For All the Saints

All Saints Day is November 1st.  It is a day to remember those who have departed the world before us and are in Christ's presence forever.  

My favorite departed saint to remember is my maternal grandmother, whose photos you will find scattered throughout.  In Lutheran thinking (following how the Bible uses the term), all Christians are "saints" because Christ has made us holy by saving us. We don't live it out perfectly (sadly, we often don't live it out well at all), but Christ is the Perfect One, the Holy One who makes us that way in God's eyes. 

For all the saints 

Who from their labors rest,
Who Thee by faith 

Before the world confessed;
Thy name, O Jesus, 

Be forever blest.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

Thou wast their Rock, 

Their Fortress and their Might;
Thou, Lord, their Captain 

In the well-fought fight;
Thou, in the darkness drear, 

Their one true Light.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

O blest communion, 

Fellowship divine!
We feebly struggle, 

They in glory shine;
Yet all are one in Thee, 

For all are Thine.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

But then there breaks 

A still more glorious day:
The saints triumphant 

Rise in bright array;
The King of Glory 

Passes on His way.
Alleluia, Alleluia!

From earth's wide bounds, 

From ocean's farthest coast,
Through gates of pearl 

Streams in the countless host,
in praise of Father, 

Son, and Holy Ghost.
Alleluia, Alleluia!  --William Walsham How, 1864

W.W. How was born in 1823 in England and died in 1897 in Ireland.  He was an Anglican priest who rose to be a bishop.  

Winter in All Our Lives

[winter 2022-23 has been very wet and snowy or rainy throughout much of the US]

There is a winter in all of our lives,

a chill and darkness that makes us yearn
for days that have gone
or put our hope in days yet to be.
Father God, you created seasons for a purpose.

Spring is full of expectation
buds breaking
frosts abating and an awakening
of creation before the first days of summer.
Now the sun gives warmth
and comfort to our lives
reviving aching joints
bringing colour, new life
and crops to fruiting.

Autumn gives nature space
to lean back, relax and enjoy the fruits of its labour
mellow colours in sky and landscape
as the earth prepares to rest.
Then winter, cold and bare as nature takes stock
rests, unwinds, sleeps until the time is right.

An endless cycle
and yet a perfect model.
We need a winter in our lives
a time of rest, a time to stand still
a time to reacquaint ourselves
with the faith in which we live.
It is only then that we can draw strength
from the one in whom we are rooted
take time to grow and rise through the darkness
into the warm glow of your springtime
to blossom and flourish
bring colour and vitality into this world
your garden.
Thank you Father
for the seasons of our lives.

- Author Unknown

Looking Backwards & Forwards at Hopkins

 

For this new year, I'm reviewing for you all the Gerard Manley Hopkins entries on this blog.  There are works by Hopkins himself, plus references to his work.  Hopkins was a 19th century English Jesuit poet.  He both modernized and stuck with old forms in his work. Enjoy, and Happy 2021!

"Pied Beauty" [Best known]

"God's Grandeur" [2nd best known]

"Spring & Fall"

"Peace"

"Spring"

"My Own Heart Let Me Have More Pity On"

"Moonrise"

"Patience"

"Easter"

"The Starlight Night"

"Music on the Wing"

Excerpt from "That Nature is a Heraclitean Fire and of the Comfort of the Resurrection."

"Moonless Darkness Stands Between" [Christmas]

"He Hath Abolished the Old Drouth"

"May Magnificat"

Here is Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, reading "God's Grandeur":

Reading of "God's Grandeur"

Here's an original poem of mine, drawing from a line in God's Grandeur":

"Nature is Never Spent"

This is by a poetess who really admired Hopkins:

"A Song of Spring"

Here's a portrait of Hopkins, done in "icon" style:

Hopkins as Icon

Chokecherries, White Mountains of Arizona
October 2021

Ending 2021

As another year was drawing to a close, we spent some time in Northern Arizona.  It snowed almost the entire time.  If you look close in some of the photos, you will see the mountains.  You can see the snowflakes as they fall, too.

The gazebo at night

Before the Paling of the Stars

 

Before the paling of the stars,
Before the winter morn,
Before the earliest cock crow,
Jesus Christ was born:
Born in a stable,
Cradled in a manger,
In the world his hands had made
Born a stranger.

Priest and king lay fast asleep
In Jerusalem;
Young and old lay fast asleep
In crowded Bethlehem;
Saint and angel, ox and ass,
Kept a watch together
Before the Christmas daybreak
In the winter weather.

