Nielsen’s Nook

I happened to come across this album (if we may call it that), which is a recording of the Cistercian Monks of Stift Heilgenkreuz. If ever music could compel one to long to lay cruciform for hours before the altar of the LORD, this does. If ever the human voice could sound forth with symphonies of glory, the voices on this piece do merely that. I hope it brings as many worshipful tears to you as are beheld by this music.

If you’d like a copy, buy one through Amazon.

A WTS alumnus, Mark Robinson, has made a nice lecture on John Coltrane and the relation of constraint and contingency as it relates to jazz and to human freedom. If you’re new to jazz you’ll find Mark lectures in a way that will give you not only introduction to jazz but an appreciation for it. The following is the lecture posted at Reformed Blacks of America:

Relearning the analytic through the creative

Years ago I came across paper written by a psychologist regarding the relearning of speech to those whose speech had been impaired by a stroke. I want to say I was an undergraduate at the time, and far to short-sighted to think to retain the paper on file. So I do not have any sort of citation to share with you on this, unfortunately. One aspect of the paper that stuck with me is the assertion that those who had suffered damage to or loss of their speaking faculties could sing what they could not speak. As I recall, a patient was given a card to read aloud and could not do it. However, when the speech-pathologist would encourage them to sing the words, there was an ability present that had been absent before. The article suggested that this was because different parts of the brain are used for speaking than singing. Consequently, the hypothesis went, the therapist could use the undamaged part, in this case the locus where singing is processed, to rebuild and reteach the area of the brain controlling speech which had been damaged.

Singing the Apostles’ Creed to a Two Year Old

Aside from being simply fascinating to me, I have found great application in learning strategies for myself and my child. The hypothesis was modified from, on the one hand, using one area of the brain to reteach another area to, on the other hand, using one area of the brain to reinforce and therefore accelerated another area of the brain. In principle this is not really novel at all. What was new for us was the use of singing to teach a variety of things to new brains and old brains alike.

We started singing the Apostles’ Creed to our daughter in the evenings before bed when she had just turned two (I think). A few months later we would be singing a line and would just stop and wait for her to complete it, like so:

I believe in God the Father __________

In variably Ashley would “fill in the blank” correctly (most of the time). Of course when she began to see that she had learned something herself, she became excited about it and so the learning process was further accelerated.

We started singing children’s books to her. Many children’s books are already in some form of rhyme scheme and the good ones actually have decent meters which lend themselves to singing. For example, Margaret Wise Brown’s Big Red Barn is a book that almost sings itself to you. Ashley has heard this sung to her many times. When she lays down at night to sleep, it is not uncommon to here her rehearsing several pages of the book aloud through the one-way baby monitor.

An Adult Application

So maybe you don’t want to get really good at memorizing entire children’s books. If you’re a parent you know that you will have them memorized regardless of the method you use to share them with your kids - just from the sheer repetition. But what about the world of big people, where learning can be more intimidating the older we get?

When in seminary, it took me two weeks of study to even believe that Hebrew was a language. I still struggle with it relative to Russian and Greek. When I had to memorize the numbers I was cratering. My professor, Rev. Elliott Greene, was definitely going to want to see me counting in Hebrew. Flash cards were killing me so I made up a stupid song that about drove my wife nuts.

ehad, shinaim, shalosh, arbah, hamesh, shesh…

I can still hear that song in my head (and see the cold stares from my wife) and I can still count to ten in Hebrew. If only I could have sang an entire Hebrew grammar I would have retained a lot more of the language.

An Ecclesiastical Reality

Historically, Christian churches have sung at least some of their liturgies. Calvin used to sing the psalms. One church father would write their homilies in metered form and would then sing them to the congregations. Rite One Anglicans today have sung Eucharist services. Even if you are not so-called “high-church” in your disposition, you have likely heard the Lord’s Prayer sung. There are a variety of popular artists that have their versions.

The point is that aside from the aesthetic beauty of such sung components of liturgy, there is a pedagogic component too. There is something about singing that brings something into our minds in a way that seems to remain more accessible to us. Someone told me one time that they could remember all the Led Zeppelin songs they used to listen to as a kid, decades later. But do you remember the conversations you had about the band? Perhaps.

Again the point is that there seems to be something hard wired in human beings to which music appropriates itself in an aesthetic and pedagogical way. Historically, the church has done well to employ this most appropriate method of discipling her members for while majestic propositions and assertions are communicated about the faith, it is done in a way beautiful and more readily learned by those singing.

One of the most brutal sermons and Sunday school lesson for which I have had to prepare is for 1 John 3:11-18.  I am confronted with a hollow sounding words that my lips seek to circumscribe as the arid and the acrid exhaust past them.  I have found these lyrics as a wet salve caking in the fissures of my heart. If only the lovelessness in my own heart would trouble me as deeply as the lovelessness of others.  Lord Jesus, Son of the Living God, have mercy upon me, a sinner.

