Monday Morning Music Ministry

3-20-23

The French have a phrase that is memorable and useful, because it is true, not a mere facile epigram. “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

Its universality, and applications, are so basic that it is often quoted in the original: “Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.” It was written by Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr in 1849.

The concept can be said, or thought of, as pessimistic or fatalistic. Also it can be considered as merely a statement of fact, even an encouragement to a realistic view of life – a viewpoint from which we might brush the dust off out feet and seek new directions.

The Bible addresses the idea of course in a perfect way, and as often the case with bits of wisdom – proverbs – in the words of King Solomon. We recently visited the first chapter of Ecclesiastes, in which this verse appears:

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again. There is nothing new under the sun.

This came to mind again this week when I chanced upon a political cartoon I drew (gulp!) half a century ago, almost to the day. Isn’t it amazing how a four-year-old could draw? (I am not good at math, so I might be off by a few years…) But more than the archaeological discovery from my files, I was struck by the issue I addressed in the pages of the Connecticut Herald back then.

This cartoon could have been published this week – only better drawn, I would hope – and it would be just as pertinent, just as impertinent, every detail of my critique and complaints resonating the same way.

I would give my right inkpot if such were not case. For this is not an amusing coincidence; it is evidence of rot in American life. We might acknowledge that there might be nothing new under then sun, but – despite Solomon and Jean-Baptiste – we hope that things can at least vary their colors and flavors, can change or evolve. In 1973, for instance, the Soviet Union was our international threat; now it is China. In 1973 Vietnam was a diplomatic vortex; now it is Ukraine.

But the crises in American schools, as I identified them in this cartoon, are the same today (with, perhaps, the only change being greater degrees of severity). In my drawing I pictured sex “teaching” in the classroom; “new math” (the crazy numbers on the blackboard did not reproduce well here); anti-American teaching and actions; the presence of drugs, violence, and alcohol (I drew a syringe, a knife, and a beer can); the Black Power poster would be BLM today; and a Marxist textbook, which lives today as Critical Race Theory and other propagandistic school books.

Oh. And the assault on Bibles and prayers in schools, and the courts’ malignant interference in public education.

When I drew this cartoon, “thanks” to the Supreme Court, Bible reading and Christian expression in schools had been outlawed for about 10 years. To many people, this seems like the world of centuries ago, but I was in seventh grade; I can remember another America. Until that time, my schools in suburban New York City – and it was no different anywhere in the United States – opened every day with the Pledge of Allegiance. Moments of silence. Every week opened with Bible readings, round-robin with classmates. Out of deference to the Jewish kids in my classes, Bible readings often were Old Testament psalms.

If kids came from households of no faith, or other faiths, they could opt out; no ostracism of any sort. I had no friends who felt persecuted. The Lord’s Prayer was also recited weekly, and the Protestant kids added “For ever and ever, Amen,” nothing odd about it. We had Thanksgiving and Christmas and Easter programs… with the spiritual backgrounds discussed matter-of-factly.

These were aspects of American schools until the early ‘60s. Ten years later… this cartoon was not a fantasy or a warning, but a critique of unfolding situations. Fifty years later… Nothing new under the sun.

I was not too young when Bibles were outlawed, nor when I drew this cartoon, to be unaware of predictions from many quarters. Don’t think citizens did not object. There will be consequences if children are not grounded in an awareness of God’s role in American life… morals will degrade in a generation of young people… If Biblical values are stripped from history and science classes, children will have no standards… We will raise up generations with false values, little respect, and no traditions… and other predictions that are “la même chose.”

Every movement, through many centuries – indeed, back to the Garden – that has attacked God’s Word and orderly societies, has commenced with corrupting children. Of late, in the West, whether it is the questionable Protocols; or the manifestos of Marx and Engels; or the “Progressive Education” of Dewey; or the well-funded subversion of George Soros, corrupting the youth is the tip of the spear.

I wish, today, I could draw a cartoon predicting a better future – American classrooms free of subversion and perversion; shining with patriotism and traditional values; teaching, and learning, the Three Rs; not woke but awakened; outcomes and advancement of students by merit.

But I am afraid that my pen has run dry.

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Click: The Darkest Hour Is Just Before Dawn

3-6-23

Like the boy who cries wolf, the people behind the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists seldom are noticed anymore, or as much or as often as they once were. In 1947, at the dawn of the Atomic Age, the group’s “Doomsday Clock” was calibrated and publicized, meant to represent how close humankind was to obliterating civilization on earth.

