Christ Church

Grace & Peace: Proverbs 10:26

Douglas Wilson on

At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to them that send him.

Proverbs 10:26

There are some valuable lessons that we can take away from this proverb. The first is that laziness in servants is a royal nuisance, which is the lesson we probably already knew. If you have had the misfortunate to have employed a sluggard, the on-going aggravation will be like smoke in the eyes, like vinegar to the teeth—both really unpleasant.

The second thing is something that is obvious when you think about it, but we sometimes don’t think about it. That is the fact that laziness is a public affair. When an employee is sent to do something, to discharge a task, the nuisance that results if that employee is a foot-dragger is a very public nuisance. Private laziness has public consequences. The thing that needed to get done didn’t get done, and everybody knows who was sent to do it. And realities that God has determined (through the nature of things) should be public should be . . . well, public. There is no reason to accentuate this kind of thing, but there is no reason to hide it either.

And this is related to the third thing. Sometimes we cover for the laziness of our employees out of a pretended solicitude for the feelings of those employees—like Joseph resolving to divorce Mary quietly. We think we are being godly and considerate, like Joseph was being. But perhaps something else is going on.

The reason this proverb is in Scripture is so that we might learn wisdom from it, and learning wisdom from this proverb means that we learn not to send fools on a wise man’s errand. The lesson of the proverb is not so that we might develop a taste for vinegar, or learn the next stage in smoke endurance. The lesson is for us to stop engaging the services of lazy fools. We need to stop suffering fools gladly.

But if we didn’t cover or mitigate the consequences of this, then not only would everybody see what the lazy servant keeps doing, they would also see what we keep doing when we entrust them with yet another task to make a hash out of. We sometimes think we are covering the sins of others when we are actually refusing to deal with our own.

Read Full Article

Music in 2022: What Are We Doing and Where Are We Headed?

Christ Church Music on

Last summer I polled the elders and deacons for their favorite hymns and psalms so that I could better understand “where we’re at,” musically speaking. Our church officers love singing our songs but are not (I think they’d admit) highfalutin musicians. So, I safely assume their input provides an accurate barometric reading of where we are regarding the Cantus Christi and how we use it.

After collecting all the responses, I developed a list of 70 favorite songs from the Cantus. Last fall, the lion’s share of our songs in worship were drawn from this list. But 70 songs (Christmas carols were excluded) is only the tip of the familiar-and-favorite iceberg. For example, well-known hymns Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, O Worship the King, and Come Thou Almighty King didn’t get any votes, nor did Psalms like The Lord Hear Thee in Troubled Times, In Every Time I’ll Always Bless the Lord, or David Erb’s Psalm 149. All these (and others) are in our wheelhouse and are ones we want to continue singing with gusto. My point is this: although we learn a lot of new music at Christ Church, we are committed to our favorites and desire that these favorite songs continue to encourage our faith and build up our fellowship as a community.

So why learn new music? A couple of reasons. First, we want to be faithful in the things we’ve received, namely in singing the 150 Psalms in the Bible. Since May of 2020, when we began using the new Cantus Christi, we’ve sung over 100 Psalms but only about 50 are favorite and/or familiar. And so, we have a ways to go in getting acquainted with the Psalter.

Second, we learn new music out of faithfulness to our Christian heritage. By this I mean we learn songs new to us even though those songs can be quite old. We are big on historic Protestantism and so we are interested in the patterns of worship enjoyed by our spiritual ancestors. When it comes to songs, many have been buried in the sandbox of time—some for good reason. (We bury dead people too. We don’t just leave them lying where we fell). What I have in mind are the many diamonds in the rough, forgotten not for their lack of virtue but rather for the lack of virtue in those that allowed them to be forgotten in the first place. Good songs of the past fed the faith of our predecessors and helped make them a resilient people. We want their songs to do the same for us.

You may agree with my argument so far but have concerns about the process and pace by which songs are introduced. So here’s the plan for the coming year.

