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The Prodigal Son by Rembrandt Text: John Newton   (1725-1809)                                          Tune: Williston Walker   1. Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found Was blind, but now I see. 2. 'Twas Grace that taught my heart to fear, And Grace my fears relieved. How precious did that Grace appear The hour I first believed. 3. Through many dangers, toils, and snares I have already come. ' Tis Grace hath brought me safe thus far And Grace will lead me home. 4. The Lord has promised good to me. His Word my hope secures. He will my shield and portion be As long as life endures. 5. When we've been there ten thousand years Bright shining as the sun, We've no less days to sing God's praise Than when we'd first begun.   REFLECTION Prodigal Son by Rembrandt The parable of the prodigal son is one of Jesus’ greatest. Many are the interpretations it has gotten, some great, some not so. Sometimes it is best to leave it alone and just tell it and let people ponder it. About thirty years ago, a scholar examined sermons on the prodigal, and was not amused. Her examination brought her to the conclusion that the preachers in her study were using this profound story to preach a secular message. Frequently, she noted that the fundamental language and presuppositions of the preacher and his or her audience was therapeutic and psychological. Many sermons dwelt on the family dynamics, which are of course, there. We do after all see a father and two sons, one older, one younger. But the change in the prodigal was described as more psychological than spiritual. There was an almost universal failure to deal with the sin of the prodigal. The miracle of grace is “eviscerated... as speakers fail to acknowledge notions of human depravity and separation from a transcendent God.”  (Marsha G. Witten, All is Forgiven: The Secular Message in American Protestantism .)   John Newton John Newton, the writer of our hymn, knew the depravity of sin. He had seen it fully in his life as a rebellious son and sailor. He knew that he was a wretch, even before he came to understand how awful his participation in the slave trade was. He was clear in that when he wrote of himself as a “wretch.”  Many there are who change the word to "soul." The argument that such a word makes people think poorly of themselves and they shouldn’t fits exactly Witten's complaint.. It is hard to grapple with not only the evil of the world, but even worse, the evil and sin in our own hearts. If one has not grappled with the depths of one’s sinfulness, the grace that is so amazing, has less of a luster. What is it then? Just warm feelings about the good we see around us?   The holiness of God is nothing to be casual about. There is no way we can reconcile with it by therapy or positive thinking. The grace Newton is amazed by is something that turns us around, makes the blind to see, it leads us home, it rescues us from hell. And the miracle it performs in forgiving us will take more than ten thousands of days, yea even more, to fully praise our Lord for this great work which is truly amazing. HYMN INFO Amazing Grace is the most famous hymn of the last 75 years, ever since the 1960s when Judy Collins began singing it. It is the story of a prodigal, John Newton, who knew himself to be a sinner, and who knew he had been forgiven. For more on John Newton watch the Story of Amazing Grace below. LINKS The Story of Amazing Grace/15 minutes well worth your time https://youtu.be/8m8AHHduTM0 Judy Collins and choir/ some 80 million views https://youtu.be/CDdvReNKKuk Swedish congregation singing Swedish version https://youtu.be/XcfGR_7W3aQ bonus

The Vine Dresser and the Fig Tree James Tissot Text: Frederick William Faber  (1814-1863)    Tune: Lizzie Shove Tourjee Estabrook 1858-1913 1 There’s a wideness in God’s mercy, like the wideness of the sea. There’s a kindness in God’s justice, which is more than liberty. 2 There is welcome for the sinner, and more graces for the good. There is mercy with the Savior, there is healing in his blood. 3 But we make God’s love too narrow by false limits of our own, and we magnify its strictness with a zeal God will not own. 4 For the love of God is broader than the measures of the mind, and the heart of the Eternalis most wonderfully kind. 5 If our love were but more simple, we should rest upon God’s word, and our lives would be illumined by the presence of our Lord. REFLECTION The encounter here of Jesus with his critics is direct and at the same time mysterious. The tower of Siloam story next to the tree that is not producing fruit might seem to be so different they cannot be be in the same sermon. On the one hand Jesus is saying those who died when the tower fell on them were not being punished for their sins, it just happened. On the other, he is saying that the tree that did not produce fruit, and almost dead, except for the promise of the vinedresser to care for it.. The Parable of the Fig Tree Jan Luykan Jesus is speaking to people who knew agriculture intimately. They are aware of how dependent they are on the weather, God’s providence, to raise their crops, enough to feed themselves and their families for the year. They know disasters can come simply because not enough rain has fallen or too much. Although the farmer prays and knows everything comes from God, there are times where the rain doesn’t come or there is too much, so the crops fail and hunger, even starvation looms. Rather like those who died at Siloam. Still a good farmer works to cultivate the crops, to dress the vines and assure that things are optimal for growing. So an unproductive plant or tree cannot be tolerated. My great uncle sounded like this farmer once when he told me about a fruit tree on the family farm. Though it flowered beautifully it didn’t produce fruit one year. "If it doesn’t next year, I am going to cut it down.”  It seemed brutal, but he as a good farmer wanted to see growth and flourishing crops. Another version of this is Jesus talk of the vineyard in John 15 and the Father who cuts out the dead vines so that the vine produces more and better fruit. Repentance and death are the subject of both vignettes. Death and repentance are not unlike each other. To be converted is to repent and turn around. There is a death there. One has to die to one’s self and one’s sin in order to find life in Christ. Death and tragedy are not the last words in the life of the Christian. Jesus is. One needs to be deeply grafted into his life in order to live. The tree needs to repent, and die to his sin, to be raised back into life. What we also see here is the care of the farmer for the dying plant, digging and fertilizing it, and loving it. As any of us with house plants know, the simple act of loving a plant by one’s attitude and thus deeds can bring back life to many a seemingly dead branch. For life, one must be pruned and cleansed of sin by our Savior. He does it out of love and mercy so we might flourish. As our hymn has it “For the love of God is broader/than the measures of the mind,/and the heart of the Eternal/is most wonderfully kind.” HYMN INFO Frederick Faber Frederick Faber came from a French Huguenot family that had fled from France to England where they became strict Calvinists. Faber studied for the priesthood at Balliol College in Oxford, and ordained as an Anglican priest in 1839. He was moved by the Oxford Movement led by John Henry Cardinal Newman who had left the Anglican church to join the Roman Catholic church. Faber was of a similar mind and became a Catholic priest in 1845. A lover of the hymns by Charles Wesley, William Cowper and John Newton, which he had grown up singing in his Protestant past, he wanted to write hymns for Catholics to sing, like them. He wrote over 150 hymns collected in Hymns (1862). His most famous hymn is the well-loved Faith of our Fathers. There are several tunes for this text, among the more popular are Beecher and Wellesly. The writer of Wellesly. Tourjee was the daughter of the head of the new England Conservatory of Music, who encouraged his daughter as a composer. She wrote this tune when she was seventeen and he included it in the Methodist hymnal of 1878, naming the tune for Wellesly, the college she attended. For another take on this hymn and text see https://www.hymnfortheday.com/post/hymn-for-lent-2-there-s-a-wideness-in-god-s-mercy LINKS Goodchappy https://youtu.be/dvwt9WFuDFI?si=JZKZy6K0MNuS1u5d Orchard Enterprises https://youtu.be/ygkkX9FxHg0?si=VfGKyDuaN4ef0qyG Andrew Remillard for the tune Wellesly https://youtu.be/BLKEOL5T5E8?si=mcHEQpkNvWPqxp5o Hymns and more Beecher tune https://youtu.be/BmYWS6FkUt4?si=9vO-BHvTtvkakcbd A bonus: this was my hymn on the Luke text.

