Mozarbic 7th Century Prayer: Grant That We May Serve You link
You have freed us from evil
and strengthened us in what is good.
Grant that we may serve you,
our God and Lord.
Put away our sins.
Give joy to those who mourn.
Give freedom to the captive.
Give health to the sick.
Grant us peace and safety all our days,
and hold back the strength of our enemies.
Hear, O God,
the cry of all your faithful Christian servants
now and at all times,
for the sake of your Son
Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God,
now and forever.
Amen
A Mozarbic Collect: You Life Up Our Heads link
O Lord,
even though many say
there is no help for us in our God,
you are our defender.
You lift up our heads.
Increase our hope
and surround us with your perpetual mercy;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
THE NICENE CREED link
I believe in one God, the Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth and of all things visible and invisible.
And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all ages,
God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten not made, being of one substance with the Father, through Whom all things were made:
Who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven, was incarnate by the Holy Spirit of the virgin Mary,
and was made man: Who for us, too, was crucified under Pontius Pilate, suffered, and was buried:
the third day He rose according to the Scriptures, ascended into heaven, and is seated on the right hand of the Father:
He shall come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, and His kingdom shall have no end.
And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, Who proceeds from the Father and the Son:
Who together with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified: Who spoke by the prophets.
And I believe one holy, Christian, and apostolic Church.
I acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins,
and I look for the resurrection of the dead and life of the age to come.
Amen.
Please scroll to 19:00 minute marl to view the sermon
Scottish Benediction link
Life is short and we do not have much time
to gladden the hearts of those who travel with us.
So be quick to love, and make haste to be kind.
And the blessing of God Almighty,
the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit
be among you, and remain with you forever.
Amen
1
“When did the United States turn to scientists to run our country? I’ll tell you: When the World Health Organization became dominated by members of the Chinese Communist Party.”
– Wade Burleson
And if anyone wants a break from Wade, feel free to watch and listen to one of my own sermons: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7eo3Fn60lk
Neil Cameron (One Salient Oversight),
I received an oral polio vaccine at church, in the social hall after Sunday services. Yet even I did not know the extent to which churches, government, and the American public cooperated in the past to wipe out a life-threatening disease. Here is an item from the University of Cincinnati alumni magazine:
“On three consecutive Sundays — ‘Sabin Sundays’ — in 1960, millions of families lined up at churches and schools across the country to swallow a spoonful of pink syrup or a sugar cube treated with a life-saving polio vaccine, developed by UC researcher Albert Sabin, HonDoc ’74. Cincinnati was one of the first cities to administer the vaccine following FDA approval. Previously, Sabin had tested the vaccine on his wife, two children, neighbors and 80 million people overseas. … it was credited with eradicating the wild poliovirus from the U.S., halting worldwide epidemics and preventing 500,000 deaths and 5 million cases of paralysis.”
https://magazine.uc.edu/issues/0408/on_campus.html
Friend,
Thx for your comment and the cogent news excerpt.
Ava Aaronson,
🙂
Friend,
The polio vaccine came at a time when a certain demographic and religion controlled the conversation.
Now both the demographic & religion feel threatened.
They don’t want to share the table.
The polio vaccine came at a when the status quo was firmly in place.
Jack,
Please elaborate Jack.
Are you saying that the Salk vaccine wasn’t a good thing?
Jack,
I largely agree, except that the 1950s were more complicated than we tend to recall. Eisenhower reassuringly kept the public up to date about polio vaccine development. Meanwhile, in 1954, Sen. Joe McCarthy held his hearings about Communists having infiltrated the whole US government and all of society; the red scare persisted long afterward. Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus in 1955. Little Rock High School was desegregated in 1957.
Salk and Sabin were Jewish (like a lot of supposed Communists), and Sabin had been born in the Russian Empire(!!). People were amply capable of shrillness, irrational fear, and hatred. To their credit, however, the grand public did not wholly distrust every institution of society.
Muff Potter,
Not at all. Just drawing a comparison of where society was when the polio vaccine came out and where it is now.
Why is the Covid vaccine meeting so much resistance that people would sooner take a medication used to de-worm horses?
