Sweet By and By

In her last years with us, Granny used talk about the Sweet By and By. Today, I was listening to a collection of old American gospel tunes when I caught the phrase. I looked up the whole song to see the context. Here are comforting words:

There’s a land that is fairer than day,
And by faith we can see it afar;
For the Father waits over the way
To prepare us a dwelling place there.

Refrain:
In the sweet by and by,
We shall meet on that beautiful shore;
In the sweet by and by,
We shall meet on that beautiful shore.

We shall sing on that beautiful shore
The melodious songs of the blessed;
And our spirits shall sorrow no more,
Not a sigh for the blessing of rest.

To our bountiful Father above,
We will offer our tribute of praise
For the glorious gift of His love
And the blessings that hallow our days.

What will the King’s Son Do?

Today’s Daily Office includes reading Psalm 72. It’s only 19 verses, but the repetition of a certain theme in 5 of those verses is unmistakeable:

1 Give the King your justice, O God, *
and your righteousness to the King’s son;
2 That he may rule your people righteously *
and the poor with justice.
3 That the mountains may bring prosperity to the people, *
and the little hills bring righteousness.
4 He shall defend the needy among the people; *
he shall rescue the poor and crush the oppressor.
5 He shall live as long as the sun and moon endure, *
from one generation to another.
6 He shall come down like rain upon the mown field, *
like showers that water the earth.
7 In his time shall the righteous flourish; *
there shall be abundance of peace till the moon shall be no more.
8 He shall rule from sea to sea, *
and from the River to the ends of the earth.
9 His foes shall bow down before him, *
and his enemies lick the dust.
10 The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall pay tribute, *
and the kings of Arabia and Saba offer gifts.
11 All kings shall bow down before him, *
and all the nations do him service.
12 For he shall deliver the poor who cries out in distress, *
and the oppressed who has no helper.
13 He shall have pity on the lowly and poor; *
he shall preserve the lives of the needy.
14 He shall redeem their lives from oppression and violence, *
and dear shall their blood be in his sight.
15 Long may he live!
and may there be given to him gold from Arabia; *
may prayer be made for him always,
and may they bless him all the day long.
16 May there be abundance of grain on the earth,
growing thick even on the hilltops; *
may its fruit flourish like Lebanon,
and its grain like grass upon the earth.
17 May his Name remain for ever
and be established as long as the sun endures; *
may all the nations bless themselves in him and call him blessed.

18 Blessed be the Lord GOD, the God of Israel, *
who alone does wondrous deeds!
19 And blessed be his glorious Name for ever! *
and may all the earth be filled with his glory.

Seven Must-Listen This American Life Episodes :: List of the Day :: Paste

Seven Must-Listen This American Life Episodes :: List of the Day :: Paste.

I’ve heard TAL stories off and on since their inception, and I’ve always been intrigued with the radio feature story format. No one does it better than Ira & company, and Maddux’s top seven are certainly gems. I started trying to make a list of my faves, but gave up. It might be easier to list the episodes that didn’t tickle my fancy.

Happy Christmas

Barely getting the the family gifts wrapped on time this year, so the cards will have to wait. If you don’t think I have your correct address, go to www.truffin.com, click on “Email Mr. Truffin” and update me.

In the meantime, I give you this message from G.K. Chesterton:

“People are losing the power to enjoy Christmas through identifying it with enjoyment. When once they lose sight of the old suggestion that it is all about something, they naturally fall into blank pauses of wondering what it is all about. To be told to rejoice on Christmas Day is reasonable and intelligible, if you understand the name, or even look at the word. To be told to rejoice on the twenty-fifth of December is like being told to rejoice at quarter-past eleven on Thursday week. You cannot suddenly be frivolous unless you believe there is a serious reason for being frivolous.
–from “The New War on Christmas” by G.K. Chesterton, 1925.

Are you now, or have you ever been…

Not only am I proud to be a college professor, I’m also proud to be friends with college professors. None more so than my good friend Ken Morefield.

Having had to deal personally this semester with the negative stereotype the Evangelical sub-culture has of my profession, I’ve also had to deal with the more general negative views of my profession that permeate our culture. It is, therefore, with gratitude that I now plug Ken’s new article published by The Matthew’s House Project.

Thanks, Ken for doing the hard work of intelligently addressing the irrational. And thanks to The Matthew House Project for publishing it.

Awake, My Soul: The Story of the Sacred Harp

Thanks to Jeffrey Overstreet for pointing the way to this wonderful film on Sacred Harp, or shape note, Singing. You can watch it for free this week by going to this link.

An Evangelical Manifesto

It seems that Evangelical Christians are always trying to figure out who we are.

