Opossum Screed: November 2018

Saint Andrew's Day

Today is Scotland's national holiday, so here's Scotland the Brave. The earliest known version of this tune dates back to 1911. The lyrics came a good four decades later.

❧ Hark when the night is falling!

Hear! Hear the pipes are calling,

loudly and proudly calling,

down through the glen.

There where the hills are sleeping,

now feel the blood a-leaping,

high as the spirits of the old Highland men.

❧ Towering in gallant fame,

Scotland my mountain hame,

high may your proud standards gloriously wave!

Land of my high endeavour,

land of the shining river,

land of my heart forever,

Scotland the brave!

❧ Cliff Hanley

Weary of All Trumpeting

O grant us help against the foe, for human help is worthless.

✙ Ps. 108:12 ✙

I'll say nothing here of America's past wars. I have only been alive since 1960. And since my life began, I do not have much reason to put faith in my nation's ability to make war. Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan... these are not names that will go down in the annals of history as examples of great wars conducted for noble causes. Once again, I'll not comment on the others. But the ones I've watched—albeit from afar—have only proven the truth of Psalm 108:12. If there is any such thing as a just war, it cannot be conducted outside God's will and without dependence on God's help.

Augustine has a very interesting take on this verse:

For your love is higher than the heavens, and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

✙ Ps. 108:4 ✙

There are two principle Hebrew nouns at work here, and either of them might be translated differently than what's found in the NRSV. The first one, חֶסֶד, which is translated as love, might better be rendered as either kindness or faithfulness. Old translations often use mercy (such as by Henry below). With the second one, אֶמֶת, I feel the NRSV did an even poorer job. Instead of faithfulness, firmness or truth would've been a much better option (once again, see below).

Matthew Henry explained this verse this way, which, though a bit unscientific in its scope, certainly works for me:

My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make melody. Awake, my soul!
Awake, O harp and lyre! I will awake the dawn.✝︎
I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples, and I will sing praises to you among the nations.

✙ Ps 108:1-3 ✙

Older translations of this psalm render the second clause of verse 2 something like, I will awake early. Well, that's fine, I suppose. But the NRSV is a better representation of the Hebrew אָעִירָה שָּׁחַר, which actually means, I'll wake up the dawn. This reminds me of the Prayer of the Rooster in the wonderful book Prayers from the Ark*—

Junk food temporarily fills me up and I think I've eaten and am satisfied. But the reality is that it's covering a symptom (hunger) while causing other problems which won't manifest themselves until later (diabetes, heart disease... even cancer). Piety is like junk food for the soul. It makes me feel good about myself, it causes others to ooh and aah at how religious I am, how many Bible verses I know, how pretty my prayers are, or how frequently I post "God" or family or patriotic memes on Facebook. But it's all a cover-up for a sickness within me. When spread across an entire society, it becomes a parody of true religion, barely masking the disease. Eventually that disease will make itself known and incorporate the silliness (or danger) that is false religion into its very nature, causing faith itself to become something to deride.

This is the Christianity of 21st century America. Or at least what the majority of Christians have turned their Christianity into: internet memes, T-shirt slogans, ridiculous displays of prayer at high school football games, the right

Their courage melted away in their calamity; they reeled and staggered like drunkards, and were at their wits’ end.
Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out from their distress; he made the storm be still, and the waves of the sea were hushed.
Then they were glad because they had quiet, and he brought them to their desired haven.
Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wonderful works to humankind.

✙ Ps 107:26b-31 ✙

The psalms give us hope. And in Psalm 107, we see God's constant love, over against Israel's unfaithfulness. Now sometimes doubt is mistaken for unfaithfulness and vice versa. And being too sure of a matter of faith can lead to arrogance, or even persecution of those who disagree. So, as Rev. John Ames said in Marilynne Robinson's Gilead,

In the Anglican tradition, the appointed collect (prayer) for the last Sunday before the beginning of Advent (i.e. today) begins with the words, "Stir up..." Since traditional Christmas puddings over there are prepared ahead of time and reheated on Christmas Day (I know, but don't shoot the messenger), this prayer in church serves as a reminder that it's time to prepare the ingredients for the pudding.

I'm probably stretching it, but this tradition stirs up in me a reminder that, even when I'm not enjoying them right now, God always has good things in store for God's people, including me:

I'm posting this song today because it's the day of the annual Bourbon Bowl (aka Governor's Cup), when Louisville takes on its in-state rival Kentucky in football. This year's game is in Louisville's Cardinal Stadium.