  1. We will continue touring the Psalms in the Cantus. Last year we covered Psalms 1-40. This year, 41-80. Some of the Psalms on the tour are already familiar; some are favorites. Others we don’t know from Adam. Ordinarily, we read these new songs at sight, if they’re easy, that is. (This is like speed dating with the Psalms. If the date went well, we get the contact info and plan another date later). If the Psalm is particularly thorny, we might have a hymn lesson on it. (I don’t have a clever relationships analogy for learning thorny Psalms. Arranged marriage?).
  2. We also have hymns of the month. Once a new song of worth is identified, we put it up as a hymn of the month, taking 3-4 weeks to learn it. Our December HOTM is 729, Nunc dimittis. January’s is 87/88, Psalm 44. February’s is 95a-b, Psalm 48.
  3. Another vehicle we use to teach and review music is our monthly/bi-monthly Psalm Sing. Folks have been showing up to these in record numbers in recent months. If you’ve never been to one, come on out. We always have a great time of singing and fellowship. And normally we have food afterward. Our next Psalm Sing will be on February 13. Location TBA.

Thank you for your commitment to worshiping the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Please let me know if you have questions about our music or about the music program generally. I am thrilled to serve as your music director and am more than happy to speak with you about what we’re up to.

Mark Reagan
Epiphany 2022

Read Full Article

Thomas Tallis’s Nunc dimittis (Cantus Christi 729)

Christ Church Music on

For a while now the Tallis Nunc dimittis has been a regular staple in the weekly line up at Beer and Psalms. If you’ve never gone, and ladies, it’s safe to assume you haven’t, the guys sing it every week in parts. That’s an accomplishment. It’s taken them a while to learn it. But they’ve not been deterred and over time, they’ve come to love it and look forward to singing it each week. So I’m teaching it to the congregation for them. Well, at least I’ll teach the soprano line. You’re welcome, gents.

The Circs, the Sitch

The Nunc dimittis is the praise Simeon uttered (Luke 2:29-32) as he took the child Jesus in his arms and blessed God. Simeon awaited the coming of the Messiah, and God promised he would not die until he saw Him, and when Simeon finally does, he praises God, calling on God to let him die peacefully now that God has fulfilled His promise to him.

Light and vision are the subject of Simeon’s prayer. Imagine Simeon an old man, whose eyesight was undoubtedly weak, dimly seeing the LORD’S salvation before him. Though physically weak, Simeon sees the truth clearly: Jesus is the promised light to the Gentiles, the glory of Israel.

Historically the church has recognized Simeon’s prayer as a light shining in the darkness. Catholic monks would sing a Nunc dimittis at Compline: evening worship celebrated well after sunset, when final prayers were offered before turning in. In the contemplative life, the light of truth shines more acutely in the shroud of night. During the English Reformation, the Anglican church assimilated the Nunc dimittis into Evensong worship and many musical settings of this text were composed, no longer in Latin as before, but in English (even though the Latin title was retained. This is true for all the historic church canticles, including Mary’s song—Magnificat, its Latin title).

The common people did not know Latin and so vernacular language replaced it in many northern-European countries. But besides turning to the lingua franca, another feature of these songs is the use of homorhythm (literally “same rhythm”), or the simultaneous declamation of the words in all the parts. Before the Reformation, the musical vogue was polyphony in which all the parts are treated melodically. The result is an impenetrable wall of sound, glorious music, yes, but with the words lost in the jumble. To end the confusion composers began to write music in such a way that everyone in the choir sings the same words and syllables at the same time. Our Cantus hymns are conceived this way.

Composer Thomas Tallis (1505-1585) wrote his Dorian Service this way. Many Kirkers know Tallis’s Psalm 95 from the Dorian Service. This service is a complete set of traditional songs from morning and evening worship in English (not Latin) and set homorhythmically. The Nunc dimittis is the last song in the Dorian Service.

Why sing this song?

At Christ Church we revel in historic Christianity and Protestantism specifically. This includes celebrating faithful music of the past. The Cantus Christi consists not of one kind of music, but many, drawing from ancient music (The Lord’s Prayer is “very ancient”), medieval songs, Lutheran chorales, Reformed Psalms, 18th century hymns of Watts, Wesley, and Newton, on down to songs less than five years old. The English Reformation is part of our spiritual heritage and so we sing not only Tallis but the songs All People That on Earth Do Dwell and Let Israel Now Say in Thankfulness, two examples of songs from that tradition.

