The Propaganda Matrix

 A discussion from August sponsored by The UKColumn.

The propaganda, it's thick

Anyone who follows this blog will have noticed long since that this mild-mannered, unassuming platform devoted to preaching and liturgy has lately given a great deal of attention to the new social division between the vaccinated and unvaccinated. The end times are kind of distracting that way. 

But just in case you find yourself wondering who is more deluded than whom these days, watch this video from Germany and notice how peaceful demonstrators are characterized from the very first frame, how they are repeatedly described as radical, extreme, right-wing, and violent (huh?) by the professor interviewed in the middle section, and then — I know, I know: Comments! Ugh. — take a look at the comments and note just how many hateful, snarky, judgmental comments are directed at those Germans who have chosen to emigrate to Paraguay in hopes of reclaiming some quality of life. 

A loved one took me to task recently for suggesting this new social division evokes memories of yellow stars. [I thought: never mind that a rather prominent Jewish doctor has been doing so for some time; never mind that actual badges (some yellow) are being used in various hospital settings, and barriers in European markets, to distinguish the vaccinated from the unvaccinated; never mind that quarantine camps are in use in Australia and were recently drafted into proposed legislation in NY, legislation that was withdrawn because so many "conspiracy theorists" raised the alarm. You are welcome.] So, I switched tactics and said, if the analogy to yellow stars is "beneath me" (as I was told), then think of the Indian caste system, or recall Dr. Seuss's story, The Sneetches, in which one profiteer (I think I used more colorful language than that; Lord, forgive me.) made money from both those who bought stars for their bellies and those who paid to have them removed once they realized the fashion had been espoused by those they considered beneath their own class of Sneetches. The figure-eight path the Sneetches beat to and from this huckster in the middle—sorry if this offends you—resembles the race course built around the CDC and certain prominent vaccine marketeers who every day trot out fresh recommendations for keeping their status current. No, it is not a perfect analogy. But there is sufficient correspondence to give one pause.

Here's a recommendation: Use your pastoral training in family systems theory to exit, to detriangulate, from this (globally) dysfunctional system. The PCR tests that are only this very day being discontinued, after two years of misapplication and triggering false positives around the world, were never meant to diagnose whether someone is sick. Let that sink in. Two years worth of diagnoses have been done by a non-diagnostic test, wrongly calibrated (with CT settings set way too high to be meaningful), and unable to detect the difference between seasonal flu and corona virus. But don't worry, CDC now assures us, the new tests will do that! And by the way, headlines now declare: The flu is making a comeback! You don't say.

But back to the video. Time and again, those on the left tell us that "language is violence," but violence is (the legitimate) language (of the oppressed). So, if language is violence, then the professor in this video is more of a radical terrorist than anyone depicted strolling calmly down the street carrying a placard. Then again, I expect he, as a salesman for the psy-op, knows this and is well paid to spew his propagandistic projections. 

All of which causes one to ask: Does anyone know the language of peace anymore? Does anyone ever preach or hear the Gospel of peace? (Eph 6:15) Is there anyone left who recognizes that all the militaristic armor and equipment for preaching the Gospel of peace (Eph 6:10-14) is paradoxical, spiritual, and protective, not offensive or "violent"? Have you ever wondered why the Gospel of peace is associated with shoes or whatever a soldier wears on his feet? Perhaps the shoes of the Gospel of peace are "made for walking," i.e., exiting a dysfunctional system when working to reform it from within no longer holds any promise of change? 

God has given us the "ministry of reconciliation" (2Cor 5:18), but the task of issuing words of warning and awakening that constitute an essential, even prophetic, part of the ministry of the Word is not easy; neither is the decision to quit the game when you have been told that "everything," "getting back to normal," "the common good," "the health and safety of human society," "saving the world for future generations", etc., all of it depends on your participation. Such self-differentiating responses have been met with violence — whether verbal or physical, but almost always spiritual — on many occasions. But first they meet with: disgust at the differentiation. 

May God go before us and be our rear guard as we preach the Gospel of peace; yes, may he guide our feet into the way of peace. (Luke 1:79) 

Preaching with a functional sense of From/To

Some of the paraphrases of my remarks here sound a tad unorthodox, but this summary gets the main points across. If the signs of the times are any indication, I think it is time for baptismal preaching (with various rites of initiation and reaffirmation) to make a comeback after a long season in the wilderness. 

It is time, indeed, it is well past time

... to choose what Solzhenitsyn called, "the simplest, the most accessible key to our liberation: a personal non participation in lies!"

Worth bearing in mind as one reads the latest from Kunstler.

Wow.

 Maybe they should have listened to Kary Mullis in the first place.

The Bradford Hill Criteria of Causality

 Worth bookmarking this.

2022 Prediction

 Nuremberg shall become a verb.

Are we finally going to start emphasizing therapeutics?

Perhaps, but only now that big pfarms has produced multiple generations of new customers.

[UPDATE: I am going to leave this here. This is what the YouTube video link looks like now.]

