God has work for us to do

The Lord's Day: Solemnity of Christ the King

Almighty and everlasting God, we yield unto thee most high praise and hearty thanks for the wonderful grace and virtue declared in all thy saints, who have been the choice vessels of thy grace, and lights of the world in their several generations; most humbly beseeching thee to give us grace so to follow the example of their steadfastness in thy faith, and obedience to thy holy commandments, that at the day of the general resurrection, we, with all those who are of the mystical body of thy Son, may be set on his right hand, and hear that his most joyful voice: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.” Grant this, O Father, for the sake of the same thy Son Jesus Christ, our only Mediator and Advocate. Amen. (BCP p. 487)

I once thought of this Sunday in terms of the Second Coming of Christ when all shall be made right, and I thought of that Day in a manner akin to the arrival of Aragorn and his friends at the Field of Pelennor, the King's banner flying from the ships, the sword Anduril in his hand, the orcs and goblins and all the forces of evil scattered and destroyed, and all that is wrong with the world made right.

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.
(J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring)

There is Scriptural support for such a view: Revelation 19:11-21, for example, as well as the Old Testament Lesson from today's Office: Zechariah 9:9-16, especially verses fourteen through sixteen.

As it says in one of the Psalms for the Twenty-Third morning, which we read at Matins:

He will heap high the corpses;
he will smash heads over the wide earth.
(Psalm 110:6)

Scripture suggests that there may be an element of that somewhere in what is to come, but today's Gospel (St. Matthew 25:31-46) is the only one of the three for this day in the RCL Eucharistic cycle that even remotely leans in this direction. The other two emphasize that His crown is of thorns, His throne a tree:

Fulfilled is all that David told
in true prophetic song of old;
how God the nations' King should be,
for God is reigning from a tree.
(Vexilla Regis – number 162 in Hymnal 1982)

The working-out of these things remains a Mystery, which we must leave in the hands of God. But when we see it with our own eyes, “as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even unto the west” (St. Matthew 24:27), we shall know that His judgments are righteous (cf Psalm 119:137-8).

Here is my recording of the Toccata and Fugue. You will hear a lot of clatter in the pedal solos; that is the nature of an old tracker instrument, and the microphone is close to the console.

On the whole, I am pleased with it; I hope my Teacher is. He knows that this week has been instructive, and not just in terms of playing the organ. I take from this two lessons and a question:

1. The places I missed were all well-prepared. I knew they were hard, gave them extra practice, felt prepared – and still missed them, all in ways that I had not done before. These were not “old” mistakes creeping back in; they were brand new, though in passages of sufficient difficulty that mistakes of all sorts are possible. The place where I fell apart yesterday and expected a Train Wreck went perfectly well today.

2. All of these places felt at the time like horrible glaring failures. Yet, when I listen to the piece, the mistakes are there, but they do not destroy the effect to the degree that it seemed at the time. Any of my young musical friends who are still reading these pages, take note; your playing is often much better than it seems to you at the time. At least it is if you can keep going.

The question: How can I improve my accuracy? I have done everything I know to do at this point, and I have improved my playing a lot over the past two or three years. It could be that my proposed New Habit of adding technical exercises to my daily practice might help. But I am not sure my errors today were technical in nature; they were probably more like St. Peter looking about at the wind and waves (St. Matthew 14:29-30). I ask my Teacher “What must I do?”

A musician whose opinion I trust said that it was terrific. I take comfort in that.


I took a chance with today's hymnody, for all of the songs were unfamiliar. Here are the three that were brand-new to both of our singing congregations.

“What kind of shepherd seeks the sheep” by the young Mennonite pastor Adam Tice, written in 2013

“Stranger, standing at my door” by the distinguished New Zealand author Shirley Erena Murray, text 1997 with tune by Jane Marshall written in 2008

“Till all the jails are empty” by the equally distinguished American author and Episcopal priest Carl P. Daw, Jr. with tune by John Bell and the Iona Community, text and tune both from 1995. That is almost twenty years ago, but it still seems like a “new” hymn. I heard it for the first time at the Hymn Society convention in Richmond a couple of years ago.

One parishioner took me to task for these songs: “Love your neighbor. I get it. You don't need to beat us over the head.” Perhaps I overdid it, though I would offer the defense that these songs are faithful to the Gospel, and echo today's excellent sermon by Rev'd R. And behind that, they express a message that is of sufficient importance to repeat until everyone hears it...

Till all the jails are empty,
and all the bellies filled;
till no one hurts or steals or lies,
and no more blood is spilled....
God has work for us to do.
(Carl P. Daw, Jr., copyright Hope Publishing Co.)

I leave you with the piano improvisation for the middle service prelude. In this, I mostly sought to introduce the tune for “Stranger, standing at my door,” and finished (somewhat to my surprise) with a bit of Forest Green in C major, the tune for the opening hymn “What kind of shepherd.” I had worked with Forest Green in my preparations, intending to cast it in minor – but in the event, it insisted on being in major, and I think rightly. Form is of utmost importance for an improvisation, and preparation is essential, but sometimes the piece goes in a different direction than expected. I think that the subconscious is at work here, or perhaps the Spirit, and one must not be deaf to these whispers.

Of all the music today, and much of it was very good, it was the song by Adam Tice that got to me. The text mostly covers ground well-worn by Psalm 23, and Ira Sankey with his old song “The ninety-and-nine,” which is a story told elsewhere in the Gospels, but it relates very well to the day's Old Testament Lesson (Ezekiel 34:11-16, 20-24), which is why I selected it. Near the end, Rev'd Tice writes:

Then with the wand'rers and the strays
that you have sought and found...

In the context of today's Gospel, it reminded me that should we be chosen to be at His right hand, it is by grace alone. We are, all of us, a company of “wand'rers and strays.”