A clean heart

• Create a clean heart for me, God;
• put a new, faithful spirit deep inside me! (Psalm 51:10, CEB)

We read this psalm last night at our Ash Wednesday service, as most churches do.  It’s always been one of my favorites.  I know the 23rd Psalm always tops the list of most people’s faves, but I’ve always preferred number 51.  I think there are several reasons.  First, when I was growing up in an ELCA Lutheran church, we used to sing some of the verses from this psalm (including the lines quoted above), and I always used to love the tune. (ELCA folks may remember the one I’m talking about from the green hymnal.)  As I became an adult, though, I think I began to appreciate the journey the psalmist takes: beginning with acknowledgment of his sinfulness, he begins to ask for a “clean heart,” and by the end of the psalm he is praising God, spreading the good news. Verses 14 and 15 are beautifully done:

• Deliver me from violence, God,
• God of my salvation,
• so that my tongue can sing
• of your righteousness.
•  Lord, open my lips,
• and my mouth
• will proclaim your praise.

As I began to pay more attention to the church calendar, I realized that Psalm 51 was usually connected with Lent, and Ash Wednesday in particular.  But honestly, this psalm is one that often comes to my mind throughout the year.

One more thing that comes to mind as I ponder this psalm: the story of David and Bathsheba, to which this psalm was apparently a response, is a nasty, sordid affair.  When I read the story, the moment when Nathan springs his big moral on David is always a chilling dramatic moment.  The aftermath of the tale is even worse: David loses a child, something any parent hates to contemplate.  But Psalm 51 takes that dark, sad story and leads David, and the reader or listener, back into the light of God’s grace.  A powerful thought as we observe Lent, and come to grips with our own sinfulness and accept God’s healing grace.

CEB Lenten Blog Tour

Once again, Ash Wednesday is here, and the folks at the Common English Bible (CEB) are hosting a Lenten Blog Tour, entitled "Change Your Heart and Life."  You can read details about the tour here.

The title of the tour brings up an interesting facet of the CEB as a translation.  We all hear the word "repentance" quite often during the season of Lent.  As far as I know, you will not find the word "repent" in the CEB.  Take, for instance, this passage from the Gospel according to Matthew:

1 In those days John the Baptist appeared in the desert of Judea announcing,2 "Change your hearts and lives! Here comes the kingdom of heaven!" (Matt. 3:1-2, CEB)

The traditional English word "repent" in verse 2 is instead rendered "Change your hearts and lives!"  (Thus, the name of the CEB's blog tour.)  I have seen some criticisms of the CEB, wherein people claim that the CEB is trying to convince people that they don't need to repent.  I don't think this is the reasoning behind this translation at all.  Rather, I think in modern usage the term "repent" has come to be almost synonymous with confessing wrongdoing.  Mention the word "repentance," and people may picture someone breaking down in heartfelt confession of wrongdoing.  But repentance really is changing direction, changing our natural inclination to sin, and going the other direction.  That's why I think the CEB's rendering is very good.  It gets the reader to really consider what repentance is, rather than encouraging a gut response of guilt.  It's something to keep in mind during this season of Lent.

Book Review: Then Sings My Soul, Book 3

Several years ago, when I took my current position as Director of Music at a small Methodist church in West Nashville, my Sunday School class at my previous church gave me a beautiful gift: the binder edition of the combined Books 1 and 2 of Then Sings My Soul by Robert Morgan.  I have often used the book as a resource in my ministry of church music.  So of course, when I saw Book 3 of Then Sings My Soul available on Booksneeze.com, I immediately wanted to check it out.  And this third volume does not disappoint!

Perhaps I should explain what these books are all about.  Each volume of Then Sings My Soul presents dozens of the great hymns of the faith, with the music on the left hand page and a story about the hymn on the right hand page.  So each book is basically a combination of hymnal and hymn story book.  The paperback edition is not quite as convenient for a musician as the binder edition I have of the first two volumes, because I can't lay it flat on a piano.  However, the paperback is still a beautifully done book.  The cover is sturdy and beautifully designed, and the page edges have that uneven cut that you find in really high quality books.  (I don't know what that cut is called, but I mean to find out!)  The stories are always fascinating. Sometimes they are tales of how the hymn came to be written, or the author's life, or sometimes an inspirational anecdote about an interesting way in which the hymn was used to do God's work.

Book 3 is even more informative than the first two books, as it opens with a marvelous, concise history of hymnody.  This is followed my the hymn stories, including some real gems: Victory in Jesus; Come, Thou Almighty King; Breathe on Me, Breath of God; and many more.  As a bonus, Morgan follows with a bonus section entitled "Six Hymn Stories I Love to Tell."  I think that section is worth reading just for the "real story" of "It Is Well With My Soul" and the essay on the hymns of Isaac Watts.  The rest is icing on the cake.  Morgan wraps up the trilogy with some brief essays about getting the most out of hymns: reading them, playing them, praying them, and more.  Really, Book 3 is the perfect ending to a great trilogy of hymn books.