Text: Lina Sandell (1832-1903)                                Tune: Folk tune   Christ on the Mount of Olives Praying for Jerusalem Josef Untersberger 1. Thy holy wings O Savior, Spread gently over me And let me rest securely Through good and ill in thee. Oh, be my strength and portion, My rock and hiding place, And let my every moment Be lived without thy grace. 2. Oh, let me nestle near thee, Within thy downy breast Where I will find sweet comfort And peace within thy next. Oh, close thy wings around me And keep me safely there. For I am but a newborn And need thy tender care. 3. Oh, wash me in the waters Of Noah’s cleansing flood! Give me a willing spirit, A heart both clean and good. Oh, take into thy keeping, Thy children great and small. And while we sweetly slumber, Enfold us one and all. REFLECTION Jesus Weeping over Jerusalem. James Tissot When Jesus wishes he could gather up Jerusalem like a hen gathers her chicks, people think warm thoughts of a gentle mother hen. Actually, mother hens are more fierce than gentle. Anyone who has ever picked eggs from the mother hen in her nest knows to be careful. We have a henhouse in our back yard and from my days on my grandparents’ farm to now, I have marveled at how true the phrases we have in our vocabulary about hens or roosters are. Mad as a wet hen, ruler of the roost, mother hen, pecking order, cock of the walk. While we do call people chickens, meaning cowardly, a mad hen is not something I wanted to face when I entered the henhouse with my grandmother to pick eggs or even now.   So when Jesus weeps for us and talks about wanting to protect us, the mother hen is not a weak image. It is filled with the ferocity of a mother hen’s care for her chicks. Jesus and those who heard him say this were well aware of chickens and how they acted, as were most people until the move from the farms we have lived through in the past century.   The notion of being under the wings of God appealed to Lina Sandell. She, who also knew chickens well, loved the image of holy wings and used it in several of her hymns, the most famous this one, Thy Holy Wings. She picked it up from many verses in the Bible, among them Luke, and Psalm 91:5, in the Kings James Version, “He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust.”   Other places in Scripture such as Deuteronomy 32:11 use eagles, instead of chickens. An eagle is rather more fierce than a chicken, a fearsome predator, but this language is also about the mother eagle who “stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, beareth them on her wings.” It also became the image of the holy angel that Martin Luther’s morning and evening prayers invoke. Let your holy angel watch over me .... Wings again. And always in morning and evening prayers ala Luther.   Jesus is looking at a faithless and rebellious population when he weeps over the city. They don’t want to be covered and protected. On the other hand, we can read in the psalms many many cries from the psalmist for the Lord to show up and protect the people, especially the psalmist. We are really a handful—we think we can do it alone, and then, like frightened chicks, we want protection. Jesus will protect us a fiercely as any mother hen, he says. And the graceful truth is that God, whether he seems far away, distant, or silent, is always there with us—Immanuel—to guard and keep us. "O close thy wings around me and keep me safely there!"   HYMN INFO Lina Sandell Sandell wrote this in 1860. She then revised it in 1865. It became the Swedish children’s evening prayer and like Luther’s prayers invoked the wings of the angels. I was looking for a baptismal song for my first godson and found this. To translate is to betray, many say. I took Sandell's evening prayer and made it into a baptismal hymn. And added a new stanza for my nephew continuing the mother hen image. At the time there was a call for new hymns for the sacraments and, to my surprise, this became a hit. The folk tune is so lovely people want more words to sing to it.   LINKS Carola https://youtu.be/Gw2qjNIFVNA   Sissel   https://youtu.be/c94RJyGLEEI   Chris Sjögren https://youtu.be/-PJEsSK8baE

