Resurrection Day 2022

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From Messiah, oratorio composed by George F. Handel (text):

I Corinthians 15:55, 57 (KJV):

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?...[T]hanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Good Friday 2022

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The Lamb of God died for me!

From George F. Handel's Messiah (Isaiah 53:4-5, KJV): 

Related reading: Ed Bonderenka's essay What's so Good about Good Friday?

Musical Interlude

In the 2021-2022 American Literature course I teach to homeschoolers, excerpts from James Russell Lowell's poem "The Present Crisis" have appeared in our literature textbook. Reading the first stanza in our textbook excerpt brought to mind this hymn from traditional Christian liturgy, set to a particularly haunting melody.  I remember singing this hymn in church — back in the days when churches had physical hymnals.

The words of the hymn speak to me in our present time. See if the words speak to you:

Additional information (worth your time):

The full poem "The Present Crisis" is HERE.  

A brief review of the poem is HERE.  

Also NOTE THE BACKGROUND of Russell's poem, originally written in protest to the Mexican American War (1846-1848), but used in subsequent generations for different purposes because of the timelessness of certain lines and phrases.

Musical Interlude

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Enjoy "Be Still, My Soul" as performed by the British vocal ensemble Voces8:

   

Complete lyrics of this hymn: 

Be still, my soul: the Lord is on thy side. 

Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain. 

Leave to thy God to order and provide; 

In every change, He faithful will remain. 

Be still, my soul: thy best, thy heavenly friend 

Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end. 

Be still, my soul: thy God doth undertake 

To guide the future, as He has the past. 

Thy hope, thy confidence let nothing shake; 

All now mysterious shall be bright at last. 

Be still, my soul: the waves and winds still know 

His voice who ruled them while He dwelt below. 

Be still, my soul: when dearest friends depart, 

And all is darkened in the vale of tears, 

Then shalt thou better know His love, His heart, 

Who comes to soothe thy sorrow and thy fears. 

Be still, my soul: thy Jesus can repay 

From His own fullness all He takes away. 

Be still, my soul: the hour is hastening on 

When we shall be forever with the Lord. 

When disappointment, grief and fear are gone, 

Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored. 

Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past 

All safe and blessèd we shall meet at last. 

Be still, my soul: begin the song of praise 

On earth, believing, to Thy Lord on high; 

Acknowledge Him in all thy words and ways, 

So shall He view thee with a well pleased eye. 

Be still, my soul: the sun of life divine 

Through passing clouds Shall but more brightly shine. 

About "Be Still, My Soul": 

This hymn was a favorite of Eric Liddell, the athlete who became famous in the 1924 Olympics for refusing to run on the Sabbath (see the 1981 movie Chariots of Fire). 

Liddell later became a missionary in China, and was imprisoned during World War II. He is said to have taught this hymn to others in the prison camp (where he eventually died of a brain tumor). 

(the Voces8 YouTube channel)

Thanksgiving 2020

******

Image from MIT Medical

What a contrast to the above is the below often-used image of the first Thanksgiving in Plymouth Colony!

Should we then feel sorry for ourselves: that this Thanksgiving 2020 we may have to forego some of the usual family gatherings and festivities?  I think not!

In spite of my own doubts as to just how dangerous COVID-19 is, I think that we should reflect upon how un-deprived we are, here in the 21st Century! 

Let us note the true hardships which our Pilgrim Fathers endured: a rough voyage of 65 days on turbulent seas only to arrive in November 1620 to inhospitable shores during brutal weather; a lack of enough supplies until the next gardening season because the Mayflower was supposed to arrive to the already-established Virginia Colony, where there would have been stores enough for the winter and good shelter; the deaths of more than half of the English settlers aboard the ship, because of the combination of both poor nutrition and inadequate shelter for a New England Winter. 

Yet, our Pilgrim Fathers heartily gave thanks — and, before disembarking, even managed to compose the Mayflower Compact, ancestor of our United States Constitution:

...[I]n the Mayflower Compact, the Pilgrims wisely chose to establish a government based on civil agreement, not on compulsory divine or biblical authority....