[And here is where you can still watch the whole thing. After you watch, ask yourself, why did YouTube take this down?]

Providence

 How can anyone miss the divine hand of God's providence in "The Ivermectin Story"?

On the other hand, "the love of money is the root of all evil."

As well they should

CBN: Lawsuits Mount Against Hospitals Banning Ivermectin. Start with Houston Methodist.

UK pastors speak out against vaccine passports

 This was way back in April 2021, but it is worth bumping to the top of the stack.

Masks off

 

Woe

Posted without comment:

https://rairfoundation.com/doctor-sounds-alarm-stillbirths-explode-in-canada-video/

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/19726487.investigation-launched-abnormal-spike-newborn-baby-deaths-scotland/

https://stevekirsch.substack.com/p/latest-devastating-news-on-the-vaccine

https://citizenfreepress.com/breaking/idaho-nurse-explains-what-shes-seeing-in-hospital/

https://thelibertydaily.com/neil-olivers-criticism-of-covid-protocols-is-absolute-poetry/

Ethics 102

 A rousing sequel to a video posted in September, from the same brave Canadian ethicist. 

How far does the Church's concern for justice extend?

If you watch just a half dozen segments from this three and a half hour meeting, you too will wonder.

If I were pastoring a church right now

If I were pastoring a church right now, I would strongly emphasize the fact that Advent is — and always has been — a fast. I would not go directly to the standard lectionary or even Year D texts (unless it would be to emphasize the call to baptism through the Lukan tradition) and carols, although many of the plaintive Advent hymns set in a minor key may be very appropriate.

For this Advent 1, and then again at Ash Wednesday, and perhaps when the Jewish fall feasts come around again, I would turn to Joel 2 in order to "sanctify a fast," and call the people to "return to the Lord." 

Why? Notice the structure of Joel. After the description of the locust invasion in Joel 1, Joel 2 seems less focussed on locusts than on a subsequent, even ultimate, "day of the Lord." Yes, the locusts are mentioned later, but as a memory of a past loss that shall be more than compensated for. But one does not need a literal locust swarm to goad the imagination into drawing associations between this prophecy and the state of the world, not just the land of Israel, today.

Indeed, there is an invading army of sorts mentioned in Joel 2, before whom the earth is completely overrun. Sound familiar? The description of their unswerving movement is terrible, they are relentless; but the Lord still has the power and authority to call them off. 

Joel 2:1-2a is a Call to Worship, worship expressed through fasting.

Joel 2:2b-11 is what? An alarm? A reveille? A dissonant prelude? 

Joel 2:12-16 is yet another Call to Worship, or a Call to Confession, bearing within it the first words of hope, hope specifically in the merciful nature of God (2:13b-14).

But notice how Joel 2:17 reads like a liturgical directory for worship, with explicit rubrics: The priest/minister should stand here, do this, say this. Yes, I would do this. Let all the chapter be read up to this point, perhaps in different voices. Physical, in-person attendance should be strongly encouraged. The people should have assembled together with a clear invitation into the presence of the Lord as the sanctuary, the safe and holy space. Then, not at all with the aim of drama or "acting," the minister(s) should proceed to the middle of the main aisle or whatever point is midway between vestibule and chancel, and stand in the midst of the people. Stand there. Consider the plight of this people, their pastoral needs, their sufferings, their losses, their fears and worries and heartbreaks. Consider God's holiness and how far we, his people, have fallen short. Consider the suffering of Jesus Christ for us. Whatever and however long it takes to let your heart swell. It need not be a long protracted sobbing or weeping, still less a forced squeezing of tears that are not there; but if the dam bursts, so be it; either way, with racking sobs or a single tear, let your voice convey what is in your heart; let it be true. And then say what the Word tells you to say: 

"Spare your people, O Lord, and do not make your heritage a mockery, a byword among the nations. Why should it be said among the peoples, 'Where is their God?'" (2:17)

I would say this three times, at least. Each minister should say it at least once, the people should speak it as well. Perhaps minister, then choir (or children), then people. 

A period of silence follows, as the minister(s) proceed(s) to the chancel. 

Let the next word, the first word to break the silence, be the very next word of the text: "Then ..."

Joel 2:18-27 should be read with great hope and joy, and "then" (again!) it should be announced that this great reprieve for the people of God is borne even within "the day of the Lord" itself. Yes, though this day was declared at the opening of the reading, it shall not proceed to the terrible signs that have long been associated with that terrible day (2:28-32), according to the New Testament (Acts 2, Romans 10, etc.), ... not without this reprieve!  

The point is this: If we take seriously the structure of Joel 2 and allow it to set the liturgy according to its own directions, we will discover hope, restoration, reprieve, and relief at the very heart of this chapter, sandwiched between the alarm that calls us to a fast and the apocalyptic collapse of the created order. The similarity, between this hope and the image of Israel safe in the land of Goshen while Egypt is plunged into thick, palpable darkness, is unmistakable. But this reprieve is not programmed to fall from the sky automatically. We are liturgically directed here to ask for it. 

