Singing Sunday

Singing Sunday:

I’m taking a chapter from The Mountain Brooke playbook and naming a day and the purpose for a blog!

Behold the Singing Sunday!

I know a certain redhead
with gaudy pipes of gold
who could a song so sweetly sing
and gladden hearts so cold

I miss my friend and hearing her sing on Sundays and Wednesday nights and the random times a favorite song of hers was on the radio or her computers and she just had to let me know how much she liked it by singing along to it.

So I’m instituting singing Sundays – because its mainly when I get to blog and thus reference a particular hymn and how it makes me feel from church. Today is “I could not do without thee” - Czech out the whole hymn here - but for now, the two most impactful stanzas to me from the hymn by Frances Havergal:

I could not do without Thee,
O Jesus, Savior dear;
E’en when my eyes are holden,
I know that Thou art near.
How dreary and how lonely
This changeful life would be,
Without the sweet communion,
The secret rest with Thee!

I could not do without Thee;
No other friend can read
The spirit’s strange deep longings,
Interpreting its need;
No human heart could enter
Each dim recess of mine,
And soothe, and hush, and calm it,
O blessèd Lord, but Thine.

Rend Your Heart

The opening sentence in today's morning prayer service is from Joel 2:13,

"Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and He relents from sending calamity."

The image I get in my head when reading this is of Hulk Hogan ripping his shirt at the beginning of a wrestling match. What does this action signify in the Jewish mind, though? In ancient Israel, rending (or tearing) your outer clothing was a sign of mourning. It demonstrated grief mixed with deep regret and was a ritual sign of heartbreak. It presents the mourner and those present with the ability to express their sorrow, in effect creating a sort of emotional opening for each person to release the feelings of his or her heart.

Joel was speaking to a rebellious people who used the action of rending their garments as proof of their devotion to the Lord. To the people around them they appeared to be repentant, but the condition of their hearts was a different matter. They fell into the trap that we see time and time again in our society of “fake it ‘til you make it.” We suppose that if we can fool everyone else into believing some lie about us, whether it be how secure we are, how pious we are, etc, we will eventually become what we desire. Sadly, we do not even know we are living this way until the fruit of our works is made known to us, through the Holy Spirit or other people. The truth of the matter is that we can only become who we were created to be as we die to ourselves more and more and allow the perfection of Christ to shine through us.

Each of us has reason to mourn and rend our garments. We lament our sinfulness in the presence of the Most High and cry out to Him to make us new in Him. Our hearts ache to be made whole and our souls sigh with longing to be loved. Sometimes we mourn the death of hopes and dreams we idolized. Paul wrote to the Corinthians that “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death (2 Cor. 7:10).” If we act like the children of Israel and try and pretend we are repentant, but really are not, we actually hurt our own heart and God can see our pretense for what it truly is.
We can look to David, a man after God’s own heart and see what true repentance looks like. Psalm 51 resounds with the heart of the penitent and gives hope in verse 17: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

Let each of us in this season of Lent come before our Maker with a broken spirit and a contrite heart so that the joy of our salvation may be renewed within us, for then and only then will we be empowered to show transgressors the Way, the Truth and the Life!

“All things are yours!”

In this season of Lent, its important to remember that the more we grow, it is to the glory of God and not ourselves. Furthermore, even though this is a season of external giving-up, it results in spiritual gain.

1 Cor. 13:16-23
“Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him; for God's temple is sacred, and you are that temple.
Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a "fool" so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight. As it is written: "He catches the wise in their craftiness"; and again, "The Lord knows that the thoughts of the wise are futile." So then, no more boasting about men! All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the world or life or death or the present or the future—all are yours, and you are of Christ, and Christ is of God.”

Okay so, I really liked this reading from the Epistle today – it reminds me of God’s inward dwelling presence in us through the Holy Spirit; Which is another mental block against giving into temptation and succeeding in testing – we bring the presence of God with us wherever we go.

But not so fast, Paul smacks us back down to earth before we get too full of ourselves “Do not deceive yourselves. If any one of you thinks he is wise by the standards of this age, he should become a "fool" so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness in God's sight.”