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kentucky • UK • wildcats • cats
From Appalachian Christmas 7, Red Barn Radio (Lexington KY), December

O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever.
Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, those he redeemed from trouble
and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.

✙ Ps 107:1-3 ✙

Psalm 107 calls on the faithful to thank God, whose love is both constant and never-ending. "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so," the psalmist wrote. But, in fact, the redeemed of the Lord are more likely to say, "So?"

Yesterday I talked about how God calls me from diaspora into the body of Christ, and this morning's psalm might be interpreted the same way. God's redeemed are brought together from all points of the compass to experience community—proof that God's constant love is eternal. And if the Holy One has

Jews who don't live in Israel are often referred to as the diaspora, a term that actually goes all the way back to the time of the Babylonian Captivity. And so the verse of Psalm 106 that I'm led to think about this morning is very much a prayer of the diaspora. I am not Jewish, but I would imagine that when Jews hear the following words, it must be bittersweet to all who live far from the homeland of their people, for they have drawn people together in worship in countries across the globe to worship the one God according to the commandments of a people long in exile:

Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to your holy Name and glory in your praise.

✙ Ps 106:47 ✙

Though the term diaspora most often refers to the nation of Israel, many

O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever.

⁌ Ps 107:1

'Building a Table'

The Mayflower Pilgrims used to be romanticized by just about all European Americans. But the contemporary viewpoint isn't nearly as positive. The more enlightened we become, the more we feel the need to repent for what happened to the indigenous peoples who had lived in the Americas for thousands of years before colonization began. And this means viewing Plymouth Colony in a more negative light.

The fact of the matter is that neither the old, romantic notion of the Pilgrims, nor the contemporary condemnation we're increasingly accustomed to is correct. And, I think, a decent understanding of who the people were that celebrated that

Praise the Lord! O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever.

✙ Ps 106:1 ✙

For today's devotion, I will meditate on the words of a song*:

We gather together to ask the Lord's blessing;
he chastens and hastens his will to make known;
the wicked oppressing now cease from distressing;

Father, we lift our thanks to thee:
Earth in all its beauty,
sound of voice and music—
this is our thanks to thee.
Father, we lift our thanks to thee:
Love and all true goodness,
noble deeds of mercy—
this is a song of praise.
Yet when we have thanked thee for these things,
we have not thanked thee enough.
Bless the Lord, my soul,
and all that is within me, bless his holy Name.
Bless the Lord, my soul;
bless his holy Name.
Father, we lift our thanks to thee:
Hear us, Lord;
we adore thy holy Name. Amen.

Buß- und Bettag

In colonial New England, holidays weren't celebrated as we think of them. There was only the sabbath, observed every Sunday. But when the people were especially blessed, a feast of thanksgiving would be declared—a tradition we still remember every fourth Thursday of November when our nation suddenly grinds to a halt, everybody returns to where they came from, and gratitude is practiced for the blessings of the year.

But things didn't always go well. Sometimes things went poorly, and people

So he brought his people out with joy, his chosen ones with singing.

✙ Ps 105:43 ✙

I think joy is earned. If I'm good, I think I deserve to be happy. If I'm bad, I blame myself for my misery. I have to be in control.

But Psalm 105 is a song of grace. It doesn't tell me how Israel delivered itself by its own strength, or earned its redemption by its own righteousness. Instead it sings of a God possessed of two things: love, and a plan. Like a compassionate parent, God did not wait for the chosen to earn their deliverance, but brought them through their difficulties step by step. And like a loving family, they emerged from their trials with joy and singing.

The story of Israel's exodus must be recounted again and again, because belief in such grace is not my default mindset. And it's the same with the New

I know the look of an apple that is roasting and sizzling on a hearth on a winter’s evening, and I know the comfort that comes of eating it hot, along with some sugar and a drench of cream. I know the delicate art and master of so cracking hickory nuts and walnuts on a flatiron with a hammer that the kernels will be delivered whole, and I know how the nuts, taken in conjunction with winter apples, cider, and doughnuts, make old people’s old tales and old jokes sound fresh and crisp and enchanting, and juggle an evening away before you know what went with the time.

