dual personalities

Tag: church

July 22, 2024

Let us love and sing and wonder

by chuckofish

I have had quite a busy 10 days and this week will be pretty busy too. I am home, but the laundry is piling up and I have a lot of furniture to rearrange following DN loading up a truck with stuff! (We drove back to our flyover city together on Saturday and he rented a truck.)

He did it all himself–a twin bed with mattress, a dresser, a large antique cradle, a wing chair, numerous bins, etc…and a dining room set from Facebook Marketplace, which he had to drive to Eureka to pick up! Then he drove it all back to Mahomet and unloaded it. It’s great to be young and fit. (The boy was in Kansas City so unavailable to help.) All this after spending 2 1/2 hours in the car with his mother-in-law! (We can talk for hours.)

I was pooped after all this, but got up and went to church and Sunday School. We had a guest teacher in Sunday School–Dr. Hans Madueme, professor of theological Studies at Covenant College in Georgia. He is an MD, MDiv and PhD. Quite a guy. It was a great class about science and faith, creation and original sin. We also had a good sermon on Psalm 7:

God is a righteous judge,
    and a God who feels indignation every day.

12 If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword;
    he has bent and readied his bow;
13 he has prepared for him his deadly weapons,
    making his arrows fiery shafts.

(Psalm 7:11-12)

I felt intellectually renewed, stimulated and refreshed!

Well, I sure had fun over the past week with darling daughter #2 and the sweet prairie girls…

…who are learning the art of estate sale-ing (and waiting in line)…

…where the Hibiscus are the size of platters…and the water lilies bloom…

…and Happy Hour popsicles are standard…

But I am glad to be home and back to my old routine.

Our prayers are with the the congregation of the historic First Baptist Dallas which burned down over the weekend. But as their Pastor Robert Jeffress said after fire, “I’m grateful that the church is not bricks or mortar or wood, it’s people. And the people of God will endure. First Baptist Dallas will endure and we thank so many of our friends around the country who are praying for us right now.”

And this was great:

Let us love and sing and wonder,
Let us praise the Savior’s Name!
He has hushed the law’s loud thunder,
He has quenched Mount Sinai’s flame.
He has washed us with His blood,
He has brought us nigh to God.

–John Newton, 1774

3 Comments
January 8, 2024

“Take heart. Get up; he is calling you.”*

by chuckofish

How was your weekend? It snowed here on Friday evening so that slowed things down quite a bit. We watched The Court Jester (1955) in honor of Glynis Johns, who died last week at age 100.

Funnily enough, we had decided to watch it before she died, but it worked out just right and we toasted her and the rest of the cast and crew.

I don’t know where this movie has been all my life, but I just love it. It has everything–a great script by the team of Norman Panama and Melvin Frank (who both co-directed) and a sparkling cast of stars and veteran character actors. It also boasts art direction by the incomparable Hal Pereira, who, if you are a discerning movie watcher, you know was the supervising art director at Paramount and as such was responsible for the “look” of a lot of great movies–such as Shane, Double Indemnity, Rear Window, Breakfast at Tiffany’s and on and on. Nominated 23 times for an Oscar, he only won once, for The Rose Tattoo (1955). Typical. [Trivia note: Hal Pereira graduated from the University of Illinois!]

I finished putting away the last of the Christmas decorations and got things in relative order before the twins came over to wreck havoc after church to celebrate their Mom’s birthday.

At church we started on a new Sunday School unit on the 5 points of Calvinism (TULIP) starting with my favorite, Total Depravity.

T – Total depravity
U – Unconditional election
L – Limited atonement
I – Irresistible grace
P – Perseverance of the saints

Everyone is taking the same class, but we are divided up into four age groups with different leaders, i.e. 20s and 30s, 40s and 50s, 60s, and 70s and up. I was directed by my friend and style icon, Linda, to go into her room–the 70s and up. I said, “I’m not quite there yet.” She was embarrassed, but I’m like, who cares. I’m alive and breathing.

We also heard a good sermon about Bartimaeus, the blind beggar (Mark 10:46-52). Bartimaeus hears that Jesus is coming and he shouts out for Jesus, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Many rebuke him and tell him to be quiet. But he cries out all the more. And Jesus stops and calls him. Bartimaeus tells him he wants to be healed and Jesus heals him. “Your faith has made you well.” He responds to being healed by following Jesus “on the way”.