Let the remainder of the service unfold as the Spirit leads, with higher or lower liturgical elements. Some additional penitential elements might well be drawn and adapted from Return to God. Perhaps the times call for a series on the Ten Commandments, and Return to God has Prayers of Confession written in response to each of them. Perhaps on one such occasion, like Ash Wednesday, The Secret of Salix Babylonicus (which began life as a narrative sermon) might serve to interpret the Word. It is a parable that — quite apart from anything I had to do with it — gains greater relevance with each passing day. But my aim is not to push the books, it is simply and solely to equip the saints. Only do not let your flock languish or despair under the impression that God has appointed these days for unrelenting gloom. Not at all. That God desires to, and even gives us the very words with which to ask him to, relent — there is great, immense, and profound hope in this. It is a hope that has been encoded in the prophecy of Joel for well over 2000 years and undoubtedly encoded with a view to these very days.

Huge loss

 One of the most discerning and articulate thinkers of our day has been taken away. RIP Angelo Codevilla.

Ethics 101

Many people are facing this situation now. God bless this courageous sister and those like her who are likewise taking a principled stance against systemic, unethical coercion by the powers that be. Don't ally with those powers. Pray against them.  

 

Parable of a parable

Driving back last week from an installation in MO, I found myself on roads I frequented when Mom was still living and I was collecting photos of weeping willows to illustrate The Secret of Salix Babylonicus. I perked up in anticipation of seeing "Great Salix" again, the willow that graced the cover of the story. But when I saw him, he was down, lying beside the pond he had shaded and drunk from all his days. I remembered the recent storms that had been through the area and could only assume, since he showed no signs of having been cut down or carved up, that his time had come by more natural means or by an "act of God." 

What a parable of the times, I thought. No, what a parable of a parable, one that only becomes more relevant and poignant and prophetic with each passing day. And here I was thinking that literary significance, as a rule, tends to wane with time. But no. Not when God's eternal Spirit of wisdom is feeding the roots, and testifying once again that, "unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." 

I managed to stay on the road, swallowed hard, and kept my foot on the gas. No weeping, not yet. Not while the battle still rages, not while the pestilence—of murderous greed—still circles overhead like a cast of vultures. But Great Salix! How the mighty have fallen! May your death give new life to many!

No Place for the Pharmakon (Revelation 22:15)

Here's a new (proprietary) song lyric that still awaits a musical setting. (If you want to write one, let me know, and maybe we can work something out.) But I wanted to post this without any further delay, to set up a marker. Perhaps this, by the grace of God, will awaken some sinner and snatch him from the fire.

The poisoners will not be there is heaven

The murderers, idolaters, or the scavengers

The media will be gone

with the false and the imitation

The sorcerers will all be forgotten

A good man named Strong 

once said of the pharmakon

he will drug you into living an illusion

thinking you can force God

to give up your fortune.

But heaven has no place for the pharmakon.

A good man named Strong 

once said of the pharmakon

he will drug you into living an illusion.

He thinks he can sway God

to heighten his fortune.

But heaven has no place for the pharmakon.

— TMS, August 9, 2021 

So you want to preach a public issue sermon on the Covid vaccine and vaccine mandates?

Before you preach on any public issue, you need to do your research.

In this case, at a minimum, you need to know some of the most important key terms and concepts, like:

• the significance of cycle threshold in PCR tests
• "investigational vaccine" 
• therapeutic alternatives (Ivermectin, Zinc+Quercetin, et al.) to investigational vaccines
• adverse effects 
• d-dimer blood test
• micro-clotting
• informed consent > Is it even possible where information is widely suppressed?

You also need to know the most important dramatis personae (whose credibility and contributions, due to the final bullet point above, are better investigated via Rumble.com than traditional big tech platforms, including the crowd-sourced Wikipedia, which is no more trustworthy than the comment section of any tabloid, and is curated with the same bias as Twitter, FB, YT, etc.).

• Robert Malone
• Michael Yeadon
• Peter McCullough
• Pierre Kory
• Ryan Cole
• Vladamir Zelenko
• Stella Gwandiku-Ambe Immanuel
• Kary Mullis

Even if you do not, in the end, agree with the concerns expressed by these key players, you will at least avoid presumptuous preaching and you will be better informed of the reasons why many people, especially high school dropouts and PhDs, many persons of color, those who are younger and often espouse no religion at all, those with natural immunity, those with compromised immunity, those with religious objections to medical research developed using aborted fetal tissue, etc., express hesitancy to receive what they perceive to be — not without reason — a risky, even dangerous "investigational" vaccine. Certainly, you should not blunder into the pulpit to preach a pro-vaccine sermon based on nothing more than the thoughtless presumption that receiving the vaccine and all the obligatory forthcoming boosters is somehow ethically "the right thing for everyone to do." Preaching and ministry also have a hippocratic obligation. Such a sermon would clearly violate that.

