SERENDIPITY III

Well, I stumbled into something again. (No, it wasn’t a pond. It has been six or seven years since I walked into a pond one dark night.) The library book store has put out Christmas books for purchase, and I discovered The Christmas Stories of George MacDonald. For the cost of $1.00 I couldn’t pass it up.  I wrote about MacDonald some blogs back SERENDIPITY, but this was all new stuff to me. The book is published by David C. Cook Publishing Company. That was the first happy memory for they were the publishers of the Sunday Pix, a cartoon/comic strip version of the Bible issued in weekly installments. It was one of the things that made it worthwhile going to Sunday School when I was a kid.

The MacDonald book is illustrated by Linda Hill Griffith, an author and illustrator of children’s books. The pictures are gentle, with many details to delight the eye. The picture at the head of this blog is hers. You will notice that the baby Jesus is a blond, round-faced northern European cherub, nothing at all like a middle-eastern peasant. Well, everyone in the illustrations are pleasant-looking, British people except for the mean characters who are sharp-featured, sneering folk. I do like the slightly uneasy look on the babe’s face as if Jesus is not quite sure he likes sharing his bed with a hungry donkey.

Anyway, the illustration is for MacDonald’s poem “The Angel’s Song.” As I mentioned, this was all new to me, but I only had to read the first stanza to recognize it:

      From heaven above I come to you,

      To bring a story good and new:

      Of goodly news so much I bring,

      I cannot help it, I must sing.

Goodness, that is an English translation of Martin Luther’s Christmas hymn “Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her.” (It would have been nice if Luther had gotten the credit for the original.) I know it better in the Catherine Winkworth translation.

      From Heaven above to earth I come,

      To bear good news to every home;

      Glad tidings of great joy I bring,

      Whereof I now will say and sing.

It’s really a miniature Christmas Pageant. The first verses are the Angel addressing the shepherds, then the shepherds go off to Bethlehem, and then we follow reacting with awe at the sight of the Christ Child

      Ah, dearest Jesus, holy Child,

      Make Thee a bed, soft, undefiled,

      Here in my poor heart’s inmost shrine,

      That I may evermore be Thine.

Two verses of that Luther hymn were used by J. S. Bach in his Christmas Oratorio. Ah, that brought back (or brought Bach) happy memories of singing the six cantatas that make up the Christmas Oratorio in college. I sang the last three Cantatas in January of 1970 or 1971. Usually the Roosevelt University Choral Concert was just before Christmas, but I think that year it was delayed to January, so we sang the cantatas for New Years’ Day, the Sunday after New Years, and Epiphany. Bach, as a good Lutheran, knew that Christmas ran from December 25 to January 6.  In December of 1971 I was still hanging around the university even though I had graduated. My future seminary in its great wisdom had refused to admit me as a student because I had taken too many music courses, and they wanted me to take a bunch of liberal arts courses to prove I wasn’t stupid. I don’t think non-musicians have any idea how difficult courses in music theory and analysis are, but that’s the way things were. So I was taking courses, and the Concert Choir was going to sing the first three cantatas, so I volunteered to sing with them.

I still have my vocal score for the Christmas Oratorio complete with many notations on diction, intonation, notes to watch out for, and an occasional indication of when to help the tenors sing an entrance.

The director of all choral activities was Dr. David Larson. I consider it a great privilege to have studied with Dr. Larson and wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. Now the curious thing is that Dr. Larson spent much of his professional life teaching in Japan. Readers of my blog SERENDIPITY II might recall that Pastor Marvin Tack, who also had a great influence on me, spent much of his life in Japan.  No, they didn’t know each other, BUT they both did know somebody else, Pastor Norman Nuding who also had a role in my eventual pursuit of the Lutheran ministry.WHEN YOU GROW UP PT. 3

This is a wonderful time of year for memories, especially Christmas memories. I know the Scrooges out there are grumpling about rushing the season, but I love it. I love the dark nights as fall slides into winter. I love the coming season of Advent. I love the dozens of books of Christmas stories and poems that I read each year.  I love the wonder of the Word made flesh, our Lord Jesus.

Last verse, in the Winkworth translation.

Glory to God in highest Heaven,

Who unto man His Son hath given,

While angels sing, with pious mirth,

A glad New Year to all the earth.

May the Lord bless you on your journey and greet you on your arrival. And may your pilgrimage be accompanied by the singing of angels.

Wayne

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SERENDIPITY

Serendipity–The faculty of making happy and unexpected discoveries by accident (Oxford English Dictionary). I have been told that there are no coincidences; that all things are planned by God. I am not sure about that. I do know there are serendipitous happenings. Whether these are purely accidental or or entirely planned, I shall leave for the philosophers and theologians to decide. I’ll just enjoy them when they come.

One came a week ago. I have long known that the author George MacDonald had been an influence on C. S. Lewis and G. K,. Chesterton. MacDonald (1824-1905) was a Victorian-era fantasy writer. He was also a mentor to Lewis Carroll encouraging him to publish his “Alice” book. I had never read any of MacDonald’s books myself. A week ago I was wandering trough the Library books store where they seel used books. My eye just happened to pass over a volume in the children’s section. It was a collection of three children’s novels by MacDonald. Being interested in children’s fiction I glanced through the book. Since it was only a dollar, I bought it.

Now it just so happens that the week before some books I had ordered arrived in my mailbox. These were books (on sale, of course) that I bought solely on the basis of their description in a catalog. On of the books was Tending the Heart of Virtue: How Classic Stories Awaken a Child’s Moral Imagination by Vigen Guroian. This is another subject I am quite interested in. Among the stories discussed in Pinocchio, the Velveteen Rabbit, The Wind in the Willows, and The Princess and the Goblin. Wait! Wait! That last title is one of MacDonald’s Stories.

The connection between my two books drove me to start reading The Princess and the Goblin I am a little more than halfway though. What a marvelous story. The telling is old-fashioned, of course, but none the less captivating. You can see how this sort of writing would influence Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien and Madeline L’Engle.

went to the Internet to learn more about MacDonald. I find that he was a Congregational minister although he did not serve a parish for many years. His preaching about the universal love of God didn’t sit well with some people. I discovered that MacDonald shared my theological problem with the substitutionary atonement. That is the belief that Christ atones for sin by being punished by God in place of sinners. MacDonald took a view that Christ died to overcome sin. This view was held in the early years of Christianity and is still the view of the Eastern Orthodox Church. It was brought back to the forefront in Protestant theology by Gustaf Aulén’s book Christus Victor.

Well, that has proved to be a very happy set of connections. Serendipity! Whatever happy accidents happen on your way, may the Lord bless you on your journey and greet you on your arrival. Wayne






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