We are so happy to be celebrating the baptism of Ethan Skye Folmar!
Join us in spirit, and if you like, follow along by reading the liturgy above (and watch the video below).
We forgot to record the event and to take photos! Thankfully, Hannah thought to turn on recording in Zoom only a few minutes into the liturgy and Robin and Karen sent us a few photos they took as screenshots.
Those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life. — John 4:14
For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. — 1 Corinthians 12:13
The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life. — Revelation 22:17
This draft retains a longer sermon, for reference, but lacks other improvements. The sermon and liturgy attempt to express the meaning of baptism in the framework of the Triune communion of love as an expression of the Trinitarian faith represented by the Nicene creed, the most ecumenical and universal of Christian statements of faith. One key pillar of a Trinitarian perspective is the vicarious humanity of Christ, expressed not only in his Incarnation, crucifixion, Resurrection, and Ascension, but also in his baptism, repentance, prayer, worship, obedience, faith, etc. Thus the longer sermon section in this draft may throw some light on the rest of the liturgy for anyone interested in diving deeper into a Trinitarian approach to Christian life and faith. However, we didn’t think the longer sermon would bring extraordinary joy to Ethan himself today, and the shorter liturgy actually has many other improvements as well!
Posted inFamily|Comments Off on Celebration of Baptism
I heard the news of Lee’s passing only after the memorial service had already taken place. Laura woke up last Monday morning with the song “Piano Man” running through her head. For our family that song is forever fused with memories of Lee at the piano, so Laura checked Lee’s Facebook page and discovered the news and relayed it to me.
As I grow older, I realize that Lee is one of the best friends I will ever have. As roommates in college, he extended unconditional friendship to me over many years with unmatched generosity of spirit and open-hearted wisdom. I cannot now ever think of him without a sense of utter gratitude for his ongoing influence in my life, coupled with a sense of joy due to the sheer delight of that multitude of memories.
I think of Lee as Faramir, who in the books (not the movies) acted with deep and understated wisdom because of his receptivity to old lore; how fitting that it was Lee himself who first persuaded me to read J.R.R. Tolkien. That’s just one of countless ways I am thankful for how he continues to shape who I am.
A great light has passed out of this world. The loss is as inexpressible as the joys remembered. The new creation feels more like the home we long for now.
Time is precious. How foolish of me to assume that I could wait until retirement to reconnect after these many long years. Over the last few days, joyous and happy memories of Lee have been rising in my mind, a comfort indeed. This makes all the memories even more important to hold on to.
Candace and I pray for his family’s abiding comfort, both now and in the years to come.
Posted inEvents|Comments Off on Leland Graves III (1959-2024)
“The Christmas Party,” by George MacDonald, comprises chapter X of Annals of a Quiet Neighborhood (1867).
MacDonald wrote across multiple genres. First and foremost he was a literary critic presenting lectures and essays on English literature from Anglo-Saxon to Wordsworth, including a pioneering edition of Hamlet. He translated German Romanticist writers such as Novalis. His two volumes of poetry, and multiple volumes of essays on the imagination and other topics were highly regarded. His several books of sermons and on miracles are classics, treasured by the Inklings and still read by many Christians today. In his own time, his Scottish novels and English novels were as popular as those of Charles Dickens. His children’s fantasy and fantasy for adults inspired such writers as Lewis Carroll, Mark Twain, Chesterton, Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Madeleine L’Engel, and many others.
Annals of a Quiet Neighborhood is his first English novel. A discerning reader may detect many semi-biographical aspects relating to his brief time as a minister in Arundel, West Sussex, located near the south coast of England between Portsmouth and Brighton (see photos of Arundel at the MacDonald Society website: george-macdonald.com/places/arundel.html).
Johannesen Publishing describes Annals as a “Victorian-Era English Novel. Written in the first person about the annals of a Vicar in the town of Marshmallows, recounting his experiences mingled with mystery and romance. Sequels: The Seaboard Parish and The Vicar’s Daughter.”
Michael Phillips describes it as: “set in Arundel on the downs south of London near the coast and site of MacDonald’s first and only pastorate as a newly married clergyman in 1851-53. The MacDonald home of those years and the Congregational Church are still standing in Arundel. This book is wonderfully descriptive of the region, with autobiographical hints of MacDonald’s outlook as a young pastor. The story had first appeared in serialized form in the Sunday Magazine in 1865.”