—Mark Twain

The Promise Is Not Vain

He is the Lord our God; his judgments are in all the earth.
He is mindful of his covenant forever, of the word that he commanded, for a thousand generations,
the covenant that he made with Abraham, his sworn promise to Isaac,
which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant,
saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan as your portion for an inheritance.”
When they were few in number, of little account, and strangers in it,
wandering from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people,
he allowed no one to oppress them; he rebuked kings on their account,

A Thanksgiving Prayer

Let us thank God for the blessings of life,
even as we ask for forgiveness
for taking them for granted and misusing them:
For food on the table, for roofs over our heads,
for clean and plentiful water,
we are truly thankful, Lord,
and we ask you to forgive us when we hoard our blessings.
Give us faith to share our plenty that others may have enough.

For parents and grandparents, for brothers and sisters,

Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually.

✙ Ps 105:4 ✙

I used to think I had a good sense of direction. Now I know I actually don't. It's never bothered me, though, because every wrong turn takes me someplace I've never been before. Even so, I have to admit that I'm one of those men who refuse to stop and ask for directions. So I should probably take today's passage from the psalms to heart, because what I read in English as Seek the Lord is, in Hebrew, דִּרְשׁוּ יְהוָה, which is more like, Inquire about Yahweh, or Ask after Yahweh. I'm even further removed from the true meaning when I read a modern English translation, because the Hebrew Bible's not telling me to do this all alone. It says, Hey y'all, ask after Yahweh! Archaic English would've rendered this as Seek ye...

So a verse I might want to think of as a great little personal mantra, is in

As many of you know, the Psalms are my favorite book of the Bible. I try to pray and meditate on the psalms every day. Since the Book of Psalms is the Bible’s prayer book, I figure Jesus himself prayed those prayers, and so I think there’s meaning to be found in them—not just the easy ones to love, but even in the more difficult ones—the ones that pray for deliverance from persecution, or the ones that pray for vengeance.

Some psalms have meanings that are obscure to me, or pray for things that I don’t feel I can pray for. But I’ve grown to accept the fact that that’s okay. I can let those psalms be exactly what they are. When I pray them, I have come to understand that

May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works—who looks on the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke.
I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the Lord.
Let sinners be consumed from the earth, and let the wicked be no more. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Praise the Lord!

✙ Ps 104:31-35 ✙

The final verse of Psalm 104 seems to be a rather ugly intrusion into an otherwise pleasant song of praise. But I want to put it in the context of verse 31, in which the psalmist prays that God will rejoice in all the glorious works proclaimed in this psalm. And when I look back even further, I remember how this same psalmist placed human creatures in the context of all other

These all look to you to give them their food in due season; when you give to them, they gather it up; when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.
When you send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the ground.

✙ Ps 104:27-30 ✙

I'm told the universe is expanding, and that at some point in the far distant future it will begin to contract. I can't help but think of the breath of God giving life to all that is, and that breath then being withdrawn. Inhale. Exhale. I imagine that the cycle repeats over and over throughout an eternity of time: the breath of a benevolent, unsleeping God, birthing the stars around which worlds develop, fertile and life-giving—each cycle lasting untold millions of years. And yet this eternity is but the blink of an eye to its Creator, for time, too, is a creature of God—yet another side of God's

The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly, the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
In them the birds build their nests; the stork has its home in the fir trees.
The high mountains are for the wild goats; the rocks are a refuge for the coneys.
You have made the moon to mark the seasons; the sun knows its time for setting.
You make darkness, and it is night, when all the animals of the forest come creeping out.
The young lions roar for their prey, seeking their food from God.
When the sun rises, they withdraw and lie down in their dens.
People go out to their work and to their labor until the evening.
O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.

✙ Ps 104:16-24

It's interesting that the normal activity of human beings is placed here in the context of the normal activity of the rest of God's creation. The Bible seldom does that. We are usually placed over and above, and given more responsibility. But here we're found among, part of the whole, able to rejoice—with the birds, the goats, the rabbits, the lions, the sun, and the moon—

By the streams the birds of the air have their habitation; they sing among the branches.
From your lofty abode you water the mountains; the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.
You cause the grass to grow for the cattle, and plants for people to use, to bring forth food from the earth, and wine to gladden the human heart, oil to make the face shine, and bread to strengthen the human heart.

