Amen, and Amen again.
A blessed Easter, to one and all.
Christ is risen. That fact is our bedrock, our immovable basis for hope in this life and beyond.
Showing posts with label Easter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Easter. Show all posts
Saturday, April 23, 2011
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Singing Bach In The Ruins: Easter 1950 Dresden, Easter 2011 Here
A Facebook friend sent along a link to this video a few days ago, and OS has been meditating upon since seeing it. It's a 1950 recording of a German boy named Peter Schreier, singing one of the alto arias from Bach's St. John Passion--Es ist vollbracht--It is finished.
Schreier grew up, and became one of the great tenors of the twentieth century. It's easy to hear the promise in that boy's voice as he sings.
What struck OS most was not just the boy's voice. It was the boy's voice, recorded so beautifully in 1950 Dresden, still in rubble from the British fire-bombing of World War II. It was a miracle he was alive, and that Bach was still being played, sung and recorded in that place that year.
The video is worth viewing for the beauty of the music, and for the photos that pan as the music plays. The most telling is a shot of the boys choir in their cassocks, outside the church, singing in a rubble-filled street. They literally sang Bach amongst the ruins of one of the world's great cities. They kept showing up, despite the devastation around them, and the losses they had suffered, to sing Bach in church.
OS has friends who recently visited Dresden and Leipzig, and attended concerts and services in the old Lutheran churches. They came back with reports that faith and hope were alive and well in those buildings, in contrast to the weary cynicism encountered in The West.
Easter approaches, and OS wishes his readers a blessed one. We live in much more comfort, most of us, than those children in Dresden, but to hold to a Christian faith here increasingly means singing in the ruins of a culture that decided to self-destruct.
The message is--It is finished. Evil cannot possibly win in the end, because death itself has been conquered. And we will not always sing in the ruins. There is a day and time appointed when all will be set right.
Until then, though, we sing.
Lyrics:
Es ist vollbracht!
O Trost vor die gekränkten Seelen!
Die Trauernacht
Läßt nun die letzte Stunde zählen.
Der Held aus Juda siegt mit Macht
und schließt den Kampf.
Es ist vollbracht!
Translation:
It is fulfilled!
O hope for ev'ry ailing spirit!
The night of grief
Is now its final hours counting.
The man of Judah wins with might
And ends the fight.
It is fulfilled!
Schreier grew up, and became one of the great tenors of the twentieth century. It's easy to hear the promise in that boy's voice as he sings.
What struck OS most was not just the boy's voice. It was the boy's voice, recorded so beautifully in 1950 Dresden, still in rubble from the British fire-bombing of World War II. It was a miracle he was alive, and that Bach was still being played, sung and recorded in that place that year.
The video is worth viewing for the beauty of the music, and for the photos that pan as the music plays. The most telling is a shot of the boys choir in their cassocks, outside the church, singing in a rubble-filled street. They literally sang Bach amongst the ruins of one of the world's great cities. They kept showing up, despite the devastation around them, and the losses they had suffered, to sing Bach in church.
OS has friends who recently visited Dresden and Leipzig, and attended concerts and services in the old Lutheran churches. They came back with reports that faith and hope were alive and well in those buildings, in contrast to the weary cynicism encountered in The West.
Easter approaches, and OS wishes his readers a blessed one. We live in much more comfort, most of us, than those children in Dresden, but to hold to a Christian faith here increasingly means singing in the ruins of a culture that decided to self-destruct.
The message is--It is finished. Evil cannot possibly win in the end, because death itself has been conquered. And we will not always sing in the ruins. There is a day and time appointed when all will be set right.
Until then, though, we sing.
Lyrics:
Es ist vollbracht!
O Trost vor die gekränkten Seelen!
Die Trauernacht
Läßt nun die letzte Stunde zählen.
Der Held aus Juda siegt mit Macht
und schließt den Kampf.
Es ist vollbracht!
Translation:
It is fulfilled!
O hope for ev'ry ailing spirit!
The night of grief
Is now its final hours counting.
The man of Judah wins with might
And ends the fight.
It is fulfilled!
Sunday, April 4, 2010
Happy Easter: O Death, Where Is Thy Sting?
Before driving off to church, a thought or two:
That Nazarene rabbi, so shamefully murdered on Friday by the PowersThatBe of his day, walked out of the tomb on Sunday morning, alive.
That changed, and changes everything.
If we can remember that one fact as we face each day, the world looks different, and our place in it takes on a cheerful significance. Anything is possible, and evil cannot overcome love. Love has already won. We need not fear, even though we do.
Paul embraced this idea, never backed down, even in the face of Nero and his crew:
Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?....Therefore, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord; forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
Happy Easter.
That Nazarene rabbi, so shamefully murdered on Friday by the PowersThatBe of his day, walked out of the tomb on Sunday morning, alive.