In the interest of full disclosure, I received my copy of Then Sings My Soul, Book 3 as a free perusal copy from the blogger program at Booksneeze.com.  But I have to tell you, it would have been well worth the purchase price of twenty bucks, as a valuable addition to my music library!

My updated Bible list

The following PDF is a list of all the Bibles in my collection.  There’s a very good possibility I may have skipped a few, as I haven’t been all that meticulous at adding new Bibles to the list lately.  But it should be a pretty close representation of all the Bibles I have, in their various formats.  Now I’ve just got to figure out where to put them all…

Bible_Bookshelf_(1).pdf Download this file

Lenten slide show

If you’re interested, the slide show below is available for free download at the Common English Bible website.

<div style=”width:425px” id=”__ss_11469041″> <strong style=”display:block;margin:12px 0 4px”>The Common English Bible – Easter Sunday</strong> <div style=”padding:5px 0 12px”> View more PowerPoint from Common English Bible </div> </div>

CEB Lenten Reading slideshow

CEB_Lenten_Readings_Complete.pdf Download this file

Available for free download at the CEB website.

Anti-intellectualism in the church

Jesus said to him, ” ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ (Mat. 22:37, NET)

It has been a neverending source of dismay to me over the past several years, as I have discussions with other Christians, how opposed some believers are towards any sort of intellectual inquiry in matters of faith.  There seems to be a widespread belief among many Christians that any sort of intellectual engagement in the context of their faith is somehow antithetical to the work of the spirit.  And I’m not talking about a general apathy towards intellect; I’m talking about an outright antipathy and hostility towards reasoning and logic.  I don’t understand how any follower of Jesus Christ can think in that way.

How many times have I heard someone say something along the lines of, “I just believe in my heart that what I’ve learned is true,” or something to that effect.  The upshot of such a statement is often in response to a question about the truth of Scripture, or the truth of Christian doctrine.  I’ve been in Bible study groups in which, when any subject comes up that may challenge their preconceptions, people simply shake their heads and say, “That’s not what I’ve always learned.”  And that’s generally the end of the conversation for them.  Rational inquiry is stopped in its tracks by a reliance on tradition, or more often, on folk theology that has no grounding in Scripture whatsoever.

How can we possibly “love the Lord…with all [our] mind,” if we don’t actually use our minds?  I’d like to make it clear that I’m not encouraging Christians to doubt everything they’ve ever been told about the faith.  But grappling with some of the more difficult aspects of our faith helps us to develop a mature, informed faith.  Confronting challenges to tenets of our beliefs actually helps us to come to a clearer understanding of what it is that we believe, rather than parroting the catch phrases of our forebears.  Honest doubt can be a path to a more meaningful relationship with God.  Consider Job and how he dealt with the conflicting opinions of his “friends.” Job doesn’t come right out and say he has doubts, but he clearly doesn’t understand why God has let so many bad things happen to him, and it causes him pain–intellectual pain, as well as spiritual pain.

Scripture never encourages us to simply abandon all reason, and follow a blind faith.  On the contrary, in Isaiah, God says “come let us reason together” (Isa. 1:18).  Jesus urges his followers to love God with heart, soul and mind.  And Paul certainly uses rational arguments to make his points, over and over.  So let us not fall into the trap of thinking that reason is the enemy of faith.  Let us engage our reason and faith, remaining open to the leading of the spirit.

My review of the updated Voice New Testament

See my review of The Voice New Testament (2011) here.  [Originally posted on my Bible Bookshelf blog.]

Yet another new English translation?

In case anyone’s interested, there is yet another new English translation that has shown up on the already crowded Bible scene.  It’s called the International English Bible, and as far as I can tell, it is the work of one man.  I believe his name is Andrew Jackson (at least, that’s how he’s credited on the Kindle Version of the IEB’s New Testament), and the website refers to him as “a Bible teacher familiar with the original languages and the historical and geographical context of the New Testament.”  There really isn’t any more info on the site than that.  But you can browse the entire New Testament on the site, and leave feedback for the translator.  I haven’t had a chance to look at much of the IEB, but I did take a peek at Romans, and found that he follows Luther’s famous example in Romans 3:28.  See below…

CBA Besteselling Bibles List- January 2012

Bible_Translations.pdf Download this file

I really thought, by this time, that the CEB would be making a little better showing.  Of course, the stores represented by the CBA presumably tend to have a pretty conservative clientele.  So it’s possible that this list doesn’t really reflect the actual performance of the CEB.  The NIV is certainly holding its position at the stores represented on this list, despite some of the public outcry against the NIV 2011 from some conservative denominations.