I often think of the times when tempted we try to rationalize our disobedience or sin. I know I am taking this verse someone out of context, but I do try to get “crafty” with God when I make an excuse for what I did or am about to do that I know is wrong. With God’s presence comes God’s conviction. I also love that Paul declares “So then, no more boasting about men! All things are yours!”

It reminds me that Giants in the Faith became that way because of God. Not that their efforts and lives shouldn’t be admired or modeled, but rather that it should not lead us either into false pride in ourselves, or even worse – the fear that we are worse off than a Paul, Apollos or Cephas and inferior. Yet the phrase “All things are yours!” reminds me of the parable in which all the laborers get paid the same even though they worked for different durations of time. It reminds me of Christ’s “So what is it to you?” rebuke to Cephas when Cephas got jealous that John was set aside to see the revelation.


In this period of time we make strides to obtaining “all things”. The body of Christ should not be a place of division or jealousy, but of joy, peace and sharing. Pray for peace and reconciliation – true humility and joy for me and each other and I’ll do likewise. God bless and keep you!

"Sinful, sighing to be blest..."

“God be merciful to me a sinner.” Luke 18:13

Today is the first Sunday of Lent and I've noticed from the readings that it starts out with the temptation of Christ as he fasts in the desert. As my father, Rev. Kingsley Jon-Ubabuco preached this morning - Satan "tempts" us to sin, whereas God tempts us to triumph.

First and formost though, we have to recognize who we are in order to see how God can help us. In Lent we spend time discovering who God is and who we are. As it says in the verse above, we are sinners.
My father mentioned the fact that nowhere in Tiger Wood's recent apology did he mention the fact that he has sinned against God. Naturally - Buddhism is atheistic in nature and it wouldn't have appeared. Yet the reality of sin is that first and foremost, it is an action against God, then ourselves and others.

So this week I am posting the collect of the week to the right and a hymn by Rev. J.S.B. Monsell - it touched me profoundly just to read these simple words, and I hope it blesses you as well.


Sinful,
sighing to be blest,
Bound,
and longing to be free;
Weary,
waiting for my rest:
God,
be merciful to me.

Holiness I’ve none to plead,
Sinfulness is all I see,
I can only bring my need:
God, be merciful to me.

Broken heart and downcast eyes,
Dare not lift themselves to Thee;
Yet Thou canst interpret sighs:
God, be merciful to me.

From this sinful heart of mine
To Thy bosom I would flee;
I am not mine own, but Thine:
God, be merciful to me.

There is One beside Thy throne,
And my only hope and plea
Are in Him and Him alone:
God, be merciful to me.

He my cause will undertake,
My Interpreter will be;
He’s my all, and for His sake,
God, be merciful to me.

"In life - In love; In death - In love"

This post is brought to you today by _ "In Love" - by Jon Foreman off of "The Fall EP"


I was in the grocery store the other day last week shopping for food an hoping to get a St. Valentine’s day card for my parents and my sister.

What annoyed me (yet was in keeping with the law of supply and demand) was that there was every kind of card under the sun for romantic couples and not enough for the other people we love. I literally could find only one card apiece for both parties, which may speak to my procrastination but come on!

The commercialization of holidays really only bugs me when the holidays in question are major Christian feast days (see Christmas and Easter) and the goods to be sold obstructs the God to be honored.

I didn’t feel this way about St. Valentine’s day till recently. Being a man, Valentine’s day was not a day of heartache, dread, anticipation or any other emotion as I’ve overheard from so many sisters – it registered on my scale about as much as Canadian Boxing Day – outside of the candy of course and the fact that the holiday is waaaaay too pink - I generally don't notice it.

However, there I was looking for a card and wishing I had time to make them instead of buy them. There is something even more personal about a handmade one than one purchased at a store. Which got me thinking about the very first Valentine ever given and the reason for this holiday to begin with.