Other resources you should be aware of:

https://ivmmeta.com/    

https://covid19criticalcare.com/ivermectin-in-covid-19

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8088823/ ... which concludes with the following: 

"In summary, ... ivermectin should be globally and systematically deployed in the prevention and treatment of COVID-19."

https://vaers.hhs.gov/data.html

http://www.uscfc.uscourts.gov/vaccine-programoffice-special-masters

https://www.thedesertreview.com/opinion/columnists/indian-bar-association-sues-who-scientist-over-ivermectin/article_f90599f8-c7be-11eb-a8dc-0b3cbb3b4dfa.html

https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/even-mainstream-media-now-asking-big-questions-about-covid-vaccines [added 08/25/2021]

(more to follow)

UPDATE: August 27, 2020 — Contrary to widely publicized (mis)information, the Pfizer-BioNTec is not actually approved for non-emergency use. See Sen. Johnson's letter to the FDA about this:

https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/sen-ron-johnson-questions-fda-pfizer-vaccine-approval/

UPDATE: August 28, 2020 — Dr. Lee Merritt on VAERS reporting. 

https://rumble.com/vkoyqr-summit-sessions-the-science-lee-merritt-md-what-is-vaers-and-what-does-it-s.html

And then there is this from the great Eric Clapton:

And now here is yet another (!) readily available medicine — in addition to HCQ (with zinc, of course), Ivermectin, Pulimicort, etc. — that shows promise under re-purposed, off-label use:

https://www.upi.com/Health_News/2021/08/28/covid19-treatment-cholesterol-drug-study/8121630075657/

UPDATE (September 1, 2021): 

https://fee.org/articles/harvard-epidemiologist-says-the-case-for-covid-vaccine-passports-was-just-demolished/

UPDATE (September 3, 2021): Best Kennedy ever.

https://www.bitchute.com/video/hDwFKS84277T/

UPDATE (September 5, 2021): OK, correlation is not causation, ... until there is no other explanation for the causation but the correlation.

https://www.thecollegefix.com/despite-95-vaccination-rate-cornell-today-has-five-times-more-covid-cases-than-it-did-this-time-last-year/

Meanwhile, back the ranch ...

https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/rolling-stone-horse-dewormer-hit-piece-debunked-after-hospital-says-no-ivermectin

UPDATE (September 6, 2021):

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/rolling-stones-ivermectin-fiction-shows-why-republicans-dont-trust-media

UPDATE (September 6, 2021):

https://colleenhuber.substack.com/p/is-it-possible-to-avoid-heart-damage

UPDATE (September 15, 2021): Summary of studies regarding Covid vaccine side effects from one of the last gumshoe reporters in the business.

https://sharylattkisson.com/2021/09/exclusive-summary-covid-19-vaccine-concerns/#Summary-by-safety-concern

Here comes the new scare tactic ...

predictably deployed just as the old one goes bust. 

But "blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord." 

Now there is a parable for you

 I couldn't have said it better myself.

Stop already

 Says this actual scientist.

You have to ask ...

 What motivates those who suppress this information? Is it just money or something much, much worse?

This

https://rumble.com/vkm8n6-listen-to-or-read-neil-olivers-commentary-on-freedom-as-we-face-covid-tyran.html

The ten commandments of human subjects research

Here is a link to The Nuremberg Code, which researchers involving human subjects in every field — from psychology to pharmaceuticals — need to be familiar with. Give them a look. What do you think? Are these still relevant? I sure hope so.

Watch the whole thing, but don't skip the conclusion, which begins at 16:37

 Question 1: (Fill in the blank) And the plus (+) sign means _______________________.

"Revenant Psalms" is now streaming

The streamers are opening up as I write. Looks like Pandora and Amazon are up first. Meanwhile, you can now audition the full tracks for free on HearNow. CDs are not yet in the offing, though I will likely do a short run of 500 or so at some point.

A bit of background: Thinking I was done with this pent-up musical outburst of slapdash records that has coincided with the most recent plague year, i.e., when Enter the Arbiter was completed near the start of Lent 2021, I soon afterwards heard our church musicians offer a rendering of "The King of Love My Shepherd Is" (Psalm 23 set to the tune St. Columba) sometime in mid-March. I thought: Gosh, that is such a lovely, classic tune, I really should work out how to play it, which I soon did and sent a little instrumental video (using only the camera's thoroughly useless built-in condenser mic; what was I thinking?) to a few folks for an Easter morning greeting (all this just to identify the timeframe). St. Columba, though, required me to put down my pick and use all my digits. With that, this record started to take shape, with all of the tunes and settings done entirely pick-less and with no need for long nails. (Good thing, too.) My nephew (by marriage) tells me "the kids today"—I think he likes to say "the kids today" because it makes him sound older—would call it "slappy." Even more than St. Columba, Psalm 39, with a thoroughly groovy/wurly e-piano solo in the closing section, is especially "slappy," more salsa/flamenco than "Just Passing Through" or "Just VII. So (Take Up the Slack)" (both tracks from the instrumental Just, which was released at the end of December). I think of the pick-less approach on this album as an organic combination of light brushing and flicking, occasional snatching, some pluckish tickling as needed, and yes, frequent rhythmic muting or slapping, but without the elegance of the popular "fingerstyle" that is quite beyond me. If Just was a foray into a more pizzicato style of flat-picking, this will be the slappy album. 

