Practice resurrection

Thank you, hapax, for the link to St. John Chrysostom's Easter sermon. I had been thinking of posting John Donne's "Holy Sonnet X" or perhaps Wendell Berry's "The Mad Farmer Liberation Front" (which is where the title for this post comes from), but let's just leave it to the golden-tongued Archbishop of Constantinople:

First and last alike, receive your reward.
Rich and poor, rejoice together!

Conscientious and lazy, celebrate the day!
You who have kept the fast, and you who have not,
rejoice, this day, for the table is bountifully spread!

Feast royally, for the calf is fatted.
Let no one go away hungry.
Partake, all, of the banquet of faith.
Enjoy the bounty of the Lord's goodness!

Let no one grieve being poor,
for the universal reign has been revealed.

Let no one lament persistent failings,
for forgiveness has risen from the grave.

Olly, olly oxen free. Indeed.

Comments

[Kashmir]

Happy Easter to everyone!

[Praline]

Happy Easter!

[Dash]

Olly, olly oxen free. Indeed.

Love it! Absolutely the perfect thing to say on Easter.

[Dash]

And, Lent being over, we can welcome cjmr and husband back. They have been missed.

[hapax]

Wendell Berry's "The Mad Farmer Liberation Front"

Where I found this: "Expect the end of the world. Laugh."

Just lovely, Fred, thanks.

Oh, and thanks again, Nenya, for the image of the infinite altar rail. I squinted real hard, and I think I saw all of y'all last night.

Or at least I brought you with me.

Happy Easter!

[Jeff]

And, Lent being over, we can welcome cjmr and husband back.

husband didn't give up posting for Lent -- he's always been a bit sporadic. But, yes, it will be a treat to see the Return of The CJMR.

Happy Easter!

[Lizzy L]

He is Risen, alleluia, alleluia!

As we sang this morning: He rose, he rose, he rose from the dead; And the Lord will bear my spirit home!

[PurpleGirl]

To Fred and the believers among the Slacktivist community:

Blessed Easter. May you long live in His light.

(One of the things I miss, having left the church, is being in the choir and singing on Easter. The hymns for Easter are some of the most beautiful ever written.)

[LN]

Oh, how I love that Homily by Chrysostom - my old church back in NC has the tradition of reading it every year at the Easter Vigil. I love that translation of it too - the one they read translates "Hell was in turmoil!" as "Hell was embittered!"

He is risen!

[Sarah Jane]

He is risen!

And you referenced Wendell Berry... thanks!

[Karen]

Blessed Easter to all of you. Does anyone else find it interesting that Western Easter is one day short of the earliest it can possibly be, but that Eastern Orthodox Easter is as late as it can be this year? Can anyone explain?

Also, the pastor at my church must be a Slactivista because he closed his sermon today with "Olly Olly Oxen Free."

[PurpleGirl]

The Western churches and the Eastern churches use different liturgical calendars, so that all the feast and holy days don't match.

[Fhydra]

"Blessed Easter to all of you. Does anyone else find it interesting that Western Easter is one day short of the earliest it can possibly be, but that Eastern Orthodox Easter is as late as it can be this year? Can anyone explain?"

Quick answer. Easter is celebrating the first Sunday after the first full moon after March 21. We use the Gregorian calendar, so March 21 was only two days ago. Eastern Orthodox churches use the Julian calendar so March 21 won't be for another two weeks according to that calendar.

[Gene'O]

Happy Easter to all.

Those are great links. I'd never encountered the Mad Farmer Liberation Before.

[Karen]

Oh, thanks. I knew that the Julian calendar was different, I just forgot that the Orthodox still use it. Damn. I hate it when I appear functionally illiterate.

[fermion]

Can't sing it in the comments, but...

Jesus Christ is risen today, alleluia!

And Happy Day-of-Abundant-Chocolate, for good measure.