The simple cry for mercy by Bartimaeus has inspired countless prayers during the last two millennia. “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner,” the so-called “Jesus Prayer,” which has a variety of forms, is spoken millions of times each day by believers throughout the world, myself included.

As sinners, we need to experience God’s forgiveness. And this comes, not through our efforts, but through God’s mercy. Because of his love for us and his faithfulness, God’s mercy is new every morning (Lamentations 3:23).

Grant us grace to see you, Lord,
mirrored in your holy Word.
May our lives and all we do
imitate and honor you
that we all like you may be
at your great epiphany
and may praise you, ever blest,
God in man made manifest.

–Christopher Wordsworth, 1807-85

*Mark 10:49

5 Comments
July 31, 2023

“He wasn’t shot with no fawty-one Colt.”*

by chuckofish

How was your weekend? Hope you managed to keep cool. We had more storms and this time the electricity at our house went out for an hour and a half! I was just packing a bag to go to daughter #1’s house, when it came back on. Such drama–these days we are lost without our precious electricity.

Poor daughter #2 and famille had their air conditioning go out on Saturday and had to wait all day to get it fixed. I am sympathetic, but back in my day, we didn’t have central air conditioning at all and we had to wait all summer for relief. We are very spoiled now, that’s for sure. We would go to the movies to sit for a few hours in the AC. Grocery shopping was also a diversion!

Anyway, c’est la vie. Saturday morning I went to a flower arranging workshop at church led by the floral director at Schnucks Markets. I learned a lot!

I like the fact that the flowers at our church are always done by volunteers. There is no “the flowers are given (i.e. paid for) to the glory of God and in thanksgiving for/in memory of by so-and-so” announcement in the bulletin. It is just an anonymous gift. But we in the flower guild do our best (for the glory of God) and every week the arrangements are very different.

After church on Sunday there was a reception for a lady who is retiring after working there for 24 years–one of those unsung women who make everything run smoothly in the office and, if they are lucky, are appreciated for being “hard-working” and “organized”. Lois was also lauded for her sincere faith. Well, “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men” (Colossians 3:23).

I watched a really good movie–Intruder in the Dust (1949) based on William Faulkner’s novel, which is basically a mystery story set in the deep South. It is the story of Lucas Beauchamp, an independent, land-owning black man, who is unjustly accused of the murder of a white man, Vinson Gowrie. Through the help of two teenage boys, the town lawyer and an elderly white lady, who figure out who the real murderer is, he is able to prove his innocence.

I had not seen this movie in many years. It held up. Shot entirely on location in Oxford, Mississippi, it has an air of authenticity that the backlot never would have achieved. The actors are all solid. The screenplay by Ben Maddow sticks to Faulkner’s book. The Director Clarence Brown, who grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee and apparently knew something about the South, was not even nominated for an Oscar for this movie, but he won the British Academy Film Award for it. (Brown holds the record for the most Academy Award for direction nominations–6–without a win.)

Not surprisingly, the film failed at the box office, not even earning back its negative costs according to studio records. There is, after all, no romance in this movie; there are no pretty girls. There is no real action to speak of–only the threat of action (a lynching). There are tense moments, to be sure, for our heroes as they ride around at night and dig up a dead body and, when they get the sheriff on board with their plan, dig the body up again. But American audiences were not interested.

It is said, however, that William Faulkner himself was pleased with the film and Ralph Ellison wrote that of the whole cycle of race-based movies released in 1949, Intruder in the Dust was “the only film that could be shown in Harlem without arousing unintended laughter, for it is the only one of the four in which Negroes can make complete identification with their screen image.”

Check it out. It’s worth a viewing. Then read the book!

“Some things you must always be unable to bear. Some things you must never stop refusing to bear. Injustice and outrage and dishonor and shame. No matter how young you are or how old you have got. Not for kudos and not for cash: your picture in the paper nor money in the bank either. Just refuse to bear them.”