The chapter extracted in the attached PDF offers a vignette of what it was like for a minister in England at this time to try to nurture his parish members in the genuine hope of the gospel, and specifically, how he used a celebration at Christmas to begin to overcome some of the Victorian boundaries arising from economic class and social convention.
Helpful background for reading this chapter might include three points:
Oldcastle Hall is the home of the village’s aristocratic family, who might have expected to be customarily the primary focus of the minister’s attentions, particularly at the holidays. How might they have felt about this minister and his holiday party?
At this point in the novel, Mr Brownrigg’s son is in love with Jane Rogers, but due to Jane’s lower class status Mr Brownrigg has forbidden them to see each other. How do they respond to the party?
George and Louisa MacDonald’s own hospitality was legendary, for throughout their lives they regularly welcomed and entertained members of all social classes to events in their home, without charge. The MacDonalds’ guests subversively included prominent artists and literary figures side-by-side with politicians and wealthy aristocrats, side-by-side with working class friends and the poor. How is their real-life hospitality reflected in the story?
If you make it through this chapter, lifted out of context, consider reading the entire novel, or the whole Marshmallow trilogy. I enjoy it very much — but if it isn’t your cup of tea, MacDonald offers more than 50 other books to choose from, all of which are out-of-copyright and freely available online.
Below, I’ve indicated some resources for getting to know MacDonald as well as some recommendations for MacDonald titles to begin reading in each of the genres mentioned above.
Kirstin Jeffrey Johnson, “The Storyteller,” Christian History 113 (2015), 10-13; this article is part of a special issue devoted to the seven authors collected by the Marion Wade Center at Wheaton College, entitled “Seven Literary Sages.” It is available free at christianhistorymagazine.org.
Kirstin Jeffrey Johnson, “‘Closer to the Spirit of Christ,’ An Introduction to George MacDonald,” YouTube, C. S. Lewis Foundation, youtu.be/E54Cdb1_SSE?si=F9NvFQcTl9baZ6hv. Kirstin explains why any reader of C. S. Lewis will want to become better acquainted with MacDonald.
Malcolm Guite, “When a Heart is Really Alive,” keynote address for the “George MacDonald and the Prophetic Imagination” bicentennial conference at Wheaton College, May 2024.
Kirstin Jeffrey Johnson, “C. S. Lewis Connected – Imaginative Hospitality,” YouTube, Agora Christi, youtube.com/live/5Biue8BKa3Q?si=BRqRzv1MmS7fmG7Z. Kirstin discusses the practices and subversive implications of the MacDonalds’ hospitality.
To read MacDonald, one might wish to start with the following works — I’ve chosen just one or two titles for each genre (sequels where appropriate are indicated on the same line). No two MacDonald readers would suggest the same works. Phantastes (1858) and Lilith (1895), MacDonald’s first and last adult fantasy novels, would probably make the majority of readers’ favorites, for instance, mine included. But I’ve omitted them here because they’re not the most accessible place to start reading MacDonald.
English novels:
Marshmallows Trilogy: Annals of a Quiet Neighborhood (1867); The Seaboard Parish (1868); The Vicar’s Daughter (1872).
Scottish novels:
Sir Gibbie (1879)
What’s Mine’s Mine (1886)
Children’s fantasy:
The Princess and the Goblin (1872); The Princess and Curdie (1883).
Adult fantasy:
“The Golden Key,” in The Light Princess (1863)
Adela Cathcart (1864 or any edition; the selection of fairy stories included in editions after 1882 varies).
Literary criticism:
“The Imagination: Its Function and Its Culture,” and the other essays in A Dish of Orts (1867).
On Christian faith:
Unspoken Sermons (1866, 1885, 1889)
Miracles of Our Lord (1870)
On natural science:
The Wingfold trilogy: Thomas Wingfold, Curate (1876); Paul Faber, Surgeon (1879); There and Back (1890).
What’s Mine’s Mine (1886).
Complement these with “The Imagination: Its Function and Its Culture,” in A Dish of Orts (1867).