My history is spotty but from what I gathered ad hoc. There were many Valentines in Rome and apparently many who converted to Christianity. From what we collectively discern St. Valentinus/Valentine was a Christian priest who among other duties, performed marriages for young Christian couples in which the man was part of the Roman army. According to legend, St. Valentine was arrested and jailed as Christians were still indiscriminately and arbitrarily persecuted. He was said to be a favorite of Emperor Claudius who held frequent audiences with the prisoner. His fatal mistake, apparently, was trying to convert the Emperor to Christianity, for which he was beheaded. Read more here for a better take on his life.

That said, we probably know more about Valentine from his execution. As legend has it, before he died, Valentine famously wrote a letter to the jailor’s daughter and signed it “From your Valentine” - we don’t know if the letter was romantic or not or even if their relationship was likewise(I think it was platonic), but here we are today – Hallmarked up and looking for cards, candies and flowers while those of an entire gender not romantically engaged sit in some sort of dissatisfaction.

I might be calloused but I look back upon the legend and see that St. Valentine’s life and death had very little to do with romance and more to do with true love. In C.S. Lewis’ wonderful book entitled The Four Loves, he systematically introduces and explains the four different types of love expressed in the Greek and found in the New Testatment: storge - affection, love between family members; philia – friendship; eros – "being in love"/romantic love and agape – or charity which he describes as the love God has for us because it is not prompted. Wikipedia has a more in depth summary here - check it out!

I bring this up because We can look at St. Valentine’s acts of service towards the young couples and his other priestly duties as philia, or even storge. We can look at his friendship with the emperor that way too, and with some imagination we can speculate that his affinity for the jailor’s daughter was romantic.

Ultimately however, what lead him to his death and inspired his life was agape – the love for God that taught him how to love his fellow man.

I didn’t intend to critique Valentine’s day as much as point out what we often miss about the life and death behind it. This is a martyr’s day after all. Jesus once said to his disciples – Greater love has no one but his, that a man should lay down his life for his friends. Which is precisely what Christ did and what inspired his followers, like Valentine, to be willing to do as well.

Judging by his actual life’s example, should St. Valentine’s Day be a day of sacrifice or entitlement?

In the lectionary today we had St. Paul’s famous summary on love found in 1st Corinthians 13

“Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.
It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing
but rejoices in truth.
It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never ends.”

Before St. Paul started writing about love in chapter 13 he wrote - "And I will show you a still more excellent way" to introduce love. A more excellent way indeed that we we know or are used to.

Think about St. Paul's words in the context of St. Valentine. Did he resent being imprisoned or did he endure it? Did he despise the petty emperor that called on him frequently to talk yet depriving him of his liberty, or love him so much that he even dared to share the saving grace of God with him through the gospel of Christ? Did he get consistently irritated at his position in that stinking jail and resentful of his fellow prisoners and captors - or did he care to get to know them, even up to the jailor’s daughter – establishing a friendship and being kind enough to leave her a good by letter before he was executed – most likely to help comfort her?

The example we see in St. Valentine, we saw first in Christ. It does my heart well to be mindful of that, especially with Lent coming up this Wednesday.

Yet, I feel that the negative feelings that latch on to people from this holiday have less to do with a lack of feeling romance or eros, and more with a lack of feeling agape. As my sister told me - as I am an ignorant man - its just good to have a day when someone does something for you just to declare you are special. I'd hate to give the typical Christianese answer "Insert God here, problem solved." We serve a God who looked at Adam and said, "it is not good for man to be alone." However, we should not be like the rest of the world that ultimately lives without hope, that makes romantic love a god in place of the God who made romance, and from whose charity all expressions of true love comes.

All that to say that God is ultimately the model Augustine followed when he wrote that letter to the jailor's daughter. He let everyone from soldiers, newlyweds, emperors, criminals and jailors daughters know that they are someone special, and more importantly, God loves them and gave them the capacity to love him. Not the easiest cure for what ails us but it is the truth and the truth sets us free from a whole host of things.


Happy Valentine’s Day and God bless! I hope the Lord helps me to love Him and you in a more meaningful and Christ-like way today and always.