[spinetingler]

In the (secular) spirit, here's something from circa 1982 (the 4-track years):
From the album Kevin and the K-Tels Do Holiday Classics (And By Do We Mean Things That Are Illegal or at Best Immoral in 37 States and a Few Foreign Territories)

http://pressomatic.com/ccpl/upload/multimedia/various%20graphcs/K-Tels-petercottontail.mp3


For you non-Easter-ers receiving this, feel free to ignore the holiday while enjoying the novelty.

[spinetingler]

perhaps a live link:
Peter Cottontail

[fermion]

Can't sing it in the comments, but...

Jesus Christ is risen today, alleluia!

And Happy Day-of-Abundant-Chocolate, for good measure.

[Spalanzani]

When I first read the phrase "practice resurrection", I thought of a sort of dress-rehearsal for Jesus's resurrection, as if Jesus and Mary, the angels and everyone else went through the whole thing until they got it right.

That's probably the real reason for the disperencies between the gospel accounts.

[Reynard]

Posted by spinetingler: Peter Cottontail

I can only wonder what they were tripping out on when they made that...

[connie]

Your translation stinks. The homily that we hear every year is so beautiful that it lifts up my heart and brings tears to my eyes. By the time the priest gets to the end, everyone is as engrossed as an NFL fan cheering his quarterback into the end zone (Jesus being the quarterback here). Your translation is pathetic; St. John would never have said such a wussy thing as this. Read what he really said. (I can hardly wait till Pascha on April 27th. Pascha! Woohoo!)

http://www.monachos.net/library/John_Chrysostom%2C_Paschal_Homily

BTW, Pascha is so late this year because it must be *after* the Jewish Passover.

[bellatrys]

More Chrysostom - he wasn't all about the peace and love, I'm afraid. Even though he, and those who hold the same views now, do think that they are speaking in all lovingkindness towards their fellow human beings, thus.

[Michele]

Wow, connie; I'm surprised you're not a KJV1611-er, too!

[Dash]

connie: Read what he really said.

I'd like to, actually. Do you have a link to the Greek text online?

I'm having a little trouble seeing how (for example) "Hell grasped a corpse, and met God" is wussier than "It took a body, and met God face to face." However, those who are familiar with a text in a particular form often find it difficult to enjoy a different translation, especially in a liturgical or formulaic context. (For me, the KJV tends to be the "normal" language of the Bible, even though I know it's a poor translation and, nowadays, often opaque translation.)

So, anybody got a link to the Greek text?

[movablenu]

"he wasn't all about the peace and love, I'm afraid. Even though he, and those who hold the same views now, do think that they are speaking in all lovingkindness towards their fellow human beings, thus."

Ah, tis so. For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God. Even anti-semitic Church Fathers need the good news of Easter that they proclaim.

[Anna]

Ironic and sad, but on Easter Sunday, the US death toll in Iraq passed the 4000 mark.

Makes you think about the ones who won't be coming back, in any sense of those words.

[Nenya]

*waves to hapax* *looks about expectantly for cjmr's return* *agrees the Greek version would be cool, even if I can't read it*

Happy Easter, Slactivites! Woohoo!

Hope and joy are pretty cool things, and I actually felt them this Easter (as linked to Easter a little bit, even) which is neat.

Happy Spring! *blows party horn*

[Horatio Queensbury]

“Let no one grieve being poor,
for the universal reign has been revealed.”

That's the Church I remember - don't worry poor people, God loves you, and isn't that better than a warm place to sleep and a decent meal ?

Is it really less cruel to betray someone because you care about them? When I think about these claims, I am reminded always of Joshua Norton, lying dead on the street in San Francisco on a cold winter night. Emperor Norton, like the archbishop, believed, and like the archbishop he died anyway. I wonder which of them was more scared when it happened.

[twig]

Alas, poor Horatio.

[Boze]

There's a fascinating etymology of the phrase at the place where most such things are found:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olly_olly_oxen_free

[Wakboth]

That's not what it means, Horatio.

