The Heaven was Opened
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 01/10/2016 - 17:57Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased."
As I drove to church this morning, the heavens opened in a different way and the rain poured down. It was a mighty rain, enough rain, so that if it had been a normal temperature, we would have had two feet of snow. Yet if it had been a normal temperature, we wouldn’t have had this much water in the atmosphere in the first place. Climate change, how are we as Christians going to respond to what our species has down to the world?
At church, the priest spoke about heaven opening. We often think of it in terms of those images from great American films, the clouds parting and the visage of an elderly white man, presumably heterosexual, appears and speaks with a booming voice. Yet it seems, more often than not God speaks in a quiet voice before dawn. Perhaps heaven opens more like the curtain of the temple being torn and all people, no matter what thirty eight church leaders might think of them, are drawn closer to God, to God’s love, and called to show God’s love to one another. Perhaps heaven opens with the recognition that “There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”
Those of you not following Anglican politics may wonder why I chose the number, thirty eight. I am referring to the leaders of the thirty eight provinces in the Anglican Communion who will be gathering this week in Canterbury.
An article in The Telegraph, puts it this way:
The global Anglican Church faces "dire consequences" unless it enforces a traditionalist line on homosexuality at a crucial summit in Canterbury this week, says a leading cleric taking part.
Bishop Mouneer Anis of Egypt, convenor of Anglican primates in the "global south" – the bulk of the church’s 80 million members, told The Sunday Telegraph unless the issue is resolved there will be “irreparable” splits not just between countries and dioceses but even individual parishes.
There is a lot of positioning taking place leading up to this meeting. Archbishop of Canterbury calls for prayer ahead of Primates Meeting.
Online, friends are sharing prayers from The Primates 2016 Prayer Page. My prayer is that heaven might open over Canterbury and God’s love might be manifest. Manifest equally to Bishop Mouneer Anis., to Retired Bishop Gene Robinson, and especially for young gay people driven to suicide because people fail to show God’s love to them.
I pray that the call to repentance for not loving our gay neighbors as ourselves may be loudly heard by all the primates, and that they move on to address more important issues, like refugees, genocide, and climate change.
An Op-Ed in The Guardian put it this way:
As 38 leaders from Anglican churches around the world prepare to meet in Canterbury next week to decide whether they can bear to go on talking to one another, or whether to formalise their schism over sexuality, it’s worth asking whether they have any larger message for the world. Apparently they do. It’s that genocide is more biblical than sodomy.
The hardline African churches preparing to walk out of next week’s meeting are disproportionately involved in wars and in immense civilian suffering.
I pray that church leaders might not rush past the person attacked by haters in their haste to condemn and exclude people with different views from their own.
Sabbath
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sat, 01/09/2016 - 18:58I’m trying hard to get better at slowing down on the weekends. Last night, I stayed up late playing Ingress. There was a big Ingress event in Connecticut, which I helped with, but didn’t go to the after party. When I got home, I did a little exploring in the Dark Web. I hope to write more about that later.
This morning, I went to a poetry group I’m party of. I have notes, ideas and things I need to do as a follow up to that, which will wait until tomorrow. I met some Ingress folks briefly, and then came home and napped. This evening, I am heading out to a party for a friend’s fiftieth birthday.
I have spent very little time online, enough to have about 20 webpages open, that I want to comment on, but that will wait for tomorrow. I spent a little time looking at Facebook, yet not enough time to read through various posts in my blog feed, not to visit some of the other social media sites.
I’ve glanced briefly at email, mostly in terms of gathering information necessary for the day.
So, I’m writing this brief Sabbath blog post, and I’ll try to gather my thoughts tomorrow afternoon. and see what next week is looking like.
Modern Iconography
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Fri, 01/08/2016 - 21:11Today, I was reading a post, Synaxis of St. John the Baptist which had the following:
Grunewald has painted a picture in which he depicts John the Baptist with an unnaturally elongated forefinger pointing to Christ. This same type of finger is used in some Byzantine icons of John the Baptist to express the main purpose of his ministry: the pointing out of Christ as the expected Savior.
It got me thinking, what iconography would be used to depict my life? You life?
The Edna Project
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Thu, 01/07/2016 - 22:04I can’t remember when I first came across Edna. It was probably during a high school poetry class, or perhaps scanning through an anthology. She didn’t make much of an impression. Years later, I saw a one person play about her. It was at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, which I went to regularly back in the 80s. It was a long time ago, and I would often see five or six plays a day, so I must admit, I don’t remember much about the one person play, other than that I enjoyed it.