As we embark upon Tallis’s Nunc dimittis some may object saying it’s too difficult. True. It is difficult. This is because it’s choir music, not congregational music. It’s congregational insofar that we can understand the words sung, but not congregational in how difficult it actually is to sing.

So why sing it?

A lot of our favorite songs in the Cantus Christi are not congregational songs either. Fuging tunes, for example, are not congregational and never really were intended for congregational use. It may be the case that fuging tunes (e.g. Before Thee Let My Cry Come Near) were never intended even for corporate worship. Fuging tunes were written for devotional use especially among the young folks of the church as a wholesome mid-week activity. They would gather in singing schools under a singing master (Irving’s Ichabod Crane was one) where they’d learn how to sing and read music. The singing master would challenge his students with tricky songs such as fuging tunes to test their skill and give them an added challenge.

I cite fuging tunes to demonstrate that a song’s difficulty is not a reason for rejecting it, and in fact, may be a reason for taking it on.

I don’t expect that the Nunc dimittis will be an immediate sensation, or even favorite once the congregation has gotten used to it. Nevertheless, it is a very beautiful piece and worthy of our attention. Because of its focus on light, the plan is to close our services with it throughout that season of light, Epiphany, in which the Gentiles come to the light of Christ, and kings (i.e. the Magi), to the brightness of His rising.

Tidings of comfort and joy!

Mark Reagan
Christmas 2021

Read Full Article

Grace & Peace: Proverbs 10:7

Douglas Wilson on

At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

The memory of the just is blessed: But the name of the wicked shall rot.

Proverbs 10:7

The management of lies requires ongoing maintenance. This means that as long as a hypocrite is active, and overseeing his own reputation, he can usually keep things together, at least for a time. But time is a great conveyor belt, and like it or not, everybody gets ushered into the presence of God at the same basic rate of speed.

When we are gone, our memory remains. This proverb says that the memory of the just is like wine, it ages and improves over time. The name of the wicked, however, rots, and a bad smell attends it.

It is not recognized often enough that men who are greatly revered by Christians today were men who were often roundly vilified during their lifetimes. The kind of men who have statues and memorials built in their memory, after they are safely dead and gone, are the kind of men who were a perfect nuisance to the complacent in Zion while they were here. The list of such men, were we to assemble one, would be very long indeed.

Jesus notes how this works. The memory of the just is blessed, and even those who would have conspired in their murder are forced to honor them now (Matt. 23:29).

The hypocrite tries to curate his reputation now, and loses it in the long haul. The righteous care only what God thinks, meaning that they don’t care about their reputation short term—and this is why God blesses their reputation long term.

Read Full Article

Grace & Peace: Proverbs 20:19

Douglas Wilson on

At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore (Ps. 16: 11)

He that goeth about as a talebearer revealeth secrets: Therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips.

Proverbs 20:19

We sometimes believe that the wisdom found in Proverbs is clankingly obvious. Stay away from painted ladies, don’t be a lazy bum, and make sure to rotate your tires.

But there are often shades of meaning to be found in the simplest proverbs, and this one provides a good example.

A gossip or talebearer is not simply one who gets the news out. It is not just a matter of information circulating. The first thing this proverb tells us that the person who “goes about” as a talebearer is not just someone who spreads the news. He is also one who reveals secrets—telling things that ought not to be told at all.

The second thing is that one of the “tells” of a talebearer is the fact that he is a flatterer as well. In other words, one of the ways he gets his hands on the information he wants to circulate (and to reveal) is by means of flattery. He butters you up, you begin to trust him (for how could someone with such fine insight into your character be untrustworthy?) and so you confide in him. You can keep a secret—its the people you tell who can’t. Suffice it to say that talebearing and flattering are sins that go together. They pair well, in other words.

The last thing we can draw from this proverb is that we are supposed to avoid certain kinds of people. In this case, we are told to avoid a person who is constantly telling you how wonderful you are. That’s a real danger sign, right there. That kind of thing can be fun to listen to (particularly if you believe you are not getting the respect you deserve in other departments of your life), but it gets kind of thin and pale after just a bit. But even if it didn’t get old for you, you are likely going to pay a price for that flattery when your secrets start to circulate.

Read Full Article