Today's Readings and Stuff -- Thursday, 16 November 2017

Now in the 2nd half of November.  Thanksgiving Day is one week from today.

Wife is running a fever again/still.  Took some generic Tylenol, perhaps that will help with the fever but of course will do nothing for the underlying issue, whatever it is.  After about 2 hours, she had one of those generic "Alka Seltzer cold" things, which should help with some of her other chronic issues.  Needs to help, since mid-afternoon, she's scheduled to go across the back yard so as to "watch" the great-niece and great-nephew in the hour or two between when Niece leaves for her 4 p.m. start and nephew-in-law makes it home, which is likely to be an hour or two later.  Not a real demanding schedule for Wife, but she doesn't want to infect the Little Ones with anything that is "catching".

Spent most of the morning reading those previously-mentioned books on the history of hymns.  The output of some of the authors is truly amazing.  Charles Wesley, for example, the brother of James who created the Methodist movement, is credited with some 6,500 hymns!  Another had a "mere" 3,000!  Several others are credited with several hundred.  There is at least one that is brought to us from the 8th Century!  I was reading one that is said to have originally been an Irish song, dating from around the 1100's, with an Irish folk tune melody, later translated from the Gaelic into English, then, later, converted into verses in English.  Another whose melody comes from Maori.  Many others  originally composed in languages like German (High German, for the  purists) as well as some with words in Low German (Plattdütsch, like my own Amish and Mennonite roots), and others including French, Scottish (the Celtic), and others.
It's an interesting field.  If  you've ever tried to memorize a poem (a nearly lost and forgotten practice now) you know how difficult it can be.  In contrast, memorizing the score of a song seems to be pretty easy in comparison.  It's apparently how our minds work.  And it's not a new thing.  For example, the Psalms have for a very long time, almost certainly beginning with their origins and continuing to this day, often been sung or at least chanted.  I recall being lectured some 30 years ago in one of those very early on-line web forums, that ANY hymns other than those Psalms was an affront to the Lord as they had not -- by his lights -- been ordained of the Lord.  That was, at the time at least, the official stance of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, and I understand that it is echoed by some others.
The hymns accomplish quite a lot, though we rarely think about it, they've often become part of the sea in which we swim.  My Amish and the most conservative of the Mennonites to this very day, always have in their services with 25-30 minutes of singing from the Ausbund, the ancient Anabaptist hymnal that came from the Anabaptist Swiss Bretheren.  The second song sung, always, is Das Loblied, or “Hymn of Praise”.  Musically, it's not quite what most of us are accustomed to.  Certainly doesn't match the technical aspects of the Hillsong people, the giant choirs of the Mormon Tabernacle or the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir, or some others.  But it is honest and from the heart, and the technical aspects are of no concern.  Hard to argue that either.
Translated, it goes:

1. O Lord Father, we bless thy name,

Thy love and thy goodness praise;

That thou, O Lord, so graciously

Have been to us always.

Thou hast brought us together, O Lord,

To be admonished through thy word.

Bestow on us thy grace.

2. O may thy servant be endowed

With wisdom from on high,

To preach thy word with truth and power,

Thy name to glorify.

Which needful is to they own praise,

Give hunger for thy word always,

This should be our desire.

 3. Put wisdom in our hearts while here

On earth thy will be known,

They word through grace to understand

What thou would have us to do.

To live in righteousness, O Lord,

Submissive to thy word,

That all our vows prove true.

4. Thine only be the glory, O Lord,

Likeness all might and power.

That we praise thee in our assembly

And feel grateful every hour.

With all our hearts we pray,

Wilt thou be with us every day

Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

 Hard to argue that.
Bear in mind that the core songs of the Ausbund were formulated by 53 Anabaptist prisoners held in the dungeon at the castle at Passau (Bavaria) over the years 1535-1540.  Think you could compose that, and mean it, while held in a prison, possibly within sight of the Danube River, an area that currently is on the border of Germany and Austria?  Talk about looking past your circumstances to the Lord who is beyond it all!  And that legacy is with us to this day, nearly 500 years later!  Incidentally, several of those imprisoned did not survive the experience.

So many of our hymns, those most of us are familiar, came out of terrible experiences.  Lives were affected and changed, yet, somehow, the Lord was at work in the worst of them.

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 The Old Testament reading today continues in the book of Ezekiel, with chapters 13, 14, and 15
I've chosen to show the text in the ESV since some of the terms in the KJV are a bit obscure to us.