*William Faulkner, Intruder in the Dust

4 Comments
February 20, 2023

Publish glad tidings

by chuckofish

How was your weekend? Mine was pretty quiet, the highlight being when the OM and I wrestled the two carseats into his car and picked up the wee twins to go to church on Sunday. (Lacrosse season starts today so the boy was working at his store all weekend.) It is always a treat to drive with the twins in the backseat and listen to their running commentary. Their total depravity surfaced only a few times during the service–i.e. the bud sang lustily along with “Publish Glad Tidings” but using his own lyrics–perhaps he was speaking in tongues. (I turned to Lottie and whispered, “What is your brother singing?” and she said, “I don’t know!”) When they left for Kids Praise worship, I relaxed and enjoyed a good sermon.

The OM and I also attended the Mission Dinner on Friday night where we learned all about Presbyterians in the Ukraine and in the Yucatan. Presbyterians love their missionaries and their missions around the world, which is a big change from the Episcopal Church where the very idea of missions is embarrassing to them.

Presbyterians are serious about missions. (“And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.”–Mark 16:15) Basically they are serious. I am learning this about them and I appreciate it. I am also learning to curb by innate sense of frivolity. But I am a Calvinist at heart and have always had a strong Puritan streak. It is wonderful to find folks who share this attitude.

Of course, daughter #1 poured me a glass of wine when we got home.

And the Amaryllis just keeps on blooming!

O Zion, haste, thy mission high fulfilling,
To tell to all the world that God is light;
That He who made all nations is not willing
One soul should perish, lost in shades of night.

Publish glad tidings, tidings of peace;
Tidings of Jesus, redemption and release.

–Mary A. Thompson, 1868
5 Comments
November 7, 2022

Come, all ye pining, hungry poor, the Savior’s bounty taste*

by chuckofish

How was your weekend? Mine was a quiet one, mostly because I am still fighting this cold. I managed to “do” the flowers for church on Sunday–my maiden solo voyage so to speak and I was pleased with the result. I went to Trader Joe’s early on Saturday morning and bought a bunch of different flowers and then went to church, going in with my key and setting up in the sacristy…

Voila. Yay, me!

We went to church on Sunday (I had to check out my flowers) but I had a coughing fit during the sermon and had to leave and get a drink of water. I sat on a comfortable sofa and drank my water and listened to the sermon which was piped in. I have to say, it was quite nice. I rejoined the congregation after the sermon for the Lord’s Supper. Then the boy and the wee twins came over for bagels and cream cheese and we sat outside for some final driveway time of the season.

Lottie is such a big girl now–she sang along with one of the hymns and said the Lord’s Prayer (from memory)! The wee laddie filled out the Welcome Card, which he does every week.

After they left, I FaceTimed with darling Katie and her darling mother, making the weekend complete.

Well, have a good Monday! Go in peace to love and serve the Lord!

*Anne Steele (1716-1778)

4 Comments
October 10, 2022

Land me safe on Canaan’s side

by chuckofish

How was your weekend? On Saturday I went to a training session for new members of the flower guild where I learned how to make the flower arrangements for church on Sunday.

Linda (the head of the guild and my style icon) taught us all the do’s and don’ts of flower arranging and so I am confident that I should be ready to go when I have to do this by myself. Right? It’s good to learn new things, right? Right?

After finishing up her business in mid-MO, daughter #1 drove into town so we could make one last trip this season to our favorite Jeff Co winery after church on Sunday. It was a beautiful day and we spread out our picnic on the grass…

and enjoyed the live music.

Good times!

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.

(Exodus 20:8)

Have a good week!

2 Comments
August 22, 2022

You know my sitting down and my rising up”*

by chuckofish

We had a nice weekend in flyover land with temperatures in the low eighties and low humidity. That is about as good as it gets here in the summer and I am grateful.

Daughter #1 came home and we enjoyed some normal weekend-y activities. The boy and I also went in his truck to pick up a “new” vintage camelback sofa I had bought at our local antique mall last week. Now we have to deal with disposing of our old sofa, which, believe me, is not easy!

We went to church on Sunday where we heard a good, long sermon on Luke 16:1-13, a hard parable, which the preacher met head-on. Later in the afternoon the OM and I returned for the fall ministry kickoff picnic which was actually a lot of fun. Everyone is returning to school and that means that the summer, I guess, is more or less officially over. Sigh.

I was sad to read that the College Hill Presbyterian Church in Oxford, Mississippi, had burned to the ground. The church was built in 1846 and was the oldest church structure in Oxford, as well as the oldest Presbyterian church in all of North Mississippi. The grounds of the church were used by Union troops under Generals Grant and Sherman during the Civil War, and it is where William Faulkner was married.

