- All living creatures with the same bread you sustain
And to your Spirit's well nobody comes in vain.
Give that we understand the language of your call,
Uphold us by your hand; write your name on us all! - To You, Word in the flesh, we shall allegiance give:
Because you suffered death, we will forever live.
Show all who long for life the way to where you dwell,
Oh Son, whose sacrifice broke down the gates of hell! - O Spirit, pioneer, keeper of humankind,
We are a scattered rear, rebelliously behind.
Abide with us and slay the powers that disunite,
Oh Truth and Life and Way, Oh everlasting Light!
Monday, January 31, 2005
Song of Church Unity
Here's a favorite from long ago:
C. Michael De Vries
Monday, December 06, 2004
All Who Love and Serve Your City
1. All who love and serve your city,
all who bear its daily stress,
all who cry for peace and justice,
all who curse and all who bless,
2. In your day of loss and sorrow,
in your day of helpless strife,
honor, peace, and love retreating,
seek the Lord, who is your life.
3. In your day of wrath and plenty,
wasted work and wasted play,
call to mind the word of Jesus,
“I must work while it is day.”
4. For all days are days of judgment,
and the Lord is waiting still,
drawing near a world that spurns him,
offering peace from Calvary’s hill.
5. Risen Lord! shall yet the city
be the city of despair?
Come today, our Judge, our Glory;
be its name, “The Lord is there!”
* Words: Erik Routley
* © 1969 by Stainer & Bell Ltd. (admin. by Hope Publishing Co., Carol Stream, IL 60188).
* All rights reserved.
* Music: Birabus by Peter Cutts
* © 1969 by Stainer & Bell Ltd. (admin. by Hope Publishing Co., Carol Stream, IL 60188).
* All rights reserved.
* Other tunes: Charlestown, Dominion-Chalmers, Marching, Omni die
* Meter: 87 87
Sunday, December 05, 2004
morning watch
Patterned after ancient practice but now in remembrance and anticipation of Easter dawn, there's a Christian tradition of Morning Watch. The fourth and last segment of the night watch, the morning watch of antiquity and of the New Testament epoch (that's us!) is from 3-6 AM; during this final watch of the night, darkness gently eases into the quiet early light of Easter dawn and God's Glory softly splashes over all creation. Recently I've started compiling a series of Morning Watch devotionals; here's the first one.Praise
O God, Thou art my God, and I will seek Thee all day long
O God, Thou are my God, and I will praise Thee with all my heart
I will seek Thee in the morning, at noon and in the dark of night
And walk with Thee in safety
Throughout the rage of time
Promise
Jeremiah 29
11 'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. 12 'Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
13 'You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.
14 'I will be found by you,' declares the LORD, 'and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,' declares the LORD, 'and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.' NASB
11 "I know what I'm doing. I have it all planned out--plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.
12 "When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I'll listen.
13 "When you come looking for me, you'll find me.
"Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, 14 "I'll make sure you won't be disappointed." GOD's Decree.
"I'll turn things around for you. I'll bring you back from all the countries into which I drove you"--GOD's Decree--"bring you home to the place from which I sent you off into exile. You can count on it. MSG
Hope
John 20:1
Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb. NASB
Realized Hope: Resurrection!
John 20:1
Early in the morning on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone was moved away from the entrance. MSG
A Mandate:
Jeremiah 29
5 'Build houses and dwell in them; and plant gardens and eat their produce.
6 'Take wives and become the fathers of sons and daughters, and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, that they may bear sons and daughters; and multiply there and do not decrease.
7 'Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf; for in its welfare you will have welfare.' NASB
Trust
Psalm 73:25, MSG
You're all I want in heaven!
You're all I want on earth!
Contentment
Psalm 23, MSG
A David psalm
1 GOD, my shepherd! I don't need a thing.
2 You have bedded me down in lush meadows,
you find me quiet pools to drink from.
3 True to your word,
you let me catch my breath
and send me in the right direction.
4 Even when the way goes through
Death Valley,
I'm not afraid
when you walk at my side.
Your trusty shepherd's crook
makes me feel secure.
5 You serve me a six-course dinner
right in front of my enemies.
You revive my drooping head;
my cup brims with blessing.
6 Your beauty and love chase after me
every day of my life.
I'm back home in the house of GOD
for the rest of my life.
