1 January 2010, Name Day & Circumcision of Jesus

Morning Prayer somewhat hurried.

Always, always new beginnings. With old carrryovers: continuing sinus difficulties; the red pill Sudafed is a four-hour reliable throat clock. Quite manageable discomfort.

New ELWs arrived yesterday. Lovely hymnals. Most become intimate with them.

Thursday, a collectable Angelic Mistakes: The Art of Thomas Merton. In addition to everything, a printmaker. Absolutely remarkable. More than all, however, am learning who I am from Pramuk's Sophia: The Hidden Christ of Thomas Merton, slowly unpuzzling that enigma in the Athanasian Creed: "He is united because God has taken humanity into himself; he does not transform deity into humanity."

Over Two Years Since Posting

I often find myself too scattered to be of much good. For some time now I've been writing into a leather-bound book, albeit sporadically, and I'd forgotten about my opportunities to write here. Since few people know about this effort, I imagine it's safe to keep something of a record of my thoughts and doings, helter-skelter as they are.

This morning June went to some sort of a health seminar on cancer with Mary Sweet, and I stayed home, managing to mow the front and side yards, buy a voltage tester (the garage electricity has gone out), take a nap in the afternoon, and do some reading in The Cloud of Unknowing. Having read it before, I'm surprised at how much I see upon this second (maybe third) reading.

Earlier in the morning I spoke at some length with CFI's Scott Mandl and brought him up-to-date of my efforts to assemble an itinerary for Ivy Salomon when she comes from Haiti to visit family and friends in the States. It's not as easy as I imagined; her family is spread out all over the U.S. and they too have busy lives that make it difficult for Ivy to drop by and stay for several weeks at just any time.

June and I are doing well as a married couple, even in our seventies. Tomorrow we plan to take Matt and Sara Beth Stout out to lunch somewhere in Nicholasville. I'm hoping we'll get to one of the morning Eucharists at Faith Lutheran Church. If not, then we'll spend the afternoon in Lexington and go to the evening contemplative Eucharist.

I need to study myself in the light of acedia and may get Kathleen Norris' new book on the subject.

Having returned from our family reunion, this year at Dauphin Island, I'm delighted that our family has been able to keep itself together. It's a real effort to gather everyone together because we are so separated geographically and at times spiritually. In spite of--or at times, I think, because of--our differences, the blood of us Harnacks runs thick and deep. As paterfamilias, I'm so privileged to have such a wonderful bunch of kids, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews. O yes, we argue a good bit (mostly about politics), but in the end there's always the huggings, the looking forward to seeing one another again, and the prayers that sustain us in our variety and differences. Some of us are politically conservative (yea, a libertarian!), others are liberal (listening, of all things, to NPR!), and others largely a-political. But in blood, and I like to think, in the blood of Christ, we are a real family. One, Carol, comes with enormous forgiveness in heart, and her presence is the light of Christ among us. Others come with professional preoccupations, overloads of work that don't disappear even on vacation times. Still others come as precious children, innocent of our family's history, but eager and willing to be lilke the children about whom Jesus says "are of the kingdom of God." For all who came to this year's week-long reunion, I give heartfelt thanks to God for their presence, their determination to keep the tradition going, and their holding of hands in prayer and in grace before our meals. It's all quite wonderful!

Withdrawing Troops from Iraq

For a good while I have been deeply appreciative of Daniel B. Clendenin, long-time associate with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and founder of The Journey with Jesus: Notes to Myself, especially his weekly essay on the Biblical lectionary. As to why I had not noticed it before, I don't know, but yesterday I discovered One Million Blogs for Peace: To End the Iraq War. Inasmuch as I have been been opposed to the Iraq War months preceeding Bush's invasion on March 19, 2003 and watched in horror at our nation's celebration of "Shock and Awe" and have strongly opposed the war ever since, I wish to identify myself with those opposing the war in One Million Blogs for Peace. I have therefore signed online the blog's pledge:
I believe in the immediate withdrawal of all foreign combat troops from the nation of Iraq. I believe in using my blog, in whole or in part, as a tool
toward this end.

To understand why I and other hundreds of thousands--millions of people worldwide--are convinced that we should remove our troops from Iraq now, visit the following sites:

ENDING THE U.S. WAR IN IRAQ : How to Bring the Troops Home and Internationalize the Peace

AFSC Board Statement on Immediate Troop Withdrawal

Tomgram: Michael Schwartz on Immediate Withdrawal

For a rehearsal of the disasterous program of Bush, Chaney, Rumsfeld ("We know where the WMD are"), Rice, Wolfowitz, and other neo-cons have instigated, see the timeline.

November 28

June and I drove from Georgia to Kentucky today; we got in about 6:30 p.m.