My next encounter with Edna St. Vincent Millay was as I was listening to the emerging artists selected to play at Falcon Ridge in 2015. One group, was Liz and the Family Tree. I had problems finding them; eventually finding Liz Queler and Seth Farber and their album, The Edna Project. Like with my experience of Edna at the Edinburgh Festival, the songs from the Edna project blended into the mix of the twenty four emerging artists. I enjoyed them, but couldn’t especially remember any of them. In my notes about the emerging artists, I shared a link to their webpage and Facebook page, and simply stated that I hadn’t found a favorite song from them yet.
In December, Liz contacted me on Facebook saying she had just come across my blog post and offered to send me a CD. I must admit, I don’t listen to CDs much anymore. Most of the music I listen to is streaming, but I accepted and when the CD came, I had to figure out where to play it. My laptop doesn’t have a CD player and the CD player in the family room hasn’t been set up for years.
It turns out, however, that my car does have a functioning CD player, and I was looking for something new to listen to on my commute. So, for the past several days, I’ve been listening to The Edna Project repeating on the CD player for an hour and a half each day as I drive to and from work.
I guess a good way to start to think about The Edna Project is to wonder, what would it be like if Edna St. Vincent Millay were a twenty first century singer songwriter? What would it be like, if she trekked from her place in Austerlitz over to Hillsdale?
My teenage daughter has grown up going to Falcon Ridge. She kicked along to the music of Jian Ghomeshi in her mother’s belly. Later, probably when she was around five, she ran up to Dan Navarro to tell him that her favorite song was “Teacher Teacher”. Then, it became Freebo’s “She Loves My Dog More Than Me” that was her favorite song. As she approached her teen years, she started listening to Katy Perry and Taylor Swift and has now moved on to My Chemical Romance, Fallout Boy, and Panic at the Disco. Their music surrounds her just about everywhere she goes.
As I listened to The Edna Project, I could not help but think what a better place this world would be if more teenaged girls listened to Liz Queler and Seth Farber singing the poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay. There is a nuance and subtlety in their music that is missing from most pop music, and there is at least as much romance and intrigue.
So, what songs do I like best from The Edna Project? I’m still not clear. They mingle together in my mind. “There will be rose and rhododendron … The chilly apple from the grass warmed by your living hand … Blessed be death that took my love… like a fish scale or a butterfly’s wing…but, oh, the little hill they took, - I think I am its mother…wonder what sort of people could have had this house before … I will plant bergamot at my kitchen-door…we neither kissed nor spoke …If I can’t be sorry, why, I might as well be glad…scattering the blue dragon-flies… I knew her for a little ghost …”
The CD is still in my car player, and I’m wondering, what other collections of sung, or even read poetry can I find next? I’m listening to Billy Collins read his poetry aloud, and looking for other poetry to listen to in the car.
Not only would the world be a better place is more teenage girls were listening to The Edna Project, but more poets and songwriters should too, and there should be more projects like The Edna Project. It seems like putting Emily Dickinson’s poetry to music other than the Yellow Rose of Texas might be a good step.
To Seek the Unexpected
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Wed, 01/06/2016 - 21:57Perhaps it should be
my resolution
for the New Year
or even
my mantra
for the next twelve months.
To seek the unexpected.
Maybe, it will even become
a poem.
To seek the unexpected.
Like going alone
to an unknown museum
exhibiting
an unknown artist
and finding a new love
instead of running with the crowd
at the big museum
past well known paintings
at their blockbuster
exhibition
or taking the backroads to work,
less direct,
less traffic,
slower,
but worth it
for the different horizons.
This evening I went to church.
It wasn’t a high holy day
like Christmas or Easter.
It wasn’t even Sunday.
It was less than a week
after New Years,
when the usual resolutions
start wearing thin
and your thinking of taking down
the Christmas decorations.
Epiphany.
seeking the unexpected.
What was it like
for the Magi
traveling to a different country
and finding the new ruler
in an unexpected place?
What was it like
for Mary
having strangers visit
after her unexpected
and long expected
labor?
What would it be like
singing the familiar hymns
praying the familiar prayers
with a small group of faithful
on a weeknight?
The one thing
about seeking the unexpected
is that you usually find it
and it is wonderful.