Therefore, instead of whining about what we are not doing this Thanksgiving 2020 and instead of complaining about our draconian Democrat governors and their anti-Thanksgiving edicts, let us be mindful of what Scott Powell wrote in his Patriot Post 2018 essay Thanksgiving: The First and Essential American Holiday: 

Times are very different than they were nearly 400 years ago at the time of the Mayflower’s voyage to the New World. But the qualities of character that made the Pilgrims exemplary are as relevant today as they were back then. A contemporary Thanksgiving makeover might include: rekindling a quest for adventure; growing the faith to hold on to a vision of a promised land no matter what; mustering the courage to go against the crowd and defend the truth; gaining determination to endure hardship; rejuvenating a joyful willingness to sacrifice for others; revitalizing respect and tolerance of people of different beliefs; and renewing the predisposition to extend love and gratitude at every appropriate opportunity.

Please read Scott Powell's entire essay HERE.  Worth your time.

Let us count our blessings!  They are too numerous to count!

There will be time enough later to take our draconian, anti-Thanksgiving political leaders to task.  For now...

Resurrection Day 2020

Christ the Lord Is Risen Today:

Lyrics (Charles Wesley, 1739):

Christ the Lord is ris’n today, Alleluia!
Sons of men and angels say, Alleluia!
Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia!
Sing, ye heav’ns, and earth, reply, Alleluia!

Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia!
Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia!
Once He died our souls to save, Alleluia!
Where thy victory, O grave? Alleluia!

Love’s redeeming work is done, Alleluia!
Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia!
Death in vain forbids His rise, Alleluia!
Christ hath opened paradise, Alleluia!

Soar we now where Christ hath led, Alleluia!
Foll’wing our exalted Head, Alleluia!
Made like Him, like Him we rise, Alleluia!
Ours the cross, the grave, the skies, Alleluia!

Hail the Lord of earth and heaven, Alleluia!
Praise to Thee by both be given, Alleluia!
Thee we greet triumphant now, Alleluia!
Hail the Resurrection, thou, Alleluia!

King of glory, Soul of bliss, Alleluia!
Everlasting life is this, Alleluia!
Thee to know, Thy pow’r to prove, Alleluia!
Thus to sing, and thus to love, Alleluia!

Be blest.

Good Friday 2020

El Greco's Christ Carrying the Cross

From John Chapter 19 (KJV):

Then Pilate therefore took Jesus, and scourged Him.  And the soldiers platted a crown of thorns, and put it on His head, and they put on Him a purple robe...

...Pilate saith unto them, "Take ye Him, and crucify Him."...

...And they took Jesus, and led Him away. And He bearing His cross went forth into a place called the place of a skull, which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha: where they crucified Him, and two other with Him, on either side one, and Jesus in the midst.

And Pilate wrote a title, and put it on the cross. And the writing was, JESUS OF NAZARETH THE KING OF THE JEWS. This title then read many of the Jews: for the place where Jesus was crucified was nigh to the city: and it was written in Hebrew, and Greek, and Latin.  Then said the chief priests of the Jews to Pilate, "Write not, The King of the Jews; but that he said, I am King of the Jews."  Pilate answered, "What I have written I have written."

Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also His coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout.  They said therefore among themselves, "Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be": that the Scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, "They parted My raiment among them, and for My vesture they did cast lots." These things therefore the soldiers did.

Now there stood by the cross of Jesus His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.  When Jesus therefore saw His mother, and the disciple standing by, whom He loved, He saith unto His mother, "Woman, behold thy son!"  Then saith He to the disciple, "Behold thy mother!" And from that hour that disciple took her unto His own home.

After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, "I thirst. " Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to His mouth.  When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, "It is finished": and He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost....

...Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulchre, wherein was never man yet laid.  There laid they Jesus therefore because of the Jews’ preparation day; for the sepulchre was nigh at hand.

From Handel's Messiah (Isaiah 53:4-5, KJV)

Musical Interlude

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"Great Is Thy Faithfulness," an American Christian hymn dating from 1923, has a special place in my heart, in part because it was the hymn requested by my paternal Uncle John to be used as the congregational hymn at his memorial service, held years ago when he perished from Alzheimer's Disease:


More hymns performed by Blue Rock Mennonite Youth HERE.