Significantly it was issued at a time when nuclear weapons were a monopoly of the United States, and indeed the USA was the only nation, and remains so, to have unleashed nuclear weapons on people, military or civilian. To me that is a matter of shame, but my purpose is not to discuss wartime strategies.

Peacetime strategies of certain groups also deserve our attention. The “Doomsday Clock” – how close the world supposedly is to annihilating itself, “midnight” being the death-knell – was set at “seven minutes to midnight” as per the Bulletin’s first press release. Two months ago our current death sentence, so to speak, is calculated at 90 seconds away from doom. There are 86,400 seconds in a day, by the way, so we can see what the fuss is about. Since 1947 other nations have joined the “nuclear club.” (The Soviet Union in 1949; the UK in 1952; France, 1960; China, 1964; and at least five other countries.) The Bulletin of “scientists” has widened their list of threats to life on earth include over-population, green concerns, and global warming (or as it is known at the moment, “climate change”).

The United States is always cast as the boogy man in such alarums. I do not doubt the malign effects, both wanton and avoidable, of civilization and its discontents. It might even be the case that Chicken Littles in white lab-coats have inspired reforms. Yet there have been unseen consequences of Doomsday scenarios despite the absence of nuclear bombs being dropped during all the wars since 1947. My generation of schoolkids surely absorbed psychic poison from warnings about our homes being incinerated, and the necessity of hiding our little heads under desks during bombing-raid rehearsals in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Some day soon I believe we also will look back on the futility of two years of societal lockdowns over a relative of the flu.

I suggest that our problems with ticking clocks and last pages of calendars, of big bombs and little viruses, is “not in the stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.” That quotation is from Shakespeare, not the Bible; but there is wisdom in it. Another wise man wrote in the Book of Ecclesiastes: “Vanity, vanity, all is vanity.”

In these famous lines, the “Preacher,” acknowledged as the son of David, King Solomon, did not address “vanity” as being conceited or boastful, or chasing after fashion, except in the (much) larger sense – the contrast between substantial things and temporary concerns. The difference between the pertinent and the impertinent. The important things in life, and, yes, the futility of some things we humans chase after.

In that sense, things like atomic bombs and fossil fuels pale in significance to the many things the entire human race is doing in myriad other ways to kill itself. Yes, a bomb’s blast is palpably horrific: ask the many survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Yet the moral decay of hatred, prejudice, corruption, deceit, abuse, addiction, exploitation – of sin – is individual, widespread, and, unlike international treaties and federal regulations, within the power of each of us to remedy.

This human condition – vanity; the sense of futility we share in ever-increasing ways – can be addressed by humans. Spiritual crises require spiritual answers

Solomon, thousands of years ago, addressed the same challenges to “human nature” wherewith we contend today:

Says the Preacher, “Vanity, vanities, all is vanity.”

What profit has a man from all his labor In which he toils under the sun? One generation passes away, and another generation comes; But the earth abides forever.

The sun also rises, and the sun goes down, And hastens to the place where it arose. The wind goes toward the south, And turns around to the north; The wind whirls about continually, And comes again on its circuit.

All the rivers run into the sea, Yet the sea is not full; To the place from which the rivers come, There they return again. All things are full of labor; Man cannot express it. The eye is not satisfied with seeing, Nor the ear filled with hearing.

That which has been is what will be, That which is done is what will be done, And there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which it may be said, “See, this is new”? It has already been in ancient times before us.

There is no remembrance of things past, Nor will there be any remembrance of things that are to come By those who will come after.

Does this mean we should do nothing about our manifold problems? No – I have listed the problems I believe ultimately are most important that face our species and our families. If we can solve those, the “larger” crises might sort themselves out, for we will be wiser, more responsible, more loving.

Does this suggest a new form of hyper-individualism, addressing our problems ourselves? To the extent we should rely less on scientists who cry wolf with Bulletins, or governments who intimidate us by claiming to have all answers to all things… yes.

Does it say that life is futile; we are doomed according to a ticking Doomsday Clock?

No. These thoughts remind us that God is in charge. We are not to look to the stars, be scared by clocks, or even rely, solely, on ourselves – but to Him.

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap (Galatians 6:7).

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Click: The Great Judgment Morning

2-6-23

There are many names of God in Scripture; and many names of Jesus. Similarly, names of the Holy Ghost.

Casual students of the Bible know these. Some of names are titles; some are descriptive; some are prophetic; some are virtual codes that communicate the attributes of members of the Trinity; some are poetic. Among scores are, for instance, God as “the great ‘I Am’”; Jesus as the “Bright and Morning Star”; the Holy Spirit as the “Comforter.”

