This Classical Life

“It is finished!” Sinners hear it;
Tis the dying Victor’s cry;
“It is finished!” Angels bear it,
Bear the joyful truth on high:
“It is finished!” Tell it through the earth and sky!

Justice, from her awful station,
Bars the sinner’s peace no more;
Justice views with approbation
What the Savior did and bore;
Grace and mercy now display their boundless store.

“It is finished!” All is over;
Yes, the cup of wrath is drained;
Such the truth these words discover;
Thus the victory was obtained;
‘Tis a victory none but Jesus could have gained.

Crown the mighty Conqueror, crown him,
Who his people’s foes o’ercame!
In the highest heaven enthrone him!
Men and angels sound his fame!
Great his glory! Jesus bears a matchless name.
–Thomas Kelly, 1769-1855

There is a land of pure delight,
where saints immortal reign,
infinite day excludes the night,
and pleasures banish pain.

Could we but climb where Moses stood,
and view the landscape o’er,
not Jordan’s stream, nor death’s cold flood,
should fright us from the shore.

There everlasting spring abides,
and never-withering flowers:
death, like a narrow sea, divides
this heavenly land from ours.

O could we make our doubts remove,
those gloomy thoughts that rise,
and see the Canaan that we love
with unbeclouded eyes!

Isaac Watts, via This Breaks My Heart of Stone

I’ve been reading the Bible every day since the new year started. This is a pretty big deal for me. I started reading through the Bible every year at a young age and was struggling with quiet time righteousness and so at one point in college I thought it would be good to break the cycle and take some time off. It’s been a long time. I still don’t know if I’ll ever get over all my issues, but I figure that it’s a good thing to read the Bible, and I ought to do it, and in doing, I might find the desire for it that I long for.

Our church uses the Godly Play curriculum for children’s church (during the sermon, for ages 3-8ish.) I really enjoy serving as a storyteller. The props and stories are well done, and they emphasize wonder rather than the right answers. And I think wonder is a right feeling to cultivate in our children when they think of God. I hope it serves as a good balance to catechism in our children’s hearts.

I’ve blogged this one before, but I’ve been singing it so much this week. I need to sing it to myself to believe it sometimes.

We travel through a barren land,
With dangers thick on every hand;
But Jesus guides us through the vale;
O, The Christian’s hope can never fail.

Huge sorrows meet us as we go,
And devils aim to overthrow;
But vile infernals can’t prevail;
O, The Christian’s hope shall never fail.

Sometimes we’re tempted to despair,
But Jesus makes us then His care;
Though numerous foes our souls assail;
O, The Christian’s hope can never fail.

We trust upon the sacred word,
The oath and promise of the Lord;
And safely through each tempest sail;
O, The Christian’s hope can never fail.
–from the Gadsby Hymnal

FUNERAL WORTHY HYMNS
All the Way, My Savior Leads Me
Be Still, My Soul
By Grace I Am An Heir of Heaven
For All the Saints (Ralph Vaughn Williams tune - sung at the end, triumphantly.)
Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken
Hark the Voice of Love and Mercy/It is Finished
I Belong to Jesus (someone arrange this one - great for kids and adults)
My Jesus I Love Thee
On Jordan’s Stormy Banks I Stand
The Sands of Time are Sinking
This Joyful Eastertide (if it is the season of Easter, especially)
Ten Thousand Times Ten Thousand

I am always coming up with more hymns that I want sung at my funeral. As if it’s going to be some gigantic sing-along. I guess I can’t imagine anyone eulogizing me, so I imagine lots of songs? Whatever. But as we were singing “Ten Thousand Times Ten Thousand” tonight, I felt like it had to be included also. At least all of my hymns are thematically about death and bodily resurrection, I’m tidy that way.

We had a congregational meeting Sunday, following worship, and it got me thinking about the presbyterian form of church government. Honestly, I am not that married to it, I think it works well enough, but I’d say the say thing about an episcopal system, as long as churches have regional and national accountability, I’m pretty satisfied. Anyhow, congregational meetings at our church are rather interesting. They are hands-down the most participatory and interactive of any church I’ve attended. In some ways, that is very good. But there is this interesting dynamic, pretty unique to our church, that I can’t put my finger on. I think it may be one part congregationalism, another part national politics, and a healthy shake of skepticism but it seems to manifest itself in asking hard (sometimes borderline inappropriate for the context) questions of our leaders.

But in the end, votes still occur and business gets done. And now we can get about the business of being thankful we called a new senior pastor in record time. Many thanks to friends on the Pastoral Search Committee: your hard work did not go unnoticed by us. We’re grateful for you.

Our church renovated space in this old building, which had a few previous lives but was originally one of the city’s first movie theaters. The building also houses a salon and a martini bar. We’ve been worshipping in the space for a month or so, but we took time to dedicate the building today. (more…)

As luck or providence would have it, we’ve been a part of several churches that take hymnody very seriously. Currently we are members of a church that reworks older hymns “RUF-style” (I suppose) and I have learned the text of several of Gadsby’s wonderful hymns this year. Back in Austin, we went to a church that had a magnificent choir and sang more traditional church music, but they introduced many new rich older hymns to me, particularly ones related to the church calendar, that I have stored up like treasures. They also reworked hymns to new tunes, though theirs were still in a traditional vein. This week the girls were begging for “sweet songs” in the car and I was able to pause the ipod (dj-ing during “take back the highways” week is not encouraged) and sing Watts and Aquinas and Noel (to RVW “King’s Weston.”) I was glad to share these old songs with young listening ears and hope that they will love the songs of the church as well.

I am in the midst of writing a handout about stories and storytelling in the Christian tradition for my literature classes. What do you think is necessary to get across to 11 and 12 year olds?

Here are the children’s story Bibles we have and my opinion of them, in the order we acquired them.

The Child’s Story Bible by Catherine Vos is solidly reformed and a classic. However, it’s very texty and the illustrations aren’t my favorite. I think we’ll grow into it, but for now, it just doesn’t get used.

The Read with Me NIrV Story Bible published by Zondervan was a gift for Kate’s second birthday. It has colorful, interesting illustrations of the comic style, and it’s main advantage is that it has over 100 stories and has the most raw content as far as bible stories go. We tend to use the pictures as springboards to our own discussions, which has worked well.

The Big Picture Story Bible by David Helm has elegant illustrations and is well done, overall. It’s very large, which gives it a sense of gravitas, and probably helps if you are reading to many children at once. The content is simple, but theologically sound. My beef with it? It covers only 26 stories and just doesn’t seem like enough.

The winner? The Jesus Storybook Bible by Sally Lloyd-Jones. I love every aspect of this Bible. The illustrations by Jago are both charming and intriguing. There are about fifty stories, a good balance. The text itself is exactly what I want my children to hear, theologically. I love this line from the very first chapter. “The Bible isn’t mainly about you and what you should be doing. It’s about God and what he has done.” AMEN.

The subtitle is “Every Story Whispers His Name” and indeed, every story does. “No, the Bible isn’t a book of rules, or a book of heroes. The Bible is most of all a Story. It’s an adventure story about a young Hero who comes from a far country to win back his lost treasure. It’s a love story… You see, the best thing about this Story is — it’s true. There are lots of stories in the Bible, but all the stories are telling one Big Story. The Story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them.”

She goes on to say that the center of the story is a baby who is like the missing piece to a puzzle that makes all the other pieces fit together, and to reveal the beautiful picture. She stays true to this aim, pointing to Christ with every story, helping children to see the whispers of redemption through it all. If you buy just one Children’s Story Bible, I’d commend this one to you.