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Apologetics4all – Dr. Williams' Religion Blog

~ Respectfully giving reasons for faith – 1 Peter 3:15

Apologetics4all – Dr. Williams' Religion Blog

Monthly Archives: December 2018

Morning Prayer

18 Tuesday Dec 2018

Posted by D. L. Williams in Church, Liturgy, Prayer, Worship

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Prayer, resonance, Worship

My previous post was focused upon the utility of listening to the music and prayers of the Daily Offices of Worship. It was a baby step – a distant and tiny LED light leading the depressed and grieving out of their darkness. The North Star is not the brightest star in the sky, but with that tiny light, one can navigate the Northern Hemisphere.

This post revels in the JOY of the Daily Offices of Worship. It is a testimony of the personal resonances of my heart. Let me illustrate what I mean by the resonances of my heart.

Sympathetic Resonance

Years ago, I discovered something amazing and beautiful. After tuning my trumpet to the piano, I held the sustain pedal down while playing an arpeggio C, E, G, C on my trumpet. The piano came to life with every string in the chord resonating with the sound from my trumpet.

Scientifically, the sound waves from my trumpet pushed on all the strings in the piano. The strings that were tuned to the notes in the chord began to sympathetically resonate (passively vibrate in phase) with the sounds coming from my horn. So the chord I played in series – one note at a time – became a full chord ringing all at once in the piano.

When I stopped playing my trumpet, the piano chord beautifully rang for several seconds. Amazingly, ALL the potential strings that could ring at multiples of the sound waves rang too. Thus, the piano chord rang at several octaves above and below what my trumpet played.

This became a favorite activity of mine. I would play various major and minor chords making the piano sound great or awful as the sympathetic resonances sang along with my trumpet.

This works best when the piano is in tune.

Spiritually, I suspect that this is one of the roles of the Holy Spirit of God in the life of the Christian.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. [Romans 12:1-2 ESV]

Let me insert the language I am trying to emphasize,

…present your bodies [to be tuned] as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be [tuned] by the renewal of your mind, that by [tuning] you may [sympathetically resonate with] the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

I’m not doing deep exegesis, here. I’m merely using the concept of sympathetic resonance as an analogy to explain one way that God can fill and overwhelm our “hearts”, meaning our mental and emotional selves.

Now to the filling and overwhelming…

Morning Worship

The Venite – Psalm 95:1-7

I can remember singing these exact words in the Childrens’ Choir at Saint Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Fort Worth, TX. I was in 4th Grade. God has been tuning my heart with these words for over 40 years.

Oh come, let us sing to the LORD;
let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!
Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let us make a joyful noise to him with songs of praise!
For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
In his hand are the depths of the earth;
the heights of the mountains are his also.
The sea is his, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.
Oh come, let us worship and bow down;
let us kneel before the LORD, our Maker!
For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.
[Psalm 95:1-7 ESV]

Personal Reflection: Having a rock of salvation is extremely comforting. Psalm 62 speaks of God as a rock and a fortress – a place of supreme security. All the strong places are His, AND all the chaotic places like the sea are his, too. And we are protected as sheep are protected and cared for by their shepherd. Jesus said,

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. [John 10:11 ESV]

Benedictus

This is the Song of Zechariah. There are several “songs” in the Bible. They seem to be bold proclamations prompted by God’s spirit when significant events occurred. This sounds a lot like sympathetic resonance to me. God does something significant (this is the trumpet call) and his faithful sing out in resonance with his call (like the piano responding to the trumpet).

Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel;
He has come to His people and redeemed them.
He has raised up a mighty Savior, born of the house of His servant David.
Through His holy prophets he promised of old that he would save us

  • From our enemies,
  • From the hands of all who hate us.

He promised to show mercy to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant.
This was the oath He swore to our father Abraham;
To set us

  • Free from the hands of our enemies,
  • Free to worship Him without fear,
  • holy and righteous in His sight all the days of our life.