If you want printed editions of MacDonald’s works, check out the hand-bound editions printed by Johannesen Printing & Publishing. The Scottish novels are available in editions by David Jack featuring parallel columns for MacDonald’s original Doric and the English translation.
2024 is the 200th anniversary of George MacDonald’s birth (1824-1905). Sponsored by Drexel University and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music, the “Genius of George MacDonald” conference will close the bicentennial year which has been celebrated in numerous events throughout the year.
The May conference at Wheaton was one of the most meaningful events I’ve ever attended.
I’m thankful to be presenting the following paper at Yale this December:
“George MacDonald and the Scientific Imagination”
MacDonald’s embrace of the imagination as an instrument for apprehending reality heals a deep-seated cultural split between science and wonder. That split is characterized by two opposing kinds of realism: on one hand, a positivist realism which reduces reality to nothing but what is evident to sensory perception, and, on the other hand, an integrated realism which apprehends the as-yet unseen, unknown, and unfinished in-depth realities which lie beyond and beneath the surface appearances of things. With special attention to the Wingfold trilogy and to 19th-century geology, this paper explores how MacDonald’s holistic integration of reality, given the perceptive and creative role of the imagination, applies to the natural sciences as well as to literature and the fine arts. The imagination is then given legitimate scope to play as the source not only of wonder but also of creative discovery within the very fabric of natural science. Without imagination, the sciences perish.
Update: The Yale conference was of the same character as the one in May. Every presentation was superb, but in a way that offered opportunities for refreshment of spirit alongside the personal conversations, meetings of many new-found friends, and the experience of music, art, poetry, and even a hands-on session in the MacDonald archive. See the schedule above. For the latter, Malcolm recorded the following “Spell in the Library” short video capturing some of the remarkable documents from the Beinecke MacDonald Collection that we all got to examine:
Willis Jackson Magruder, 89, of Kirksville, Missouri, died Sunday, November 17, 2024 at his home in Kirksville. Jack was born on Wednesday, August 7, 1935 in his grandmother’s home in Lentner, MO, the son of Charles Franklin Magruder and Jewell Maude Wood Magruder.
When he was 7 years old the family relocated to Kirksville to take advantage of higher education for their children. All five siblings, beginning with the oldest sister, would eventually graduate from what is now Truman State University, as had Jack’s grandmother in the 1890s.
Jack’s first memory in Kirksville is of riding his bike on campus in front of Kirk Memorial. He thought it was the most beautiful building he had ever seen. All his family “old ones” had photos taken in front of Kirk Memorial for special occasions. Years later his oldest grandson would hold his wedding reception in that building.
Jack graduated from Kirksville High School with the Class of 1953 and was a proud member of the 1950 Kirksville Tigers football Hall of Fame team. As a senior in high school Jack joined the US Naval Reserves with his classmates and friends, Don Noble and H.A. Lindberg. They served together until their honorable discharges in May 1961. Jack remained active in class reunions for 71 years and cherished his special life-long friendships.
After high school graduation, while standing in the summer class registration line for Northeast Missouri State Teachers College, he met a beautiful young woman named Sue Brimer. On their first date Jack told her that he was going to marry her and that he dreamed of someday becoming a science education professor at the college. Two months later, on August 4, 1954, they were married at First Baptist Church in Kirksville.
Even before his graduation from Northeast Missouri State Teachers College in 1957, Jack began his career as an educator teaching math at Hurdland and Kirksville high schools. The next several years were spent moving around the country (Iowa, Colorado, California, Louisiana) while Jack pursued his Masters and Doctoral degrees, Sue taught elementary school, and they grew their family. In 1964 the family returned to Kirksville where Jack had been offered a job teaching in the science division at Northeast Missouri State College, fulfilling that dream he had shared with Sue on their first date. For 22 years Jack taught Chemistry and Science Education in the building now known as Magruder Hall. In 1986 he became Science Division Head, later Dean of Instruction and Vice President of Academic Affairs. As President (1994-2003), he led the name change to Truman State University.
In 2008 Jack was named President of A.T. Still University in Kirksville, MO becoming the only president of both Kirksville institutions. He retired from ATSU in 2012. Jack then returned to teaching chemistry at the Kirksville campus of Moberly Area Community College in 2014.