R.I.P., My Dear Friend Patricia (May 6, 1954-March 29, 2020). Hymn Added.

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Patricia here on our wheelchair ramp in 2010.

My dear friend Patricia (former blogger The Merry Widow) went Home to the Lord suddenly on March 29, of an apparent heart attack in the emergency room.

Warren's words when he heard the sad news: "If anybody was right with God, it was Patricia."

Her last three posts on Facebook, the second two from the ER:

A Great Awakening?

Silverfiddle Rant!

Could a rogue virus lead to a grand creative moment in America’s history? Will Americans, shaken by the reality of a risky universe, rediscover the God who proclaimed himself sovereign over every catastrophe?
-- Robert Nicholson


"Thy Kingdom Come"

I have been praying for another great awakening for quite some time, and I'm confident my prayers join those of hundreds of millions of other people of faith, so this article caught my eye: A Coronavirus Great Awakening?

America has experienced three or four Great Awakenings. Are we due for another one? What would it look like? What preachers or churches would lead it?

A physics PhD and deep thinker I used to work for opined last week that this could lead to a new wave of intellectual ferment and new ideas and inventions, just as the black plague of the Middle Ages did.  I'm not that steeped in history, but he averred that the plague forced people to shutter themselves away and spend a lot of time with their thoughts, and that led to many wonderful new ideas that ended up ushering in the Enlightenment. I'm thinking, "yeah, but those people didn't have Netflix, social media and internet porn..."

Have you been praying more?  Reading the Bible? Developing intellectual theories or coming up with a new invention?  If the government ordered you to stay in your home, what have you been doing to occupy your time?

At the Casa Silverfiddle, we have been praying and reading the Bible more.  The kids are doing schoolwork, bracelet-making, origami and playing music. I've been playing a lot of banjo, slowing down and focusing on good technique, and knocking the rust of the old fiddle, reacquainting myself with all the fiddle tunes I used to know.

What say you?


Related Links:
The Comprehensive Timeline of China’s COVID-19 Lies

Pandemic Brings Out the Best and the Worst in the Media

Jeremiah was a Bullfrog

Silverfiddle Rant!

Western governments have seemed to be biased towards Christianity and Judeo-Christian culture, because that is where we came from! Regardless of an individual's religion, the Bible shaped and built Western Christendom.

Any system built by man has logical inconsistencies that spawn hypocrisies, and on the other end, abuses by those attempting to carry out every last jot and tittle of the letter of the law.

Given all that, Judeo-Christian praxis, even with its excesses and deficiencies, has built the most powerful and most advanced civilization humankind has ever seen. Our broad-based system of rights for all is not perfect, but where else is it better?

Despite Christianity's persecutors and inquisitors, the fundamental tenets of the Bible are essential for a salubrious and prosperous society.

That is why government appears to endorse or favor Christianity. Anti-Christians continue to scream about this, and my answer has always been the same: if you can build a secular system of morality with similar foundational bedrock principles, I am all for it as a national ethos.

But didn't the founders give us that already?

How often do public officials invoke our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? Never. Like the founders, they wisely use broad euphemisms like the creator, or divine providence. That is the respect religious people pay to those who are not into that.

Outside of the early colonies, nobody has been forced to go to church here. We had a good set up. Religious people could live their lives, and the irreligious could as well. People were always free in this nation to practice their perversions, and the tribute vice paid to virtue was hypocrisy. People practicing perversions didn't do it in the public square; they respected community standards for the most part. They went off to their dens of iniquity, which town fathers and churchmen knew existed, and no doubt a number of them visited, but this unspoken social compact made for a healthy society.

What we have now is creeping neo-paganism, and it will not end well.