One of my names for the Father is God of the If-Thens. It’s an odd phrase, so I will explain. It is based on my recognition that God loves us unconditionally, but many of His promises are conditional. We, His children, do not always recognize this, because we don’t want to.

Many Christians in these days of national turmoil and societal distress quote a passage from II Chronicles, Chapter 7. We hear it in sermons, speeches, and prayers:

If My people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

Now, maybe God has many names for His people – us – too. Perhaps, if we think about the number of times Christians invoke this verse, one of those names could be: Lazy.

Lazy? When we hear those prayers often, even in anguish? But start thinking about all the times in the Bible that revival was needed among His people, in their lands, in His promised places. Many times! In fact, the need for spiritual revival is a repeated theme. People who are “called by God,” the blessed chosen who nevertheless exercise human nature, not God’s nature; and who inevitably (as per human nature) stray, rebel, grow apostate, reject God – the Bible record is populated by such people. And they, generally, are like you and me.

Whether God sends prophets who warn; or floods, famines, conquerors, or even a Savior, He provides ways out. He has ways to remind us of His love. He invites us to return. He issues promises. He offers forgiveness. Yet (to cite an aphorism from the Book of Proverbs) “As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.”

“Revival!” preachers yell. “Revival!” Christians call down from Heaven. “Revival!” believers pray for.

But in their yelling, calling down, and praying, very few Christians cite the whole passage from II Chronicles, Chapter 7, verses 12-15, when the Lord appeared to Solomon after a Temple had been built to honor God:

I have heard your prayer, and have chosen this place for Myself as a house of sacrifice. If I shut up Heaven that there be no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among My people; if My people, who are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land. Now Mine eyes shall be open, and Mine ears attentive unto the prayer that is made in this place.

There’s the God of the If-Then. In language, “if” should always, and logically, be followed by “then.” That is the function of the “if.” And the prerequisite of the “then.” Cause and effect.

God can, but never has, brought revival to a person, a people, or a land – a country – without the prerequisite of repentance. Nor should He, in my view. The plea would be lazy; and the holy answer would be cheap.

America, in so many ways, places, and times, was dedicated to Christ. It has been the land of “Great Awakenings,” evangelistic outreach, learned theology, but has turned into a culture of death, apostasy, secularism, hedonism, and materialism. There was wisdom in a bumper strip I recently saw: “If God does not destroy America, maybe Sodom and Gomorrah deserve an apology.”

Why would God “send” revival if His people do not bother to desire it more earnestly? Why do we merely preach it to each other? How arrogant to think that, amid our manifold sins, we can order God to fix things?

Christians, all moral patriots, need to work for revival ourselves!

Just as we surely deserve God’s holy judgment, so does God deserve our heartfelt repentance. To “humble ourselves and turn from our wicked ways.”

THEN will He will hear the reports ringing through Heaven… and heal our land. But not, I’m afraid, before.

A Friend came around, Tried to clean up this town; His ideas made some people mad. He trusted His crowd, So He spoke right out loud; And they lost the best Friend they had.

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This popular song from the late 1960s has strong spiritual implications. It was written by the influential Gram Parsons, whose work inspired a generation of singers and groups. It is performed here in the room where he died at age 26, Room 8 of the very humble Joshua Tree Inn motel. I have been there, now a very accessible, informal shrine to Gram Parsons.

Click: Sin City

8-22-22

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

My high-school English teacher, Mr Edward-Peter FitzSimmons, occasionally reminded us of people’s curious reliance on (ultimately futile) ancient wisdom, time-honored sayings, and fortune-cookie guidance.

He pointed out that virtually every wise word of advice had an equally wise (-sounding) opposite. Sort of like a rhetorical version of Newton’s Third Law of Physics.

“He who hesitates is lost” contradicts “Look before you leap.”

“Strike while the iron is hot” is challenged by “Better late than never.”

“If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” is confronted by “To thine own self be true.”

When all is said and done, a stitch in time saves nine. Um, I know that has an origin, but it is lost on me, just as many proverbs – and, today, internet memes – are lost on me. I think the most reliable proverbs are the ancient Proverbs written by King Solomon. The passage above was from his book of Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3: 1-8.

Those paired sentiments, the apposites of each line, separated by semi-colons, are not contradictory, as in Mr FitzSimmons’ examples. They remind us of the “both sides of life”; the unity of all the circumstances that God has charted for our journeys; the “turn, turn, turn” of the folk-song lyrics that were inspired by this passage.

