“Who Shall Ascend the Mountain of the Lord” performed by The Redeemer Choir of Austin, Texas
This week’s hymn of ascension is a new one, as hymns go. Edmund P. Clowney (1917-2005) taught practical theology and was the first president of Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. He published this hymn, based on Psalm 24, in 1987.
The tune, about a hundred years older, is by the Irishman Sir Charles Villiers Stanford. You’ll notice it’s different than many hymn tunes in its triumphal openness. Each verse ends on a high note, perhaps to lift our heads up to Christ above us. With that it doesn’t feel neatly wrapped. It feels as if it anticipates more to come.
The words are under copyright, so I will copy only the first verse here.
Who shall ascend the mountain of the Lord, to search the mystery in heaven stored, the knowledge of the Holy One adored? Alleluia!
This week, I had one of those frequently repeated conversations about what we mean when we greet others with “Hello” and “How are you?” An earnest person might think it’s dishonest to ask someone how they are doing without expecting an answer and may feel a burden to share transparently when others ask them. You may have heard someone argue that Christians shouldn’t say they are fine when they aren’t fine; they shouldn’t paint on a smile when they’re going through a hard time.
But honesty doesn’t require complete transparency. That would expose us all to the fixers, who don’t know when to listen and when to advise. Greeting one another with a word or phrase is essentially verbal acknowledgement. We see and maybe recognize each other. We ask each other how’s the day or the doing or life at large as a way of well wishing. If we’re close to each other, we’ll want more than that, but even then, it may not be the time for it.
We can thank Thomas Edison for popularizing the word helloas a good way to answer the phone. Alexander Graham Bell (why do we give his full name so often? why not Alex Bell or Alexander G. Bell?) wanted us to us say ahoy, as if we were called out to someone in the distance. Prior to the phone, hello was a common word of surprise, which I suppose is the reason Bertie Wooster and co. say, “What ho!” regularly. The Online Etymology Dictionary says there are records from 1849 that show hello, the house as “the usual greeting upon approaching a habitation” in the American west.
Yes, yes, I suppose we should get on to other things, shouldn’t we?
Journalism: News outlets aren’t dead, but their owners may be trying to kill them. Ted Gioia has a compelling piece on news sites that wanted our clicks so bad they killed themselves, and now big news outlets appear to want to die the same way. “The company tried to maximize clicks with shallow gimmicks, when it should have been worrying about the articles themselves.”
Conservatism: A right-wing movement wants a big reset. John Ehrett says critics label it different things, but vitalism is a good name for it. “In place of Ronald Reagan’s famous ‘three-legged stool’—free-market economics, military interventionism, and religious conservatism—the new vitalists would burn the place down altogether, and host a festival around the pyre.”
Bruce Springsteen: “He paints his masterpiece of America as a brand and what it does to people. To me, Nebraska is an album-length description of how America has struggled to find its soul, has never had much of an identity beyond the brand that’s been sold over and over again to people living here. But lives are lived behind the brand, and Springsteen is unearthing them, exposing them to the light.” That storytelling was formed by a love of Flannery O’Connor.
“A Hymn of Glory Let Us Sing,” performed by the congregation of the Church of Saint Michael in Stillwater, MN
For the majority of May, our theme will be Christ’s ascension. Ascension Sunday is May 21. The text was written by The Venerable Bede, “Father of English History.” He died on Ascension Day in 735. Benjamin Webb originally translated it for The Hymnal Noted in 1852.
The words here were copied from the Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary, 1996.
1 A hymn of glory let us sing! New songs throughout the world shall ring: Alleluia! Alleluia! Christ, by a road before untrod. Ascendeth to the throne of God. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
2 The holy apostolic band Upon the Mount of Olives stand. Alleluia! Alleluia! And with his followers they see Jesus’ resplendent majesty. Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
3 To whom the angels, drawing nigh, “Why stand and gaze upon the sky? Alleluia! Alleluia! “This is the Saviour!” thus they say, “This is His noble triumph-day.” Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia!
Ack. I’m only about 60% done with The Book That Never Ends (for review, not one I’m writing), and I’ve got lots of translating work to do, so what shall I post? Hm. It’s May now, which means that Syttende Mai (May 17), Norway’s Constitution Day, is coming up. Find some music about that. Anything from Sissel I haven’t seen?
