O Emmanuel!

December 23rd 

EMMANUEL, our King and our Law-giver, Longing of the Gentiles; yes, and their salvation: come to save us, O Lord our God!

O Emmanuel antiphon

“Shout and be glad, Daughter Zion. For I am coming, and I will live among you,” declares the Lord. “Many nations will be joined with the Lord in that day and will become my people. I will live among you and you will know that the Lord Almighty has sent me to you… Be still before the Lord, all mankind, because he has roused himself from his holy dwelling.”

The angel of the Lord gave this charge to Joshua [the High Priest]: “This is what the Lord Almighty says: ‘If you will walk in obedience to me and keep my requirements, then you will govern my house and have charge of my courts, and I will give you a place among these standing here.

“ ‘Listen, High Priest Joshua, you and your associates seated before you, who are men symbolic of things to come: I am going to bring my servant, the Branch. See, the stone I have set in front of Joshua! There are seven eyes on that one stone, and I will engrave an inscription on it,’ says the Lord Almighty, ‘and I will remove the sin of this land in a single day.

Zechariah 2:10-13, 3:6-9 (NIV)

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Here’s Nat King Cole’s Joy to the World on Youtube and Spotify.

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…and here is an image of a hydrogen pillar in the Carina Nebula, from last year’s Hubble Advent Calendar in The Atlantic. Also, a Bok globule in the corner there, which is just a fun way of saying a lump of hydrogen (and a few other things).

Here’s this year’s calendar, if anyone’s interested.

the Benedictus

December 10th 

…and because of His visitation, we may no longer desire God as if He were lacking: our redemption is no longer a question of pursuit but of surrender to Him who is always and everywhere present. Therefore at every moment we pray that, following Him, we may depart from our anxiety into His peace.

W. H. Auden For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio (Simeon speaking)

John’s father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied:

Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has visited and provided redemption for His people. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David, just as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets in ancient times; salvation from our enemies and from the clutches of those who hate us. He has dealt mercifully with our fathers and remembered His holy covenant — the oath that He swore to our father Abraham. He has given us the privilege, since we have been rescued from our enemies’ clutches,  to serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness in His presence all our days. And child, you will be called a prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare His ways, to give His people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins. Because of our God’s merciful compassion, the Dawn from on high will visit us to shine on those who live in darkness and the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

Luke 1:67-79 (HCSB)

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The Benedictus is so called because the passage in Latin begins with ‘Benedictus Dominus Deus Israel.‘ That’s just how they did things.

I posted this, not because Auden represents a great model for Christian living, but because insight is always welcome, wheresoever I find it. Also, there would be a lot more from this poem, since it covers the whole Christmas theme in a kind of interesting way, but I’ve never actually gotten to read the whole thing, only tantalizing excerpts. This, in turn, is because, despite being written during World War bloody II, I think it’s still under copyright (and we all wonder why no one ever reads great literature).

Anyway, rant finished, happy tenth day of Advent to you, and here is Matt Maher’s Love Has Come on Youtube and Spotify.

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…and here is an image of a pulsar in the Crab nebula from last year’s Hubble Advent Calendar in The Atlantic. I’m pretty sure it was one of the first ones discovered, but, honestly, I don’t care enough to check.

Here’s this year’s, if anyone’s interested.

Abridgment

December 8th 

The abridgment of Christ’s story, which makes one
(As in plane maps, the furthest West is East)
Of the Angels’ ‘Ave,’ and ‘Consummatum est.’
…Death and conception in mankind is one;
Or ’twas in him the same humility,
That he would be a man, and leave to be:
….He shall come, he is gone:
Or as though one blood drop, which thence did fall,
Accepted, would have serv’d, he yet shed all…

John Donne (Upon the Annunciation and Passion)

Hannah prayed:

My heart rejoices in the Lord… for the Lord is a God of knowledge and actions are weighed by Him. He humbles and He exalts. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the garbage pile. He seats them with noblemen and gives them a throne of honor. …for a man does not prevail by his own strength. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth. He will give power to His king; He will lift up the horn of his anointed.

