Eric Liddell, memorialized in the film Chariots of Fire, won a gold medal in the 1924 Paris Olympics before going to China as a missionary. Some years later, with the outbreak of World War II, Liddell sent his family to safety in Canada, but he remained in China. Soon Liddell and other foreign missionaries were interned in a Japanese detainment camp. After months of captivity, he developed what doctors feared was a brain tumor.
Every Sunday afternoon a band would play near the hospital, so one day Liddell requested they play the hymn “Be Still, My Soul.” As he listened, I wonder if Eric pondered these words from the song: Be still, my soul: the hour is hastening on / When we shall be forever with the Lord. / When disappointment, grief, and fear are gone, / Sorrow forgot, love’s purest joys restored. / Be still, my soul: when change and tears are past / All safe and blessed we shall meet at last.
That beautiful hymn, so comforting to Eric as he faced an illness that led to his death 3 days later, expresses a great reality of Scripture. In Psalm 46:10, David wrote, “Be still, and know that I am God.” In our darkest moments, we can rest, for our Lord conquered death on our behalf. Be still, and allow Him to calm your greatest fears.
Read: Psalm 46
Mozart’s last piece was his Requiem, for which he was commissioned by a nobleman who intended to pass the piece off as his own. He never finished it, and one of his students completed the work. More recently, others have taken Mozart’s score and finished it in their own different ways.
Mozart set the Kyrie as a fugue, which is natural because of the repetitive nature of the Greek words. But this is Mozart wearing his size 15 triple-E boots, and it’s one of his very finest works in counterpoint. No composer after Mozart dared to set the Kyrie as a fugue again.
Mozart does something at the end that is astonishing. He ends with a D chord with an open fifth (D-A-D). He leaves out the F or F# which would indicate whether the chord is D Major or D minor. But tonal ambiguity is not what he is attempting here. There is no doubt that this is D minor.
That open fifth is used to illustrate space, and it is usually the space above, such as the sky. But in the last chord of the Kyrie and during the few seconds of its decay in the church, Mozart gives a glimpse of the space below, the abyss. How he does this I’ve never been able to figure out. It’s hair-raising.
Mozart: Requiem, Introit & Kyrie (Gardiner conducting English Baroque Soloists & Monteverdi Choir)
Almighty God, we pray that You restore us to You. Hear our cries to You. And may we be aware that when YOUR people humble themselves and turn from their wicked ways that You will hear from heaven and heal our land.
For we are Your people spoken of. We are the Christians who must return to You, for the state of our land testifies that we have become indifferent, distant, removed, and wayward.
If we claim You, then have us honor You with our lives, that Your ways would be our ways.
If we claim You, then have us focus on the kind of leaders You would select, for You have placed a vote in our hands and given to us freedom to participate in our own governance. For You have mercifully reminded us of responsibility when we pray, "Raise up leaders who will honor You."
If we claim You, then have us recognize the destruction to which our wickedness leads. Have us weep for the souls who know not about You, and have us doubly weep for those who know not because of our own silence about You.
Have mercy, Lord. May You hold back the whirlwind we have sown and instead convict us of our sin, of our silence, and of our indifference. May we seek a better city rather than run for the pleasures of the earthly cities. And may Your blessing fall upon us when we so humble ourselves before You.
In Jesus name we pray; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen
Interesting thing about Today’s Sermon!
When I applied for my CCW, I filled out the form on a computer. When the time came to “Swear” that everything I had said was the Truth, I pulled my Bible out of my purse to swear on it.
The Gub’mmint Official said that wasn’t necessary...all i had to do was click the mouse on the button that said “Swear”.
Somehow, it did not feel the same as putting one hand on the good book, raising the other, and actually SAYING the words.
I read somewhere “Fear Not”. Set back and enjoy the ride because things are going to change rapidly and quite unexpectedly.
He Who blessed our forefathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob - may He bless the fighters of the Israel Defense Force, who stand guard over our land and the cities of our G-d from the border of the Lebanon to the desert of Egypt, and from the Great Sea unto the approach of the Aravah, on the land, in the air, and on the sea.
May HASHEM cause the enemies who rise up against us to be struck down before them. May the Holy One, Blessed is He, preserve and rescue our fighting men from every trouble and distress and from every plague and illness, and may He send blessing and success in their every endeavor.
May He lead our enemies under their sway and may He grant them salvation and crown them with victory. And may there be fulfilled for them the verse: For it is Hashem, your G-d, Who goes with you to battle your enemies for you to save you.
G-d bless and keep your children safe, Alouette.
God Bless our military men and women who have given their all.
Thanks, unique.
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