This evening begins the Commemoration of Kamehameha and Emma, King and Queen of Hawaii, 1864, 1865. When in Hawaii earlier this year, I heard a little bit about them, but remembered nothing substantial. Here's what I now know:

Within a year of ascending the throne in 1855, the twenty year old King Kamehameha IV and his bride, Emma Rooke, embarked on the path of altruism and unassuming humility for which they have been revered by their people. The year before, Honolulu, and especially its native Hawaiians, had been horribly afflicted with smallpox. The people, accustomed to a royalty which ruled with pomp and power, were confronted instead by a king and queen who went about, "with notebook in hand," soliciting from the rich and poor funds to build a hospital. Queen's Hospital, named for Emma, is not the largest civilian hospital in Hawaii.

In 1860, the king and queen petitioned the Bishop of Oxford to send missionaries to establish the Anglican Church in Hawaii. The king's interest came through a boyhood tour of England where he had seen, in the stately beauty of Anglican liturgy, a quality that seemed attuned to the gentle beauty of the Hawaiian spirit. England responded by sending the Rt. Rev. Thomas N. Staley and two priests. They arrived on October 11, 1862, and the king and queen were confirmed a month later, on November 28, 1862. They then began preparations for a cathedral and school, and the king set about to translate The Book of Common Prayer and much of the Hymnal .

Kamehameha's life was marred by the tragic death of his four year old son and only child, in 1863. He seemed unable to survive his sadness, although a sermon he preached after his son's death expresses a hope and faith that is eloquent and profound. His own death took place only a year after his son's, in 1864. Emma declined to rule; instead, she committed her life to good works. She was responsible for schools, churches, and efforts on behalf of the poor and sick. She traveled several times to England and the Continent to raise funds, and became a favorite of Queen Victoria's. Archbishop Longley of Canterbury, remarked upon her visit to Lambeth: "I was much struck by the cultivation of her mind...But what excited my interest the most was her almost saintly piety."

The Cathedral was completed after Emma died. It was named St. Andrew's in memory of the king, who died on that Saint's day. Among the Hawaiian people, Emma is still refered to as "our beloved Queen."
Proper:Acts 17:22-31Psalm 33:12-22 or 97:1-2, 7-12Matthew 25:31-40

O Sovereign God, who raised up King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma to be rulers of Hawaii, and didst inspire and enable them to be diligen in good works for the welfare of their people and the good of thy Church: Receive our thanks for their witness to the Gospel; and grant that we, with them, may attain to the crown of glory that fadeth not away; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit ever, one God, world without end.
Amen.

I'm also back in Kentucky from my trip to Haiti for several weeks and have much to write about--later. Ont he way home June bought a French coffee press for Andy and Anna. I need to mail it to them asap.

Tuesday, October 31

John N. Day's "The Pillars of Imprecation: How to Pray for Your Enemies by Praying Against Them" in Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity (November 2006) gives us a fine essay on how we might pray those psalms which ask God to destroy those who oppress and terrorize us. Day's essay focuses on Psalm 83, the very psalm which The Daily Prayer of the Church asks us to use on Mondays in Week I.

When praying such a psalm, Day urges us to place our imprecations before God as follows:

• only is settings of extreme enmity (as, for example, in Dafur)
• only while we practice persistant love of God and mankind (Matthew 22.37-39)
  
• only as we relinquish all personal desires of revenge (Leviticus 19.18)
  
• only as we appeal to God who has told that He alone is the Avenger (Deauteronomy 32.35)
  
• only as we plead with "the perfected saints in heaven" (Revelation 6.9-11)
  

It is, of coursse, difficult to keep such admonitions and cautions in one's heart and mind as we "pray for our enemies by praying against them." As I was reading/praying Psalm 83 yesterday morning and in the post-psalm silence thought about how it as it relates to the Church's (and thus to my own) prayer life, I found it difficult to collect my thoughts adequately after the silence. The DPC's "after-silence" collect (usually good) was inadequate and did not help very much. To help me next month (or whenever I come across psalms of imprecation) last night I wrote this collect:

O God, in your mercy You have promised to deliver suffering and oppressed peoples from the hands of those who hate you; as we live between Your command to love our enemies and Your promises to undo those who murder, rape, and pillage the innocent, we ask that You fill those who are evil with shame that they may seek Your name and repent of their evil; seeking to be obedient to your will and forsaking every personal desire for retaliation, we implore You to execute Your divine justice for the sake of those who suffer oppression; within the Company of Heaven and in the love and justice of Christ, we offer ourselves and these petitions through the same Jesus Christ, who lives and rules with You and the Holy Spirit forever.

If you would like to read Day's essay, let me know. And let me know how the collect above might be improved so that I might learn how to pray for my enemies while praying to God against them.

October 29, 2006

Yesterday Chelsea ran her best personal 5k at Masterson Park in Lexington: 23 minutes, 16 seconds. During the race she was in considerable pain, pain in both of her lower ribsides. So proud of her! Later in the afternoon I took her to a party at First Baptist Church where with some of her friends they played cards and went to Starbucks afterwards. Before going to bed, June, Chelsea, and I prayed for Harold and for the people of Dafur. Then we turned our clocks back an hour and went to bed.