The texts are all psalms identified in Year D as underrepresented or untouched by the Revised Common Lectionary. I call them "Revenant Psalms" because, though they have been around for the better part of 3000 years, they are neglected when it comes to the regular reading and preaching rotation of the church, and are thus due for a "comeback." Since many are lament psalms, which function therapeutically to move the praying suppliant from complaint to catharsis to praise, and with so many people, and indeed entire nations and cultures, so in need of healing and therapy (I mean it kindly, but I do mean it), one could well argue their comeback is long overdue.

Several of the texts are metrical paraphrases that I have enlisted, and in some cases adapted, from The Psalter Hymnal (1929), the content of which so far has not made its way onto Hymnary.com.

Four tunes are ancient/traditional, namely, Health from the Cup, St. Columba, Brother James' Air, and Salley Gardens, some of which I have modified, e.g., for vocal range (apologies to Brother James), etc. Eight others, however, are my own, so I took the liberty of giving these guitar-based settings their own names: Neo Sheminith (a nod to the superscription to Psalm 6), Happy is the Nation, The Measure of My Days (both focal verses from Psalms 33 and 39, respectively), Leave a Blessing (it just seemed to fit the spirit of the opening of Psalm 41), Hachilah (again a reference, perhaps a bit obscure, to the superscription), Variation on St. Columba (just what it says), In the Cave (yet another epigrammatic reference to the literary context behind the psalm), and finally, Erhameka [Heb: "I love you"], the simple, hooky progression that drives the epic-length folk-rap of Psalm 18. 

Particularly satisfying and quick to take shape (composed just before dinner, recorded just after) was the Variation on St. Columba, which is rhythmically derivative from and lands on the same resolution as the original, but the chord inversions turn the pastoral tune into a lullaby of sorts—perhaps for a traumatized child suffering from nightmares—which totally reframes this difficult imprecatory psalm. It's as if to say, "Shhh. Be not afraid. The baddies won't get you. God will see to that."

Everything was recorded at home, except for two tracks (Psalms 6 and 18) and a few retakes (on Psalms 39 and 129), that were done in the North Woods of WI, sandwiched between a normally sleepy, but suddenly and surprisingly busy grass airstrip and a lake with not a few skiers and jet skiers working out the kinks. Charlemagne the Cavalier — the handsome cover model on last September's Persevere — was present for most tracks in both locales and snored contently through several of them, which was fine.

I think my favorite track is probably Psalm 41, for which I decided — at the risk of repeating myself, again, and yet again — to compose something that simply made use of, and rearranged, a lot of my favorite chords. I probably should have repeated the last phrase (instrumentally) at the end, since it is so nice and fun to play.  

Another favorite is Psalm 142. The tune, In the Cave, starts with the same fingering configuration used in the sketchy instrumental, "New Thing," on Persevere.

Particularly timely is Timothy R. Matthews' paraphrase of Psalm 82, which I set to a very up-tempo version of Salley Gardens, modifying a couple of lines, especially in v. 2: "feckless titans," "suppress," and "sinister devils" are my word choices, which seem both to honor the spirit of the psalm and speak to the corruption of those today with too much influence and none of it good.

The cover design is mine, or at least the illuminated guitar and dove are my digital creation, superimposed on a scan of the 500-year-old wrapper on Jodocus Windsheim's Confessions of a Repentant Christian (1520), which serves as the background. 

As for the flagrant overuse of reverb throughout, I know, I know, it is an amateurish giveaway. But if there was ever an album that cried out for such a lonely, empty, large-hall sound, would it not be a volume of mostly lament psalms that fell victim to cancel culture decades before it was ever a "thing" and now arise anew to voice the deepest, long-repressed memories of God? Repressed or no, these psalms are still "Word of God" and the Word of God has a way of making a comeback. Just ask Jesus, the Revenant Lord, who has yet another comeback planned, at the close of the age.

The Sign of Jonah

Good grief. How can someone write this news article and not once mention Jonah?Are we really that biblically illiterate? Anyway, I'm glad the dude is OK.

Revenant Psalms

 

"Go to Dark Gethsemane"

This classic Maundy Thursday hymn has a fourth verse that looks forward to sunrise on Resurrection morning: "Early hasten to the tomb ..." Most hymnals flag that verse, though, suggesting it be omitted for Holy Week services. Here I borrowed the fourth verse from "As With Gladness Men of Old," as it seems to better fit the plaintive mood of the occasion, asking of Jesus — who from Gethsemane to Calvary embodied perfect obedience along "the narrow way." 