The Message, © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson
times of the traditional watches:
Ancient Night Watch
First watch | until midnight
Middle watch | until 3 a.m.
Morning watch | until 6 a.m.
Ancient Day Watch
Morning | until about 10 a.m.
Heat of day | until about 2 p.m.
Cool of day | until about 6 p.m.
New Testament Night Watch
First watch, evening | 6-9 p.m.
Second watch, midnight | 9-12 p.m.
Third watch, cock-crow | 12-3 a.m.
Fourth watch, morning | 3-6 a.m.
New Testament Day Watch
Third hour | 6-9 a.m.
Sixth hour | 9-12 midday
Ninth hour | 12-3 p.m.
Twelfth hour | 3-6 p.m.
Sunday, October 31, 2004
Reformation Day 2004
this afternoon at the Ecumenical Council's Reformation Day celebration the choir sang this song:
Make Our Church One Joyful Choir
Make our church one joyful choir on this glad and festive day
and by song invoke the fire that invites our hearts to pray:
Shape us, Christ, to live and claim all it means to bear your name.
Bend us low by song and prayer, low enough to lift the cross
and to take the weight and bear love's uncounted final cost:
Shape us, Christ, to live and claim all it means to bear your name.
and our acts and words of care trace the pattern of your cross:
Shape us, Christ, to bear your name.
Bend us, lift us, make us strong, send us out with wind and fire,
so the world may hear the song that we offer as your choir:
Shape us, Christ, to live and claim all it means to bear your name.
Amen, amen, amen!
Thomas H. Troeger
© 1994 Oxford University Press, Inc.
Make Our Church One Joyful Choir
Make our church one joyful choir on this glad and festive day
and by song invoke the fire that invites our hearts to pray:
Shape us, Christ, to live and claim all it means to bear your name.
Bend us low by song and prayer, low enough to lift the cross
and to take the weight and bear love's uncounted final cost:
Shape us, Christ, to live and claim all it means to bear your name.
and our acts and words of care trace the pattern of your cross:
Shape us, Christ, to bear your name.
Bend us, lift us, make us strong, send us out with wind and fire,
so the world may hear the song that we offer as your choir:
Shape us, Christ, to live and claim all it means to bear your name.
Amen, amen, amen!
Thomas H. Troeger
© 1994 Oxford University Press, Inc.
Thursday, October 28, 2004
Saturday, August 21, 2004
Culture Bound
Culture, identity, home, belonging, etc.
As those cultural anthropologists insist, each of us inhabits a range of cultures; more than a single culture encumbers each of us. We see, hear and feel; we remember, dream and hope through the senses our cultures have given to us and we've inadvertently received; and to some extent, our cultural identities constrain and limit us.
Wednesday evening, August 18, 2004, I watched The Reunion, on our local ABC affiliate, KGTV Channel 10. The subject struck me extremely: present-day interviews and retrospective reminiscences of the experience of some Shaker Heights, Ohio residents who'd been part of an intentional racial integration project beginning with their kindergarten class and continuing through high school in the Shaker Heights public schools. Those were the identical years I spent experiencing blockbusting, white flight and redlining in Boston; those same years some of the neighborhoods around me blazed with anger and rage at the same time Watts, Detroit, Atlanta and too, too many U.S. inner cities became furious conflagrations and locales of supercharged and globally publicized citizen/police interactions.
But that's almost a digression, since lately I've been thinking I need to go home, and although there's no way I can return (or would return) to Big Tree Place or any of those other physical dwellings, no way could I return to First Mariner's Church (especially since it disbanded a while ago), I can return to my *home* culture, the culture that's my Muttersprach, my cultura franca - to invent an idiom - and I need occasionally to do so! Besides, in the same way you never step into the same river more than once, because both of you and the river have changed, the home you return to cannot be the home you left, so even if I had a physical option to go back there, I still wouldn't be able to relive something that's no longer there, a location that even in terms of my heart's identity I've rationalized, streamlined and simplified.
As those cultural anthropologists insist, each of us inhabits a range of cultures; more than a single culture encumbers each of us. We see, hear and feel; we remember, dream and hope through the senses our cultures have given to us and we've inadvertently received; and to some extent, our cultural identities constrain and limit us.