Before the fire

In other news, a ridiculous story has recently been making the rounds of social media claiming that six security men had to hold back John Wayne from assaulting Sacheen Littlefeather at the 1973 Academy Awards. Blogger Farran Smith Nehme, aka the Self-Styled Siren, has now thoroughly researched and debunked this fantasy in a well-written article. People have no shame nowadays about lying and spreading more lies.

But this story about the Samaritan’s Purse volunteers helping people right here in St. Louis is uplifting. They walk the walk. Check out the video.

Also, Katiebelle got a haircut…

…and she approved…

And here’s R.C. Sproul explaining flat-out nonsense:

Well, have a good week!

*Psalm 139: 2

3 Comments
May 23, 2022

“Fair is the sunshine, fair is the moonlight, robed in the blooming garb of spring”*

by chuckofish

Well, on last Thursday night we had quite a thunderstorm, which actually was a EF0 tornado two blocks away. I’m not kidding. I was standing in the front door watching when the straight line wind came through (80 mph!) but it didn’t seem like a really big deal or anything.

But I guess it was.

(photo from KSDK.com)

On Saturday morning the OM and I went to my friend Nicki’s memorial service which had been postponed since January. We had to drive there in a thunderous gulley-washer, arriving, like everyone else, rather wet and bedraggled from the hike from our car. (This church–with the largest Episcopal congregation in the diocese–has no parking lot and you have to find parking spots on a residential street the best you can–zut alors!)

As you know, I have always loved the Episcopal Burial Office, Rite I, especially the procession–

I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord;
he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live;
and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.

I know that my Redeemer liveth,
and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth;
and though this body be destroyed, yet shall I see God;
whom I shall see for myself and mine eyes shall behold,
and not as a stranger.

For none of us liveth to himself,
and no man dieth to himself.
For if we live, we live unto the Lord.
and if we die, we die unto the Lord.
Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.

Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord;
even so saith the Spirit, for they rest from their labors.

The semi-professional choir (wearing masks) sang it, however, as they did the psalms, and so it seemed like a theater production. This is how they like it at this church. So be it.

We skipped the reception at the St. Louis Country Club and came home so we could go to the high school graduation party of our neighbor across the street. I have always had a soft spot in my heart for this cute boy because he reminds me of DN. He is going to Montana State so he can hike and fish and ski. I said, you know you have to go to class too, right? He chuckled. But really. Why do people go to college nowadays? Anyway, it was a lot of socializing for one day. I watched the PGA tournament thereafter.

On Sunday it was good to be back in our own church alongside the wee babes. We had brunch afterwards and then they all went home and the weekend wound down.

Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.

Hymn #642

P.S. This was cool about a unique Cardinals-Giants baseball game played last week. “We tend to think of life as a game to be won rather than a game to be enjoyed. We feel the pressure to determine the outcome. But what if we already know the outcome? We no longer need to worry about whether we will win or lose because those of us who are in Christ have both lost and won. Because he died and now lives, we have also died with him, and we will live with him (2 Tim 2:11). So if that’s the case, what do we have to lose?”

I am glad to see that Paul Zahl is back with his recommendations for TCM films to watch in June. “The Hoodlum Priest is the kind of movie that was popular and successful when it came out, but the critical “establishment” would like it to stay in a memory hole forever. Please don’t let that happen. Stay up and watch The Hoodlum Priest on June the 11th!”

Have a good week!

*Hymn #170, Munster Gesangbuch, 1677

6 Comments
May 2, 2022

Gracious God, my heart renew, make my spirit right and true…

by chuckofish

…cast me not away from thee, let thy Spirit dwell in me…*

It was a quiet weekend…except for an earthquake on Friday evening!

The OM and I were watching the news when we thought we heard two loud booms and the house shook for a second. We thought it might be a) an earthquake, b) an explosion or c) a bad car crash. Daughter #1 texted a little while later that she had received a ‘push alert’ about an earthquake in Valley Park.

Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change
And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea;
Though its waters roar and foam,
Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. Selah.

–Psalm 46: 2-3

What next? Do we dare ask?

I cajoled the OM into accompanying me on Saturday to an open house held at the 1816 log house in Affton, MO, which will be disassembled and moved to the Thomas Sappington House Historic Site in Crestwood.