I confess I found harmonizing with this extremely simple tune far more difficult than anticipated. I may well have overlooked something more obvious and satisfying, but did not want to harmonize and thus distract from the final stanza in each verse, so that last line tends to be unison. Not sure how successful these harmonies will be. But the thing I really like is the simple descending triads at the end — all white keys, in the key of C (guitar Capo 5) — which seem to correspond to the end of Jesus' struggle in the garden and his arrival at pure resolve.

Here's the link to the streamer page:

I have a dream ...

 ... that one Sunday soon, preachers all across the land will preach as one on the Ninth Commandment, the prohibition against false accusation. And then maybe on Exodus 23.

UPDATE: On a related note ...

There must be some mistake

But then again, maybe not. Here is a screen shot for reference (taken March 23, 2021):

Or maybe they just say that to all the Christian Instrumental artists.

"A Hymn of Glory Let Us Sing / Ride On, Ride On in Majesty (Agincourt)"

This quirky medieval tune called The Agincourt Song (pronounced with with a soft g) was a fun one to work out on guitar. It also seems to me a better setting for the Palm Sunday text, "Ride On, Ride On in Majesty," than Winchester New (Crasselius), the one I have encountered most often. Agincourt aptly depicts the "lowly majesty" of the Lord riding on a plodding donkey, the rhythm almost tracing the hoofbeats themselves, and in this recording, the organ's attempt to urge the beast forward does not quite succeed, as v. 3 remains a step or two behind the organ.

Click through to your streamer of choice: 

What else is different or new here? Two verses: the first one borrowed from Bede's ancient Ascension hymn, which seems to fit Palm Sunday just as well, and the last one which is my own. Bede's verse speaks of Jesus' destination and enthronement on high, but the use of that verse here only reminds us that the way upward leads first to and through the final showdown with the arch-enemy, and downward into suffering, dereliction, death, and burial. 

With so many verses — all verses of "Ride On, Ride On" are present and accounted for and surrounded by two others — some sort of break strain seemed in order, so that too is my own. If the blatting lower brass compounds the clumsy, somewhat comical quality of the tune itself and the awkwardness of the donkey ride, the same instrumentation will return with (I think) greater grace and uplift in Track 11, "From Death to Life" (re: which, see previous post).

Here is an excerpt from the liner notes regarding that final verse:

Thinking then of [Jesus'] mission as the fulfillment of the oldest prophecy in the Bible, that of the showdown between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent (Gen 3:15) and with Johann Georg Hamann’s Biblical Reflections of a Christian in mind, along with Chapter 4 of the Scots Confession, I added this verse:

Now Death’s appointment with death has come.

The Lord of life, with true aplomb,

By mortal heel, immortal trust,

The serpent’s head will turn to dust.

 

"From Death to Life"

Back in November, I recorded a single called "Just Passing Through," which has since reappeared on the instrumental record, Just. This track is a sequel to that one, which will explain the gratuitous use of the little hammered guitar lick that is very similar to the one that opened that track. In other words, the similarity is intentional, and admittedly more than a little lazy. 

From the liner notes on the CD:

An earlier, organ-only version of the quotation of “Eventide” that opens this track was too plodding, so I added the guitar backing and a good dose of impatience with death in order to arrive all the sooner at the point of this instrumental. Intended as a sequel to “Just Passing Through,” which appeared on the previous album, Just (December 31, 2020), this track has obvious structural similarities to that one, so it will hopefully complete the thought with no residual ambiguity. While the two pieces are in different tunings (“Just Passing Through” uses Capo 2, this one Capo 5), the primary chord progression here, which is strummed again very slowly in the rubato break, is a cross-shaped configuration of two-fingered chords. The most tuneful part of the flute melody is a lick that has been on file for decades as part of a long and involved instrumental piece called “The Minch,” so this melody may one day reappear, if that lumbering track ever fully awakens from sleep to tell its own story of resurrection. If not, then perhaps it will do so on better shores.

Let me only add a word or two about the lower brass, which plays an almost comical, blatting role in the Palm Sunday tune [Agincourt] on Track 2, but here really helps the track take off. Two treasured people come to mind with the modest, but soaring use of the brass patch here. 

First, my sweet dad — Happy birthday, Dad! — was a lower brass guy in the Nebraska University marching band back in the 1940s and later played in civic orchestras and other ensembles. Man, he had a mellow tone, which I, the inheritor of his baritone and trombone, could never match. Though gone these almost fourteen years, he would have appreciated the brass being given a melodic role here.

Second, a jovial chap with whom I played baritone in junior high, then later in several honor bands over the years, with whom I crossed paths at high school cross-country meets and later at university. A year ahead of me in school, Kent Wallace was a gentle, smiling, good-natured guy who played baritone and bass guitar, and later made a living in video production. I lost track of him ages ago, but recently learned that he died in 2014 of ALS. He too had a superior tone to mine when it came to the euphonium, so I was always "second fiddle" to his first chair. But I think of him and my dad both when the "bari" lines come in and the track achieves lift off. Maybe we can all sit together and play and crack a few jokes in the lower brass section of heaven's orchestra—if I make the cut, that is. (Lower brass always has a lot of down time for cracking jokes in rehearsal while everyone else gets their act together, so great melody and countermelody lines are a very welcome thing when such bones are thrown in our direction.)