Well, what do you know? Here’s Sissel singing Edvard Grieg’s “Våren,” (Last Spring). It seems to have been filmed 10 years ago for a Constitution Day celebration at Eidsvoll. That’s significant because Eidsvoll is a Norwegian national monument – the place where an assembly of delegates drafted and passed the country’s constitution in 1814. Which is what the holiday is all about.
Spring finally seems to have come to Minneapolis, and I’m enjoying it when I have time to pay attention. (I much prefer that to having no time because I’m out of work.) Spring’s been late in coming, but that makes it all the more enjoyable. I earned this spring, blast it!
“Thine Be the Glory” performed by The Harmonious Chorale Ghana
One more Easter hymn for the month. “Thine Be the Glory” was written by Swiss hymnist Edmond Louis Budry (1854–1932) specifically to the “conquering hero” theme in Handel’s oratorio Judas Maccabaeus. Englishman Richard Birch Hoyle translated the work into English.
1 Thine be the glory, risen, conqu’ring Son: endless is the vict’ry thou o’er death hast won; angels in bright raiment rolled the stone away, kept the folded grave-clothes where thy body lay.
Refrain: Thine be the glory, risen, conqu’ring Son; endless is the vict’ry thou o’er death hast won.
2 Lo! Jesus meets us, risen from the tomb; lovingly he greets us, scatters fear and gloom; let the church with gladness, hymns of triumph sing, for her Lord now liveth, death hath lost its sting. [Refrain]
3 No more we doubt thee, glorious Prince of life; life is naught without thee: aid us in our strife; make us more than conqu’rors, thro’ thy deathless love: bring us safe thro’ Jordan to thy home above. [Refrain]
I’m just getting going on a reeeeeally long book to review, so I’ll be posting oddments here for a few days. And Friday is a day I often do musical posts.
But I didn’t have this in mind, I swear to you. I was looking for some kind of hymn in Old Norse, and stumbled on this… thing.
I guess it’s kind of amusing. In Simon & Garfunkle style, they tell how the Vikings settled in Britain and assimilated. And they list some of the Viking contributions to British culture. I got a giggle or two out of it.
You’ll notice, if you’ve read my novel The Elder King, that they repeat the story that the nursery rhyme, “London Bridge Is Falling Down” refers to King Olaf Haraldsson (later Saint Olaf) pulling down London Bridge during his time as a mercenary in England. I use that legend in my book, but integrity forced me to confess in the Afterword that there’s no genuine historical basis for it. One translation of Heimskringla includes a skaldic poem with the lines, “London bridge is falling down / Gold is won and bright renown.” But that line was a whimsy of the translator’s. It doesn’t appear that way in the original poem. Scholars are confident that the nursery rhyme commemorates a much later occurrence.
Have a good weekend, if you can handle that disappointment.
“That Easter Day with Joy Was Bright” performed by The Westminster Choir of Westminster Presbyterian of Buffalo, New York, follow by an improvisation on the hymn’s Latin melody
It’s still Easter this month for our Sunday Singing posts. This hymn was translated from a longer Latin verse, once attributed to St. Ambrose, and now believed to have been written by a sixth or seventh century Gaul. The text copied here was translated by Englishman John Mason Neale in 1861 and altered by the editors of the Trinity Hymnal.
Though the hymn is short enough, I feel it could be sung about 1.5x faster. In the video, the choir above does not sing all of these words and the organist improvises on the tune for a few minutes afterward.
1 That Easter day with joy was bright: the sun shone out with fairer light when to their longing eyes restored, th’apostles saw their risen Lord.
2 His risen flesh with radiance glowed, his wounded hands and feet he showed; those scars their solemn witness gave that Christ was risen from the grave.
3 O Jesus, King of gentleness, do thou thyself our hearts possess, that we may give thee all our days the willing tribute of our praise.
4 O Lord of all, with us abide in this, our joyful Easter-tide; from ev’ry weapon death can wield thine own redeemed forever shield.
Continuing an Easter theme, here’s a marvelous hymn that fits our Good Friday meditations. “Stricken, smitten, and afflicted” comes from the Irishman Thomas Kelly (1769-1855), who wrote 765 hymns over 51 years. The tune, I believe, is of German folk origin with harmony arranged by American Paul G. Bunjes for Lutheran Worship (1982). The text below is taken from the 2006 Lutheran Service Book.
1 Stricken, smitten, and afflicted, see him dying on the tree! ‘Tis the Christ, by man rejected; yes, my soul, ’tis he, ’tis he! ‘Tis the long-expected Prophet, David’s Son, yet David’s Lord; Proofs I see sufficient of it: ’tis the true and faithful Word.