…and a man of God came to Eli and said to him… the Lord, the God of Israel says:

…I will raise up a faithful priest for Myself. He will do whatever is in My heart and mind. I will establish a lasting dynasty for him, and he will walk before My anointed one for all time.

from 1 Samuel 2 (HCSB)

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I know I abridged the hell out of 1 Samuel 2, but the whole thing is always there if you want to read it. I’m also incredibly proud of myself for not trying to wedge a gigantic paragraph of Kierkegaard’s in here. (It was about how we get a deceptive picture of eternity because we have to ‘foreshorten’ it by putting it in temporal terms, so it was really, really tempting.)

Here is Bach’s Virga Jesse Floruit (from BWV 243a).

…and here is an image of the Boomerang/Bow Tie nebula from last year’s Hubble Advent Calendar in The Atlantic. Because bow ties. Are cool.

Here’s this year’s, if anyone’s interested.

In the flesh, in our hearts, and in glory

December 1st, First Sunday of Advent

…He will proclaim peace to the nations.

Zechariah 9:10 (HCSB)

When they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage at the Mount of Olives, Jesus then sent two disciples, telling them, “Go into the village ahead of you. At once you will find a donkey tied there, and a colt with her. Untie them and bring them to Me. If anyone says anything to you, you should say that the Lord needs them, and immediately he will send them.”

This took place so that what was spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled:

Tell Daughter Zion, “See, your King is coming to you, gentle, and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a beast of burden.”

The disciples went and did just as Jesus directed them. They brought the donkey and the colt; then they laid their robes on them, and He sat on them. A very large crowd spread their robes on the roads; others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them on the road. Then the crowds who went ahead of Him and those who followed kept shouting:

Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest heaven!

When He entered Jerusalem, the whole city was shaken, saying, “Who is this?” And the crowds kept saying, “This is the prophet Jesus from Nazareth in Galilee!”

Matthew 21:1-10 (HCSB)

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Here is the King’s Singers’ Veni, Veni Emmanuel on Youtube and Spotify. Because Latin, is cool. There’s also Josh Wilson’s O Come Emmanuel, for those of you that don’t think Latin is cool.

…and here is a photo of the Lagoon Nebula from last year’s Hubble Advent Calendar in The Atlantic. I’m sure there’s one this year, but I want to be able to post it on the right day. (I love Advent calendars, because, deep down, I’m actually just a really verbose five year old, and like to put things in their proper cubbyholes. Bonus points if they’re shiny.) 

 

Ups and downs (and ups)

November 27th

 “Morning is coming, but also the night. If you would ask, then ask; and come back yet again.“

Isaiah 21:12 (NIV)

When Jesus is present, all is well, and nothing seems difficult; but when Jesus is absent every thing is hard. When Jesus does not speak inwardly to us all other comfort is worth nothing; but if Jesus speaks just one word, we feel great consolation. Didn’t Mary rise immediately from the place where she wept, when Martha said to her, “The Master is here, and is asking for you”?

What use is the world to you without Jesus? So you are very foolish, if you trust or rejoice in anyone else. It is preferable to have all the world against us, rather than to have Jesus offended with us. Amongst all, then, that are dear to us, let Jesus alone be especially beloved.

Love all for Jesus, but Jesus for Himself. He alone is found Good and Faithful above all friends. For Him, and in Him, let friends as well as foes be dear to you; and all these are to be prayed for, that He would make them all know and love Him.

For when the grace of God comes to someone, then they are made able for all things. And when it goes away, then they are poor and weak. In this case you shouldn’t be upset; but resign yourself calmly to God’s will, and whatever happens to you, to endure it for the glory of Jesus Christ; for after winter comes summer, after night the day, and after a storm a great calm.

Thomas a Kempis, Imitation of Christ, Book II, Ch. 8

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Yes, we’ve been in Book II, Ch. 8 before, but I didn’t want to post more then because the language in the translation I have is off-puttingly archaic. I didn’t want to post it as it was, but neither did I want to do that thing that crappy translators do where they just update things without looking at the original language. This time though, I cheerfully ignored my scruples and substituted modern phrasings whenever the hell I felt like it, because it’s a good chapter, and who’s going to stop me?