Text: George Hunt Smyttan ( 1822-1870)                         Tune: Martin Herbst (1654-1681) Jesus being tempted in the wilderness James Tissot 1. Forty days and forty nights You were fasting in the wild; Forty days and forty nights Tempted, and yet undefiled. 2. Sunbeams scorching all the day; Chilly dew-drops nightly shed; Prowling beasts about your way; Stones your pillow; earth your bed. 3. Shall not we your sorrow share, And from earthly joys abstain, Fasting with unceasing prayer, Glad with you to suffer pain? 4. And if Satan, vexing sore, Flesh or spirit should assail, Christ, his vanquisher before, Grant we may not faint or fail. 5. So shall we have peace divine; Holier gladness ours be due; Round us, too, shall angels shine, Such as ministered to you. 6. Keep, oh, keep us, Savior dear, Ever constant at your side; That we may with you appear In your resurrection-tide. REFLECTION Here we see our Lord take on the battle with the tempter that our Mother Eve lost. After which God promises her that her seed will come one day to bruise the tempter’s head. In a way, all of Scripture is the story of God winning us back, even wooing us like a lover does his bride. For this we need a knight in shining armor! And Jesus surely is that. If Epiphany is the story of the showing of Jesus’ divinity, Lent is the story of his humanity. Now we will watch him suffer in the flesh and show us what it is to be truly human, as he suffers all the sorrows and griefs that can be had. And the story goes from bad to worse. While this shows Jesus winning the first round rather handily, he has suffered in the process, battling for forty days while fasting. What Jesus shows us in this major encounter on his way to the cross is that the battle with the devil is hand to hand conflict. We are tempted, not always to be evil, but to prefer lesser goods than God. It might be hard to discern in one’s commitment to a good cause or a necessary one, even, that it has become one’s god rather than Christ. The devil presents three somewhat desirable possibilities to Jesus: food created by him as his father had fed the Israelites with manna—really he isn’t saying make yourself a sandwich, but use the power you have and show you are God. Then the promise of the world and power over it, the only cost worshiping the devil for one’s own gain. There are a good many who have made that bargain, doing some evil, they think, to have the power to do good. We saw the failings of that in the Godfather movies. Macbeth and his wife make that deal: just kill Banquo and you will receive power. It just leads to one bloody affair after another. Tempting God to save you by throwing oneself down from the temple is another version of that—thinking God is in our power, rather than we in his. Many people think that going to remote places will bring them closer to God. While that may be, the Christian tradition began with people understanding that one did battle with the devil in the desert, alone, hungry and without succor. Christian history has many a saint who goes into the wilderness to fight, from John the Baptist, Jesus, to the Desert fathers. Their retreat to the desert, led by Anthony the Great around 270, began when he heard a sermon suggesting one had to sell all and follow Jesus. The movement spread and began to create monastic communities that lad the foundation for the great monastic movement that dominated the Dark and Middle Ages. The Grand Inquisitor of Dostoyevsky investigates this tale more deeply than anyone. He prosecuted Jesus-who has returned to earth-for not obeying Satan. If he had fed men they would have followed him and done good. If he had been saved by the angels, people would have believed in him as God, or if he had ruled over all, he would have brought peace to the world. The ultimate conclusion is that Christ chose not to for our freedom. There is more, but read it for yourselves, it is one of the great pieces of literature in the world. Ultimately, we see here, Jesus beginning to restore the world after the fall which he will do through his temptation in the garden, his death on the cross, and resurrection and ascension. We go through the terrible suffering of Jesus and see how deeply he understands both us and his calling to free us. The way to the cross is also to show us the depths to which human beings in the grip of evil can do to one another, even their God. It makes us understand and rejoice more fully in the victory at Easter! “Keep, oh, keep us, Savior dear,/Ever constant at your side;/That we may with you appear/In your resurrection-tide.” HYMN INFO This hymn has not been so well known as a couple of others on Jesus’ battle with evil but its use has increased in recent hymnals. Written by an Englishman, Smyttan, it tells more of the story of the temptation of Jesus than most well known hymns. Smyttan is not very well known. He took holy orders after his schooling at Corpus Christi College at Cambridge. He served as Rector of Hawksworth, Notts. He published some poetry before his death, but there are conflicting tales on his death in 1870. He is known for several hymns, but this has become his most well-known. The tune by Martin Herbst, a German pastor, was first associated with Aus der Tiefe LINKS Orchard Enterprises https://youtu.be/D7JuNP8hMXY?si=zfltkK3z71rrE1gj Chet Valley singers https://youtu.be/9N29ZnwU4LM?si=JFLtYYoUQNjRdC7F Richard McVeigh https://youtu.be/Yf-P_TsAyT0?si=RsEAS0jNpmG06_kp Hymn Channel https://youtu.be/m5Nq4YXlcX8?si=KVwUV8EhCULHflOt

Text: Sarum, 15th century, tr. John Mason Neale       Tune: English folk tune, Deo gracias Icon of the Transfiguration 1 O wondrous type! O vision fair of glory that the Church may share, which Christ upon the mountain shows, where brighter than the sun he glows! 2 With Moses and Elijah nigh th'incarnate Lord holds converse high, and from the cloud the Holy One bears record to the only Son. 3 With shining face and bright array Christ deigns to manifest today what glory shall be theirs above who joy in God with perfect love. 4 And faithful hearts are raised on high by this great vision's mystery, for which in joyful strains we raise the voice of prayer, the hymn of praise . 5 O Father, with th'eternal Son and Holy Spirit ever one, we pray you, bring us by your grace to see your glory face to face. The Transfiguration. Giovanni Bellini REFLECTION Transfiguration Sunday has appeared in several iterations of the church year, but we have settled on having it just as Lent is about to begin. This agrees with the narrative in the gospesl. After Jesus has this “mountain-top experience” he descends toward the cross. I noticed once that I had received several invitations to preach on this Sunday. Perhaps it was that pastors wanted a break to charge their batteries before the long slog of Lent and Easter. On the other hand, maybe it was because while it is a rich account, and we all have our memes—such as don’t bank on mountain-top experiences because darkness may descend, but the disciples have seen Jesus is God so they should remember it as he goes to the cross and grave. It was a feeling shared by many preachers, but Sarah Hinlicky Wilson has come to the rescue with an expansive and wonderful book Seven Ways of Looking at the Transfiguration (Thornbush Press: 2024). It is too rich to summarize here, but after you have read it, your approach will be transfigured . She starts with Mark’s account and begins to wonder what it means that Peter wants to build booths. It isn’t a way to avoid the glory, as I once thought, but it gets us right into the meaning of this event: the Festival of Booths is fundamental to the understanding of the event and Peter has some dim sense for that. From there you will be taken through the meaning of the word, metamorphisis, how Elijah and the end times fit, and in Matthew, how one hears echoes of the Exodus and Moses who is also standing with Jesus. She contemplates the tabernacle and its meaning for Israel and Jesus as the new tabernacle. Then the eye witnesses, Peter, James and John, and what they say, concluding with God in the cloud and the consummation of the entire work of Jesus which we will not see until the end, but it is all there in the accounts. It is a fundamental part of our faith. As 2 Peter 1:19 says, it is well to “take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawns, and the day star arise in your hearts.” Think of how the three disciples must have felt on seeing Jesus, Moses and Elijah, in the glorious light, and give thanks that our God, for the love of us, even while we were sinners, sent his beloved Son to be our Savior and friend. Let the day star rise in your heart and rejoice in this wonder! Give thanks for all that glory in your heart! (for more on the book click here): https://thornbushpress.com/product/seven-ways-of-looking-at-the-transfiguration/   HYMN INFO copy of the Use of Sarum book This hymn Coelestis Forman gloria comes from 15th century Sarum in England. The Use of Sarum book, from Salisbury, appeared about that same time. It was clearly a lively center of worship. You may know Sarum from the novel Sarum by Edward Rutherford which tells the stories of several families through the centuries in the region. The Sarum rite, developed by a monk named Osmund, was a version of the Latin mass with some influences from the Anglo Norman tradition. The liturgy lasted through the English Reformation and has come down as a treasure from Salisbury. Translated by John Mason Neale the hymn has become something of a standard for Transfiguration Sunday. The tune Deo gracias is a big honking folk tune, from the 15th century in England. It is associated with the English victory over the French at Agincourt. Anyone who has seen the Henry plays by Shakespeare, especially Henry V has very likely heard the tune as the army rejoices in its victory. With drums, organ and brass, it conveys the glory of the event. Others use Wareham , by William Knapp (1698-1768) who was born in Wareham in Dorcetshire England, thus the tune name. There is not much about him in the histories.   LINKS The Redeemer Choir, Austin https://youtu.be/tlNhIHq48g4?si=EEO545rAyi06zmK-   First Plymouth Church, Lincoln Nebraska https://youtu.be/D-9glrG0ud0?si=C11Oap2YNhfCMkni Concordia Publishing House https://youtu.be/IhxyX-QcMBk?si=fCbVhrgo47c4FChJ   St. Mark’s Church, Philadelphia, to Wareham https://youtu.be/4270eApFZtk?si=wRN7yC7daogETc06

