my burg

60. Fiddler Jones [ an epitaph ] THE EARTH keeps some vibration going  There in your heart, and that is you.  And if the people find you can fiddle,  Why, fiddle you must, for all your life.  What do you see, a harvest of clover?  Or a meadow to walk through to the river?  The wind’s in the corn; you rub your hands  For beeves hereafter ready for market;  Or else you hear the rustle of skirts  Like the girls when dancing at Little Grove.  To Cooney Potter a pillar of dust  Or whirling leaves meant ruinous drouth;  They looked to me like Red-Head Sammy  Stepping it off, to “Toor-a-Loor.”  How could I till my forty acres Not to speak of getting more,  With a medley of horns, bassoons and piccolos  Stirred in my brain by crows and robins  And the creak of a wind-mill­only these?  And I never started to plow in my life That some one did not stop in the road  And take me away...

When fishes flew and forests walked      And figs grew upon thorn,     Some moment when the moon was blood Then surely I was born.   With monstrous head and sickening cry     And ears like errant wings,     The devil’s walking parody        On all four-footed things.   The tattered outlaw of the earth,     Of ancient crooked will;  Starve, scourge, deride me: I am dumb, I keep my secret still.   Fools! For I also had my hour;     One far fierce hour and sweet:     There was a shout about my ears,     And palms before my feet.   "The Donkey" by G. K. Chesterton, from The Collected Poems of G. K. Chesterton (Dodd Mead & Company, 1927)   [Photo of Paramo donkey from Wikimedia Commons.]

O Simplicitas  An angel came to me And I was unprepared  To be what God was using. Mother I was to be. A moment I despaired, Thought briefly of refusing. The angel knew I heard. According to God's Word I bowed to this strange choosing. A palace should have been The birthplace of a king (I had no way of knowing). We went to Bethlehem; It was so strange a thing. The wind was cold, and blowing, My cloak was old, and thin. They turned us from the inn; The town was overflowing. God's Word, a child so small, Who still must learn to speak, Lay in humiliation. Joseph stood, strong and tall. The beasts were warm and meek  And moved with hesitation. The Child born in a stall? I understood it: all. Kings came in adoration. Perhaps it was absurd: The stable set apart, The sleepy cattle lowing; And the incarnate Word Resting against my heart. My joy was overflowing. The shepherds came, adored The folly of the Lord, Wiser than all men's knowing....

Appropriate for our times... "Where shall the word be found, where will the word Resound?  Not here, there is not enough silence Not on the sea or on the islands, not On the mainland, in the desert or the rain land, For those who walk in darkness Both in the day time and in the night time The right time and the right place are not here No place of grace for those who avoid the face No time to rejoice for those who walk among noise and deny the voice." (T. S. Eliot, Ash Wednesday)

Martyn Lloyd-Jones mentions in his sermon "What is a Christian?" a stanza that  Hudson Taylor had written on a slip of paper that he used as a bookmark. When Taylor,  founder of China Inland Mission,  died in 1905, this was discovered in his Bible:  Lord Jesus make Thyself to me A living bright reality More present to faith’s vision keen Than any outward object seen More near, more intimately nigh Than e’en the sweetest earthly tie. --Attributed to  Charlotte Elliott  (1789-1871)

Here's a beautiful exposition of gospel truth in exalted prose by French pastor and evangelist Jean Cauvin... If we seek salvation, we are taught by the very name of Jesus that it is ‘of him.’  If we seek any other gifts of the Spirit, they will be found in his anointing.   If we seek strength, it lies in his dominion;  if purity, in his conception;  if gentleness, it appears in his birth. For by his birth he was made like us in all respects that he might learn to feel our pain.  If we seek redemption, it lies in his passion;  if acquittal, in his condemnation;  if remission of the curse, in his cross;  if satisfaction, in his sacrifice;  if purification, in his blood;  if reconciliation, in his descent into hell;  if mortification of the flesh, in his tomb;  if newness of life, in his resurrection;  if immortality, in the same;  if inheritance of the Heavenly Kingdom, in his entrance into heaven; ...

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And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought.  (1 Chronicles 28:9 ESV) In studying 1 Chronicles 28 and David's passing the leadership baton to his son Solomon, I remembered a poem that means a lot to me.  I edited the original slightly and printed it out to give to my sons at Christmas in 1997.  Unlike David I do not have a lot of material wealth to pass on to my children, but I do have a spiritual heritage. The original author was Merrill C. Tenney (1904-1985), a Professor of New Testament and Dean of the Graduate School at Wheaton College.  He wrote this for his two sons. A Father’s Gift To you, O son of mine, I cannot give A vast estate of wide and fertile lands; But I can keep for you, long as I live, Unstained hands. I have no coat of arms that insures Your path to eminence and worldly fame; But longer than empt...

Here are my favorite T. S. Eliot quotes: "When the Christian faith is not only felt, but thought, it has practical results which may be inconvenient." "Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? It is for lack of wisdom, not lack of information, that the people perish." "Disillusion can become itself an illusion If we rest in it."   "Destiny waits in the hand of God, not in the hands of statesmen."  "It will do you no harm to find yourself ridiculous. Resign yourself to be the fool you are. You will find that you survive humiliation And that's an experience of incalculable value." "What is hell? Hell is oneself. Hell is alone, the other figures in it Merely projections. There is nothing to escape from And nothing to escape to. One is always alone." "Half the harm that is done in this world Is due to people who want to feel important. They don...