✙ Ps 104:12-15

How can I read these words and believe in a stingy God, a God who would require abstinence of me, who would ask that I refuse the bounty of the earth in order to satisfy a small-minded divinity. God created a world that has enough to provide for all, and then some. Yet the resources I waste would provide a seeming palace's supply of food and water and warmth to a person

You set the earth on its foundations, so that it shall never be shaken.
You cover it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains.
At your rebuke they flee; at the sound of your thunder they take to flight.
They rose up to the mountains, ran down to the valleys to the place that you appointed for them.
You set a boundary that they may not pass, so that they might not again cover the earth.
You make springs gush forth in the valleys; they flow between the hills,
giving drink to every wild animal; the wild asses quench their thirst.

✙ Ps 104:5-11

An ancient view of the cosmos is evident here. The earth is stationary and unshakable, while not only the moon, but also the sun and stars revolve around it. Just as the earth was fixed in space, so (ideally) was everything on it. God divided sea from dry land, and appointed the proper place for the waters with "a boundary that they may not pass." This form of

You make the winds your messengers, fire and flame your ministers.

✙ Ps 104:4 ✙

I love reading Psalm 104:4 on Pentecost, because Acts 2 mentions both wind and flame as evidence of the Holy Spirit. But this verse is far less straightforward than it appears. For example, here's the way the Authorized (King James) Version renders it:

Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire.

First the easy part: The old version of the second half is much more accurate, as is the use of the relative pronoun who at the beginning. There's no and in the second half, so it's clear that flaming modifies fire; and the first word of the overall verse appears to make it a continuation of what comes before it, not a brand new sentence.

But what about the first part about—the one making the winds God's messengers? Why is the modern translation so different from the older one, which makes God's angels spirits? Though older version makes the whole verse

Bless the Lord, O my soul. O Lord my God, you are very great. You are clothed with honor and majesty, wrapped in light as with a garment. You stretch out the heavens like a tent, you set the beams of your chambers on the waters, you make the clouds your chariot, you ride on the wings of the wind.

✙ Ps 104:1-3 ✙

The scriptures tell us to make no graven image of God, which means we're not to create statues of God or try to paint God's portrait. But the word pictures the psalms paint are sometimes overwhelmingly beautiful. Psalm 104 opens with the same words as the one before it. But whereas Psalm 103 goes on to talk about God's steadfast love and tenderness when dealing with people, Psalm 104 goes in a very different direction: first describing not God, but God's garments, God's dwelling, and God's transport.

Calvin said that, "although God is invisible, yet his glory is conspicuous enough." And I guess, in its own dry way, this sums up what I want to say. I cannot see God, but I can see the glory of God. I am therefore never without

Obed Has Two Mommies

The first 6:06 of the audio is the reading of the passage from Ruth (with a relatively long introduction), and the sermon proper begins at 11:11. In between is a very nice anthem by the women of the choir as well as a reading from Mark's gospel.

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The women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, ‘A son has been born to Naomi.'

—Ruth 4:17

It seems strange to me, but there are people today who would present the scriptures as a how-to manual on marriage and child-rearing. This, despite the fact that there’s not really a single passage that could pass as such in the entire 66 books of the Bible. Perhaps the closest thing to such real advice is found at the end of the fifth chapter of Ephesians and the beginning of chapter six. Here we find husbands being told to love their wives. So far, so good. But wives are told not to love, but to obey their husbands. Here we also find children being told to be obedient. But in that same passage, slaves are told to obey their masters. So what we find here is indeed a brief manual on domestic life. But it is far from the kind of domestic life we think of as being consistent with a just society. To use it, we would have to cherry-pick verses that seem to agree

November 11 is called Veteran's Day in the United States. In the UK it's called Remembrance Day, and a song associated with it is I Vow to Thee, My Country. The words are a poem by Cecil Spring Rice, written sometime around 1910, which were later set to a tune which Gustav Holst adapted from his own composition, Jupiter (from The Planets).

I Vow to Thee, My Country is a song which calls for loyalty to one's homeland, but ultimately to the Realm of God. It reminds me of two quotes, one from a Puritan divine named Thomas Manton: This is the first part and office of justice, to perform the debt we owe to our country, for public interests must

The Lord has established his throne in the heavens, and his kingdom rules over all.
Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his bidding, obedient to his spoken word.
Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers that do his will.
Bless the Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion. Bless the Lord, O my soul.

