parents are both gone but their gift to me will continue to benefit me for many years, as I continue to listen, to sing, to study, and to mine the riches and depths of the theology of Messiah!  What a gift!

One of the other “best gifts” I ever received was in 2009, when my daughter, Haley, flew home from Texas, for a three-day visit, with the express purpose of singing with me in the Messiah Sing!  And, so, the best gift from my parents extends to the next generation.  Glory to God!

Coram Deo,

Margo


 Resources for Handel’s Oratorio, Messiah:

  • Book:  Hallelujah: The Bible and Handel’s Messiah, by Carol Bechtel Reynolds, A Resource Book published by the Kerygma Program, 1995.
  • Book:  Handel’s Messiah Family Advent Reader [The], by Donna W. Payne and Fran Lenzo, Moody Press, 1999.
  • Book:  Messiah:  The Gospel According to Handel’s Oratorio, by Roger Bullard, Eerdman’s, 1993.
  • CD:  Do It Yourself Messiah CD [The]:  [A choral tutor for your voice:  Order Soprano, Alto, Tenor, or Bass].
  • CD:  Handel’s Messiah, Robert Shaw, Atlanta Symphony Orchestra & Chamber Chorus, 1984, Telarc, CD-80093.
  • Score:  Messiah Oratorio [Complete] by G. F. Handel, Score, G. Schirmer’s Edition.
  • Website:  Messiah Sing!  www.tallahasseemusicguild.com.

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