We savor – or we should – every time of life, because every time has its unique blessings; youth, middle age, old age. When my three children were growing up and I was asked by someone how old he-or-she was, my stock answer was to cite the age and then say it was my favorite year for children. I’ll admit I was trying to sound a little Solomonic, if not solemnic; but I believed it, and do believe it.

At the recent funeral of a good friend who died in his 80s, there were many church friends and neighbors, and many of his family members who had moved to Texas through the years. Two who could not attend were on their honeymoon; recently married! The only factor making the scene more life-lesson symbolic would have been the birth of a grandchild on the day of the funeral.

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.

Much of the small-talk I overheard in the Fellowship lunch afterward centered on children, being the end of Summer – going back to school, leaving for college, even going into the military. These happy, exciting, or melancholy events also are locations on that wheel of life. “Seasons.”

I have written these weekly messages now for about a dozen years, and I seldom repeat messages or music videos, but this is one song I love to share every few years at this time. (As you go through life, you realize that a few things tend to repeat themselves: history; bad sauerkraut; and old bloggers).

I hope you will take a moment to watch the little video. It is a secular song about a mom “sending” her daughter off to college. I first heard it before my first daughter left for college almost 25 years ago; and it made me weep. Now… she graduated… my other children two subsequently went off to college… all have careers… and ol’ Pop has four grandchildren. I still weep because every Good-bye is never fully nullified by the occasional Hello.

Parents, of course, can never “regret” any empty-nest situation. It is a part of being a parent. “Seasons” – as the days drag on, the years speed by. Bittersweet, we say, sometimes forgetting the “sweet” part of such moments. If our tears seem bitter, we are reminded in Scripture that God provides a “balm in Gilead” — healing reminders of his sovereignty, His will for our lives, His love.

And His Seasons.

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Video Click: It’s Never Easy Letting Go

1-10-22

Everything Has Its Time.

To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven:

A time to be born, And a time to die; A time to plant, And a time to harvest what is planted;

A time to kill, And a time to heal; A time to break down, And a time to build up;

A time to weep, And a time to laugh; A time to mourn, And a time to dance;

A time to cast away stones, And a time to gather stones; A time to embrace, And a time to refrain from embracing;

A time to gain, And a time to lose; A time to keep, And a time to throw away;

A time to tear, And a time to sew; A time to keep silence, And a time to speak;

A time to love, And a time to hate; A time of war, And a time of peace.

These words from the third chapter of Ecclesiastes, a book of wonderful wisdom, are familiar to us. They describe life as it confronts us, but also are meant to instruct us as we confront life going forward. I believe it is not presumptuous to be guided by the dualities – attributed to King Solomon, describing God’s sovereignty and timing – and make inferences, or indeed additions and applications, for times such as we live in now.

Of course all the circumstances we face in life are implicit in those eight verses, yet we can ask the Holy Spirit to guide us, so we may discern dualities in the unique challenges facing believers today.

It is appropriate that we apply these modes at the turn of a New Year.

We face manifold crises, and for all their variety of evident origins and apparent differences, our crises are all spiritual at their sources. Spiritual problems never can be overcome, nor successfully even faced, except by spiritual means. Anything else is futile.

We will not list the crises in the church, the West, the nation, the culture, our homes, families, and selves – partly (and sadly) because they seem too many to list at this moment of our existence – but we all sense them. Whether on grand, civilization-wide, historical contexts; or in the deep recesses of our emotions, souls, and consciences. At most times in history, there have been present and impending crises, but I believe we now are at an unprecedented inflection-point.

In the manner of Solomon’s dualities, Christian patriots must, as never before in our lifetimes, be committed to peace… but be prepared to do battle.

There is a time to defend, and a time to attack.

A time to listen, and a time to require that others listen to us.

A time to practice tolerance, and a time to stop tolerating certain things.

A time to be “accepting,” and a time to be a righteous irritant.

A time to compromise, and a time to assert truth at all costs.

A time to hold opponents to the Truth… and hold our selves and our allies to it also.

Things are going to get worse in this world before they ever might get better. I have read ahead to the last chapters, and there is a happy ending to all this. But… there is tribulation ahead, first. Likely more persecution and grief.

Yet before joy triumphs we are not merely urged to resist, but we are commanded to fight. We must fight for our families and our future, for our souls and the faithful – for God.

Happy new year? Oh, yes. This is a glorious burden. Take heart. We are on the winning side, after all. And we should start acting like it! Realize something, that God must trust us exceedingly that we were born in a time such as this. Review all the strong and brave defenders of the past, Christians and patriots both, and how our challenges – our responsibilities – are more awesome than theirs.

Take heart, take hope.