In 1966 Jack and Sue built their house in the country east of Kirksville on what is now known as Willis Creek Ranch. There they welcomed generations of students from around the world, and countless gatherings of friends and family. They raised their family with superb love and dedication, leaving a legacy of faith, hope, and love.
Jack was skilled both in riding and driving teams of horses. For decades he cherished time spent with his brothers, Charles and Mitch, riding horses and camping together for ‘Guys Weekends’. Jack also shared this love of horses with his grandchildren; teaching them to ride, carrying them on sleigh rides in the winter while dressed as Santa Claus, and entering parades with them filling the wagon waving flags. His horses were such an important part of his life that they participated in special events at Truman. Frosty, his white mare, was present at the dedication of Magruder Hall and Governor, his beloved palomino, attended Jack and Sue’s retirement reception at the backyard of the Truman President’s house. His love of horses and the rural lifestyle led to his appointment by Governor Jay Nixon to the Missouri State Fair Commission. Jack and his family made many memories through the years enjoying campsites side-by-side at the Missouri State Fair, a legacy that continues with the next generation.*
In 1992 Jack heard the song “Look At Us” on the radio and hand copied the lyrics in a love letter to Sue. He was correct that their love was the embodiment of the song – and that love lives on.
Look at us after all these years together.
Look at us after all that we’ve been through.
Look at us still leaning on each other.
If you wanna see how true love should be then just look at us.
Look at us still believing in forever…
If you wanna see how true love should be then just look at us.
Jack and Sue dedicated their lives to education and service to others. Together they taught young-married and college-age Sunday school classes for many years in the churches they attended, including First United Methodist Church where they were members since 1989.
Jack’s toughest battle began in 1987 when he was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer and given a minimal chance of survival. Throughout 2 years of grueling treatment with radiation and chemotherapy, he never stopped working as Science Division Head, often returning to the office each morning before driving to Columbia in the afternoon for treatments. While always a man of deep faith, this time in his life refocused him on what was important in terms of his love of family, friends and his relationship with God. He stated, “I would never want anyone to go through that, but I feel it enriched my life greatly in the end.”
He distilled his faith in a handwritten note in the margin of his Bible near the passage “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:35-39):
“Forgive everyone everything every night”
Jack brought out the best in everyone he encountered. All would rise to what he saw in us. His gratitude, generosity, kindness, and joy overflowed right up to the end of his life when medical personnel remarked in astonishment that he was “the most thankful person they had ever met”.
Jack was preceded in death by his beloved wife of nearly 67 years, Sue Brimer Magruder, in May 2021. Also preceding him were his parents, Charles and Jewell, and his siblings, Marjorie Magruder Glass, Carolyn Magruder Baughman, Charles Magruder and Mitch Magruder.
He is survived by 3 children, Julie Beth Magruder Lochbaum, Kerry Vaughn Magruder (Candace), and Laura Ellen Magruder Mann (Marvin). Grandchildren include Rachel (Stephen) Folmar, James (Rojina) Lochbaum, Hannah Magruder, Anna (Matthew) Matheney, Jackson (Brianna) Mann, Susanna Magruder, and Jonathan Mann. Great grandchildren include Maverick Mann, Aasha Lochbaum, Carlile Mann, Ethan Folmar, Rosa Lochbaum, and a 6th (baby Mann) on the way.
Funeral service will be Saturday, November 23, 2024 at 1:00 pm at First United Methodist Church in Kirksville followed immediately by a graveside service. A public service of remembrance will be held on Sunday, November 24, 2024 at 2:00 pm in the Student Union Georgian Room at Truman State University.
Pallbearers are James Lochbaum, Stephen Folmar, Matthew Matheney, Jackson Mann, Jonathan Mann and Zac Burden. Honorary Pallbearers are Brian Degenhardt, Pete Detweiler, Marvin Mann, Matt Matheney, Dorothy Munch, Bob Nothdurft, Mary Rhodes Russell, Margaret Wilson, and Heinz Woehlk.
* Personal note: The obituary is severely edited; we could have written a book! Three more “horse” examples, among hundreds we might have listed: (1) Dad rode Banjo, the first horse born on the property, 120 miles to Jefferson City MO as part of the 1976 US Bicentennial Wagon Train. After Banjo’s death, Dad prepared four plaques with Banjo’s horse shoes, one for him and one for each of us kids, using slabs of beautiful walnut from a fallen tree near the creek. To this day, I treasure that plaque in our bedroom. (2) One winter when I was barely a teen, Dad bought a share in 100 head of cows kept on a neighbor’s property a couple miles or so farther out from town. Every afternoon that year he and I would saddle up horses to go check on the cows. In case there might be sufficient time after they were all fed and accounted for, I kept a pair of ice-skates in the saddlebags to go out on one of the ponds (it was colder back then). Later, I realized we weren’t doing this for the money; Dad was doing it to spend time with me and to share with me his love of horses. To create time for ranch activities is one of the reasons Dad taught 7:30am chem labs all those years. (3) During his week of hospice care, grandson Jackson — the latest “horse whisperer” in the family — brought Zeus by to check on him. This magnificent horse wanted to come in by Dad; Jackson had to hold him back.
Zeus, checking on Dad
Saturday, November 23, 1:00 p.m.: Funeral service, First United Methodist Church, Kirksville. This service will be livestreamed from the FUMC Facebook page. Graveside service at Highland Park cemetery immediately following. All are welcome. Facebook video (with comments). Youtube video (without comments):
Sunday, November 24, 2:00 p.m.: Public visitation/Memorial Service, Truman State University, Student Union, Georgian Room. All are welcome.
“But if you believe that the Son of God died and rose again, your whole future is full of the dawn of an eternal morning, coming up beyond the hills of this life, and full of such hope as the highest imagination for the poet has not a glimmer of yet.” — George MacDonald, Proving the Unseen, p. 9.
After a week of 24-hour home care with hospice support, his bed positioned to catch the golden light of autumn streaming through the large French windows and to watch the horses browsing in the south pasture, we thank God for his mercy in welcoming Dad home. At 5:32 this afternoon, Dad passed peacefully and imperceptibly from this far country. All his life he loved us all so well, showing us the heart of the Father. Now he has entered into the dawn of an incomparable morning in the company of all the loved ones who have gone before.
A friend imagined Mother waiting for him on the porch there with a cup of coffee. She told him Banjo and Governor were out back. (Michael, we all agree; that sounds exactly right!)
For us, this world has changed forever. We are all united in spirit, sharing joys and tears, finding comfort together, supported by family, church, community, and friends near and far. Thank you for your prayers and support at this time.
An old Scottish song speaks of the parting of a loved one: You’ll take the high road, and I’ll take the low road, and you’ll be in Scotland before me. Dad has taken the high road. We’re still on the low road, far from Scotland, far from home. He’s gone on ahead of us, with all the others. The veil grows thin. We are very blessed, but the New Creation is even better. From this far country, that feels like our true home now more than ever.
We found an annotated passage from Matthew 22 in one of Dad’s Bibles. Above it, he recorded advice to remember which he faithfully practiced all his life: “Forgive everyone, everything, every night.”
Mother and Dad’s love for each other, and for everyone they encountered, is of such a quality that those who experienced it find it difficult to believe there is no New Creation. Rather, the reality of their love summons forth a quietly-confident hope in the Resurrection. As they lived out hope for us, so we now hold that hope for others. George MacDonald had a similar relationship with his loving father, I think, which inspired him to write the words quoted above.
Link: Magruder Lassies, Hymn Medley (Amazing Grace, How Can I Keep From Singing, Let All Things Now Living, How Firm a Foundation; audio only). In Dad’s room today, we played this on loop for most of the morning. It includes a song that has been on my heart for weeks now:
Our lives flow on in endless song
above earth’s lamentation:
We catch the sweet, though far off, hymn
that hails a new creation.
Through all the tumult and the strife,
We hear that music ringing.
It finds an echo in the soul —
how can we keep from singing?
A salt-water aquarium lies just outside the photo margin on the right… the Commodore 64 keyboard perches on the aquarium stand… and plugs into the TV… with rabbit ears… The arm of my green reading chair, which I still have, in the lower right… All the pottery, each with a story, like the blown glass green vase from Jamestown in the upper left… A tall mug for IBC Root Beer… What were we doing with that hammer anyway? A world map just because. Files for all kinds of topics in the metal cabinet… An old white desk I had used for always… Top-of-the-line headphones plugged into the cassette player because I couldn’t afford quality speakers… My best friend, then and now, doing magic on the guitar in my own living room.
During a night vigil, thoughts move naturally to good memories, so in the early morning hours I was glad to find this photo. Not because the photo is artistically composed or skillfully shot — ha! far from it — but because every detail evokes its time and season in my life, and the faithfulness of God through the many years since.
Our lives flow on in endless song above earth’s lamentation: We catch the sweet, though far off, hymn that hails a new creation.
Through all the tumult and the strife, We hear that music ringing. It finds an echo in the soul — how can we keep from singing?
Singing, like friendship, is a potent form of resistance. This is not a time for despair, but a call to begin the work anew. As the country, the world, and not least the evangelical church in America all descend deeper into darkness and chaos, we hope and work all the more.
When ‘church’ becomes a lordless power
And so it seems that all is lost
There still remains in this dark hour
The mystery of our Saviour’s cross.
The way of suffering love is open
There for any one to take
To stand in love with those who suffer
Suffer with them for his sake
Better that our church be powerless
Better that it cast away
All its claims to pomp and glory
Learn instead to fast and pray
Learn instead to fast and pray
Kamala’s concession speech is perfect (less than 12 mins). “Only when it is dark enough can we see the stars.” Undaunted hope, undaunted courage. Commitment to the rule of law. Inspiring, especially encouraging for younger people trying to process so many conflicting emotions.
While watching early election returns, feeling like I’m watching Biff’s success in Back to the Future Part II, I’ll practice resistance through singing…
My life flows on in endless song above earth’s lamentation: I catch the sweet, though far off, hymn that hails a new creation.
Through all the tumult and the strife, I hear that music ringing. It finds an echo in my soul — how can I keep from singing?
What though my joys and comforts die? The Lord, my Savior, liveth. What though the darkness round me close? Songs in the night he giveth.
No storm can shake my inmost calm while to that Rock I’m clinging, Since Love is Lord of heaven and earth, how can I keep from singing?
I lift my eyes; the cloud grows thin;
I see the blue above it;
And day by day this pathway smooths,
Since first I learned to love it,
The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart, a fountain ever springing. All things are mine since I am his! How can I keep from singing?
I support Harris and recommend The Bulwark, whose work will be all the more important in coming years. Whether Harris squeaks out a narrow win or not (as now looks likely), our job will be to hope and not despair, to resist and not become demoralized, to seek truth and reconciliation rather than give in to fear and hate.
As an example of the Music of the Spheres tradition and how it can fortify us for the times ahead, consider Sam Gamgee, the hero (as Ralph Wood argues) of The Lord of the Rings: “Far above the Ephel Dúath in the West the night sky was still dim and pale. There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a bright star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach. His song in the Tower had been defiance rather than hope; for then he was thinking of himself. Now, for a moment, his own fate, and even his master’s, ceased to trouble him. He crawled back into the brambles and laid himself by Frodo’s side, and putting away all fear he cast himself into a deep untroubled sleep.”
Dorothy L. Sayers, during World War II, on suffering: The life of God is a pattern of suffering, and so all history shares in it. Something like this — a robust attitude toward our calling to suffer in unity with the sins of our fellow humans, citizens, and communities — may paradoxically become welcome news in dark times. It is good news for those who suffer that by doing so we are sharing in the very life of God. In this way lies hope. More…
From my teen years, whenever my home-town church would have a hymn sing — even in July — I remember calling out from one of the back rows the request to sing Joy to the World (hymnary.org):
Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns!
Let all their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.
No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.
Joy to the world, the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And heav’n and nature sing,
And heav’n and nature sing,
And heav’n, and heav’n, and nature sing.
One of the joys of the Painters-Prophets-Poets conference in Oklahoma City this year was meeting Hannah Anderson. She was one of the conference organizers along with Travis Lowe, and a most able facilitator and an articulate, sympathetic interviewer. I then began to read her books of nature writing, from Humble Roots to Turning of the Days; her beautifully-illustrated children’s book The World God Made; and her Bible study Life Under the Sun (sometimesalight.com). Across all these genres, Hannah writes as an attentive observer, a deep listener to the voices of those around her — including the voices of nature. She gives voice to creation’s praise and grief, far as the curse is found, hearing all their songs resound. Through her writing, we have the privilege of seeing through her eyes and hearing with her, as did the Psalmist, the music of the spheres, a harmony of the book of God’s works and the book of God’s Living Word.