[twig]

Boze;

That sounds way too pat to be at all true. Sort of like the whole ring-around-the-rosey thing that was also crap.

[Bugmaster]

Yeah, what's the deal with those oxen, anyway ? I've never actually heard this phrase spoken aloud. Is it a Baptist thing ?

The first time Fred posted it happened to be in the middle of a BSG season, so I immediately imagined it spoken by Colonel Tigh over the wireless: "All vipers, we are oxen free; repeat, oxen free". It made for a weird image.

[Horatio Queensbury]

Bugmaster, it's a playground thing, that's why the etymology is hazy. It means, roughly "You can all come out now" and is used when a hiding game is over.

Until relatively recently no-one thought it was important to go into children's playgrounds and record what they say. So in many cases our records begin with adults describing something they saw at a distance but weren't really involved in, or with someone half-remembering a game they played in their childhood. As with all childhood memories, and indeed memory in general, this is pretty inaccurate. You'll often find several different children, from different places, even different countries and sometimes spread over a period of time, who believe they "invented" a phrase or idea that has no other known origin. For example, a Google search for "Pom pom save all" the ritual phrase shouted by the winner of a sneaking game from my childhood, finds only a single mention on someone's Myspace. Why "Pom pom" ? I haven't a clue. But I can find dictionary entries for the US citing "Pom-pom-pullaway" as a variety of chasing games for a century or so concentrated in the North West and there the trail goes dead.

The nature of childhood as a brief experience in which you are mostly segregated by age, combined with the necessity to improvise and use your environment means that these games morph quickly, even though some common themes recur. Imagine one group of kids forced to play on asphalt and concrete, being pushed over hurts and so their games concentrate on hiding and evasion, but the surface is ideal for chalk marks, and things with wheels, meanwhile an otherwise similar group playing mostly on grass invoke more games of shoving and rough and tumble, chalk won't work and nor will wheels, but mud can be picked up and thrown, holes can be dug. Look at the Eton wall game, and you'll see the same phenomenon. No walls would have meant some quite different game evolved. Or look at Fives, each variant is played in a different physical environment, younger boys at a school with Eton Fives courts will often co-opt them for some other newly invented game, incorporating the steps, walls and other features as elements.

[Nenya]

“Let no one grieve being poor,
for the universal reign has been revealed.”

That did bother me a bit, too. Although on the other hand, as a poor person, it is nice to feel that even I am included in the resurrection party--you don't have to be rich to be considered a valuable person or to be included in the church.

In a similar vein, it is often the fact that (due to the Internet to some extent, but not entirely) I can be part of the great conversation about philosophy and the meaning of life and, yes, how TO make the world better, that keeps me going when food, clothing, and shelter are tricky.

[dr ngo]

At Duke Chapel, we sang - with percussion and brass - Derksen's setting of "Hilariter"

Hilariter, Alleluia, Hilariter, Alleluia.

The whole bright world rejoices now, Hilariter!
The birds do sing from every bough, Alleluia!
Then shout beneath the racing skies, Hilariter!
to him who rose that we might rise, Alleluia!

And all you living things make praise,
he guideth you on all your ways,
to Father, Son and Holy Ghost,
our God most high, our joy and boast.

Alleluia, Hilariter

--from Cologne Kirchengesäng, 1624; tr. Percy Dearmer, 1924.

And our dean, in his sermon on laughter, not only quoted the rock group "Status Quo," but sang, from the pulpit:

I like it, I like it, I la-la-la like it,
Rocking all over the world!

with the choir joining in on the last line.

Both seemed appropriate to the occasion.

[connie]

Dash, I'm sorry: I cannot find it in Greek online. I could type it in from the Holy Week service book, but that's a lot of typing! I've asked the local online Orthodox expert (my son) if he knows where to find it; if he does, I'll pass it on to you.

Michele, I've spoken to KJV-1611-only people before. I'm pretty sure you have to be Baptist before you're allowed to be that goofy. One lady even told me that reading the bible in the original Hebrew or Greek was inferior to reading it in KJV. Weird.

