Hymn for today

I've posted this twice before, but it keeps coming to my mind today (I'd like to think it's a God-thing):

1 Rejoice the Lord is King,
   Your God and king adore;
   Rejoice give thanks and sing,
   And triumph ever-more.
   Lift up your heart, lift up your voice,
   Rejoice, again I say, rejoice.

2 The Lord our Saviour reigns,
   The God of truth and love;
   When he had purg'd our stains,
   He took his seat above;
   Lift up your heart, lift up your voice,
   Rejoice, again I say, rejoice.

3 His kingdom cannot fail,
   He rules o'er earth and heav'n;
   The keys of death and hell
   Are to our Jesus giv'n.
   Lift up your heart, lift up your voice,
   Rejoice, again I say, rejoice.

4 Rejoice in glorious hope;
   The Lord our judge shall come,
   And take his servants up,
   To their eternal home.
   Lift up your heart, lift up your voice,
   Rejoice, again I say, rejoice.
                         Charles Wesley

Thought for the day

I hear and my insides tremble.
       My lips quiver at the sound.
       Rottenness enters my bones.
I tremble while I stand,
       while I wait for the day of distress
       to come against the people who attack us.
Though the fig tree doesn’t bloom,
       and there’s no produce on the vine;
       though the olive crop withers,
       and the fields don’t provide food;
       though the sheep are cut off from the pen,
       and there are no cattle in the stalls;
I will rejoice in the Lord.
       I will rejoice in the God of my deliverance.
The Lord God is my strength.
       He will set my feet like the deer.
       He will let me walk upon the heights. Hab 3:16–19 (CEB)

The Lord Our God Alone Is Strong

346 The Lord Our God Alone Is Strong

1 The Lord our God alone is strong;
   His hands build not for one brief day;
   His wondrous works, through ages long,
   His wisdom and His power display.

2 His mountains lift their solemn forms,
   To watch in silence 'er the land;
   The rolling oceans, rocked with storms,
   Sleep in the hollow of His hand.

3 Thou sovereign God, receive this gift
   Thy willing servants offer Thee;
   Accept the prayers that thousands lift,
   And let these halls Thy temple be.

4 And let those learn, who here shall meet,
   True wisdom is with reverence crowned,
   And Science walks with humble feet
   To seek the God that Faith hath found.
                         Caleb T. Winchester
                         The Methodist Hymnal, 1964 edition

<idle musing>
I don't recall ever singing this song and it only occurs in about 44 hymnals. This appears to be the only hymn he wrote. The 1917 edition of the Methodist hymnal inserts this verse:

3 Beyond the heavens He sits alone,
   The universe obeys His nod;
   The lightning-rifts disclose His throne,
   And thunders voice the name of God.

</idle musing>

The anthropological turn in theology

Indeed, if one makes the “anthropological turn” and begins to affirm that all God really cares about is our flourishing, then aspects of Christianity begin to look untenable: “If the good that God wills for us doesn’t just include, but consists entirely in human flourishing, what sense does it make to sacrifice some part of this in order to serve God?” Sacrifice becomes untenable, even unthinkable (hence the rejection of traditional theories of the atonement). There is no room left in our plausibility structures to make sense of divine violence — which again undercuts any notion of “atonement” (p. 649). Indeed, the penal substitutionary account of the atonement can only look “monstrous.” Which is why the cross drops out; what becomes important is the life of Christ — what he says or teaches (p. 650). We're on our way to Unitarianism.—James K. A. Smith, How (Not) to Be Secular, 115 (all emphasis by Smith)

<idle musing>
OK, I'm no fan of penal substitutionary atonement, especially as popularly understood, but he has a very good point here. As Simon Gathercole pointed out, there is some kind of substition in the atonement. My issue is w/the penal part. Scot McKnight is correct that there is no single theory of atonement that covers all aspects of atonement, so there is a place for substitionary atonement.
</idle musing>

Failure? (Tozer for Tuesday)

Failure sometimes is an evidence of the hand of God upon you, and we Christians can afford to fail because Jesus afforded to fail. He died out there on the cross, and it looked as if it was a battered tragic stupid end of a man who meant well but did not know how to handle Himself. On the third day, God raised Him from the dead and set Him at His own right hand and made Him to be head over all things to the Church and put all things under His feet, whether they be principalities, powers, or dominions, all are under His feet (see Eph. 1:19-23), and yet He died an apparent failure. Only “apparently,” for He was a roaring success before the world was created, and in this hour, and will be in all the worlds to come.—A.W. Tozer, Reclaiming Christianity, 203–4

Pour Out Thy Spirit from on High

337 Pour Out Thy Spirit from on High

1 Lord, pour Thy Spirit from on high,
   And Thine ordained servants bless;
   Graces and gifts to each supply,
   And clothe Thy priests with righteousness.