Wednesday evening, August 18, 2004, I watched The Reunion, on our local ABC affiliate, KGTV Channel 10. The subject struck me extremely: present-day interviews and retrospective reminiscences of the experience of some Shaker Heights, Ohio residents who'd been part of an intentional racial integration project beginning with their kindergarten class and continuing through high school in the Shaker Heights public schools. Those were the identical years I spent experiencing blockbusting, white flight and redlining in Boston; those same years some of the neighborhoods around me blazed with anger and rage at the same time Watts, Detroit, Atlanta and too, too many U.S. inner cities became furious conflagrations and locales of supercharged and globally publicized citizen/police interactions.
But that's almost a digression, since lately I've been thinking I need to go home, and although there's no way I can return (or would return) to Big Tree Place or any of those other physical dwellings, no way could I return to First Mariner's Church (especially since it disbanded a while ago), I can return to my *home* culture, the culture that's my Muttersprach, my cultura franca - to invent an idiom - and I need occasionally to do so! Besides, in the same way you never step into the same river more than once, because both of you and the river have changed, the home you return to cannot be the home you left, so even if I had a physical option to go back there, I still wouldn't be able to relive something that's no longer there, a location that even in terms of my heart's identity I've rationalized, streamlined and simplified.
Monday, August 09, 2004
from Psalm 119
from Psalm 119:
10 With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.
11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
14 I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as much as in all riches.
16 I will delight myself in thy statutes: I will not forget thy word.
17 Deal bountifully with thy servant, that I may live, and keep thy word.
19 I am a stranger in the earth: hide not thy commandments from me.
44 So shall I keep thy law continually for ever and ever.
45 And I will walk at liberty: for I seek thy precepts.
57 Thou art my portion, O LORD: I have said that I would keep thy words.
72 The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver.
89 For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.
103 How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
127 Therefore I love thy commandments above gold; yea, above fine gold.
159 Consider how I love thy precepts: quicken me, O LORD, according to thy lovingkindness.
164 Seven times a day do I praise thee because of thy righteous judgments.
from Psalm 73
from Psalm 73:
25 Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.
26 My flesh and my heart faileth: but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever.
Wednesday, July 07, 2004
Wonderful Song!
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing!
Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood.
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.
Words: Robert Robinson, 1758; in his A Collection of Hymns Used by the Church of Christ in Angel Alley, Bishopgate, 1759.
Music: "Nettleton," in Wyeth’s Repository of Sacred Music, Part Second, by John Wyeth, 1813
Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood.
O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.
Words: Robert Robinson, 1758; in his A Collection of Hymns Used by the Church of Christ in Angel Alley, Bishopgate, 1759.
Music: "Nettleton," in Wyeth’s Repository of Sacred Music, Part Second, by John Wyeth, 1813
Sunday, July 04, 2004
4 July 2004
Sunday, July 04, 2004...Independence Day!!!!!
"Summer afternoon, summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language." –Henry James to Edith Wharton
"Summer afternoon, summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language." –Henry James to Edith Wharton
commonplacebook notes
Sunday, July 04, 2004
from The Other Side, May 1988, page 15:
"A spiritual revival means a revival of confidence, of hope, of the ability to affect one's own future.
"That, of course, is a synonym for power..."
–John Heinemeier
Psalm 16:7
God gives me counsel...so does my heart!
Joseph Brodsky on freedom:
"When you forget the spelling of the tyrant's name."
A Promise:
God will not send you
beyond where you Heart can defend you
God will not lead you
beyond where the Spirit can feed you
and a reality:
Our survival depends on the health of our environment.
from The Other Side, May 1988, page 15:
"A spiritual revival means a revival of confidence, of hope, of the ability to affect one's own future.
"That, of course, is a synonym for power..."
–John Heinemeier
Psalm 16:7
God gives me counsel...so does my heart!
Joseph Brodsky on freedom:
"When you forget the spelling of the tyrant's name."
A Promise:
God will not send you
beyond where you Heart can defend you
God will not lead you
beyond where the Spirit can feed you
and a reality:
Our survival depends on the health of our environment.
Thursday, July 01, 2004
Early Light
♪ The peril of the night is gone ♫
♫ And far across the distance range ♪
♪ I see the road to freedom ♫
♫ There are many paths you can follow ♪
♪ And many fields to roam ♫
♫ So I walk free beneath the stars ♪
♪ Yet shining over our land and home ♫
by Jonathan Elias; I heard this in a PBS commercial 2 December 1993
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