Ezekiel 13

1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel, who are prophesying, and say to those who prophesy from their own hearts: ‘Hear the word of the Lord!’ 3 “Thus says the Lord God, Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing! 4 “Your prophets have been like jackals among ruins, O Israel. 5 “You have not gone up into the breaches, or built up a wall for the house of Israel, that it might stand in battle in the day of the Lord. 6 “They have seen false visions and lying divinations. They say, ‘Declares the Lord,’ when the Lord has not sent them, and yet they expect him to fulfill their word. 7 “Have you not seen a false vision and uttered a lying divination, whenever you have said, ‘Declares the Lord,’ although I have not spoken?” 8 Therefore thus says the Lord God: “Because you have uttered falsehood and seen lying visions, therefore behold, I am against you, declares the Lord God. 9 “My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and who give lying divinations. They shall not be in the council of my people, nor be enrolled in the register of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter the land of Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord God. 10 “Precisely because they have misled my people, saying, ‘Peace,’ when there is no peace, and because, when the people build a wall, these prophets smear it with whitewash, 11 “say to those who smear it with whitewash that it shall fall! There will be a deluge of rain, and you, O great hailstones, will fall, and a stormy wind break out. 12 “And when the wall falls, will it not be said to you, ‘Where is the coating with which you smeared it?’ 13 “Therefore thus says the Lord God: I will make a stormy wind break out in my wrath, and there shall be a deluge of rain in my anger, and great hailstones in wrath to make a full end. 14 “And I will break down the wall that you have smeared with whitewash, and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation will be laid bare. When it falls, you shall perish in the midst of it, and you shall know that I am the Lord. 15 “Thus will I spend my wrath upon the wall and upon those who have smeared it with whitewash, and I will say to you, The wall is no more, nor those who smeared it, 16 “the prophets of Israel who prophesied concerning Jerusalem and saw visions of peace for her, when there was no peace, declares the Lord God. 17 “And you, son of man, set your face against the daughters of your people, who prophesy out of their own hearts. Prophesy against them 18 “and say, Thus says the Lord God: Woe to the women who sew magic bands upon all wrists, and make veils for the heads of persons of every stature, in the hunt for souls! Will you hunt down souls belonging to my people and keep your own souls alive? 19 “You have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, putting to death souls who should not die and keeping alive souls who should not live, by your lying to my people, who listen to lies. 20 “Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against your magic bands with which you hunt the souls like birds, and I will tear them from your arms, and I will let the souls whom you hunt go free, the souls like birds. 21 “Your veils also I will tear off and deliver my people out of your hand, and they shall be no more in your hand as prey, and you shall know that I am the Lord. 22 “Because you have disheartened the righteous falsely, although I have not grieved him, and you have encouraged the wicked, that he should not turn from his evil way to save his life, 23 “therefore you shall no more see false visions nor practice divination. I will deliver my people out of your hand. And you shall know that I am the Lord.”

Ezekiel 14

1 Then certain of the elders of Israel came to me and sat before me. 2 And the word of the Lord came to me: 3 “Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts, and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces. Should I indeed let myself be consulted by them? 4 “Therefore speak to them and say to them, Thus says the Lord God: Any one of the house of Israel who takes his idols into his heart and sets the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and yet comes to the prophet, I the Lord will answer him as he comes with the multitude of his idols, 5 “that I may lay hold of the hearts of the house of Israel, who are all estranged from me through their idols. 6 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: Repent and turn away from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations. 7 “For any one of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel, who separates himself from me, taking his idols into his heart and putting the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and yet comes to a prophet to consult me through him, I the Lord will answer him myself. 8 “And I will set my face against that man; I will make him a sign and a byword and cut him off from the midst of my people, and you shall know that I am the Lord. 9 “And if the prophet is deceived and speaks a word, I, the Lord, have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand against him and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel. 10 “And they shall bear their punishment–the punishment of the prophet and the punishment of the inquirer shall be alike– 11 “that the house of Israel may no more go astray from me, nor defile themselves anymore with all their transgressions, but that they may be my people and I may be their God, declares the Lord God.” 12 And the word of the Lord came to me: 13 “Son of man, when a land sins against me by acting faithlessly, and I stretch out my hand against it and break its supply of bread and send famine upon it, and cut off from it man and beast, 14 “even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness, declares the Lord God. 15 “If I cause wild beasts to pass through the land, and they ravage it, and it be made desolate, so that no one may pass through because of the beasts, 16 “even if these three men were in it, as I live, declares the Lord God, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters. They alone would be delivered, but the land would be desolate. 17 “Or if I bring a sword upon that land and say, Let a sword pass through the land, and I cut off from it man and beast, 18 “though these three men were in it, as I live, declares the Lord God, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they alone would be delivered. 19 “Or if I send a pestilence into that land and pour out my wrath upon it with blood, to cut off from it man and beast, 20 “even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, declares the Lord God, they would deliver neither son nor daughter. They would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness. 21 “For thus says the Lord God: How much more when I send upon Jerusalem my four disastrous acts of judgment, sword, famine, wild beasts, and pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast! 22 “But behold, some survivors will be left in it, sons and daughters who will be brought out; behold, when they come out to you, and you see their ways and their deeds, you will be consoled for the disaster that I have brought upon Jerusalem, for all that I have brought upon it. 23 “They will console you, when you see their ways and their deeds, and you shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it, declares the Lord God.”

Ezekiel 15

1 And the word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, how does the wood of the vine surpass any wood, the vine branch that is among the trees of the forest? 3 “Is wood taken from it to make anything? Do people take a peg from it to hang any vessel on it? 4 “Behold, it is given to the fire for fuel. When the fire has consumed both ends of it, and the middle of it is charred, is it useful for anything? 5 “Behold, when it was whole, it was used for nothing. How much less, when the fire has consumed it and it is charred, can it ever be used for anything! 6 “Therefore thus says the Lord God: Like the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so have I given up the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 7 “And I will set my face against them. Though they escape from the fire, the fire shall yet consume them, and you will know that I am the Lord, when I set my face against them. 8 “And I will make the land desolate, because they have acted faithlessly, declares the Lord God.”

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The New Testament reading today is verses 20-40 of the 11th chapter in the epistle to the Hebrews.  More on faith, drawing from the sages that would have been well known to the  hearers.


Hebrews 11:20-40

20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.  
21 By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff.  
22 By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones.  
23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king's commandment.  
24 By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter;  
25 Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;  
26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.  
27 By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.  
28 Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them.
29 By faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned.  
30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days.  
31 By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace.  
32 And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets:  
33 Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions.
34 Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.  
35 Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:
36 And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: 37 They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;  
38 (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.  
39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:  
40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.