Music For Resurrection Day

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The promise we have, from this epistle from St. Paul:

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.  For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. - 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17 Authorized (King James) Version (AKJV)

"Wele'n Sefyll Rhwng y Mwrtwydd" ("Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah"), a hymn which is an affirmation of the Christian resurrection faith:


Lyrics in Welsh:

Wele'n sefyll rhwng y myrtwydd
Wrthrych teilwng o fy mryd;
Er mai o ran, yr wy'n adnabod
Ei_fod uwchlaw gwrthrychau'r byd:
Henffych fore, henffych fore,
Y caf ei weled fel y mae.

Rhosyn Saron yw ei enw,
Gwyn a gwridog, teg o bryd;
Ar ddeng mil y mae'n rhagori
O wrthrychau penna'r byd:
Ffrind pechadur, ffrind pechadur,
Dyma_ei beilat ar y môr.

Beth sy imi mwy a wnelwyf
Ag eilunod gwael y llawr?
Tystio'r wyf nad yw eu cwmni
I'w cystadlu â Iesu mawr:
O! am aros, o am aros
Yn ei gariad ddyddiau f'oes.

Parsing and translation of the Welsh words:

The Gold Cross Remains

The golden cross and the Pietà sculpture of Mary holding the crucified Jesus at the base of the cross survived. A powerful symbol in Holy Week:

And the rose windows are saved:

Related: The hero who saved the Crown of Thorns: Fire brigade chaplain entered flaming Notre Dame to recover holy relic - three years after he bravely helped Bataclan terror victims.

Advent 2018

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For this first Sunday in Advent 2018, here is my favorite Advent hymn (from the 5th Century A.D.):

He Died For Me

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From Handel's Messiah:

Lyrics:

24. Chorus: Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows! He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him. (Isaiah 53: 4-5)

25. Chorus: And with His stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53: 5)

26. Chorus: All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way. And the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.

Musical Interlude

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Some musical beauty for this weekend. Close your eyes, and listen:

About this performance of Ralph Vaughan Williams's Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis:

The BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Andrew Davis at Gloucester Cathedral, where in 1910, it was played and conducted for the first time by composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Some more information about this piece is HERE.

The Authorized King James Version of Psalm 2:1-2, to which Tallis's original tune is connected:

Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?

The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord, and against his anointed.

Read the entirety of Psalm 2 HERE.

Pray For Florida

Hurricane Irma has struck the Keys and is making its way up the west coast of Florida (at the time of this posting, at the rate of approximately 8 mph, NNW):

Musical Interlude For Good Friday And Holy Saturday

Calvary

He died for me — as the propitiation for my sins:

I John 2:2 (KJV):

And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

Related reading at my friend Ed Bonderenka's blog site: What's so Good about Good Friday?

Music for meditation on this Holy Day (hat tip to Bunkerville):

Related listening at my friend FreeThinke's blog: J.S. Bach's The Passion of Our Lord According to St. Matthew.

A Christmas Visitor

Posted by Warren

(Originally posted on "Longrange" for Christmas 2004)

4:00 am 12/24/04

There was a knock on my front door which startled me awake. My dogs were barking which required my dire threats to quieten them as I answered the door.

Maybe you have heard of our weather and the unusually cold temperatures and large amount of snow that has fallen in the last 24 hours. I live just south of Interstate 64 in Southern Indiana and you may have seen the news about the closed Interstate and stranded motorists on the national news.

A man in his early fifties, about my own age, stood at the door. He was wearing tennis shoes, jeans, a field jacket and sock hat. His glasses were frosted and his pale white hands and reddened knuckles gave witness that he wore no gloves.

He told me he was lost and asked for directions to a certain address. I told him that he missed his mark by a mile and a half and asked him where his car was. He said he was walking.

I invited him in and sat a chair for him by the warm air from the furnace vent. He was shivering uncontrollably and a faint whiff of alcohol was on his breath. I asked if I could fix him something to eat but he refused and accepted a hot cup of coffee.

My wife talked to him as he warmed himself and I could hear him speaking as I prepared his fresh coffee.

My son heard his voice and came into the living room to sit and listen, and to watch, just in case.

His story unfolded.

Wonderful Retro Christmas Video

Enjoy this oldie, but a goodie (1957). Watch the boy at Tennessee Ernie's right elbow express great joy: