Monthly Archives: April 2006

A Hymn for Good Friday…

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We sang this tonight at the Good Friday service. It is one of my favorite Holy Week hymns.

Ah, holy Jesus, how hast Thou offended,
That man to judge Thee hath in hate pretended?
By foes derided, by Thine own rejected,
O most afflicted.

Who was the guilty? Who brought this upon Thee?
Alas, my treason, Jesus, hath undone Thee.
â????Twas I, Lord, Jesus, I it was denied Thee!
I crucified Thee.

Lo, the Good Shepherd for the sheep is offered;
The slave hath sinned, and the Son hath suffered;
For manâ????s atonement, while he nothing heedeth,
God intercedeth.

For me, kind Jesus, was Thy incarnation,
Thy mortal sorrow, and Thy lifeâ????s oblation;
Thy death of anguish and Thy bitter passion,
For my salvation.

Therefore, kind Jesus, since I cannot pay Thee,
I do adore Thee, and will ever pray Thee,
Think on Thy pity and Thy love unswerving,
Not my deserving.
–LBW 123

Why Can’t My Church’s Publishing House Be This Cool?!?!?!?!?

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I know I’m going to end up enduring the flames of Hades (or the ice depending on how much of a sin reading Dooce is) but…

I heart Heather Armstrong and I so heart the review she does of this book.

*heavy sigh* Lutherans just don’t do the apocalypse thing that well.Â? Heaven for us will be hotdish and jello and singing hymns in “the mother tongue”. (Umm… is that German?Â? Norwegian?Â? Swedish?Â? Danish?Â? Swahili?)Â? We’re too nice to conceive of all the crap in the Left Behind books.Â? Well… I shouldn’t say that because there is a semi-fundie strain in some ELCA churches that is into that stuff.Â? (Isn’t “Focus on the Family” a little *not* in line with some orthodox Lutheran tenets?)

Heavy Sigh

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I was having a wonderful dream where I was getting to experience one of those exclusive things celebrities come up with (in this case, fudge that was cat-friendly and something else that had special scents but was all-natural or something) and Andrea Bocelli was singing.Â? I reached out and held his hand and was enjoying it when all of a sudden…

BREEEEEEEEEEEEEHCH!Â? BREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEHCH!

I woke up and Finian was spitting up his breakfast.Â? I had to leave Andrea and the cat-friendly fudge and clean up the cat vomit before Freya decided to eat it!

CATS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Observing Grief (IX)

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When I was in Washington in March, my mom and I were talking about poetry and what we would read at my grandfather’s funeral. This is one that she suggested and I just found it on the Internet.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds, â???? and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of â???? wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there,
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . .

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I’ve topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew â????
And, while with silent, lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
–John Gillespie Magee, Jr (a RCAF officer killed in WWII)

My grandfather was a Navy pilot in WWII, flew with United Airlines, and used to take my brother and I up in his plane when we were little. Believe me, this fits well.