Jesus on his mother’s breast
In the stable cold,
Spotless lamb of God was He,
Shepherd of the fold:
Let us kneel with Mary maid,
With Joseph laudatory*,
With saint and angel, ox and ass,
To hail the King of Glory.
--Christina Rosetti, 1912

*In the original poem, "bent and hoary", with the idea that Joseph was older, and this was his second marriage, coming out of the extra-Biblical idea that Mary was always a Virgin and never had biological children. Christians who hold this view, namely Roman Catholics and some Anglicans, interpret New Testament references of Jesus' brothers and sisters as being half-sisters from a possible 1st marriage of Joseph.  There is no actual Biblical data to support this.  Rosetti was a "High Church Anglican"

O God, Our Help in Ages Past*

 

1. O God, our help in ages past,
   Our hope for years to come,
   Our shelter from the stormy blast,
   And our eternal home.
2. Under the shadow of Thy throne
   Thy saints have dwelt secure;
   Sufficient is Thine arm alone,
   And our defense is sure.
3. Before the hills in order stood,
   Or earth received her frame,
   From everlasting Thou art God,
   To endless years the same.
4. Thy Word commands our flesh to dust,
   “Return, ye sons of men”:
   All nations rose from earth at first,
   And turn to earth again.
5. A thousand ages in Thy sight
   Are like an evening gone;
   Short as the watch that ends the night
   Before the rising sun.
6. The busy tribes of flesh and blood,
   With all their lives and cares,
   Are carried downwards by the flood,
   And lost in foll’wing years.
7. Time, like an ever-rolling stream,
   Bears all its sons away;
   They fly, forgotten, as a dream
   Dies at the op’ning day.
8. Like flow’ry fields the nations stand
   Pleased with the morning light;
   The flow’rs beneath the mower’s hand
   Lie with’ring ere ’tis night.
9. O God, our help in ages past,
   Our hope for years to come,
   Be Thou our guard while troubles last,
   And our eternal home.  --Isaac Watts, 1708 (pub. 1719)

*A hymnodic version of Psalm 90.  (This Psalm and hymn are often used in liturgical churches on New Years' Eve, due to the discussion of "time.")

The Bright Morning Star

 This month, I'm making a departure to post something by David C. Brown, a "blog acquaintance" from the U.K.  He first posted it in July, 2016.  The link to his blog is below.

Thou art the Star of the morning;
Thou art the Bright Morning Star;*
Saints, in the midst of man's scorning
Welcome Thy light from afar:

Star of the morning,
O what a source of delight!
Soon Thou wilt have Thine assembly
Shining with heavenly light.

Thou art the Star of the morning;
Thou art the Bright Morning Star;
Shining with heaven's adorning
Into the night where we are.
 
Star of the morning,
O what a source of delight!
Soon Thou wilt have Thine assembly
Shining with heavenly light. --David C. Brown, 2016

Sing it to  the hymn "Showers of Blessing"

*Christ as the Morning Star from the Book of Revelation.  (For more on this matter, see my posting, "Little Star, Might Star" from last month.)

The Bright Morning Star-- Grace Notes Blog

Easter Week

 

See the land, her Easter keeping,
Rises as her Maker rose.
Seeds, so long in darkness sleeping,
Burst at last from winter snows.
Earth with heaven above rejoices;
Fields and gardens hail the spring;
Shaughs* and woodlands ring with voices,
While the wild birds build and sing.

You, to whom your Maker granted
Powers to those sweet birds unknown,
Use the craft by God implanted;
Use the reason not your own.
Here, while heaven and earth rejoices,
Each his Easter tribute bring-
Work of fingers, chant of voices,
Like the birds who build and sing.

--Charles Kingsley (1819-1875)

*archaic term for small woods, thicket

Ego Eimi

 

ἐγώ εἰμι

Jesus says: 

"I AM the world's Light             (John 8:12)

Who outshines eternal night."

"I AM the Good Shepherd        (John 10:14)

And the door for the sheep:      (John 10:7, 9)

The sheep hear My word

And within may safely sleep."

"I AM the Bread of Life;          (John 6)

The Way, the Truth and the Life;    (John 14:6)

The Resurrection and the Life."   (John 11:25)

"I AM the True Vine

And you are the branches--        (John 15: 1,5)

Without what is Mine,

You do only what man does."