Helping humans, not ‘humanity’

November 18th 

For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Titus 3:3-7 (NASB)

The New Testament way of looking at humanity is not the modern way. In the New Testament men and women exist, there is no such thing as “Humanity,” the human race as a whole.

A materialist says—Because my religious beliefs do for me, therefore they are satisfactory. Not in the tiniest degree. The test of a man’s religious faith is not that it does for him, but that it will do for the worst wreck he ever knew. If every one were well brought up and had a fine heredity, then there are any number of intellectual forms of belief that would do. The materialistic line works like a searchlight, lighting up what it does and no more, but the daylight of actual experience reveals a hundred and one other facts. It does not show a clear simple path, but brings to light a multitude of facts never seen before. The evolutionist looks at man and says, What a glorious promise of what he is going to be! The New Testament looks at man’s body and moral life and intelligence and says, What a ruin of what God designed him to be!

from Oswald Chambers’ Shadow of an Agony
(Humanity and Holiness)

Around the Wicket Gate

November 17th 

But where sin increased, grace increased all the more… What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?

Romans 6:1-2 (NIV)

The Lord Jesus has come to save us from sinning; and if we are resolved to go on sinning, Christ and our souls will never agree. Salvation consists largely in parting the sinner from his sin, and the very nature of salvation would have to be changed before we could speak of a man’s being saved when he is loving sin, and wilfully living in it.

A drunkard will be saved by believing in Christ—that is to say, he will be saved from being a drunkard; but if he determines still to make himself intoxicated, he is not saved from it, and he has not truly believed in Jesus. A liar can by faith be saved from falsehood, but then he leaves off lying, and is careful to speak the truth. Anyone can see with half an eye that he cannot be saved from being a liar, and yet go on in his old style of deceit and untruthfulness. A person who is at enmity with another will be saved from that feeling of enmity by believing in the Lord Jesus; but if he vows that he will still cherish the feeling of hate, it is clear that he is not saved from it, and equally clear that he has not believed in the Lord Jesus unto salvation. The great matter is to be delivered from the love of sin: this is the sure effect of trust in the Saviour; but if this effect is so far from being desired that it is even refused, all talk of trusting in the Saviour for salvation is an idle tale. A man goes to the shipping-office, and asks if he can be taken to America. He is assured that a ship is just ready, and that he has only to go on board, and he will soon reach New York. “But,” says he, “I want to stop at home in England, and mind my shop all the time I am crossing the Atlantic.” The agent thinks he is talking to a madman, and tells him to go about his business, and not waste his time by playing the fool. To pretend to trust Christ to save you from sin while you are still determined to continue in it, is making a mock of Christ.

If you are anxious to give up every evil way, our Lord Jesus will enable you to do so at once. His grace has already changed the direction of your desires: in fact, your heart is renewed. Therefore, rest on him to strengthen you to battle with temptations as they arise, and to fulfill the Lord’s commands from day to day. The Lord Jesus is great at making the lame man to leap like a hart, and in enabling those who are sick of the palsy to take up their bed and walk. He will make you able to conquer the evil habit. …there is no limit to his power to cleanse and sanctify. Now that you are willing to be made whole, the great difficulty is removed. He that has set the will right can arrange all your other powers, and make them move to his praise. You would not have earnestly desired to quit all sin if he had not secretly inclined you in that direction. If you now trust him, it will be clear that he has begun a good work in you, and we feel assured that he will carry it on.

from Spurgeon’s Around the Wicket Gate 
(Ch. 8 – A Real Hindrance)

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Around the Wicket Gate is the cutest wee pamphlet. Seriously, lots of melodramatic metaphors there. I sort of skimmed it on a lark because it popped up on Gutenberg, but was then struck with this inexpressible longing for a time when pamphleteers could actually write, and now here we are.

The perfect bond of unity

November 16th 

Love all for Jesus, but Jesus for Himself.

from The Imitation of Christ (Book II, Ch. 8) 

Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his practices and have put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of his Creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian*, slave and free; but Christ is all and in all.