"You will find that you survive humiliation And that's an experience of incalculable value... The destination cannot be described; You will know very little until you get there; You will journey blind. But the way leads towards possession Of what you have sought for in the wrong place." (T. S. Eliot, The Cocktail Party, 1949)

Blessed is the man Who does not walk, stand or sit In facets of sin But delights in Word So much so that day and night His mind chews on it Resembling a tree Providentially planted By flowing rivers He produces with Remarkable renewal Having great success But the ungodly Are plainly the opposite From the righteous man They are like wheat husk Useless, dried up and lightweight Floating on breezes This is the reason Sinners are shamed in judgment Avoiding worship God is vigilant Over the ways and the paths Of the righteous man But the foul lifestyle Of those living against God Will be demolished. By David E. Wilson At Relevant Revelation Kings Church of Christ, Brooklyn

What sweet of life endureth Unmixed with bitter pain? Midst earthly change and chances What glory doth remain? All is a feeble shadow, A dream that will not stay; Death cometh in a moment, And taketh all away. O Christ, a light transcendent Shines in Thy countenance, And none can tell the sweetness, The beauty of Thy glance. In this may Thy poor servant His joy eternal find; Thou calledst him, O rest him, Thou Lover of mankind! (John of Damascus, 675-749)

Christmas means gifts. In the wide, wheeling universe There has been only one-- One gift once given, One infinite, eternal, perfect joy-- One baby boy. (Elizabeth Rooney)

An angel came to me And I was unprepared To be what God was using. Mother I was to be. A moment I despaired, Thought briefly of refusing. The angel knew I heard. According to God's Word I bowed to this strange choosing. A palace should have been The birthplace of a king (I had no way of knowing). We went to Bethlehem; It was so strange a thing. The wind was cold, and blowing, My cloak was old, and thin. They turned us from the inn; The town was overflowing. God's Word, a child so small, Who still must learn to speak, Lay in humiliation. Joseph stood, strong and tall. The beasts were warm and meek And moved with hesitation. The Child born in a stall? I understood it: all. Kings came in adoration. Perhaps it was absurd: A stable set apart, The sleepy cattle lowing; And the incarnate Word Resting against my heart. My joy was overflowing. The shepherds came, adored The folly of the Lord, Wiser than all men's knowing. (Madeleine L'Engle)

"The Lord is King, and hath put on glorious apparel; the Lord hath put on his apparel, and girded himself with strength." (Psalm 93:1) Like every newborn, he has come from very far. His eyes are closed against the brilliance of the star. So glorious is he, he goes to this immoderate length To show his love for us, discarding power and strength. Girded for war, humility his mighty dress, He moves into the battle wholly weaponless. (--Madeleine L'Engle, A Widening Light: Poems of the Incarnation )

Where does the lion, Judah's golden lion walk? Stealthy under star by winter night his soft paws stalk. Out on lonely hills a cold wind howls and darkness scowls; Shepherds shiver -- danger in the dark! --some wild beast prowls. Suddenly up springs a light; a voice rings like a bell: "Joy, O men of Judah! Come and see! Noel! Noel!" Where lies Judah's longed-for lion? "Come and see the sight! Fear not--your golden one is couched among the lambs tonight." (--Keith Patman, from A Widening Light: Poems of the Incarnation )

it seemed too much to ask of one small virgin that she should stake shame against the will of God. all she had to hold to were those soft, inward flutterings and the remembered sting of a brief junction--spirit with flesh. who would think it more than a dream wish? an implausible, laughable defence. and it seems much too much to ask me to be part of the different thing-- God's shocking, unorthodox, unheard of Thing to further heaven's hopes and summon God's glory. (--Luci Shaw, A Widening Light: Poems of the Incarnation )

A friend sent me Luci Shaw's poem, "Mary's Song", and I posted it on the blog. We remembered we had that poem and others in a book entitled, A Widening Light: Poems on the Incarnation, Luci Shaw, ed. We enjoyed reading through them today. I plan to post some of these poems between now and Christmas. Here is one called "snow" by Keith Patman: Was it a cold awakening Christmas morning In a wooden trough, In spite of straw and swaddling clothes and angel songs? That was not to be the last time You'd be laid upon the wood. (There were Herods, Judases from the start Among the stars and shepherds). And did they smile, those simple folk, And kiss your tiny hands and weep delight? They'd touch those hands again someday, Believing you through cracks and scars. Then oh! the million Christmas mornings When you'd lie, a babe again, Beneath a million million trees And hear the countless tongues chanting your name. And oh! the white snow on ...

Blue homespun and the bend of my breast keep warm this small hot naked star fallen to my arms. (Rest . . . you who have had so far to come.) Now nearness satisfies the body of God sweetly. Quiet he lies whose vigor hurled a universe. He sleeps whose eyelids have not closed before. His breath (so slight it seems no breath at all) once ruffled the dark deeps to sprout a world. Charmed by doves’ voices, the whisper of straw, he dreams, hearing no music from his other spheres. Breath, mouth, ears, eyes he is curtailed who overflowed all skies, all years. Older than eternity, now he is new. Now native to earth as I am, nailed to my poor planet, caught that I might be free, blind in my womb to know my darkness ended, brought to this birth for me to be new-born, and for him to see me mended I must see him torn. [by Luci Shaw, from A Widening Light: Poems of the Incarnation , 1984]