Text: Tom Colvin  (1925-2000)                                                   Tune: Ghana folk song   (For reasons of copyright, I cannot print the hymn, but you can find it in the links)   Jesus Preaching. Henri Olrik REFLECTION Jesus turns everything upside down in these instructions. Love your enemies—and then he elaborates on why we should love them with the kind of reason that is impossible to refute. Then Judge not so you will not be judged.   These sayings give me some trouble. I know I should love my enemies, and understand all of Jesus’ reasons for doing so. But I don’t have the power on my own. What to do? Judge not, also bothers me a lot. I think we have misunderstood this—we are to discern evil in what is around us and look for the good. I think Jesus is talking about the kind of judging one can engage in during gossip sessions. Those can be mean. Jesus is also clear that when we do this, we are often vulnerable to being judged cruelly ourselves. Hoist upon our own petard, as the old meme has it.   He does have a rich bit of comfort to these teachings as well—forgive and you will be forgiven, as his prayer has it. Give and you will be given to, pressed down and running over. There is good news in that.   The only help we have is in turning to one who gives everything generously to us. Jesu, fill us with your love. We cannot give what we do not have. And when we realize that we are empty, then we know we have to be filled. Jesus lives to fill our emptiness and want.   That is why the hymn for today can be such a comfort. It helps us ask for what we need to fulfill his teachings. Sometimes when I hear preachers telling us what we should do for the world, as though we need nothing and the needy are outside our walls, I think of why I came to church—I came out of emptiness, not fullness. I can’t do what the preacher is telling me to do, or for that matter what Jesus is telling me to do without his love.     It is from the Word and Sacrament every Sunday that we receive strength to live on through the week. Jesus’ love is inexhaustible, but it needs to be distributed! I once heard a criticism of many sermons as resembling a talk by a chef about how wonderful his menu was, showing us pictures, talking about its presentation, everything, but then walking away without feeding us. I need to be filled—"Jesu, Jesu, fill us with your love! So I can then serve the neighbors we have from you!”   HYMN INFO Abbey on the Holy Isle of Iona Tom Colvin, originally an engineer who worked in Burma and Singapore, studied theology at Trinity College in Glasgow. in 1954 he was ordained in the Church of Scotland. He went as a missionary to what is now Malawi and then served as a missionary in Cheriponi in southern Ghana. He returned to Malawi where he continued his ministry adding community development to his job. He was associated with the community of Iona, established in 1938 by George MacLeod, where of late the noted John Bell and others continue a revitalized program of worship with an abbey restored in 2021. It dates back to Columba, the Irish missionary who established a community there in 563. Colvin heard this folk tune, a love song, from people who had recently said yes to Jesus and thought the tune would be good for a text on Christian love. As a member of the Iona community he was committed to the them of social justice and this hymn is clearly from that emphasis. Colvin wrote later that as he sat “in the moonlight, I felt it simply had to be about black and white, rich and poor.” He realized how much could be gained when the rich learn from the poor as they serve each other.   The Iona community on the “holy isle” on the west of Scotland and at the Wild Goose Publications in Glasgow, heard the hymn and published in in 1968 in a collection Free to Serve: Hymns from Africa. It quickly became popular around the world.   LINKS First Plymouth Church Lincoln Nebraska https://youtu.be/UvQz513Jl8M?si=Veep5-dx712nyNXz   Hope Publishing https://youtu.be/jX3T5sL0pzY?si=Fzi43yvVNUF_23Zd   Chris Brunelle https://youtu.be/qSuTmW1t8zs?si=R4Tapx-kEtSqwijX   Montana Praise Piano version https://youtu.be/lStBRcxAQoc?si=ok-lNLR95aRTySbY

Sermon on the Mount. by Bloch Text: Isaac Watts (1674-1748) Tune: There are many/see below 1 Bless'd are the humble souls, who see
Their ignorance and poverty:
Treasures of grace to them are giv’n,
And crowns of joy laid up in heav’n.

2 Bless'd are the men of broken heart,
Who mourn for sin with inward smart;
For them divine compassion flows,
A healing balm for all their woes.

3 Bless'd are the meek, who stand afar
From rage and passion, noise and war:
God will secure their peaceful state,
And plead their cause against the great.

4 Bless'd are the souls who thirst for grace
Hunger and long for righteousness:
They shall be well supplied and fed
With living streams and living bread.

5 Bless'd are the men, whose hearts still move
And melt with sympathy and love;
They shall themselves from God obtain
Like sympathy and love again.

6 Bless'd are the pure, whose hearts are clean
From the defiling pow'r of sin:
With endless pleasure they shall see
A God of spotless purity.

7 Bless'd are the men of peaceful life,
Who quench the coals of growing strife;
They shall be call'd the heirs of bliss,
The sons of God, the God of peace.