[Now, Zechariah turns to his baby boy, John, and proclaims,]

You, my child, shall be called the prophet of the Most High,
For you will go before the Lord to prepare His way,
To give His people knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins
In the tender compassion of our God,
The dawn from on high shall break upon us

  • To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death and
  • To guide our feet into the way of peace.

[Luke 1:68-79 ESV] Bulleted lists were utilized for emphasis and clarity.

Personal Reflection: Clearly, the language of fear and being set free were relevant in Roman-occupied Jerusalem. But this language is relevant at all times. We are self-censoring in this age of cultural Marxism because we are fearful of our “enemies”. This fear of disapproval can be seen as silly when our Christian brothers and sisters are being arrested, tortured, and killed by actual enemies using actual violence. But fear is fear. Enemies are enemies. And hope is hope. This Song of Zechariah proclaims real hope in the impending birth of Jesus. Zechariah’s son John alerts us to the darkness and the shadow of death that is on us all. John prepares us to see the dawn (Jesus) who shines on us and guides us into the way of peace.

Prayers

Collect for Grace

O Lord, our heavenly Father, almighty and everlasting God. You have safely brought us to the beginning of this day. Defend us in the same with Your mighty power and grant that this day we fall into no sin, neither run into any kind of danger, but that all our doings, being ordered by Your governance, may be righteous in Your sight; through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen

Personal Reflection: Spontaneous prayer is good and we are encouraged by Paul to pray without ceasing. But these scripted prayers (called Collects) gather and summarize the prayers of God’s people, not just in aggregate on a given day, but also over time. This Collect for Grace was prayed over me essentially every Sunday of my life in Episcopal, Lutheran, and Methodist services. In all three denominational traditions, the same exact words were used meaning the prayer predates all of them. Amazing.

Thinking about the specific petitions in this prayer, I am comforted by the requests for protection. The phrase “ordered by Your governance” is one I have been recently chewing on. It could take a sovereign and fatalistic tone, which I struggle with. But it can also take a common grace tone, meaning that God in his grace to all mankind has established order in this world that is reliable. We are to seek His order rather than our chaotic sinful tendencies.

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father who art in heaven;
Hallowed be thy name,
Thy kingdom come,
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven;
Give us this day our daily bread;
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us;
And lead us not into temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Personal Reflection: Luther devotes a large portion of his Small Catechism to expounding on the Lord’s Prayer. I have little of substance to add to Dr. Luther’s exposition.

On a trivial note, I’d like to mention why I like the archaic language of the Lord’s Prayer. I don’t pray in King James English, but I am a fan of leaving the Lord’s prayer in this form for the following reasons:

  1. It is most widely known by English speakers in this form, and can be recited corporately at a moment’s notice in times of celebration and duress. This has been a powerful reminder of the 400 year Christian heritage of the English speaking world that persists to this day.
  2. It reminds people of the 400 year continuity of these exact words. Destroy the wording and you destroy the continuity, unity, and fellowship of language.
  3. It prevents the revisionists from monkeying. Allowing a modernization of the words “art, trespass, Thy, and Thine” might be fine, but this trip wire sets off an explosion of efforts to “modernize the meaning” of the various petitions. Many see the concept of trespasses and sins as archaic and in need of modernization.

(As an aside, how many Lutherans does it take to change a light bulb?
Answer: CHANGE‼?!???!???!?!     -Mea Culpa)

Benediction

The Lord Almighty bless us and direct our days and our deeds in His peace. Amen.

Personal Reflection: Again, one can read “direct our days and our deeds” in a controlling way or a gracious way. The director of a band does not control you. He does not force you to play your horn HIS way. He directs you to offer your music in an orderly way so that the whole family of musicians plays together, in tune, and in sympathetic resonance with His spirit.

Love to you all,

Darren

For more on my background, read what I believe and why and visit my About Page.