I remember reading Francis Schaeffer’s A Christian Manifesto in high school. I don’t remember much of it now, but I do remember it causing me to think a great deal about what we Christians are. Later, I struggled through Lloyd-Jones’s What is an Evangelical?, struggled with statements that didn’t seem to jive with what I had experienced evangelicalism as. A few years ago while we were going through our trials in the South, I came upon Alister McGrath’s Evangelicalism and the Future of Christianity; his historical tracing of the roots of American Evangelicalism not only made sense to my own history but also helped make some sense of the chaos we were going through.

This past week, another group of Christian leaders have tried to define who and what Evangelicals are and believe. They have posted a new Evangelical Manifesto. The steering committee features some folks whom I respect–Dallas Willard, Os Guinness, David Neff–and some Charter Signatories that are also meaningful to me–Erwin Lutzer, Mark Noll, Ron Sider, Jim Wallis. My brief skimming of the text reveals a tone that I find refreshing and highlights some qualities that appeal to my understanding of what it means to be a follower of Christ.

I do plan on reading the full text in depth at a later point. You can get it here.

5th Sunday of Easter 2008: Dealing with Sick Bodies

Though with a scornful wonder
Men see her sore oppressed,
By schisms rent asunder,
By heresies distressed:
Yet saints their watch are keeping,
Their cry goes up, “How long?”
And soon the night of weeping
Shall be the morn of song!
—”The Church’s One Foundation”, Samuel J. Stone/Samuel S. Wesley

This past week has been one that has brought back to me a lament we’ve had too often before: when, oh when, will I be able to be part of an organization—sacred or secular—that I can actually be proud of? Even allowing for the reality that every group, organization, company has its problems, how is it that we seem to continually find ourselves attached to real stinkers?
So, as I entered church this morning feeling sorry for myself, distressed, maybe even a bit despondent, I discovered that the service was organized around messages of hope, perhaps, for people such as I.

The First Reading was Acts 17:1-15, the story of Paul and Silas in Thessalonica and Beroea. The reading presents two distinct congregations and their response to Paul’s message. Paul’s opening argument is more about what the Christ will have to do rather than who might or might not be him. He spends **three weeks** “explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead.” Once that point is made, he then, of course, makes the claim that always seems to get folks in trouble: “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” Well, there you’ve gone and done it. There is a small portion who believe, but another portion “were jealous, and taking some wicked fellows of the rabble, they gathered a crowd, set the city in an uproar, and attacked.” They then go to the city officials—”they” being the folks who gathered the rabble and rioted—and blame Jason, Paul, and company with causing trouble. The gall. (more…)

Saturday in the Fifth Week of Lent: 2008

Psalm 85:1-7; Ezekiel 37:21-28; John 11:45-53

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As Lent blends into Easter, we see clearly the purpose for our time of fasting and self-examination. Through Lent we prepare for Holy Week and Easter. Certainly part of that preparation is to purify ourselves, to confess our shortcomings. However, we do not confess to an unmerciful Lord bent on punishment. In the first order of the Eucharist, we declare that we serve a Lord “whose property is always to have mercy.” (BCP 337). Even before Jesus’s atoning sacrifice, the Israelites praised God singing “You forgave the iniquity of your people; you pardoned all their sin” (Ps. 85: 2). We can look to the prophet Ezekiel to see why God is willing to forgive and is willing that His Son take our punishment. The desire of God’s heart is that His people should be united (Ez. 37:22) and that then “My dwelling place shall be with them; and I will be their God, and they will be my People” (v. 27). Our privations then are not then punishments but rather cleansings, making us ready to live with a loving God who desires our company.

Friday in the 5th Week of Lent: 2008

Psalm 18:1-7, Jeremiah 20:7-13

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My wife and I once took teaching jobs that we were convinced God meant for us to have. We left the urban North for the rural South to do what we believed God called us to do. Yet others—Christians—made doing that work impossible to the point of affecting our spiritual and physical health. Like Jeremiah I wondered if God had led me astray. Nothing we tried lessened the hatred and negativity piled upon us. It was hard to be reminded that obeying God does not guarantee that others will likewise obey. I must admit that there were moments when I thought that if this was how God works, I didn’t much need Him. Yet, there was always some fiery core that would remind me of all that God had done for us previously: the provision of necessary work, the skill of doctors, the support of friends. Even in this darkest of times we had compatriots; we were not alone. The body of Christ surrounded us, even if it was a part of the body unfamiliar to us. “Sing to the Lord; Praise the Lord! For He has delivered the life of the needy from the hands of evildoers.”