As before, click through to your favorite streamer:

Meanwhile, the physical CD — destined to be a rarity! — is here.

"Lord Jesus, Think on Me"

This is a really ancient text by Synesius of Cyrene (375-430), translated by Allen William Chatfield (1808-96), a Charterhouse alum (Genesis fans will recognize the reference), and set to the tune Southwell that has been appearing in hymnals since 1876 or so, though it dates back to Daman's Psalter from 1579. All I've done here is set it to guitar, laid down some eerie synth pads with one of my favorite patches, stood a bit too close to the mic, jazzed up the beat (à la Jethro Tull's "Bourée" or any number of pieces on their Christmas album), and added a flute solo, which is actually not as Tullish as you might expect: not so snarly, spitty, lilty, or even all that dynamic. The mystery of tune and text seemed to call for something fairly dry, steady, and sober, not dripping with emotion, while the simplicity of the tune wanted some mysterious intervals—OK, maybe a little bit of lilt—in the flute solo as well as a certain rhythmic slippage or laziness (there is a lot of that on this album, which I hope may serve to offset the quantization that pervades everything these days). The title of this text brought to mind the petition of the repentant thief on the cross, but while hymnary.com lists Luke 23 among gobs of other scripture references underlying the lyric, Holy Week is not among the liturgical occasions suggested for its use. Obviously, by including it here, I would like to suggest it might be. It certainly warrants singing in Lent.

Your choice of streamers at the link:

Meanwhile, the physical CD — an imminently endangered species! (going away in May) — is here.

"Hear Me, O God (Psalm 61 / The Bonnie Cuckoo)"

One of the best tracks on Enter the Arbiter is a setting of one of my favorite psalms. Psalm 61 is a Year D psalm (i.e., it falls outside the lectionary, but is retrieved in Year D). Although in that supplementary schedule of readings, I proposed it be read on the Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time, it really warrants much more frequent use than that. It is included here among these Songs for Holy Week by virtue of its similarities to Psalm 70, which is read on Spy Wednesday.

For the tune, I chose an ancient folk melody that, from what I have been able to tell, has never been the setting for a sacred text. At least "The Bonnie Cuckoo" so far yields no results in a search of hymnary.com. If someone were to tell me that John Bell has used this tune for something, I would not be surprised, for it seems like something he would do, but if he has done so, I am not aware of it. As for this setting, I have modified the tune a bit, repeating the first phrase in the introduction (a phrase that traditionally only occurs once in the verses), and instead of repeating the second phrase (in keeping with tradition), have added my own concluding phrase to resolve each verse. Anyone familiar with the music of O'Carolan will suspect the blind harper as the source behind this anonymous tune on the evidence of those distinctive descending intervals in the second phrase. But here I thought it best not to overuse those intervals, which may not be the most conducive to congregational singing, so I chose to resolve things differently. 

Here is my paraphrase of Psalm 61.

(1)   Hear me, O God, attend to my prayer

From the ends of the earth, I-I call to you!

My heart is faint and beaten down

Lead me to the rock that is higher ground.

(R) Hear me, O God, attend to my prayer.

From the ends of the earth I call to you!

 

(2) For you are a shelter of refuge for me,

A tow-er of strength, from the e-ne-my.

Let me abide for-ev-er in you

And under your wings find security.

(R) Hear me, O God, attend to my prayer.

From the ends of the earth I call to you!

 

(3) For yo-u, O G-od, have he-ard my vows,

And made me an heir with your fa-ith-ful.

Increase the days-of your ch-o-sen King

Who sh-all endure through the a-g-es.

(R) Hear me, O God, attend to my prayer.

From the ends of the earth I call to you! 

(4) May He be en-thr-oned for-ev-er with you.

Let mercy and truth up-ho-ld Him.

And I will ever sing praises to you.

And dai-ly fulfill all my promises.

 

(R) Hear me, O God, attend to my prayer.

From the ends of the earth I call to you!

 

(R) Hear me, O God, attend to my prayer.

From the ends of the earth I call to you!

"While Jesus' Body Slumbered"

So, I ask you, when has sacred music ever intentionally incorporated the sound of a mighty sneeze? Well, here you go.

"Enter the Arbiter: Songs for Holy Week" is now streaming

Now available through your choice of streamers:

Soli Deo Gloria!

P.S. Just remember that physical CDs will be available only for a few more weeks, after which they will be no more.  

"Just" is streaming

Released on CD back on December 30, 2020, Just is now streaming. This one is all "just" guitar, or at least the first seven tracks (gathered into one suite) are just guitar. The last three are virtually all guitar, but for a few synth pads, finger snaps, and overdubs. Certainly it is all instrumental. Included here is "Just Passing Through," which was released as a single back in November, and which now has a sequel in "From Death to Life" (Track 11 on Enter the Arbiter: Songs for Holy Week).