Passion for the Pain of Depression

05 Wednesday Dec 2018

Posted by D. L. Williams in Church, Grief, Death, and Dying, Liturgy, Worship

≈ 1 Comment

Disclaimers

  1. I am not a counselor. I am a chemist. But I have also been to graduate school and lost a child, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and a dear brother-in-law. So my perspective includes the hell of intense pressure and the pain of intense loss.
  2. A discussion on depression is best held in dialog, but this is a blog. Comment streams and late night blog binging is no substitute for face-to-face conversation, comfort, and warm hugs. Consider this blog post a remote hug, but find a real hug from a real person, soon and often.hug
  3. This is not a ToDo List. In my opinion, giving a ToDo List to a person suffering from depression is futile. I do offer some things to explore, though.
  4. Lastly, my views on this topic offer a Christian perspective. I know of no other perspective that gives the hope that the Christian perspective offers. Please don’t run off if you are skeptical of the Christian truth claims. See if you think there is any wisdom in my perspective. Eat the meat and spit out the bones.

My Observations

Depression is not just “feeling sad”.

I remember in 10th grade health class, the teacher was discussing barbiturates, alcohol, and other drugs classified as depressants. I thought depressed meant sad, so I couldn’t imagine why you would take a drug that makes you sad?!?!

Obviously, I was wrong. The depressant part meant specifically that it depressed the central nervous system. Some are general like alcohol, and others are quite specific like some anti-anxiety drugs.

This is as far as I can go as a physical chemist. Pharmacology simply has too many variables for me to conceive or to model.

I’m reluctant to list the symptoms of depression because you may be like me. Seeing the list causes me to feel many of the symptoms. But if you must, here they are.

Instead of a list, here is a humorous story that illustrates the point. One of my students, several years ago, came to my office hours after missing class.

He said, “Dr. Williams, I have a problem.”
“What is it?”, I asked.
“My givashit is broke.”, he said.
“Oh my! You have to get that fixed, immediately!”, I said as we both laughed.

We laugh, but we know that a broken givashit is not a laughing matter. It is sometimes a sign of depression or a panic coping mechanism. You simply cannot make a decision. And sometimes you don’t even care. You know this is a path that leads to destruction but you don’t give a ___ because your givashit is broken.

My Theoretical Musings

(My counseling colleagues are invited to correct or add to my musings in the comments section. Please contribute for the good of all!)

I have noticed that mental looping or stuck thoughts can break your ability to make a decision or to care about anything else. When I get stuck in an obsessive mental loop, I need something or someone to interrupt.

As a bona fide computer geek, I see the analogy of the operating system using interrupts to pause or to stop processes that are requesting CPU time. My Christian world view does not reduce the human brain to a CPU, but these analogies are still useful in my opinion.
You can’t get “into the machine” to stop a mental loop if you don’t have a reliable interrupt.

(Spoiler Alert: Music is a reliable interrupt system giving access to the parts of the mind that are “below” the looping executive and anxiety functions. Hence, music therapy.  )

How Do I…

  • Fix a broken givashit?
  • Stop obsessing about my obsessing about what I am obsessing about?
  • Break out of my negative mental loops?
  • Find a path out of this dull darkness of my soul?

This is a call to explore, not a self-help ToDo List.

A Passive, Intrusive, and Spiritual Path

The trail I’m hoping you will explore is passive, intrusive, and spiritual. You are able to “let it run”, passively receiving rather than actively giving. My suggestion is intrusive to interrupt the mental looping. It is spiritual because this is not a mechanical problem.

My suggestion is based upon my personal experience.

Daily Liturgical Worship

Daily liturgical worship is passive, intrusive, and spiritual.

Daily liturgical worship can be passive as the example below will illustrate. It can move to become more active over time, which is an amazing transformation. But start passively, one step at a time.

Daily liturgical worship is filled with simple melodies and singable tunes that echo in the mind all day allowing beneficial mental loops to interrupt negative and unwanted mental loops.

Daily liturgical worship is spiritual providing spoken and sung scripture with spoken and sung prayers that eventually become a part of your mental furniture.

Modern Christian practice (not just modern worship, but modern unscripted prayer, and modern “what does it mean to me” Bible study) has left us with no structure or form. It feels like there are no comforting chairs to sit in, no desks to study in, and perhaps no boundaries or walls to our spiritual imaginations. This is not freedom. This is lostness. These structures and pieces of furniture take time to build, but WE don’t have to build them. Jesus is the carpenter, and He uses his Word to build these holy places in our soul.