8 Bless'd are the suff’rers who partake
Of pain and shame for Jesus’ sake:
Their souls shall triumph in the Lord;
Glory and joy are their reward. REFLECTIONS Luke's version of the Beatitudes is slightly different from Matthew's. Luke's concern for the poor, for example, is clear in his version of Blessed are the poor, rather than Matthew's "the poor in Spirit." In either version, The Beatitudes are supremely rich and beautiful to hear, but fairly difficult to preach. Maybe it is simply too much to cover the breadth of all eight in one sermon. It is almost as if the Lord is pouring the good news and its blessing over us from a river filled to overflowing. Maybe more like one at a time to savor small sips from this gusher. Books by the hundreds have been written on them, a twenty-minute sermon will barely scratch the surface. Jesus is speaking in the present tense. He is not saying go out and strive to be peacemakers, or mourners, or meek. He says that those who fit that description are indeed blessed. We can look around and see people who do fulfill those virtues and ascribe to them the blessings Jesus announces as he begins his great Sermon on the Mount. And in his list he is giving us a list of the kind of virtues he values in his kingdom. Then, I cringe. Lord, have I been any of these things? Can you bless me if I haven’t? Maybe this is of the devil—to turn these rich words into condemnations? Especially of ourselves. Isaac Watts does a nice job with the beatitudes in this now forgotten hymn. He doesn’t use Jesus’ pronouns, blessed are you, but describes the one who is meek and what he or she receives from the Lord. Those “who see/Their ignorance and poverty: Treasures of grace to them are giv’n, And crowns of joy laid up in heav’n. ” What Watts does is give us more concrete examples of what is means to receive the ”kingdom of heaven.” It is an old rhetorical convention—to make clear by adding, or elaborating, on a theme. Feel these blessings pour down from our Lord. He comes with blessings for all his children and these beatitudes show us how faithful Christians live. HYMN INFO Watts, the son of a Non-conformist minister, was very bright but could not attend Oxford or Cambridge because Non-conformists were outside the established church. Watts did very well for himself at the schools for such students, and became a distinguished scholar of rhetoric, a poet, and reformer of English hymnody which ever since has borne his stamp—economical, and without any bumps. Furthermore, he rebelled against the Calvinist rigors of exact paraphrases of the Psalms, thinking that many of those he sang as a boy were rough hewn and to some extent not Christian because they were not informed by the New Testament. This did not keep him from using the psalter as a source. His great hymn “O God our help in ages past,” is a peerless paraphrase of Psalm 90. He did what all innovators do—used what he had grown up with, mastered it, and then expanded what the form could say. It is still true today that when a young person is asked to write a song, they use some form of the ballad stanzas—this one in Long Measure LM (eight syllables per line)—that Watts used for so many of his hymns. Even today, one can feel him on one’s shoulder tsk tsking if you have composed an inelegant line. As an English classicist, he sought to make his seemingly simple lyrics as economical, graceful and clear as possible. Those who follow him will hear those bumps in their own verse because they have been so well schooled by Watts without even knowing it. An interesting book Hymns Unbidden argues that both William Blake and Emily Dickinsen learned from Watts how to write their poems as they whiled away the long sermons of their day by reading Watts in their hymnals. I have no doubt that is true. In these libertine days when forms and strictures are regarded as keeping us from the truth, I would challenge the young to master these forms so they can effectively communicate with those around them the “endless pleasures they will see/A God of spotless purity.” Something to be longed for, yea hungered and thirsted after for righteousness’ sake. Isaac Watts Watts’ hymns are so many that we do not have their stories; he just wrote and wrote. As he lived, his health declined and he was taken in by friends who took care of him for many years. This is a metrical paraphrase like those encouraged by the Calvinists, except only for the Psalms, not the Gospels. It first appeared in Watts’ collection Hymns and Sacred Songs in 1709 with these eight stanzas. It can be sung to most any LM tune. It has not remained as popular as his greatest hymns such as "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross," or "O God, Our Help in Ages Past," but it is a worthy piece. This hymn is not very well known today, but there are hundreds of hymns on the Beatitudes as you will see below, including my version. LINKS Graham Kendrick
https://youtu.be/tWm2TpiqRUc David Haas https://youtu.be/AwaK5h8Dhac Chris Brunelle https://youtu.be/bcUJyBKgp64

Text: Gracia Grindal Tune: James E. Clemens Lord of all, you know our hearts, Show us now whom you have chosen. One who's able to impart Treasures from your Spirit’s ocean You can see what we cannot, Ev’ry thought.   Like Matthias who had seen Jesus baptized in the river, Watched him die and rise again, Give us one who can deliver Living witness to your Son, All he’s done.   Lead and guide us as we choose One to lead us by your gospel, Preaching, teaching your good news So that we may grow and prosper. Show the love your Spirit sends Never ends    REFLECTION Jesus Calling Peter The most amazing thing about the gospel is that Jesus, true God, becomes human. He is born into the most modest of families in the most modest of places, Bethlehem and a manger in a stable. He grows up among the simplest people, and follows in the trade of Joseph, the carpenter. When he assembles his disciples, he calls those from most the ordinary of professions—fishermen—to be his disciples. He transforms them into fishers of men and women, and they go out into the world to change it.   He doesn’t go to the elite or the most privileged. He finds Peter, Andrew, James and John, and the others who will be changed by his teachings and death and life. On seeing his resurrection, they will believe and go forth to all the world to testify to this new thing. As their listeners hear it, they will be moved by the Spirit and come to faith in Jesus. All the world will be changed.   Every one of his disciples will be utterly changed, even Judas whose despair at what he has done, causes him to commit suicide. The others will go from Jerusalem unto the uttermost parts of the earth and tell the story of Jesus to all who will listen. Soon the Christian faith will be proclaimed the religion of the Roman empire by Constantine in 325. For the next 1700 years, it will be the major religion of the west.   Some see that Christianity may be dying and losing its impact in the west, although it is growing in other parts of the world. God, however, has a way of continuing the work of calling people to faith even today. I have lately been encouraged by signs of new life. Some in leadership to say nothing of thousands of young people looking for connection and meaning, who had declared themselves to be atheists, are coming to a living faith in Jesus. They have heard the call to discipleship and are following the voice of our Lord as he calls out to them.   It is our vocation as Christians to issue the call on behalf of our Lord. Without hearing that call, many will continue lives of quiet desperation. This is an emergency. We need to pray, on behalf of those who are lost and despondent, that we can issue the call to those around us so they hear the good news. This is also the vocation of a call committee in a congregation—praying they may choose the right person to witness to the gospel in their midst. And be changed by that witness—and maybe even change others around them. It is our calling. Go forth!   HYMN INFO There are many hymns on the call to discipleship. The most popular one today is John Bell’s The Summons, Will you follow me, but the church also treasures O’er the Tumult Jesus calls us. My text is specifically about the call of Matthias who was chosen by the disciples to take the place of Judas. The only requirement for his being chosen was that he had been a witness to the life of Jesus, his baptism, his suffering and death, and his resurrection. The eleven chose two and then let God make the decision as they cast lots for him. Although we hear little of Matthias in succeeding accounts of the disciples, we understand that one who would be a disciple had to be a witness to the life, death and resurrection of our Lord, whether in person or, later, as a believer in the life, death and resurrection of our Lord. Jesus blesses those after his encounter with Thomas, commending those who will believe without seeing. Some call it a final Beatitude. It can be used for congregational call committees and congregations calling a pastor. What we do is urgent--to bring life to the dying!   LINKS to others hymns on Jesus Calling the Disciples Jesus Calls me O'er the Tumult https://www.hymnfortheday.com/post/hymn-308-jesus-calls-us-o-er-the-tumult The Summons by John Bell https://www.hymnfortheday.com/post/hymn-for-pentecost-13-will-you-follow-me