✙ Ps 103:19-22 ✙

Here we come full circle, and the blessing asked of me in Psalm 103:1 is put in its proper context. It's not just me, it's all beings seen and unseen, mortal and immortal, who are called upon to bless God. The ending of this psalm reminds me of the part of the Great Thanksgiving just before the Sanctus...

Therefore we praise you, joining our voices with the heavenly choirs and with

As for mortals, their days are like grass; they flourish like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.
But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear him, and his righteousness to children’s children, to those who keep his covenant and remember to do his commandments.

✙ Ps 103:15-18 ✙

An indifferent or even hateful immortal being would be of little assurance to the helpless. But here we see human transience put in the context not of God's eternity, but of the constancy of God's love. I think it's especially touching that the psalmist here compares the human concept of loveliness with the true beauty that is an attribute of God.

I am, due to my human nature, shortsighted. I only think of myself and my perception of what's good for me. God sees beyond the years and divine love

Landing of the Pilgrims by Michele Felice Cornè, circa 1805 (displayed at the White House)

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The video posted below is from a religious celebration of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee (60 years on the throne) on June 5, 2012.* I'm posting it on November 9, because it was on this day in 1620 that the passengers on the Mayflower sang this song (probably to the same tune, since this one—Old 100th—was straight out of 16th century Geneva) to thank God for sighting land. They'd been at sea for over two months. The land was Cape Cod. They'd intended to go farther south, but they still insisted upon calling it Virginia.

At first they tried to turn to their intended destination (somewhere near the

As a father has compassion for his children, so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him.
For he knows how we were made; he remembers that we are dust.

✙ Ps 103:13-14✙

The word compassion literally means suffering with. I have no idea what was going on in the psalmist's head when she or he wrote Psalm 103:13-14 over 3000 years ago, but as a Christian, I cannot help but be overwhelmed when I spare even a moment of thought for what I'm reading here. God suffers with God's children because God remembers that we're dust. Did the psalmist have

At the moment of this post's publication, it's midnight in Berlin on the day Germans refer to as their Day of Fate. Among the many momentous events in German history that occurred on November 9:

The abdication of the last Kaiser (1918)
The Beer Hall Putsch (1923)
Kristallnacht (1938)
The Fall of the Berlin Wall (1989)

To commemorate this day, here's a lovely song which doesn't get sung anymore, but which until 1990 was the national anthem of the DDR (East Germany). Believe it or not, the words of the anthem of united Germany could be sung to this tune (with just a minor adaptation at the end). This tune is much better than the current anthem, by the way (though there are

For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us.

✙ Ps 103:11-12 ✙

The molten core of the earth and the far edge of the universe are indeed very far removed from one another. But there is a spot on the horizon where heaven and earth meet. Something similar can be said of east and west: The places where the sun rises and sets seem quite distant from each other. Yet I can see both dawn and sunset from my own yard. In the same way, there is a place where the perfection of God and my depravity meet: Calvary.

I thank you, Father, that at the center of all time and space, there stands an old rugged cross where you and your people meet in the arms of the Jesus Christ, who taught me to pray...

Vindication and Justice

The Lord works vindication and justice for all who are oppressed.
He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel.

✙ Ps 103:6-7 ✙

I think the character of God is demonstrated not just in the here and now, and certainly not only in my hopes for the future, but more than anything else, in God's dealings with my forebears. And so after Psalm 103 calls upon my soul to bless God for what God does for me, it moves quickly to God's justice for all the oppressed and then to a reminder that this vindication goes all the way back to Moses.

Wrapped in the Everlasting Arms

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits—who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the Pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy...

—Ps 103:2-4

Translation isn’t an exact science, and this is especially true when translating from an ancient language into a modern one. One reason is that expressions used 3000 years ago would be very different from expressions used today. In the case of Hebrew, there were no vowels to help with pronunciation, only consonants. And, of course, there was no punctuation.

But the biggest problem was that, just as in English, words might mean different things in different contexts. And one of those words is found in Psalm 103:4, which tells me that it’s the Lord, “who redeems your life from the Pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and

Three times in Deuteronomy, I read these (or similar) words: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. And then at the very beginning of Psalm 103, I read this:

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy Name.

✙ Ps 103:1 ✙

Whether I'm thinking about loving God or blessing God, the scriptures demand that I not do it halfway. Regardless of how big my heart and soul are, or how much strength I've got, I'm to devote all of it to loving and serving God.