At the moment, even with uncountable Bible promises overflowing my heart, and whispered inspirations from the Holy Spirit in my mind, I can be encouraged even by words of a secular song that rings in my ears –

Beyond the blue horizon is a beautiful day!

Goodbye to things that bore me; Joy is waiting for me!

I see a new horizon, my life has only begun! Beyond the blue horizon lies a rising sun!

I think King Solomon would approve! Do you?

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Click: Beyond the Blue Horizon

10-28-13

Deeds of faith are mightier – more consequential, more lasting, more essential to our living – than physical deeds are. To paraphrase Theodore Roosevelt, our souls and spirits must always squarely be in the Arena of Life, where a person’s “face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

And so with faith as well as deeds. I cannot imagine never being curious about new ideas, discovering new things, reading new (and old) books, attempting new projects, and (not to sound sappy) dreaming new dreams. I have said, and I hope we would all have this attitude, that I want my retirement party and my funeral to be on the same day. Life is more than about accumulating baubles.

But these sentiments are a cruel joke, worse than empty clichés, if not accompanied by the spiritual component. We can be “secure in our faith,” but that never means we should stop learning the Ways of God, or seeking after the Things of God, or obeying the Will of God. Just as other things in life attract us… except that the essentials of faith are more important. We can be, yes, secure in our faith, but it will be tested; in fact, over and over again. The tests are not what matters. What matters is our response to the tests.

To those people who continually seek the Truth, which I hope means all of us, there are many pitfalls and detours on the way to the destination. Read the classic book, second only to the Bible in terms of copies printed, but regrettably neglected today, “The Pilgrim’s Progress.” And to continue the metaphor of a pathway to Truth, there is an enormous gap between Belief and the next station, Faith.

It would seem a small step, but it is not. My wife used to say that all the possible “head knowledge” was nothing compared to even a portion of “heart knowledge”; that is, faith. Even Solomon, in all his wisdom, writing three books of the Bible, building the Temple, lord of a wealthy, united Israelite kingdom, ultimately displayed belief but not as much faith. He wrote well, but acted little as a man of faith… and then he failed. He became apostate, married hundreds of wives and was seduced by their diverse pagan religions, and earned the enmity of God. He died broken in spirit, and his kingdom was split irrevocably, broken into contending provinces.

“Faith without works is dead,” but works without faith is like “building a house on shifting sand.” God forbid that any of us are like Solomon, writing and speaking and appearing to be wiser than we really are.

Faith is something we can have, and we must regard it is a living thing, not a relic or prize: it must be nurtured and fed. But it is also something we can DO – in philological terms, a verb as well as a noun – in that we must exercise it. Share it. Live it. And not an abstract faith that the world has kidnapped as a term – a synonym for optimism or self-assurance or goodwill. “Have faith,” “keep the faith,” can be empty terms, baby-steps, or maybe backward-steps. Romans 10:17 says that real faith “comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” This journey of ours is sometimes hard. Where could we be without the gift of Faith?

There is an even more precise definition of that Faith which we seek across the chasm. The Bible tells us, and wants us to learn through contemplation and experience: “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1).

This is not a riddle for intellectuals. It is not a postulate for scientific measurements. It can be difficult to understand. But it is easy to accept. It is the wisdom of God.

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We can find biblical wisdom mirrored in secular works of art. The tragic tale of Dido and Aeneas, from Virgil’s epic poem, was written for the operatic stage; libretto by Nahum Tate, author of many hymns, music by Henry Purcell (1659-1695), the greatest of all English composers. Its excruciatingly sad ending is “Dido’s Lament,” sung as the Queen of Carthage commits suicide because she thinks her lover, the Trojan hero, has abandoned her:

“Thy hand, Belinda. Darkness shades me, On thy bosom let me rest,
More I would, but Death invades me; Death is now a welcome guest.

“When I am laid, am laid in earth, May my wrongs create No trouble, no trouble in thy breast. Remember me, remember me, but ah! forget my fate. Remember me, but ah! forget my fate.”

As with the unrelated story of Romeo and Juliet, the death was useless – tragic – because of misunderstanding. In fact Aeneas was rushing to her side even as she sang her dying words of love. But the lesson of great art, indeed the lesson of life, is not how we scheme to avoid the hard choices facing us, but how we exercise faith, and faithfulness, even to what the world calls “tragic” ends, as overcomers who will never dwell with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.

Please do not cheat yourself: Watch this brief vid, sung by the incomparable Norwegian soprano Sissel Kyrkjebo; graphics by animation student Ryan Woodwart. Goodnight, Nance.

Click: Dido’s Lament