I need Thee every hour, most gracious Lord
No tender voice like Thine can peace afford

I need Thee every hour, stay Thou nearby
Temptations lose their power
When Thou art nigh

I need thee, oh, I need thee, every hour I need Thee
I need thee, I need thee, I need Thee every hour

I need Thee every hour in joy or pain
Come quickly and abide or life is in vain
I need Thee, oh, I need Thee, every hour I need Thee
I need Thee, I need Thee, I need Thee every hour
I need Thee, I need Thee, I need Thee every hour

Oh, bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee
Oh, bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee
I need Thee every hour, teach me Thy will
And Thy rich promises in me fulfill

I need Thee, oh, I need Thee
Oh I need Thee every hour
I need Thee, I need Thee, I need Thee every hour
I need Thee, I need Thee, I need Thee every hour

Oh, bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee¹

_________

¹ Lyrics from "I need thee every hour" on the album Redemption Songs by Jars of Clay.

This is a fine meditation for those who would understand the gravity of their sin and the magnanimity of their savior.

From Psalm 130, written by Martin Luther (1523), melody by Martin Luther (1524).

From the depths of woe I raise to thee
the voice of lamentation;
Lord, turn a gracious ear to me
and hear my supplication:
if thou iniquities dost mark,
our secret sins and misdeeds dark,
O who shall stand before thee?

To wash away the crimson stain,
grace, grace alone availeth;
our works, alas! are all in vain;
in much the best life faileth:
no man can glory in thy sight,
all must alike confess thy might,
and live alone by mercy.

Therefore my trust is in the Lord,
and not in my own merit;
on him my soul shall rest, his Word
upholds my fainting spirit:
his promised mercy is my fort,
my comfort and my sweet support;
I wait for it with patience.

What though I wait the live-long night,
and not in mine own merit;
my heart still trusteth in his might;
it doubteth not nor feareth:
do thus, O ye of Israel’s seed,
ye of the Spirit born indeed;
and wait till God appeareth.

Though great our sins and sore our woes,
his grace much more aboundeth;
his helping love no limit knows,
our utmost need it soundeth.
Our Shepherd good and true is he,
who will at last his Israel free
from all their sins and sorrow.

O the deep, deep love of Jesus!
Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free;
Rolling as a mighty ocean in its fullness over me.
Underneath me, all around me, is the current of thy love;
leading onward, leading homeward, to thy glorious rest above.

O the deep, deep love of Jesus!
Spread his praise from shore to shore;
How he loveth, ever loveth, changeth never, nevermore;
How he watches o’re his loved ones, died to call them all his own;
How for them he intercedeth, watcheth o’er them from the throne.

O the deep, deep love of Jesus!
Love of ev’ry love the best: ’tis an ocean vast
Of blessing, ’tis a haven sweet of rest.
O the deep, deep love of Jesus! ‘Tis a heav’n of heav’ns to me;
And it lifts me up to glory, for it lifts me up to thee.

---

My pastor, Skip Ryan, preached today on Luke 7:36-50. We closed with the above hymn. Dr. Ryan reminded me of the relationship that my view of sin has to my view of the Savior. If I would see Jesus in a fuller capacity, I must also be willing to take a sober look at my sinfulness in a fuller capacity. Christ has not come to save, nor does he work diligently to sanctify, the healthy but the sick, those in whom the very fabric of their souls lies tattered.This deep love of Jesus is certainly seen in the marvelous tapestry that he does and is in fact weaving from the tattered fabric that we call the Church. But what is more is that his love is not first seen in the finished product, but in his willingness to submerge himself deeply into my context, my life, even into my hidden cesspools. Not only has Christ come and met me at these very points, but he has bound himself to me at this very point of death, that in his death and resurrected life I might also participate. In this way the Christian’s old man is shed, like a snake sheds its old scales to put on newer better ones.Yes, it is true, my faithful pastor, that the Savior is undervalued when our sin is understated. I wonder if this is not because we have been all too willing to leave Christianity in the systematic and abstract, being fearful to remember that Christ has made himself known in the mess of the Historical, in the raucous of the concrete. O the deep, deep love of Jesus!

Luke 7:36-50 (ESV)
36 One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and took his place at the table. 37 And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, 38 and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. 39 Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.” 40 And Jesus answering said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he answered, “Say it, Teacher.” 41 “A certain moneylender had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. 42 When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?” 43 Simon answered, “The one, I suppose, for whom he cancelled the larger debt.” And he said to him, “You have judged rightly.” 44 Then turning toward the woman he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. 45 You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not ceased to kiss my feet. 46 You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment. 47 Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” 48 And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” 49 Then those who were at table with him began to say among themselves, “Who is this, who even forgives sins?” 50 And he said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”