Presentation by Duccio Text: Henry John Pye (1827-1903). Tune: Regent Square or Lindsborg 1 In His temple now behold Him;
See the long-expected Lord!
Ancient prophets had foretold him;
God hath now fulfilled His word.
Now to praise Him, His redeemèd
Shall break forth with one accord.
2 In the arms of her who bore Him,
Virgin pure, behold Him lie,
While His aged saints adore Him,
Ere in perfect faith they die:
Alleluia! Alleluia!
Lo, the incarnate God most high!
3 Jesus, by Thy Presentation,
Thou, Who didst for us endure,
Make us see Thy great salvation,
Seal us with Thy promise sure;
And present us in Thy glory
To Thy Father cleansed and pure.
4 Prince and author of salvation,
Be Thy boundless love our theme!
Jesus, praise to Thee be given
By the world Thou didst redeem,
With the Father and the Spirit,
Lord of majesty supreme! Simeon in the Temple by Rembrandt 1620s (A redo of an older blog.) The secular world will observe this day with silly events waiting for some kind of furry mammal to emerge from its den into the light. If it is sunny, and the animal sees its shadow, legend has it, there will be six more weeks of winter. It began as Candlemas when people began looking for the end of winter. The Scots had a rhyme to mark the connection with the weather: If Candlemas is fair and clear/There’ll be two winters in the year.” Whether or not the animal sees its shadow or not, there will generally be six more weeks of winter where I live, if not more. Oddly enough, it came to the US from Germans who celebrated Candlemas time saying something to the same effect, speaking of the badger as the animal who would see its shadow. Candlemas, the last day of the Christmas celebrations, commemorates the day that Mary and Joseph took Jesus to the temple for her purification forty days after the birth of Jesus as prescribed by the law. It became a festival of light. People would take in their candles to be blessed. And the candles that were blessed would be used during the year as a sign that Jesus was the light of the world. Simeon with the infant Jesus in the Temple. Rembrandt It is one of the oldest feasts in the church going way back into the fourth century. It has continued through the centuries and still noted in countries around the world: Finland and Sweden have had a service celebrating the light. As have those countries with Spanish traditions. Of course there is food: pancakes or crepes with their circular shapes and golden color to remind of the return of the sun and light. Mexicans celebrate with tamales, Peru with dances, Puerto Rico with processions of candles, etc. I have written more about the ritual of purification elsewhere in the hymnblogs which you can read here: https://www.hymnfortheday.com/post/hymn-319-purification-of-mary-churching-of-women What I love is the meeting of the generations, the ending and beginning, the old meeting the new; Simeon greets the new covenant, knowing it is the end of him, but not of his hopes. And so he sings his marvelous song which is best in the King James Version: "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word. For mine eye have seen thy salvation which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; a light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of the people Israel.” The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple by Rembrandt 1631 What it says is more and more true to me as I grow old. The picture of the old man Simeon seeing his ending and beginning is rich as is the scene of Anna raising up her hands rejoicing throughout the temple. No has done better portrayals of this moment than Rembrandt who must have loved it as he did several versions. In the one just above we see the deep shadows of the temple surrounding them, and the golden light on the main characters. Mary is a simple young woman. Simeon. Mary and the baby are bathed in light. The steps up to the high priest are now dark, and the real center of the faith is on the child in light. This story can never be exhausted. Even the movie Ground Hog Day focuses on a religious theme: Until the main character begins to think of others rather than himself, he is conemned to the hell of the same day over and over again. His conversion finally brings a new day and life for him. So as for Simeon and for all of us, here is the coming of a new day in our Savior. People have rarely needed it as much as they do now. Point to him and rejoice in the light! The Presentation He met us with a song his body knew Mouthing the prophets’ cries in his prayers His hope visible, his death coming into view. He took the baby, blessing him, long prepared. Chanting a verse I never would forget— Swords piercing my heart, the old man sang, Seeing the thorns, the lance, the blood he shed On the cross. Far away bright weapons clanged. We offered our sacrifice, two turtledoves Cleansing me, bringing me back to the rites. The temple’s golden light glimmered over us Singing for love, holding the world’s true light Wondering at the ruddy child he held Doing our duties, the prophecies fulfilled. From the Sword of Eden/Mary Ponders , XVIII Gracia Grindal Copyright © 2018 Painting by Tom Maakestad https://www.amazon.com/Sword-Eden-Eve-Mary-Speak/dp/1532648820/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=&asin=1532648820&revisionId=&format=4&depth=1 HYMN INFO Henry John Pye was a typical supporter of the Oxford movement in England. An ordained Anglican clergyman, he worked to recover the treasures of the early church and plumb its resources of hymnody and thought. In this work, he grew closer and closer to the Church of Rome and in 1868 he and his wife joined the Roman Catholic Church. This hymn On the Purification of Mary is his most famous. It appeared in the Salisbury Hymn Book , 1857; The entire hymn text was published in 1853 by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in its hymn collection, and in Church Hymns , 1871. Regent Square seems to be the more popular tune, but there are several that have worked. The LBW used one by Robert Leaf, a Swedish American composer and hymn writer. Thus the name of the tune was Lindsborg, for Lindsborg, Kansas where Bethany College, a Swedish American Lutheran College is today. LINKS Halifax Lutheran https://youtu.be/rreq3gtEJbE John White https://youtu.be/cOWpBdo0utE Orchard Enterprises https://youtu.be/qQqqgj3L8cc