εἰμι ἐγώ

Paul answers for all of us:

"Christ Jesus came into the world for sinners,

First of whom am I."      (I Timothy 1:15)

ἐγώ εἰμι

Jesus says:

"Before Abraham was, I AM."  (John 8:58)

"I AM" in Hebrew

The "Christmas Star" --Then & Now

     In December 2020, there has been much talk of a “Christmas Star.”  It is actually a close planetary conjunction between Jupiter and Saturn.  The closest pass happened last night, December 21st, the Winter Solstice.  I have added pcitures below.

     In early evenings of June 2015, there was a fairly close conjunction of Venus and Jupiter (the  second and third brightest objects in the night sky, after the moon.)  They didn’t get as close as this conjunction.

    What might that original “Christmas star” have been?  Paul Meier is a Christian pastor and former history professor at Western Michigan University.  [First, an “aside.”  For trivia buffs, Western Michigan is the school that the real Tim Allen and his fictional counterpart, Tim Taylor (on Home Improvement) attended.]  Meier's thoughts are the basis for a lot of what is contained here.  

     The idea of a star twinkles throughout Hebrew history.   Numbers 24:17, written by Moses, was a bit of Hebrew poetry, spoken by a false prophet who was trying to “profit” off of cursing Israel.  (His name was Balaam.)  Instead of a curse, part of what Balaam said was:

   I see Him, but not now:

   I look upon Him, but not near;

   A star shall come out of Jacob [the ancestor of Israel];

   A scepter shall rise out of Israel…”

     As Jews over the centuries hoped for their Messiah, their Anointed One [which is what “Christ” means], many expected a star to accompany Him.  The six-pointed Star of David [King David] has symbolized the People of Israel from Old Testament times to today’s Israeli flag. The five-pointed Star of Solomon, David’s son, and David’s six pointed star, show up in stone at archaeology sites.

     Scientists and Bible scholars have offered explanations for the “Star of Bethlehem.” The “Star” could have been a miracle sign, a miracle star, a supernova, a comet, or a conjunction of planets.  If it was a one or more observable astronomical events, ancient records can supply some insight.  Ancient Chinese astronomy records are the best. But the appearance of something miraculous cannot be tested—or discounted, for that matter.

     Magi was the technical term for the Wise Men, a term with shadings of “magicians.”  They probably came from Persia (modern-day Iran) to Bethlehem. Why would they do this? One possibility is that God used the Magis’ fascination with astrology to draw them to Judea. In ancient astrology, the giant planet Jupiter was considered the “King’s Planet,” for it represented to the Romans the highest god and ruler of the universe: Marduk to the Babylonians and Zeus to the Greeks.  In Hebrew Jupiter is called "Sedeq", meaning "righteousness", a term also used for the Messiah. 

     The ringed planet Saturn was seen as the shield or defender of Palestine, while the constellation of Pisces, which was also associated with Syria and Palestine, represented epochal events and crises. So Jupiter encountering Saturn in the sign of the Fishes would have meant that a divine and cosmic ruler was to appear in Palestine at a culmination of history.

     Jupiter and Saturn traveled very close to each other in the night sky, and in May, September, and December of that year, they appeared almost joined.  Mars joined the configuration in February of 6 B.C.  In 6 BC, there were eclipses of Jupiter by the Moon in Aries. Jupiter’s status as a kingly star was amplified when Jupiter was in close conjunctions with the Moon. The second occluding on April 17 coincided precisely when Jupiter was 'in the east', a condition mentioned twice in the biblical account about the Star of Bethlehem.

     Jesus was born sometime between 6 and 4 B.C., with B.C. numbers running opposite our AD numbers. This confusion arose because the man who developed this timeline miscalculated on the date of the founding of Rome.  We know that Jesus had to have been born this soon because King Herod the Great died in March or April of 4 B.C.  He could have been born as much as two years before, though, because rotten Herod, according to the Bible, ordered all the baby boys in Bethlehem under the age of two to be killed.  Herod had found out about the matter of another King being born and wanted Him killed.

     In 1871, the English astronomer John Williams published a list of comets taken from Chinese records. Comet No. 52 on the Williams list appeared for some seventy days in March-April of 5 B.C. near the constellation Capricorn and would have been visible in both the Far and Near East. As each night wore on, the comet would seem to have moved westward across the southern sky.  [Did you track the movements of the comet from spring 2020?  Did any of you see the much brighter Hale-Bopp Comet in the late 1990s?]