Click on the cover, choose your favorite streamer, and enjoy! [Like all these records, the aim is primarily to just get the idea across. Don't expect Hit Factory perfection here. But I hope you can find several tracks you like.] 

Or, if you are up for it, I noticed YouTubeMusic had a pretty good shuffled play list. Aside from the occasional ads, it sets a good mood for study. 

Enter the Arbiter: Songs for Holy Week

 From the liner notes:

These songs for Holy Week are arranged roughly in terms of the sequence of days, from Palm Sunday to Easter sunrise, the exception being the instrumental prelude and postlude (Tracks 1 and 12), which I include as artifacts from their service as such in chapel worship ... While just two of these tracks (Tracks 3 and 11), are of my own musical composition (the latter piece opening with a brief quotation from the traditional tune “Eventide”), others include original modifications to old standards. On Track 5, the paraphrase of Psalm 61 (a “Year D” psalm overlooked by both the RCL and the daily lectionary) is mine, while the final musical phrase in the tune, ”The Bonnie Cuckoo,” replaces a more traditional repetition of the previous phrase; the final verse in the lyric of Track 2 is mine, inspired by my translation work on Johann Georg Hamann; the lyric for Track 10 is my attempt to fill a relative scarcity of hymn texts for Holy Saturday and “the harrowing of hell.”      

    Where the use of traditional material is concerned, I have attempted (in part as an example to worship students) to offer relatively fresh pairings of texts and tunes, as in the case of Rhosymedre, Noel Nouvelet, and Es Flog Ein Kleins Waldvögelein, but it is hoped that even the more familiar pairings will gain some new life by way of these guitar settings and (hopefully) fresh instrumentation. In each case I have relied on the guitar to provide most of the chords and have kept harmonies to a minimum, emphasizing melody lines throughout, both vocally and with other instruments, since the use of these tracks for online worship (the whole project being birthed while observing pandemic restrictions in late 2020 and early 2021) aims to encourage participants to sing. 

    I only hope this record will serve, however imperfectly, to remind the church and the world of all that we have to be grateful for in the ministry of the one Arbiter between God and humanity, the Judge who was willingly judged in our place, the Firstborn of a whole new creation, the last Adam who makes all things new and before whom all lying and accusing tongues should and shall cease. I also hope that somehow these songs in praise of Jesus, for all that he did during that Holy Week of the world’s redemption, may reach those who do not yet know him, that they may come to do so and “enter the Arbiter” by way of baptism — by dying and rising to new, eternal life in, with, and for him. — TMS

Listen to this sister

She is so articulate and she sees so clearly what is going on.

https://www.facebook.com/realCandaceOwens/videos/251263566611887/

The evidence is not getting less significant, but more: New Hampshire

Fascinating conversation (with a bit of naughty language). Not only the Presidential, but even the congressional (Senate and House) races are suspect.

Free the Uighurs

I had hoped Trump would take a firmer stand on this. I have little hope Biden will. But as for me and my house, I say, "Free the Uighurs."

God bless this sister

 

In honor and memory of

 ... the Four Chaplains. Thanks to Gail Heriot at Instapundit for posting this good reminder.

RULE: Authors who aspire to censor books save me the trouble of wanting to read theirs

The same may be said for the publishers represented here who have clearly succumbed to the "powerful delusion" sweeping across the landscape unchecked by any trace of thoughtful analysis. 

RELATED: Here is Turley's take.

Calling it like it is

 ... because that's what it is.

Sundog on a Sunday dog walk

Charlemagne and I saw this sundog on our walk this morning, the first Sunday of the decade (2020 was the last year of the previous decade, properly speaking). I'm not given to superstition, but this was a glorious sight by which to greet the New Year, the new decade, and the Sunday nearest Epiphany. The still shots only capture the sun itself (left) and the right part of the halo. But once we got to the top of the hill and looked back, I was able to get the whole thing by panning on video. 

UPDATE(S): Here is the Wikipedia page on sundogs. There you will read that the Anabaptist Jakob Hutter interpreted the sight as a blessing, but others have taken it as ominous. Early classical sources referred to "mock" suns, but make sure to read the paragraph on the Swedish King Gustav Vasa who thought a painting of the sundog conveyed a conspiracy against him ("the sun") by two rivals ("fake suns"). [Yes, this Epiphany, January 6, should be veeerrrry interesting!] Lord, let thy will be done, for the glory of the Sun/Son of Righteousness.

"Hail the heav'n-born Prince of Peace!

Hail the Son of Righteousness!

Light and life to all he brings,

ris'n with healing in his wings!

Mild he lays his glory by,

Born that man no more may die,

Born to raise the sons of earth.

Born to give us second birth.

Hark! The herald angels sing,

'Glory to the newborn King!'"

And is that not simply the greatest verse in 2000 years of Christian hymnody?