2 Within Thy temple when they stand,
   To teach the truth as taught by Thee,
   Saviour, like stars in Thy right hand,
   Let all Thy Church's pastors be.

3 Wisdom, and zeal, and faith impart,
   Firmness and meekness from above,
   To bear Thy people in their heart,
   And love the souls whom Thou dost love;

4 To love, and pray, and never faint,
   By day and night their guard to keep,
   To warn the sinner, form the saint,
   To feed Thy lambs, and fold Thy sheep.

5 So, when their work is finish'd here,
   They may in hope their charge resign;
   So, when their Master shall appear,
   They may with crowns of glory shine.
                         James Montgomery
                         Methodist Hymnal, 1964 edition

<idle musing>
I've mentioned before that you should take a look at his brief biography, but I'll just grab line here: "Montgomery was imprisoned briefly when he printed a song that celebrated the fall of the Bastille and again when he described a riot in Sheffield that reflected unfavorably on a military commander. He also protested against slavery, the lot of boy chimney sweeps, and lotteries."

Would that there were more Christians like him today!
</idle musing>

Lay on the pressure!

In some sense, the challenge is actually intensified for exclusive humanism, precisely because it can only admit the immanent: if the maximal demand is going to be met, it has to be met by us and in “the here and now” (or at least within “secular” time). And if we don’t reach it, we have only ourselves to blame. Christianity, on the other hand, can be ambivalent, or even a tad pessimistic about the maximal demand being realized by us in the here and now because the transformationist perspective is also eschatological. For Christianity, “this is a transformation which cannot be completed in history” (p. 643). This is why “Christians don’t really ‘have the solution’ to the dilemma” either: because “the direction they point to cannot be demonstrated as right; it must be taken on faith”; and because “we can't exhibit fully what it means, lay it out in a code or a fully-specified life-form, but only point to the exemplary lives of certain trail-blazing people and communities” (p. 643, emphasis added). You might say Christian eschatology buys time to meet the maximal demand — time exclusive humanism doesn't (can’t) have.—James K. A. Smith, How (Not) to Be Secular, 112–13 (all emphasis by Smith)

And Are We Yet Alive (Hymn)

336 And Are We Yet Alive

1 And are we yet alive,
   And see each other's face?
   Glory and praise to Jesus give,
   For His redeeming grace.

2 What troubles have we seen,
   What conflicts have we past;
   Fightings without and fears within,
   Since we assembled last.

3 Yet out of all, the Lord
   Hath brought us by his love;
   And still he does his help afford,
   And hides our life above.

4 Then let us make our boast,
   Of his redeeming pow'r;
   Which saves us to the uttermost,
   Till we can sin no more.

5 Let us take up the cross,
   Till we the crown obtain;
   And gladly reckon all things lost,
   So we may Jesus gain.
                         Charles Wesley
                         Methodist Hymnal, 1964 edition

<idle musing>
Hymnary.org inserts a verse:

2 Preserv'd by pow'r divine,
   To feel salvation here;
   Again in Jesus' name we join,
   And in his sight appear.

</idle musing>

O Perfect Love

333 O Perfect Love

1 O perfect Love, all human thought transcending,
   Lowly we kneel in prayer before Thy throne,
   That theirs may be the love which knows no ending,
   Whom Thou for evermore dost join in one.

2 O perfect Life, be Thou their full assurance
   Of tender charity and steadfast faith,
   Of patient hope, and quiet, brave endurance,
   With child-like trust that fears no pain nor death.

3 Grant them the joy which brightens earthly sorrow,
   Grant them the peace which calms all earthly strife,
   And to life's day the glorious, unknown morrow
   That dawns upon eternal love and life.
                         Dorothy D. Fuenwy
                         Methodist Hymnal, 1964 edition

<idle musing>
Now we're heading into unfamiliar territory for me: the wedding hymns. I don't recall ever singing a "wedding" hymn at a wedding.

As a kid, I only remember attending one wedding (although I'm sure I attended more), and the reason I remember that is because it was a Roman Catholic one, pre-Vatican II. It was all in Latin and long. I was only about 8 at the time, so anything over 30 minutes would have seemed long to me : )

By the time I and my friends were getting married, everything was more contemporary stuff, be it Paul Clark's "Climb the Hill Together," or Paul Noel Stookey's "Wedding Song." But no wedding hymns. To be sure, there were still hymns sung, but not wedding ones.

All that to say, I've don't recall ever singing this one : )
</idle musing>

O the Depth of Love Divine

332 O the Depth of Love Divine

1. O the depth of love divine, th’unfathomable grace!
   Who shall say how bread and wine God into us conveys!
   How the bread His flesh imparts, how the wine transmits His blood,
   Fills His faithful people’s hearts with all the life of God!