What IS Daily Liturgical Worship?

The early Christians continued the Jewish practice of reciting prayers and Scripture during certain hours of the day, which means this practice goes back over 2000 years.

How can this be a passive practice? Well… with Amazon Prime, you can download the CPH Album Evening and Morning: The Music of Lutheran Daily Prayer.
CPH-daily-prayer

I have listened to Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Compline on my phone nearly every day since June 2018. I have interspersed Matins, Vespers, and the Litany on special occasions or when I felt like it.

Are you worried by the word Lutheran?  Don’t be. These readings, Scripture, and tunes go back to pre-Lutheran, pre-Eastern Orthodox, and even pre-Roman times. The Lutheran part of this is the compilation of these ancient services into the Lutheran Service Book published by CPH.

You can listen to these services passively when commuting, when anxiety strikes, when you want to pray but don’t know how or what to pray, when waking, when lying in bed before sleep, when you are praying for sleep to come, and when you are seeking the will to get out of bed.

Not now, but down the road as your motivation returns, this worship can transform over time from passive to active practice. Get a copy of the LSB from CPH and follow along when motivation strikes. But don’t force it at first. Just listen to the love and encouragement that Morning, Evening, and Compline Worship brings.

An unexpected benefit to your personal private consumption of this eternal beauty will be when you run across a congregation that is using elements of these worship services. Your soul will soar as you hear and participate with others in these ancient readings and songs. I’m sure you will be amazed when you find patches of this fabric of worship in Lutheran, Episcopal, Methodist, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, and even Eastern Orthodox services. It always catches me by surprise when I visit a friend’s church and find some ancient tune, song, chant, prayer, or reading that is common among our different traditions.

The interrupts are effective. The simple melodies of these selections of daily liturgical worship are from a bygone era. Some are quite ancient. All of them are capable of comforting you throughout the busy day. I find my mind humming them often during mental downtimes at work. Their haunting tunes are comforting to me. Their ancient origin connects me to the past and the text gives me hope for the future.

This is most important:
Daily Liturgical Worship is Spiritual.

Jesus, the carpenter of our souls tells us,

“God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and in truth.” (John 4:24)

And Jesus prays to the Father on our behalf, asking Him to

“Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.” (John 17:17)

These rituals of daily worship are almost 100% Scripture – using truth to worship Truth. They contain the spirit-filled proclamations of Mary (Luke 1:46-55), Zechariah (Luke 1:68-79), and Simeon (Luke 2:29-32) and many ancient prayers of the church.

The Whole Point

The whole point of this blog post is captured at the end of the Song of Zechariah:

“In the tender compassion of our God,
The dawn from on high shall break upon us;
To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death;
And to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

Meditate on that. Are you in darkness? Are you in the shadow of death?
I know you are because we ALL are. We ALL need Jesus to guide our feet into the way of peace.

I pray that the daily practice of worship and prayer will help Jesus guide your feet as it helps Him guide my feet. These wonderful, beautiful, and healing words bathe my soul daily.

Closing Analogy

Does this get old? Does the novelty wear off? Of course it does. How could novelty not wear off? What did you expect?

This practice is more like bathing than swimming. Swimming is recreational and novel. Bathing is often mundane and necessary, but it is also refreshing and life-giving.

catbath

We (many of us) bathe daily. Why not worship daily?

Let us invite the passion of the living and active Word (Heb 4:12) to renew our minds, daily. Hear what Paul says:

“Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” [Romans 12:2a CSB]

Hear what Jesus says:

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” [Matthew 11:28-30 ESV]

Hear what Paul says, again:

For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39).

We pray.

Be present, merciful God, and protect us through the hours of this night, so that we who are wearied by the changes and chances of life may find our rest in You; through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. [from Compline]

Love to you all!

Darren

Check out my musings on Morning Prayer, next.

For more on my background, read what I believe and why and visit my About Page.

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