There could be a few different reasons – ie people were more trusting of the government (pre-Watergate) or that people were more trusting of science (post WW2, post antibiotic introduction) but I suspect it’s due in no small part to the fact that there was a status quo that was firmly in place.
At that time Christianity (in it’s many forms) was the de facto state religion, and for many people (though not all) the idea of ethnic dining was the local Chinese restaurant.
The demographic in North America has irrevocably changed and some folks are not taking it well.
BTW – I’m fully vaccinated against Covid and so is my family. Definitely not against any FDA (or in my case Health Canada) approved vaccine.
Muff Potter,
I don’t think Jack is saying that. He’s pointing to a time when Americans had more faith in institutions. (I wrote a longer response, but apparently the pugs need to roll it around some more.)
Jack,
Friend,
Thank you both.
And yes Jack, you’re right, here in the US there’s a demographic with far-right leanings (heavily fundagelical) who have begun a descent into madness.
Muff Potter,
It’s not just America, it’s happening here too.
Change is never easy. But we are blessed to live in countries with robust checks and balances.
I am confident that this madness will pass if we don’t allow ourselves to get caught up in it.
We all have opinions and religion is a force multiplier. Everyone has emotions, managing our reactions is the real challenge.
People can be more tolerant when they feel they are in the dominant position. I’m not sure Salk or Sabin’s ethnicity was high on people’s radar, this was in a time before mass media or the internet could take a conspiracy theory and make it “go viral”. Television wasn’t even a decade old. The conversation was controlled in a sense by the “majority”.
Many of the “issues” that plague our society (and manifest in the spiritual abuse discussed here) have always been there, bubbling under the surface. Everyone knew “their place”.
Now the conversation is growing more raucous as those who were not part of the dominant conversation are now coming to the forefront – and now they have the numbers on their side. Covid has lit a fuse to it – in a way but I think it would have happened eventually.
There are those who don’t want to accept what’s happening and they assume that there must be a “reason”. They don’t like the uncomfortable conversations – like the after effects of colonialism – so seek solace in conspiracy theories…and take horse medicine…
Thanks for your intriguing comments. Antisemitism did inflame passions in certain ways. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were tried in 1953. Regardless of their guilt, they were viewed as disloyal partly because of their religion.
Many Americans probably did know that Salk and Sabin were Jewish, just as they knew Eisenhower was a Presbyterian. I grew up in a town with considerable antisemitism, but it was acceptable to consult a Jewish doctor or lawyer. The department stores in my town had all been founded by Jewish merchants, yet we shopped there, eh? Our locals did not quite accept of Jewish people as equal to other Americans; problems were mainly name-calling and discrimination in hiring… at least we did not have pogroms. (Cringing here, since it’s all bad but there are degrees of bad.)
That era also featured major theological adjustments in the aftermath of 1945. Many denominations changed their teachings, and repudiated older teachings that Jewish people were responsible for the death of Jesus. For Christians to hear that we might have called for Barabbas to be freed if we had been there… well, that was hard.
Mayhap I should have said headlong crash into madness instead of descent…
Friend,
Maybe tolerant was a misnomer. A certain demographic in North America certainly was in the ascendant position.
They were very comfortable and their children grew up with a sense of entitlement.
In my case there was a anti indigenous bias in our town, it’s a legacy that has come back to haunt the next generation.
My marriage is cross cultural and I didn’t realize how these things played out until my wife was denied service at the bank because her look didn’t match the last name on her identification, or when we get asked if we’re together at a restaurant or when I get asked if those kids are mine at the mall.
An example of where the status quo has been challenged is in the concept of gender. Transgender people have always been there but now more folks are coming out to assert their rights in the wider society.
These are challenging to those who have been in the dominant demographic.
As long as we maintain our sanity, we’ll be ok. There have been bigger challenges to the Republic.
We are all living through such a terrible era. More than anything, I fear for the deteriorating mental health of people in North America and around the world. I had hoped that the pandemic would taper off and people would get back to normal, but that does not seem to be happening. As long as so many people are unstable, I don’t think we will see much greater justice. Still, we need to seek it anyway.
Friend,
We can only take care of what we have influence over. This will pass, we just have to wait it all out. Stay safe.