The New Testament, too, reminds me how important it is to give

You will rise up and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to favor it; the appointed time has come.
For your servants hold its stones dear, and have pity on its dust.

✙ Ps 102:13-14 ✙

Psalm 102:14 was referenced in a beautiful song* by a Uruguayan singer of Jewish decent named Jorge Drexler. And so I'll meditate on this song today (you'll need to watch the video for a few seconds to see what's up with the black screen)...

There's a lament for every wall in Jerusalem the Golden,

My heart is stricken and withered like grass; I am too wasted to eat my bread.
Because of my loud groaning my bones cling to my skin.
I am like an owl of the wilderness, like a little owl of the waste places.
I lie awake; I am like a lonely bird on the housetop.
All day long my enemies taunt me; those who deride me use my name for a curse.
For I eat ashes like bread, and mingle tears with my drink, because of your indignation and anger; for you have lifted me up and thrown me aside.
My days are like an evening shadow; I wither away like grass.
But you, O Lord, are enthroned forever; your Name endures to all generations.

✙ Ps 102:3-12

Yesterday, I was led by an Emerson quote to think about false claims of oppression: "Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted." Today I am led to think about real persecution. I am mindful of those who in ages past have been killed for their beliefs or herded into concentration camps because of their race. And I dare not ignore those in my own day who are being driven from their homes because theirs is not the religion of the majority or who are fleeing violence that makes meaningful life impossible. Psalm 102 is their prayer to claim, not mine. My relationship to the prayer of Psalm 102 is to be part of its answer, to help provide a broad space of deliverance, a place where my persecuted neighbors may eat their bread in peace. How can I look at the faces of children fleeing Syrian rebels or murderous Central American gangs and respond by closing my borders and shutting up my storehouses? As a disciple of the One who gave his life that others might live, I simply cannot. And as a citizen of a country that should be sending an army of social workers and legal experts to the border, not armed troops, I dare not pray this prayer on

It's not part of my spirituality (since I do not differentiate between ecclesiastically canonized "saints" and other true believers) but November 2 is observed by some as All Souls' Day—a day to remember the faithful departed (who, I suppose, haven't been officially canonized as saints). Like most Protestants, my church observes both holidays on the first Sunday of November, when we remember those who have joined the church triumphant over the course of the past year. For me, All Souls Day is really just an excuse to sing or listen to more music that I consider All Saints' Day music. Here's Craig Carnahan's Hark,

Ralph Waldo Emerson •

Hear my prayer, O Lord; let my cry come to you.
Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress. Incline your ear to me; answer me speedily in the day when I call.

✙ Ps 102:1-2

This prayer was offered to God by a people threatened with obliteration. Calvin said that "no one could utter these words without profaning the Name of God, unless they were actuated by a sincere and earnest affection of heart." It is common these days for Christians to claim to be oppressed by those who simply disagree with them, and claim affliction when they are but mildly inconvenienced. What nonsense! Ralph Waldo Emerson put it best in 1838 when he said, "Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted."

I should always pray to God,

For all the saints who from their labors rest,
who thee by faith before the world confessed,
thy Name, O Jesus, be forever blest.
Alleluia!
Thou wast their rock, their fortress, and their might;
thou, Lord, their captain in the well-fought fight;
thou,in the darkness drear, their one true light.
Alleluia!
O blest communion, fellowship divine!
We feebly struggle, they in glory shine;

I will look with favor on the faithful in the land, so that they may live with me; whoever walks in the way that is blameless shall minister to me.
No one who practices deceit shall remain in my house; no one who utters lies shall continue in my presence.

✙ Ps 101:6-7

In writing about verse 6, Calvin said, that "the greater part of kings, indeed, passing over the good and the upright, or, which is worse, driving them away from them, purposely seek to have as servants those who are like themselves, and who may prove fit tools for their tyranny." And of verse 7: "When the chief counsellors of kings and other intimate acquaintances who have gained possession of their ears, are deceitful and crafty, this becomes the source of all corruptions; for by their example they encourage others in evil, lifting up as it were the banner of licentiousness."

So I'm tempted once again to apply this teaching to a corrupt government or greedy corporate interests. But sometimes they're intended for the man in the mirror. Rulers may be liars, but so may laborers... and so may pastors. All of us like to surround ourselves with people who agree