This is a great example of a small local group working tirelessly to preserve a small piece of history. They are still raising money so that the two Sappington cousins’ houses built in the early 1800s – Thomas’ brick house, now a museum, and Joseph’s log house (above)–can be preserved together. (The log cabin is currently located in a residential area, surrounded by small homes, and has been lived in by private owners all these years.)

There are lots of people who could just write a big check and make this happen but historic preservation is not high on most people’s priority lists these days. C’est la vie. It will happen, one small donation at a time.

On Sunday we met up with the boy and the wee twins at church per usual and then headed home afterwards for some brunch and driveway sittin’. (It was perfect weather for driveway sittin’ but I have no pictures of us just sittin’…)

Waitin’ for brunch with my old Tyrolean village…
Practising that nice PGA swing
We hauled out the old shopping cart–always a fave

And we always have fun looking for the hidden animals in the yard…

…and seeing what’s about to bloom…Iris buds!

I was struck in church by the thought of how blessed I was to be sitting between my husband and my grown son. This, after decades of being the “Widow Compton” at my old Episcopal Church, is not a small thing. (One old lady even thought I had married the actual widower with whom I generally shared a pew!) But the menfolk in my family like the new church–and no wonder–it is full of men! (I like it for that reason too.) Discuss among yourselves.

I watched the Horse Soldiers (1959) in honor of Ulysses Grant and Bing Russell and thoroughly enjoyed it.

It is such a great movie. I don’t understand why it is so often considered to be one of John Ford’s lesser films. The stars are great together and the supporting cast is without parallel in my opinion. It was filmed on location in Mississippi and so has an authenticity a lot of Civil War dramas lack. (Compare the plantation Greenbriar in this movie to Tara.) Ford himself tended to dismiss the film, in large part I think because a stuntman was killed while filming. This greatly upset him and he ended filming the movie abruptly and returned to California.

Matthew Brady takes a picture.

Nevertheless, it is one of my favorites.

It is supposed to rain on and off again all week, but oh well. I’ll find something to do.

*The Psalter, 1912

4 Comments
March 7, 2022

What then shall we say to these things?

by chuckofish

This weekend I stepped out of my comfort zone and ventured to an estate sale in a part of town that is terra incognita to me. Daughter #2 was in Jeff City so I had no trusty co-pilot…but I found the house without a problem. It was in Affton, a tiny house that would usually never tempt me, but the pictures on the estate sale website had led me to believe that it might be worthwhile because there were lots of Ehrman needlepoint pillows, finished, unfinished and unopened kits. A veritable treasure trove of the best kits from the U.K.! Even though I arrived within an hour of opening, a lot of the best pillows and all the kits were already gone. However, upon investigation, I soon discovered that the woman who had made all the pillows and sewed all the kits was not a very accomplished needlepointer. They were all trapezoidal, not square, and nothing had been blocked. Her stitching was terrible. What a shame!

I bought one that had not yet been made into a pillow in memory of the devoted needlepointer, but I am uncertain pretty sure it can’t be salvaged.

I also bought a good book…

…which happened to have the woman’s name in it. It sounded vaguely familiar and I was curious, so I googled her. It turns out she went to my old Episcopal church! Zut alors–the world is so small.

We had another great sermon in church on Sunday. It was on Romans 8:31-39, one of the greatest passages in scripture.

31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 33 Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written:

“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39 nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

As usual, I cried during every hymn. All these tears made me think of what Frederick Buechner wrote about tears…

Whenever you find tears in your eyes, especially unexpected tears, it is well to pay the closest attention.  They are not only telling you something about the secret of who you are, but more often than not God is speaking to you through them of the mystery of where you have come from and is summoning you to where, if your soul is to be saved, you should go to next. 

–Frederick Buechner, Whistling in the Dark

Nevertheless, it is kind of embarrassing and I need to stop wearing mascara to church.

The boy and his wee family joined us at church and then came over for brunch. The sun wasn’t out, but it was warm enough to do a little exploring in the yard after our meal…

…and I put the wee babes to work picking up sticks after a very windy winter…

This is a game they enjoy. (Lottie made believe we were going to have a bonfire. Make-believe bonfires are the best.) I went out and bagged it up later.

How was your weekend?

Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe;

Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as now.

Elvina M. Hall, 1865
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