I find there is never time enough between Thanksgiving and Epiphany to reflect adequately upon the mystery of the Incarnation. This is why I make a point every year to make room for silence in which to read and re-read the books that help me more fully enter in to the mystery. Some I read every year, like Brother Benny’s volume on the nativity in his Jesus of Nazareth trilogy and Wintersong by Madeleine L’Engle and Luci Shaw. Other classics rotate through the years, like Bonhoeffer, God in the Manger; Malcolm Guite, Waiting on the Word; and Tolkien, Letters from Father Christmas. These reappear on a regular basis alongside something new. Last year’s something new included Amy Orr-Ewing, Mary’s Voice; Emily Hunter McGowin, Christmas; and Fleming Rutledge, Epiphany.
In these brief reflections, Hannah tells the story of the nativity “through the lens of the natural world,” to “consider how not just we, but all of creation, waits for our Creator King.” As she scours the natural world around her for the particular ways we experience nature in the winter holiday season, she wonders “if we’re really scouring for hope… like the earth itself, we’re waiting, holding our breath in anticipation, longing to believe that something more is happening, that something more is coming.” For Hannah, nature is our “partner in hope,” an “unexpected ally in the work of hope.” She explains:
“I want to invite you into this story afresh. To consider the Christmas narrative from a slightly different perspective — to think of all the ways Jesus’ coming changed and will change the world. To truly believe that in response to the Savior’s reign, ‘fields and floods/Rocks, hills and plains/Repeat the sounding joy.'”
Did the Incarnation change the world? In my early teens, whether staying up into the wee hours on Christmas Eve to decorate our living room or singing my favorite carol in the summertime, even then I knew this same mystery was calling me. It is a joy to follow with Hannah on that continuing journey.
While traveling on I-35 today, I listened to it on loop for several hours. What an incredible selection of songs, so joyously expressed in an uplifting Arcadian Wild mode. It succeeds, as they hoped, in highlighting “some Christmas tunes that, while still timeless and beautiful, don’t often make it on everyone’s playlist each year.” Here’s what I wrote on their Facebook page when I made a brief stop for gas:
Every song on the album is now already a favorite of mine, starting with the opener “Come Thou Long Expected Jesus” (lyrics), followed by Christina Rosetti’s “In the Bleak Midwinter” (lyrics; which reminds of me of our family’s a cappella rendition).
They make the verses of “O Come All Ye Faithful” (lyrics) joyful and triumphant!
“Nations That Long In Darkness Walked,” written c. 1752 by John Barnard (hymnary.org), features Bailey on vocals, then joined by Jill Phillips and Andy Gullahorn, with harmonies in a captivating arrangement (lyrics). Although new to me, this carol — whose lyrics call to mind Handel’s Messiah — is now instantly one of my favorites! I just absolutely love this song.
The moving ballad of “Good King Wenceslas” (lyrics) helps me imagine following in the footsteps of Christ, especially in his care for the poor. It also awakens fond memories from several weeks in the Czech Republic some time ago.
With “Up on the Housetop” I feel invited to imagine Lincoln, Isaac, and Bailey are jamming in our living room, with extended friends and family all around.
Kamala Harris has earned my deep admiration and respect. I’m so happy and proud to be casting my vote for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. She is my favorite presidential candidate since Bush 41 in 1988. I’m delighted to vote for Tim as well (just wish I had thought to dress up as Walz for Halloween!).
This speech is only 30 mins. 75,000 people gathered to hear it in person; more than twice as many as gathered January 6, 2020.
For any of my friends who are still wondering what they should do, I would say just watch this speech, then watch her conversation on Oct 21 with Sarah Longwell and Liz Cheney (two remarkable former Republicans). If you’re still in doubt, read Liz Cheney’s Oath and Honor, and follow The Bulwark. For me, having been “never Trump” all the way, this is an easy call.