Text: William Cowper (1731-1800) Tune: John Hullah (1812-1884)   Jesus reading in the synagogue. James Tissot 1.Sometimes a light surprises a Christian while he sings; it is the Lord who rises with healing in his wings; when comforts are declining, he grants the soul again a season of clear shining to cheer it after rain. 2 In holy contemplation we sweetly then pursuet he theme of God’s salvation, and find it ever new: set free from present sorrow, we cheerfully can say, 'E'en let the unknown morrow bring with it what it may, 3 'it can bring with it nothing but he will bear us through; who gives the lilies clothing will clothe His people too: beneath the spreading heavens no creature but is fed; and he who feeds the ravens will give his children bread.'4 Though vine nor fig-tree neither their wonted fruit should bear, though all the field should wither, nor flocks nor herds be there; yet God the same abiding, his praise shall tune my voice; for while in him confiding, I cannot but rejoice.   REFLECTIONS Jesus in the Nazareth synagogue is with his family and friends from way back. He is reading the prophet Isaiah as was his custom, Luke reports. All eyes are on him. He has just returned from his battle with the tempter, although they don’t know that. Apparently they sense something is going to happen. It does. Jesus announces that he is the fulfillment of the Scripture from Isaiah 61:1-2. They are shocked. They think they know who he is and, suddenly before their eyes, he tells them he is more than they could have ever imagined. More than Joseph's son, for sure! At first they marvel, but then as the story goes on, he says more about who he is and it fills them with wrath, so much so they attempt to kill him!   The Christian faith is filled with the surprises Cowper describes in this much loved hymn. The Christian life is filled with what have been called epiphanies, a sudden revalation of something more. Many times we cannot see to see, as the poet has it. We pray for sight and suddenly what was humdrum and ordinary dances with new light and surprises. Or something we thought to be remarkable turns out to be mere façade. Seeing is not believing in the Christian faith. Hearing is.   The assembled in Nazareth see the old home town boy; they hear the voice of God. At first it charms them; then they become angry. Have their senses betrayed them? Not really. They just have not been attuned to the possibility that in the physical scene they are part of, they are also glimpsing something of the spiritual world upon which all of their lives are built. It upsets them, as well it might. Like the man stepping on the back of a whale thinking it dry land and discovering to his horror it is not.   All of life is filled with numinous presences and gifts that God has sent us. And this is what the Christian life brings us—insight into the heavenly world around us, and in us. As Luther says, God comes to us in the sacrament In, with an under the physical. That is also true of his lovely world. I have a friend who said that when she came to faith, it was like the world turned instantly from a black and white photo into technicolor. As Cowper says, “E’en let the unknown morrow bring with it what it may.”   HYMN INFO William Cowper William Cowper, one of the more gifted English hymn writers, lived a sad life, haunted by mental illness and difficulties. His mother died when he was six, he developed something like agoraphobia and lost many opportunities to work as the lawyer he had been trained to be. At one time he believed God was telling him to commit suicide, something he almost did, but failed. Something of a minor English poet whose works attracted attention, it is as a hymn writer that he has achieved a reputation. He moved to Olney England where John Newton was rector and began writing hymns with him. Their collected works, the Olney Hymns of 1779 remains one of the treasures of English hymnody—including "Amazing Grace" by Newton, and "God moves in a Mysterious Way" by Cowper. While Cowper’s hymns are considered dark, for obvious reasons, they still speak powerfully to many who are looking for hymns that express their faith in the midst of great sorrow and difficulty.    LINKS Martin de Groot https://youtu.be/PtdkrQcbijU?si=s1JzW8ntE63ket2i   Remission Choir https://youtu.be/JkTnZbtuyjE?si=b0iudFW5nOGKw6pR   Saint Michael’s Singers https://youtu.be/0mDez8OPmeM?si=3-MpCqwgpdBl-CNO   Chopin Hymn Episodes. From Lagos https://youtu.be/AG5cT2Ci-i8?si=4uv4adNLFCwmAmup

The Marriage at Cana. Martin de Vos Text: Gracia Grindal Tune: James Clemens or MACHT HOCH DIE TÜR 1. The candles on the table gleam As crystal goblets flash and beam While we await the bridal pair Who enter from the cold, night air And see the banquet linens spread With lilies on their snowy beds. The lustrous silver glints, Red rose buds give off scents. 2. And we who wait to greet them, turn To bless them as the candles burn And welcome to the banquet feast An old familiar wedding guest, Who once in ancient Palestine Turned water into vintage wine, And brings his glory here In fragrant cups of cheer. 3. Abundant life is what he gives, A miracle all can receive. Christ makes our ordinary days A feast of joy, a day of grace, So as our water glasses ring, We hear the nuptials of our King, Whose glory shines and blooms And spills throughout the room. Text © 2009 Wayne Leupold Editions, Inc. REFLECTIONS The Wedding at Cana. Gerard David (Somewhat changed from a previous blog.) Here we see Jesus blessing our lives in the richest way possible. He comes to a wedding; his mother is probably helping with arrangements as it may well have been a relative’s wedding. Jesus, after a brief tiff with Mary, ends up giving the guests joy and he does so using the things of the world: wine out of water. The last wedding I can remember, before COVID, was a real party. There was a large crowd. People were thoroughly enjoying the time, the fine dinner, the wine, the dancing. As the evening wore on, and the couples in their best finery danced the night away, I got to thinking how primal weddings are. Here we were in our Sunday best, the rules were formal, the father of the groom dances with the mother of the bride, etc., the toasts, the rituals going way back to Eden.   All to consecrate the love of a young couple heading out into their future. Their human urges didn’t need this ceremony, but the ceremony blessed them and put them in the context of creation and their creator. They had been drawn together for love of each other and their desire for each other, but the ceremony and gala said this was more than biological. Not only were the two being joined, a family, with mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, in-laws, who might not have chosen each other, was now dancing together and being joined. Soon there would be children about which we would care as much for as the strangers we had just met. The ritual brought us together and began something that would never end—a new life, around whom we would gather and care for and who maybe. later, would care for us. Bodies, filled with spirit, together in a dance. Of course, there can be woe later, but the wedding begins new life with hope. Weddings and children are on hard times these days. The culture is asking what difference ceremonies make? That we have to explain that the ceremony does something more than give people permission to have sex, means we are at a cultural and religious nadir that scarcely understands what it means to be human. God made us out of clay but then breathed his spirit into us for life. We are not animals; we need ritual and ceremony to mark the stages of our biological lives in relation to the eternal which is there in the ceremony. We need children for our future and they need stable families in which to flourish. Jesus, the Son of God, our creator, comes to this party and gives joy. In doing this we also see his divinity. He can make water into wine. He is the creator of both water and wine! And us—he knows our frame, what we need and what gives us joy. He wants us to drink life to the lees, not isolate ourselves from each other and society out of fear. Then we will have no future. Not only did he come to give us joy in our daily rituals, but he came to take away our fear so we can live life to the fullest possible. Moses exhorts the people to choose life and go forward into what would be distressing places and times. (Exodus 30:19) Frisk Bris (Fresh Breeze) by Eva Winther-Larssen (1928-2013) Once, I was sitting in an art gallery in Oslo wondering whether or not to buy the painting that had drawn me into the store. The owner knew his business. He drew up a comfortable chair, turned up the fire in the fireplace and sat me down. As I sat looking at the painting, which cost a pretty penny, (and I did buy it--see right--never regretting it) wondering if I should buy it, he commented that we rarely regret what we say yes to, but really regret what we have said no to--as one wag said, when we turn wine into water. Sometimes of course we say yes to awful things, but it is the no we wonder about. What treausres were there behind the door we did not open? Jesus came into the world to give us abundant life, a life of eternal treasures. He came as a groom coming to woo his bride—all humanity. Every day he opens up a door to a wedding feast as he changes water into wine for us. He wants us to be filled with the new wine of joy, a glory that spills throughout the room. Mary describes the Wedding at Cana from The Sword of Eden (Wipf and Stock, 2018) by Gracia Grindal Ceremonies swirled around us, the wine, the dance Family, friends, the whole village came Spirits rose, the shattering of the glass Marking a sorrow ahead we could not name. Shouting, laughter, suddenly the wine all gone Aunt of the bride, the banquet duties mine. Almost strange he entered, grown man, my son. I beckoned. “Woman, it is not my time.“ Familiar the look that fathomed something more. “Do as he says.” Water brimming over stone, “Give them to drink,” he said, we watched them pour Wine, rich in purples, vintages unknown. The best for last, we circled the bride and groom Like heaven, wheeling around the golden room. HYMN INFO There are few if any hymns on this theme in Scripture. I used the imagery of the weddings I know, and then imagined Jesus coming to them and how and why he would come. I changed the scene but not the arrival of our Lord who always comes with abundant life, a great theme in John. Clemens wrote a dancing tune for it with percussion instruments for accompaniment. A more sober tune is Macht Hoch die Tür. That tune first appeared in the pietist Freylinghausen hymnal Geist-reiches Gesang Buch 1703 and is now the preferred tune for the great Advent hymn Lift high the Gates. LINKS Organ version of Macht Hoch die Tür https://youtu.be/7jMRtkBC2HY Darko Pleli, organ https://youtu.be/VF_4x8k_c9o?si=SW5pZupqhxFUO6ce