2. Let the wisest mortals show how we the grace receive;
   Feeble elements bestow a power not theirs to give.
   Who explains the wondrous way, how through these the virtue came?
   These the virtue did convey, yet still remain the same.

3. How can spirits heavenward rise, by earthly matter fed,
   Drink herewith divine supplies and eat immortal bread?
   Ask the Father’s wisdom how: Christ who did the means ordain;
   Angels round our altars bow to search it out, in vain.

4. Sure and real is the grace, the manner be unknown;
   Only meet us in thy ways and perfect us in one.
   Let us taste the heavenly powers, Lord, we ask for nothing more.
   Thine to bless, ’tis only ours to wonder and adore.
                         Charles Wesley
                         Methodist Hymnal, 1964 edition

<idle musing>
Not exactly one of Wesley's better known hymns—it only occurs in six hymnals and they are all Methodist ones as far as I could tell.

It's also obvious that Charles wasn't a Zwinglian! For him, and for John, Christ was present in some special and unique way during communion. As far as I've been able to discover, they never tried to explain it; they were content to allow it to remain a mystery.

That's pretty much where I come down, too. But, I've only ever felt that special presence when sharing communion in groups smaller than fifteen—and not always or even frequently then. A lot of it depends on the group and their openness to the ways of the Spirit. And I don't mean they have to lean Charismatic/Pentecostal! Some of the most meaningful experiences of the presence of God in communion happened in a Plymouth Brethren body—and they were very strong cessationists!
</idle musing>

Beyond humanism

If Enlightenment humanism is itself a mode of “transcending” humanity, then it’s not surprising to see in modernity a reaction to this internal to immanence — that is, reactions that have no interest in affirming transcendence but are nonetheless responding to the pressures of humanism. So, Taylor suggests, this is not simply a binary debate between belief and unbelief; it is a triangular debate between (1) secular humanists, (2) neo-Nietzschean antihumanists, and (3) “those who acknowledge some good beyond life” (p. 636).—James K. A. Smith, How (Not) to Be Secular, 110 (emphasis original)

Jesus Spreads His Banner o'er Us

331 Jesus Spreads His Banner o'er Us

1. Jesus spreads his banner o’er us,
   Cheers our famished souls with food;
   He the banquet spreads before us,
   Of His mystic flesh and blood.
   Precious banquet, bread of heaven,
   Wine of gladness, flowing free;
   May we taste it, kindly given,
   In remembrance, Lord, of Thee.

2. In Thy holy incarnation,
   When the angels sang Thy birth;
   In Thy fasting and temptation,
   In Thy labors on the earth,
   In Thy trial and rejection,
   In Thy sufferings on the tree,
   In Thy glorious resurrection,
   May we, Lord, remember Thee.
                         Rowell Park
                         Methodist Hymnal, 1964 edition

<idle musing>
I'm certainly on a roll for not picking popular hymns. This one occurs in under 100 hymnals. According the Cyberhymnal, the usually omitted first verse is

While the sons of earth retiring,
From the sacred temple roam;
Lord, Thy light and love desiring,
To Thine altar fain we come.
Children of our heavenly Father,
Friends and brethren we would be;
While we round Thy table gather,
May our hearts be one in Thee.

</idle musing>

Just a change of masters (no, not a political post!)

There is a certain irony, however: while the therapeutic was meant to throw off the guilt and burden of spiritual responsibility, and hence the scowl of the clergy and confessor, “now we are forced to go to new experts, therapists, doctors, who exercise the kind of control that is appropriate over blind and compulsive mechanisms” (p. 620). In the name of securing our freedom, we swap submission to the priest for submission to the therapist.—James K. A. Smith, How (Not) to Be Secular, 107

<idle musing>
Always looking for freedom in the wrong places… As The Who sang, "Get down on my knees and pray that I won't get fooled again." But we do.
</idle musing>

How Happy Are Thy Servants, Lord

328 How Happy Are Thy Servants, Lord

1. How happy are Thy servants, Lord,
   Who thus remember Thee!
   What tongue can tell our sweet accord,
   Our perfect harmony?

2. Who Thy mysterious supper share,
   Here at Thy table fed,
   Many, and yet but one we are,
   One undivided bread.

3. One with the living bread divine
   Which now by faith we eat,
   Our hearts and minds and spirits join,
   And all in Jesus meet.

4. So dear the tie where souls agree
   In Jesus’ dying love!
   Then only can it closer be,
   When all are joined above.
                         Charles Wesley
                         Methodist Hymnal, 1964 edition

<idle musing>
I don't think I've ever seen a lower number of occurrences for a Wesley hymn. This one occurs in a mere six hymnals. And there are no variations, either. Just four verses.
</idle musing>