Despite the fact that Obadiah can not, absolutely can not, sing, he found himself singing in the Opera House.
This happened because
• The Sydney Philharmonia Choirs put on a concert of “Cathedral Classics.”
• It would have been great to go to the version at All Saints Cathedral, Bathurst (April 5) or St Peter and Pauls old Cathedral, Goulburn (April 12) but disability sport duty kept Obadiah away.
• Crucially, conductor Brett Weymark asked everyone to sing, “Abide with me” and “the Old Hundredth”. So Obadiah did as he was told. It was no hardship to praise God.
The Other Cheek can’t bring you the music, only the words….
This writer is old enough to remember when “Scripture in Song” was a thing. This night felt a bit the same. More than half of the songs were scripture, and there were some gems. Revelation 21, whther in printed text, read aloud or on this night sang, never fails to send shivers down Obadiah’s spine.
“And I heard a great voice out of Heaven, saying,
Behold the tabernacle of god is with men,
and he shall dwell with them, and they shall be his people,
and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.”
The voices of the choir carried these words aloft, to the music of Edgar Bainton, one time director of the Sydney Conservatorium, but then these words always me.
British composer Gerald Finzi’s apparently rarely heard masterpiece (according to conductor Weimar) Lo the full final sacrifice from 1946 had this wonderful stanza:
Live ever Bread of loves, and be
My life, my soul, my surer self to me.
Help Lord, my Faith, my Hope increase;
And fill my portion in thy peace.
Give love for life; nor let my days
Grow, but in new powers to thy name and praise.
And to a stunning tune from William Harris, composed in 1959, the choir sang a poem by John Donne.
Bring us, O Lord God, at our last awakening,
into the house and gate of heaven,
to enter into that gate and dwell in that house,
where there shall be no darkness nor dazzling, but one equal light;
no noise nor silence, but one equal music;
no fears nor hopes, but one equal possession;
no ends nor beginnings, but one equal eternity;
in the habitations of thy glory and dominion world without end.
Amen.
Truely challenging words.
If I could have, if it would not offend those next to me, i would have joined in that Amen.
(But probably could not have sung it.)
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So why do this? Spread far and wide on the internet is this image of Elon Musk with a claim he provided a brain implant for a seven-year-old.
Its a fake. You can go here to read a Snopes report about its fakeness: Fact Check: Don’t fall for this story about Musk paying medical bills, arranging Neuralink brain implant for sick girl
Obadiah is interested in why people do this. It might be bad actors from countries that want to ramp up debate. In which case Obadiah needs to go and sit in the corner for a while. Or, likely it is that people who support Trump and admire Elon Musk faked this. But as soon as Obadiah writes that, the ridiculousness is apparent.
But people do mad things in election season. Visiting Kooyong, because that is the electorate Cabrini hospital is, Obadiah is hyper-aware of the story of the husband of Teal MP Monique Ryan removing Liberal corflutes. Madness. But there is no stopping people.
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Three cheers for public transport: A report from a passenger via Transport NSW Facebook: “As I arrived at the concourse [a public hall in Chatswood]this afternoon, I realised that I had inadvertently left my phone on the train. I was with colleagues and they assisted me in finding St Leonard’s Station staff member, Stan. He was amazing. He was kind and calm. He rang my phone and a passenger not only picked up my phone but answered it. Stan then requested the passenger to take the phone to staff at the station platform when he alights the train. Fortunately not only did the passenger agree to this he was also alighting at Wynyard Station. Then Stan rang staff at Wynyard to tell them what he had organised and then requested that those staff give the phone to the guard on the next train leaving Wynyard stopping at St Leonards which they agreed to do. Then as we waited for this plan to all work Stan stayed with us, chatting and reassuring me and being so lovely.
“Whilst he was talking with me, he also when required attended to other passenger requests. When he received word from the staff at Wynyard that the phone had indeed been handed in and it was on its way back to St Leonards, he still stayed with me and gave me updates on the progress of the train before going to the platform to meet the train and retrieve the phone.
“This was such an amazing experience that could have been horrible as I had come to Sydney for work and had travelled from Scone in the Upper Hunter. Phones these days are so much more than a communication tool and as this phone was brand new, I was appalled that I had dropped it when trying to put in my pocket and not realise. The staff went over and beyond in returning my phone, but Stan was next level because he was not only polite, respectful, and efficient he was also able to reassure me and had me laughing and generally cared about my dilemma and doing his best to fix it. NSW Trains has an exceptional employee in Stan, and you are very fortunate to have such a dedicated and personable person working for you. I am truly grateful for his assistance.”
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There Cheers for Human Beings: There’s a theological point to the public transport story. People do good things, sometimes many good things. Obadiah is spending time in hospital visiting – tag teaming with his twin Peter on sibling duty – and he gets to see a tremendous amount of good, dedicated work especially by the bottom of the hospital hierarchy. the other day an orderly wheelin my sibling off to a sudden procedure calmed her by discussing which part of south or south east London they came from. Or the cheerful student nurses from Swinburne Uni.
Obadiah remembers reading Fred Hollows’ autobiography, of his growing up in a faith-filled community and dioscovering human goodness, from memory in Dunedin and the mountains of the South Island. The mountains stood, but his faith slipped away.
Yes Dunedin – his website reads “He originally studied to become a minister, but a summer holiday job at a mental health facility opened his eyes to a different way of thinking.”
Obadiah can’t help thinking that Fred is one of many, maybe taught unconsciously that human goodness resides only in Christians.
Words have consequences. “Total Depravity” is a misleading term. Obadiah knows what the reformers meant that human beings can only come to Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit convicting them. And that all human effort is compromised by sin. Obadiah knows only too well he is a sinner. (And yes, reference the fake election news story above.)
But sadly those who teach the doctrines of grace may leave out common grace.
And wrapping our offspring in cotton wool may backfire if human softness is found outside the Christian community.
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Donald Trump (and his followers) are not the only problem in America: “Family life changed as parents tried to produce the sort of children who could get into selective colleges. Over time, America developed two entirely different approaches to parenting. Working-class parents still practice what the sociologist Annette Lareau, in her book Unequal Childhoods, called ‘natural growth’ parenting. They let kids be kids, allowing them to wander and explore. College-educated parents, in contrast, practice ‘concerted cultivation,’ ferrying their kids from one supervised skill-building, résumé-enhancing activity to another. It turns out that if you put parents in a highly competitive status race, they will go completely bonkers trying to hone their kids into little avatars of success:” David Brooks in the Atlantic