Text: Martin Luther (1483-1546)    Tune: Johann Walter (1486-1570)   Baptism of Jesus. The Sistine chapel Fresco by Pietro Perugino and his workshop 1.To Jordan came the Christ, our Lord, To do His Father’s pleasure; Baptized by John, the Father’s Word Was given us to treasure. This heav’nly washing now shall be A cleansing from transgression And by His blood and agony Release from death’s oppression. A new life now awaits us.   2.O hear and mark the message well, For God Himself has spoken. Let faith, not doubt, among us dwell And so receive this token. Our Lord here with his Word endows Pure water, freely flowing. God’s Holy Spirit here avows Our kinship while bestowing The Baptism of His blessing.   3.These truths on Jordan’s banks were shown By mighty word and wonder. The Father’s voice from heav’n came down, Which we do well to ponder: “This man is My beloved Son, In whom my heart has pleasure. Him you must hear, and Him alone, And trust in fullest measure The word that He has spoken.”   4.There stood the Son of God in love, His grace to us extending; The Holy Spirit like a dove Upon the scene descending; The triune God assuring us, With promises compelling, That in our baptism He will thus Among us find a dwelling To comfort and sustain us.   5.To His disciples spoke the Lord, “Go out to ev’ry nation, And bring to them the living Word And this My invitation: Let ev’ryone abandon sin And come in true contrition To be baptized and thereby win Full pardon and remission And heav’nly bliss inherit.”   6. But woe to those who cast aside This grace so freely given: They shall in sin and shame abide And to despair be driven. For born in sin, their works must fail, Their striving saves them never; Their pious acts do not avail, And they are lost forever, Eternal death their portion.   7. All that the mortal eye beholds Is water as we pour it. Before the eye of faith unfolds The pow’r of Jesus’ merit. For here it sees the crimson flood To all our ills bring healing The wonders of His precious blood The love of God revealing, Assuring His own pardon. Tr. Elizabeth Quitmeyer (1911-1988)   Baptism of Christ Rublev REFLECTION Aside from the questions of why Jesus, who is sinless, needs to be baptized, a compelling one, what we see here is amazing. While Jesus is being baptized and the dove flies down, we hear the voice of God approving of his Son and admonishing us to listen to him. Luther’s hymn says it, we would do well to ponder this voice.   There is something going on in the intellectual world today that is heartening to me. While the young we are told have thought that science and religion cannot agree, today reputable scientists are arguing that now science is pointing to the creator, in fact, I have heard it said that it is bad science to think today that there is no God. As one writer says, “God’s majesty remains in evidence all over the spectacular home he has built for his creatures.” (Spencer Klavan, Light of the Mind, Light of the world: Illuminating science through faith.)   What we experience in this scene of Jesus being baptized and during the Transfiguration is the breaking into our world “the mind that made the world and made us.” All that the mortal eye beholds/Is water as we pour it. /Before the eye of faith unfolds /The pow’r of Jesus’ merit.” The transcendent comes to us through water and in the flesh of a man. Amazing!   The older I get the thinner the veil between the visible and invisible becomes. The efforts by those in my youth to demythologize all the spiritual truths from Scripture by using the scientific method, I now find wanting.Those efforts made what is numinous and beautiful seem pedestrian. It has been rather like using a hammer to heal a butterfly. The past era has been ugly, we created ugly houses of worship that refused transcendence, and reduced Scripture to mere intellecutal concepts and ideas, not rich places to roam and be guided by.   That world, the Enlightenment, is now coming to an end. To be sure the accomplishments of science and the scientific method have given us much. But the method shouldn't be used on every question. Something new is happening. It is not sure that we will make it through into a better, more beautiful and richer world. Dystopian possibilities threaten, but I take heart that God’s speaking to us in the baptism of his dear Son rent the heavens wide so we could know him. He did this to have fellowship with us and bring us the light of the world.  This is what the God of all creation, of the universe, has done to be near us and give us “the eye of faith” so we can see his light and life. Praise God.   HYMN INFO Martin Luther at the end of his life when he wrote this hymn. by Cranach the younger Luther and Walter worked together in Luther's house some time during 1523 when they first started writing hymns. As director of Frederick the Wise’s chapel, Walter composed and led the singing there. He became the Lutheran composer of his time. While Luther was well trained as a musician, Walter probably helped him with his musical compositions, like "Out of the Depths." Walter wrote passions, motets and songs for use in the church. He lives on in the work he did with Luther on the first Protestant hymnals, the first, Eyn geystlich Gesangk Buchleyn in 1524. Later Luther would write hymns that became the Singing Catechism. This, one of the last hymns he wrote, is the hymn for the baptism section. Bach wrote three cantatas for St. John’s Feast, Midsummer. One on this hymn, BWV 7. Enjoy it. The first and last stanza begin and end it, the middle movements are on the themes of each stanza. Enjoy the musical waters flowing! LINKS Concordia Publishing House version https://youtu.be/gmDzL03cs_E Children's Choir Holy Cross Lutheran https://youtu.be/SjkdSjK4e6s Bach BWV 684 A setting of the hymn for soprano and organ https://youtu.be/yqDeqqd6ui4 Bach's cantata BWV 7 Christ, unser Herr, zum Jordan kam https://youtu.be/FaFe8ZtdAJc