Palm Sunday | dual personalities

April 10, 2017

All glory, laud and honor To thee, Redeemer King

by chuckofish

We had a beautiful flyover spring weekend–the temperatures soaring into the 80s on Sunday–perfect for patio sitting. No bugs, very little humidity. Just right.

Even the OM felt moved to get busy, hanging up this cool welcome sign on the back of the house, which I gave him umpteen years ago.

My friends took me out for an early birthday lunch, venturing out to St. Albans in Franklin County where we had lunch at Head’s Store, built in 1892.

After a yummy meal we stopped at an antique mall on the way home for some browsing. A perfect afternoon.

At church on Palm Sunday a sizable congregation processed from outside to inside the church with palm fronds and a loyal crew of lay readers read the Passion of our Lord Jesus according to Saint Matthew. I think there was less mayhem than usual jockeying for position at the microphone and, with the exception of my friend Chris as Pontius Pilate, there was less method acting. I was able to rise above the fray, because I am now that old lady with the red half glasses who as the Narrator sets the pace at the lectern. This pleases me no end.

So now, onward to Holy Week.

Let Thy blood in mercy poured,
Let Thy gracious body broken,
Be to me, O gracious Lord,
Of Thy boundless love the token.

–Presbyterian Hymnal, #362, John Brownlie

Sunday night the boy and his wee family came over for spaghetti. The wee babes continue to be the perfect end-of-weekend entertainment. (At least their grandparents think so.)

Have a great week!

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April 7, 2017

Savior, let me walk with thee*

by chuckofish

Well, here we are about to enter Holy Week and I haven’t watched even one of my favorite lenten movies! I guess I will have to make up for lost time this weekend…I think I will probably work my way through Jesus of Nazareth, Franco Zefferelli’s epic 1977 mini-series…

This film still looks like a Rembrandt drawing, doesn’t it?

…and, of course, finish up with Ben-Hur (1959) on Good Friday and Holy Saturday. I am, after all, a creature of habit.

Sidenote: They remade Ben-Hur last year–did anyone see it? I didn’t think so. It was, indeed, the summer’s biggest box office bomb, and one of the biggest flops of 2016. When is Hollywood going to figure out that you can’t/shouldn’t try to re-make classics? No one wants to see a digitized chariot race.

Please. We want the real thing.

Anyway, this Sunday is Palm Sunday and I am the Narrator of The Passion of Jesus Christ According to Saint Matthew which is very cool. In my world anyway.

Wall painting by Hippolyte Flandrin, early 19c.

Here’s a little Buechner to get you in the mood for Palm Sunday:

“Blessed be the King who comes in the name of the Lord,” the cry goes up. There is dust in the air with the sun turning it gold. Around a bend in the road, there suddenly is Jerusalem. He draws back on the reins. Crying disfigures his face. “Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace.” Even today, he says, because there are so few days left. Then the terror of his vision as he looks at the city that is all cities and sees not one stone left standing on another – you and your children within you – your children. “Because you did not know the time of your visitation,” he says. Because we don’t know who it is who comes to visit us. Because we do not know what he comes to give. The things that make for peace, that is what he comes to give. We do not know these things, he says, and God knows he’s right. The absence of peace within our own skins no less than within our nations testifies to that. But we know their names at least. We all of us know in our hearts the holy names of the things that make for peace – real peace – only for once let us honor them by not naming them. Let us name instead only him who is himself the Prince of Peace.”

–Frederick Buechner, A Room Called Remember

And hopefully the boy will catch up on his sleep.

Probably not.

Have a good weekend!

*Fanny J. Crosby, “Close to Thee”, Methodist Hymnal

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March 21, 2016

“What language shall I borrow to thank thee, dearest friend…*

by chuckofish

…for this thy dying sorrow, thy pity without end?”

And so we enter Holy Week. We started it off with a bang on Sunday with a snow storm in the early hours of the morning (it looked liked soap flakes in a bad movie!)

(This photo does not quite do justice to the enormous fluffy snowflakes that were, indeed, falling.)

and with a two-hour Palm Sunday service, complete with Passion reading by the lay reader A team. I was the narrator and I felt very blessed to do it. My friend Chris was Jesus, and as his wife said during the passing of the peace, “It’s going to go to his head.” I will try to remain humble.

The snow was all gone by the time I went home after church. This is par for the course in flyover country, where every year the magnolias and the pear trees burst forth and then turn brown when the temperature drops.

I, of course, had just moved all my plants out to the Florida room–hopefully they will survive this cold snap, because I am not moving them back!

I did a lot of work in the house (including the aforementioned Florida room overhaul) in preparation for some work that is being done today. Also the boy and daughter #3 came over for dinner on Sunday night and then I watched The Robe (1953).

Marcellus and Demetrius in ancient Rome

This launched my plan to watch religious movies intently this week leading up to my yearly viewing of Ben Hur (1959) on Good Friday. I have been very slack in regards to appropriate movie watching this Lent, so I have a lot of catching up to do.

Mea culpa.

Have a good Monday. Mine will be very busy as will my week.

(The OM took the photo of the pear trees in bloom.)

*O sacred head now wounded, Herzlich tut michverlangen

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March 30, 2015

“The thorn tree had a mind to Him, when into the woods He came.”*

by chuckofish

Did I not tell you this would happen? Here is the picture I tore the house apart looking for–daughter #1 making palm crosses in the fifth or sixth grade…I found it on Sunday, sitting peacefully in a shoe box on a shelf…C’est la vie.

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A basket of palm crosses at Grace this year.

In church on Palm Sunday we read the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark in place of the Gospel reading. The layreaders took the parts. I was a “Bystander”, which, as my friend Carla explained to my seat-mate, is a step up for me. Usually I am a “Servant Girl”. Carla was a “Witness” and her husband was Judas–who only has two lines, one of which is “Rabbi!” His Method Acting was impressive. My favorite part was when Peter says, “I do not know or understand what you are talking about” and I really think the reader was a bit lost. There is a lot of jockeying for position around the microphone. Since only three of us showed up for practice last week, some confusion is understandable and, although quite avoidable, again par for the course.

And so we enter Holy Week. I’m afraid I have not kept a good Lent. And by that I mean that The Robe (1950) is the only movie on my Lenten movie list that I have watched! I plan to make up for it this week with non-stop biblical epic-watching, culminating, of course, with Ben Hur on Good Friday. I can do this! However, you will not catch me watching A.D. The Bible Continues on Easter. Nosiree, Bob. I will be watching Wolf Hall on Masterpiece Theatre/PBS that night. I advise you to mark your calendars and do the same! It was a huge hit in Britain and I hope that means they did a good job turning this great book into a mini series. We’ll see.

In other news, this weekend there was a three-day estate sale across the street at our neighbor’s house. I got to experience first-hand the annoyance of having hundreds of strangers coming and going and parking all over the place. The shoe was on the other foot and it was weird. The estate sale company put up “No Parking” signs in front of our house and beside it, so we didn’t really have anything to complain about. At least the OM didn’t get into a fight with anyone, which is always a possibility when he comes in contact with the public. Now we will just have to deal with the house being for sale. Whatever.

We had the boy and daughter #3 and some friends over for dinner on Sunday night to hear the highlights of their recent trips to NYC. It was super fun and then the weekend was over.

Have a good Monday.

*Sidney Lanier, A Ballad of the Trees and the Master. Check this out.

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Tag: Palm Sunday

by chuckofish

by chuckofish

by chuckofish

by chuckofish