Therefore, God’s chosen ones, holy and loved, put on heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, accepting one another and forgiving one another if anyone has a complain against another. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so also you must forgive. Above all, put on love —the perfect bond of unity. And let the peace of the Messiah, to which you were also called in one body, control your hearts. Be thankful.

Let the message about the Messiah dwell richly among you, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, and singing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or in deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

Colossians 3:9-17 (HCSB)

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*a term for savage

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…and, because I’m evil, here’s another Integrity medley, Walking in the Spirit on Youtube and Spotify respectively. (Mhhmmm, Muzak. Give me all the Muzak.)

The nature of sin

November 14th 

For these are rebellious people, deceitful children, children unwilling to listen to the LORD’s instruction… This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.

Isaiah 30:9,15 (NIV)

Sin is red-­handed anarchy against God. Not one in a thousand understands sin; we understand only about sins on the physical line, which are external weaknesses. In the common­-sense domain sin does not amount to much; sin belongs to the real domain. The sin the Bible refers to is a terrific and powerful thing, a deliberate and emphatic independence of God and His claim to me, self-realisation. Anarchy is the very nature of sin as the Bible reveals it. Other religions deal with sins; the Bible alone deals with sin.

The first thing Jesus Christ faced in men was this heredity of sin, and it is because we have ignored it in our presentation of the Gospel that the message of the Gospel has lost its sting, its blasting power; we have drivelled it into insurance tickets for heaven, and made it deal only with the wastrel element of mankind. The average preaching of Redemption deals mainly with the “scenic” cases. The message of Jesus Christ is different; He went straight to the disposition, and always said, “IF—you need not unless you like, but—IF any man will follow Me, let him give up his right to himself.”

The Christian religion founds everything on the radical, positive nature of sin. Sin is self­-realisation, self-­sufficiency, entire and complete master­ship of myself—gain that, and you lose control of everything over which God intended you to have dominion. Sin is not an act, but an hereditary disposition. Sin must be cleansed, and the revelation of Redemption is that God through Jesus Christ has power to cleanse us from the heredity of sin. The curious thing is that we are blind to the fact of sin, and deal only with the effects of sin.

 from Oswald Chambers’ Shadow of an Agony,
Humanity and Holiness

Natural life

October 30th

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

John 3:6 (ESV)

…If I do not put to death the things in me that are not of God, they will put to death the things that are of God.

There are things in a man’s natural life that are fine and beautiful, but when a man comes to Jesus Christ, he has to forgo them, and go to their “white funeral.” This is a phrase Tennyson uses in speaking of the “white funeral” of the single life; and that aspect is the only one that suits the spiritual life. Think of it in reference to babyhood, there comes a time when that phase dies and child life begins; there is a “white funeral” of the baby; and then a “white funeral” of the child and girlhood begins. Apply that spiritually.

There is any amount in paganism that is good and virtuous, but if I am going on with Jesus Christ, I have to give those things a “white funeral,” make a termination of them, and we very often get there through disenchantment. It is not true that everything in life apart from Christ is bad; there are many virtues that are good and moral, pride and self­-interest are remarkably fine things in some aspects, “highly esteemed among men,” but when I see Jesus Christ I have to go to their moral death. Any fool will give up wrongdoing and the devil, if he knows how to do it; but it takes a man in love with Jesus Christ to give up the best he has for Him. Jesus Christ does not demand that I give up the wrong, but the right, the best I have for Him, viz., my right to myself. Will I agree to go through my “white funeral” and say I deliberately cut out my claim to my right to myself, deliberately go to the death of my self- will? If I will, instantly the Spirit of God begins to work, and slowly the new mind is formed.

These crises are reached in personal life, and we find the same thing in the life outside, and the only line of solution is this one. If we find a line of emancipation and solution for ourselves, we have also found a line of solution for problems outside ourselves. Moral problems are only solved by obedience. We cannot see what we see until we see it. Intellectually things can be worked out, but morally the solution is only reached by obedience. One step in obedience is worth years of study, and will take us into the centre of God’s will for us. All our darkness comes because we will try to get into the thing head first. We must be born into the kingdom of God, Jesus says, before we can begin to think about it…

from Oswald Chambers’ Shadow of an Agony
(The Psychological Phase-II, Man Becomes What He Is)