That changed, and changes everything.
If we can remember that one fact as we face each day, the world looks different, and our place in it takes on a cheerful significance. Anything is possible, and evil cannot overcome love. Love has already won. We need not fear, even though we do.
Paul embraced this idea, never backed down, even in the face of Nero and his crew:
Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?....Therefore, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord; forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
Happy Easter.
Friday, April 2, 2010
Good Friday 2010: Bonhoeffer Reminds Us
Quotes from a much better mind than the one who types away here:
Dietrich Bonhoeffer--'After Ten Years'--from Letters and Papers from Prison:
The great masquerade of evil has played havoc with all our ethical concepts. For evil to appear disguised as light, charity, historical necessity, or social justice is quite bewildering to anyone brought up on our traditional ethical concepts, while for the Christian who bases his life on the Bible, it merely confirms the fundamental wickedness of evil.
He details the futility of standing up to evil on one's own. By the time he penned these words in December of 1942, he had seen much, and worse was yet to come.
Still, he affirms:
I believe that God can and will bring good out of evil, even out of the greatest evil. For that purpose he needs men who make the best use of everything. A faith such as this should allay all our fears for the future.
OS never ceases to scratch his grey head in wonder at how Providence works its will.
'Good Friday': The day the politicians, clergy, lawyers and bankers all got together and arranged the public murder of the greatest man who ever walked the earth, the man who threatened to pull their world apart just by showing up and being himself.
All done legally, cleanly, and at arm's length of course. By day's end, the Nazarene rabbi was dead and gone, his posse scattered and awaiting the inevitable mopping-up operation, and the soldier in charge of the execution detail wondering aloud if perhaps a tragic mistake had been made. Caiaphas, Herod and Pilate all slept well, a good day's work done, if a bit unpleasant at points. Pilate's wife probably less so, remembering her premonition that had been ignored by her husband. She rightly sensed that history itself would cave in upon them all as a result of this day, with no place to hide in all of eternity.
For the rabbi's family and friends, a day of horrific tragedy, all hopes dashed, all plans in ruins, all faith shattered, with a close friend's betrayal followed by suicide thrown in for good measure. Their entire world had been turned upside down, with evil masquerading as light, charity, historical necessity, social justice. Moreover, they had no place to hide where Rome could not find them.
No one could have suspected what was about to follow.
That is our basis and definition of Hope. Not based on our own desires or wishes, fears and dreams, or even our secular take upon the events of the day, but upon what we know occurred in time and space. Good Friday is not the end of the story. Not then, and not now.
These are dark days, to be certain. But not hopeless days.
So, while we're here, let's make the best use of everything.
From Christ's final discourse in the Gospel of John:
Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer--'After Ten Years'--from Letters and Papers from Prison:
The great masquerade of evil has played havoc with all our ethical concepts. For evil to appear disguised as light, charity, historical necessity, or social justice is quite bewildering to anyone brought up on our traditional ethical concepts, while for the Christian who bases his life on the Bible, it merely confirms the fundamental wickedness of evil.
He details the futility of standing up to evil on one's own. By the time he penned these words in December of 1942, he had seen much, and worse was yet to come.
Still, he affirms:
I believe that God can and will bring good out of evil, even out of the greatest evil. For that purpose he needs men who make the best use of everything. A faith such as this should allay all our fears for the future.
OS never ceases to scratch his grey head in wonder at how Providence works its will.
'Good Friday': The day the politicians, clergy, lawyers and bankers all got together and arranged the public murder of the greatest man who ever walked the earth, the man who threatened to pull their world apart just by showing up and being himself.
All done legally, cleanly, and at arm's length of course. By day's end, the Nazarene rabbi was dead and gone, his posse scattered and awaiting the inevitable mopping-up operation, and the soldier in charge of the execution detail wondering aloud if perhaps a tragic mistake had been made. Caiaphas, Herod and Pilate all slept well, a good day's work done, if a bit unpleasant at points. Pilate's wife probably less so, remembering her premonition that had been ignored by her husband. She rightly sensed that history itself would cave in upon them all as a result of this day, with no place to hide in all of eternity.
For the rabbi's family and friends, a day of horrific tragedy, all hopes dashed, all plans in ruins, all faith shattered, with a close friend's betrayal followed by suicide thrown in for good measure. Their entire world had been turned upside down, with evil masquerading as light, charity, historical necessity, social justice. Moreover, they had no place to hide where Rome could not find them.
No one could have suspected what was about to follow.
That is our basis and definition of Hope. Not based on our own desires or wishes, fears and dreams, or even our secular take upon the events of the day, but upon what we know occurred in time and space. Good Friday is not the end of the story. Not then, and not now.
These are dark days, to be certain. But not hopeless days.
So, while we're here, let's make the best use of everything.
From Christ's final discourse in the Gospel of John:
Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.
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