2 Tell me, ye who hear him groaning, was there ever grief like his? Friends through fear his cause disowning, foes insulting his distress; many hands were raised to wound him, none would interpose to save; but the deepest stroke that pierced him was the stroke that Justice gave.
3 Ye who think of sin but lightly nor suppose the evil great here may view its nature rightly, here its guilt may estimate. Mark the sacrifice appointed, see who bears the awful load; ’tis the Word, the Lord’s Anointed, Son of Man and Son of God.
4 Here we have a firm foundation, here the refuge of the lost; Christ, the Rock of our salvation, his the name of which we boast: Lamb of God, for sinners wounded, sacrifice to cancel guilt! None shall ever be confounded who on him their hope have built.
Isn’t it curious how the Bible is not an instruction manual? Some preachers and parents talk about it as if it is one, but if we know anything about actual instruction manuals, we know the Bible is nothing like them.
It’s mostly narrative history, even the prophecies fall into this. The gospels are not direct proclamations of good news, like what the angels declare to the shepherds from the skies, and the epistles, which are the most direct instruction, are more like single lectures from a larger course.
The Lord gave us a Bible with songs, proverbs, stories, and rules that require interpretation for a modern audience. Deuteronomy is the most like an instruction manual, and it isn’t something today’s believers can treat like a guidebook. Even the fourth commandment trips us up.
What we have in Scripture is the most marvelous book ever written. It shows us who we are apart from our vain imagination, and it shows us something of the majesty of the Almighty. It offers us the words of the Holy Spirit for feeding our hearts and minds from the hand of the author of our lives. It’s closer to a devotional than a manual.
This post may show how much Jared C. Wilson has influenced me, because when I looked up Midwestern Seminary’s For the Church site for something on this idea, I found two of Jared’s posts. From his book on the church, “The Bible is Not an Instructional Manual,” and again last year on the statement that the Bible is Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.
Here are some other posts.
Bookselling: Jeremy Anderberg suggests intentional browsing. “There are a lot of great books published every year — every month! — but publishers are increasingly putting all their marketing power into a smaller group of titles, in hopes of ensuring that coveted bestseller or celebrity book club status.”
“One of the big misperceptions about cowboys is that they were only dumb, itinerant, agricultural workers, when, in fact, most people of that period were self-educated. Heck, one of the most referred to books as being read by the cowboys in Louis L’Amour’s novels is Plutarch’s Lives.”
“I was having lunch with the Wyoming Office of Tourism, and they were telling me how much they loved the books, and I asked them why? They said that even though Absaroka County is fictitious I use all the businesses, landmarks, roads, and trails so that it’s easy to tell the tourists where they are. I’ve always found it’s easier to remember the truth, even when writing a novel.” (via Books, Inq)
What Holds Us? “Such attentiveness – call it curiosity or engagement with our surrounding — is a form of reverence and gratitude, and likewise an admission of willful ignorance: we learn little when we ignore our world.”
I don’t intend to start adding music to my Saturday posts, but I listen regularly to traditional music like what Julie Fowlis sings here and I want to share it. This whole album is marvelous.
A set of traditional songs starting with “Fodder for the small stirks”
The Choir of Christ Church, Georgetown, Washington, D. C. performing “Welcome, Happy Morning!”
Venantius Honorius Clematianus Fortunatus (530-609) wrote the original text to our Easter hymn today. When I looked for a video of it, I found several recordings of a version that includes the first of these verses before moving into less Christocentric thoughts. The words below come from the Trinity Hymnal and are performed in by The Choir of Christ Church above.
This weekend is what life on earth is about. Praise the Living God who made us and redeemed us for his own glory. Happy Easter, everyone!
1 “Welcome, happy morning!” age to age shall say: hell today is vanquished; heav’n is won today. Lo! the Dead is living, God forevermore! Him, their true Creator, all his works adore.
2 Maker and Redeemer, life and health of all, thou, from heav’n beholding human nature’s fall, of the Father’s God-head true and only Son, manhood to deliver, manhood didst put on.
3 Thou, of life the author, death didst undergo, tread the path of darkness, saving strength to show; come then, True and Faithful, now fulfil thy word, ’tis thine own third morning; rise, O buried Lord.
4 Loose the souls long prisoned, bound with Satan’s chain; thine that now are fallen raise to life again; show thy face in brightness, bid the nations see; bring again our daylight; day returns with thee.
