QUARANTINE BLOG # 259

December 14, 2020

St. Mark United Methodist Church’s choir, under the direction of Dr. Jay Aiken,  presented their annual Christmas musical production twice over this past weekend.  One of the highlights for me was their rendition of “Mary Did You Know?”  It begins at time marker 28:35 in the Facebook clip.

My first memory of the song is of a pantomime performed in Samara, Russia, by young missionaries from Maranatha Christian Center (one of two youth groups I led to that city).  I do not remember what vocal version they used, but those teenagers ministered to the sponsoring Russian church, a musical college, and a Detski Dom (children’s home) acting out the song.  At one point in the song, two of the kids would hold opposite ends of a long piece of blue cloth and move it so as to simulate a stormy sea.  Then Abbe, the boy who played Jesus, walked over, gently waved his hand over the “sea” and made a whispering gesture with his finger to his mouth, and the “sea” was calm.

In 1984, Mark Lowry wrote the words, and in 1991, Buddy Greene wrote the music.  The song has since gone on to become a modern Christmas classic, recorded by hundreds of artists over the years, across multiple genres.   Obviously – and sadly – no video of that Samara performance exists, but following is a video by the men who wrote it.  “Mary Did You Know?”

For a very different rendition, enjoy the One Voice Children's Choir.

👉  And another beautiful Christmas song was shared yesterday by Stacey Amerson at Macedonia UMC.  Thanks to Wendy Kersey for her Facebook post of “O Bethlehem.”

👉  Our daughter, Amy, gave me a suggestion for a blog feature: monuments and historic buildings.  So with thanks for that idea, here we go:

Trevi Fountain is the most beautiful fountain in Rome.  It is also the largest fountain in the city.  The name Trevi derives from Tre Vie (three ways) – the fountain was the meeting point of three streets.

The origins of the fountain go back to the year 19 B.C., when the fountain formed the end of the Aqua Virgo aqueduct. The first fountain was built during the Renaissance, under the direction of Pope Nicholas V.  The Trevi Fountain as it appears today was designed by Italian architect Nicola Salvi, and dates from 1762 when Pope Clement XIII (his name is featured at the very top of the fountain) dedicated it on May 22.  

A common tradition associated with the fountain finds people throwing coins into the water.  The practice originates from the 1954 movie “Three Coins in the Fountain.”  The legend says if you throw one coin in, you will return to Rome.  If you throw two coins, you will fall in love with an attractive Italian.  If you throw three coins, you will marry the person that you met.  In order to achieve the desired effect, you should throw the coin with your right hand over your left shoulder.  Before the coronavirus pandemic, some 3,000 euros were thrown into the fountain each day.  In 2016, an estimated 1.4 million euros ($1.7 million today) was thrown into the fountain.  The money has been used to subsidize a supermarket for Rome’s needy.

Nicola Salvi’s theme is “Taming of the Waters” and features Oceanus, the father of the river gods, riding a shell chariot.

From our visit to Rome, April, 2019

Bonnie with one euro, is ready to throw it over her left shoulder. We sincerely hope the legend works!

Take a live look at the Trevi Fountain with this webcam.

Tomorrow we’ll go to Paris and visit the Arc d’Triumph and the Eiffel Tower.

👉  My apologies for not letting you know that yesterday was National Ice Cream Day.  So you won’t feel too harshly towards me, I didn’t know it either, until I started writing today’s blog.  However, even before knowing that I was missing this Day, I celebrated with a bowl of peppermint ice cream – not Howard Johnson’s, but still good.  

The forerunners of ice cream were flavored snow and ice.  Marco Polo brought a recipe that resembled sherbet back to Italy.  In England and France, royalty were the first to eat foods similar to ice cream. The general public began eating ice cream around 1660.  The first record of ice cream in America dates to 1744 and the first advertisement for ice cream in the soon-to-be independent nation dates to 1777.  

My favorite frozen dessert is Gelato which in its modern form is credited to the Italian chef Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli who in the late 1600s opened his “Café Procope” in Paris and introduced gelato at his café.  Thanks to his gelato, Procopio not only obtained French citizenship, but also got an exclusive royal licence issued by King Louis XIV.  Nowadays, there are more than 5,000 modern Italian gelato parlors (so much flavor, so little time).

👉  Here’s a comic strip for the season from Baby Blues:

👉  And one from Family Circus:

👉  Today’s sermon is “Preparing the Way” was preached the third Sunday of Advent at Macedonia UMC on December 13, 2013.

👉  The Second Monday in Advent

A Catalog of Newnesses

When John heard in prison what the Messiah was doing, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.  And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me” (Matthew 11:2-6).

It is the huge leap between advent and preparation and the birth of newness in the Christ.  It is not more than an instant.  It is quick and the world does not even notice.  But it is the great leap of our life, moving from the severity of the John season to the Jesus season, and the leap makes a big difference.

The Jesus season for which we wait at Christmas, that we Christians count on and are baptized into, is a season of wondrous healing, of unexplained newness, of free gifts that will let us live whole, joyous lives.  Jesus is too good to be true, and John his cousin cannot believe.  John is something of a “theological terrorist” whom King Herod has imprisoned and charged with disturbing the peace.  From his jail cell he sends an inquiry to this unbelievable cousin Jesus: Are you the one who will make it all new?  Are you for real?  Should we count on Christmas?

Jesus answers, always prudent and cautious.  Let me give you the data you need to make up your own mind about your question: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them.” (Matthew 11:4-5)

Jesus offers a catalog of newnesses, of miracles, of wonders, transformations that take people in their fear and failure and disability, and wrap their lives in newness beyond themselves.  That is what Jesus does.  Everywhere he goes, newness happens.  Newness and healing and well-being emit from his body wherever he is.  That is what it means to live in the new world birthed at Christmas.  John can draw his own conclusions, but this Jesus is surely doing everything promised, everything hoped for.  Not bragging, just reporting on the birth of newness that the world cannot manufacture.

Prepare our hearts, O God, for the newness that is coming to the world. Open our eyes to the places it is breaking out in our world and in our lives, that we may know that we can count on Christmas.  Amen.

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