     The time is also very appropriate. This could indeed have been the Wise Men‘s marker. Comet No. 53 on the Williams list is a tailless comet, which could have been a nova, an exploding star. No. 53 appeared in March-April of 4 B.C. — a year after the comet with the tail.  It was visible all over the Far and Middle East.  

     Dr. Meier thinks it happened this way:  The conjunctions from 7-6 B.C. altered the Wisemen to look for important developments in Palestine.  Maybe some Jews living near the alerted them to Old Testament interpretations.  The comet of 5 B.C. really emphasized this idea and set them on their way.  The supernova of 4 BC appeared after they had stopped in Jerusalem and spoken to suspicious King Herod.  Dr. Meier believes that Jesus might have been born in the winter of 5-4 B.C.  He has been to the Holy Land many times and has asserted that shepherds do, indeed, stay out "watching their flocks by night", even in Judean winters.

     On the other hand, maybe the planetary conjunctions came closer to Jesus' actual birth in 6 B.C., and the Wise Men simply got there later.  The story in Matthew speaks of the Holy Family being in a house and refers to Jesus as a Child, not a Baby.  Maybe the family had planned to stay on in Bethlehem, to get away from Nazarene gossip about the parents getting married and Mary being pregnant before a full year of betrothal.

     On December 21, 2020,  Jupiter and Saturn appeared closer in Earth’s night sky than they have since 1226 A.D.  They were not fully joined, though.  Jupiter and Saturn sat just 0.1 degrees apart, or a mere one-fifth the width of the Moon, as the Moon appears to us.  They did look quite close, though, to the naked eye.

     December 21^st was also the Winter Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere.  This was the first day of winter and the longest night of the year.  The Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun at this time.  This has nothing to do with how close or far we are from the Sun.  In fact, we’re slightly closer to the Sun in January than at any other time of the year!  

Telescope image

My image

 

More Sledding... More on Seasons

December 2019 just south of Pine, AZ  (north of Payson)

Yes, Arizona!!!

 

After the flood, God told Noah:

"Through all the days of the earth,
Seedtime and Harvest,
Cold and Heat,
Summer and Winter.
Day and Night
Will not take rest 
[cease, pause, have a 'Sabbath'.] "
  
  ---Genesis 8:22; original translation

This is but one of our seasons as we move through time.

Past Sledding Post 

Now Winter Nights Enlarge

[for winter, nature & Valentine's Day]

Now winter nights enlarge

The number of their hours;

And clouds their storms discharge

Upon the airy towers.

Let now the chimneys blaze

And cups o’erflow with wine,

Let well-turned words amaze

With harmony divine.

Now yellow waxen lights

Shall wait on honey love

While youthful revels, masques, and courtly sights

Sleep’s leaden spells remove.

This time doth well dispense

With lovers’ long discourse;

Much speech hath some defense,

Though beauty no remorse.

All do not all things well;

Some measures comely tread,

Some knotted riddles tell,

Some poems smoothly read.

The summer hath his joys,

And winter his delights;

Though love and all his pleasures are but toys,

They shorten tedious nights.

--By Thomas Campion; ~1601

b.12 February 1567, d. 1 March 1620 

God of Our Fathers, Whose Almighty Hand

(for Independence and other days)

1. God of our Fathers, Whose Almighty Hand

Leads forth in beauty all the starry band.

Of Shining worlds in splendor through the skies

Our grateful songs, before thy throne arise.

2. Thy Love divine hath led us in the past.

In this free land by thee our lot is cast.

Be Thou our ruler, guardian, guide, and stay.

Thy Word Our Law^, thy Paths our chosen ways*.

3. From wars alarms, from deadly pestilence,

Be thy Strong arm our ever sure defense*;

Thy true religion in our hearts increase,

Thy Bounteous goodness, nourish us in peace.

4. Refresh thy people on their toilsome way;

Lead us from night, to never ending day;

Fill all our lives, with love and grace^ divine*,

And glory, laud, and praise be ever Thine.

  ----Fr. Daniel C. Roberts, 1876; a priest in the Episcopal church, honoring our nation's centennial.

*I don't believe in trying to create "a Christian nation" here in America. We weren't told to create a theocracy in the New Testament.  But I am grateful that we live in a country where we can freely practice and share our faith.  I am hopeful and prayerful that neither the foolishness nor extremism on either the Right or the Left will ruin that for us here.

^While a nice enough hymn in its way, this hymn speaks nothing about grace & love actually coming from the suffering and death of Christ for our sins.