[MercuryBlue]

That type is at least better than the type who thinks Jesus spoke Elizabethan-era English.

[Michele]

... and yet you seem show the same attitudes as the KJV1611-ers. Weird.

[Dash]

Connie, thanks for trying to locate the Greek text. I did check around on the web before asking (I'm lazy, but not that lazy!), but I didn't know if perhaps your church had temporarily put it up on its website, or if my search was inept enough that I was overlooking an obvious text. But don't worry about it (unless your son can easily name a reference). There's a seminary an hour or so distant that I suspect will have a copy I can check out whenever I get a free afternoon. Now I'm kind of curious about some of the translation differences between the two texts we have seen, as well as some of the others that are out there.

[spinetingler]

>One lady even told me that reading the bible in the original Hebrew or Greek was inferior to reading it in KJV.

Not just inferior - the KJV, ahem, sorry, AUTHORIZED VERSION actually corrects the Greek/Aramaic/Hebrew texts.

Yes, there are people that believe that.

[jeh]

Not just inferior - the KJV, ahem, sorry, AUTHORIZED VERSION actually corrects the Greek/Aramaic/Hebrew texts.

Just like Shakespeare is best read in the original Klingon.

[Michele]

Khamlet (Hamlet) III.i.55ff. ("To be, or not to be....")

Khamlet: taH pagh taHbe'. DaH mu'tlheghvam vIqelnIS.
quv'a', yabDaq San vaQ cha, pu' je SIQDI'?
pagh, Seng bIQ'a'Hey SuvmeH nuHmey SuqDI',
'ej, Suvmo', rInmoHDI'? Hegh. Qong --- Qong neH ---
'ej QongDI', tIq 'oy', wa'SanID Daw''e' je
cho'nISbogh porghDaj rInmoHlaH net Har.

Translated by Nick Nicholas & Andrew Strader. KLI, 1995.

[Boze]

Honestly, why can't people recognize that the KJB is poetically superior without having to deify it? But alas, "there is no discharge in that war..."

[Boze]

And as for the olly etymology - "se non e vero, e ben travato!" (it may not be true, but it's a great story :)

[Bugmaster]

I don't think it's even possible to accurately translate Hamlet into Klingon, because no Klingon could understand what was going on, even if the Universal Translator did a perfect job. Klingon culture is just too different.

In Klingon, the play would go something like this:

Ghost: Hamlet. I was slain most dishonorably. Avenge me.
Hamlet: *Pulls out a Bat'leth* I shall not rest until our family honor is restored !

(later)

Hamlet: *Mows down palace guards* I've come for your master !
Laertes: I'm gonna stab him, all sneaky-like... *gak !*
Horatio: *Pulls out his dagger out of Laertes's body* Go, Hamlet, my friend. Do what you must.

(still later)

Claudius: So. I knew this day would come.
Hamlet: Die ! Die ! Die !
Claudius: *Stabs Hamlet*
Hamlet: *Beheads Claudius*
Claudius: *Dies like the p'tach he is*
Hamlet: *Dies honorably*

I guess what I'm trying to say is, it'd be a very different play.

[jim]

I always thought it was a corruption of "Allez, allez aux enfers" which wouldn't be very appropriate for Easter.

[Jeff]

Translated by Nick Nicholas & Andrew Strader. KLI, 1995.

Why? As Bug sez, hamlet ain't Klingon. "To be or not to be"? Puh-leaze! Kha'mlet would merely say "Today is a good day to die", pick off Rosencratz and Guilderstern for practice, then proceed as Bug described.

[Michele]

Bugmaster: > I don't think it's even possible to accurately translate Hamlet into Klingon, because no Klingon could understand what was going on, even if the Universal Translator did a perfect job. Klingon culture is just too different.

But (K)Hamlet wasn't sure that he really *was* seeing the real ghost of his father or if he was merely hallucinating out of grief[1]. So, he had to investigate the matter before exacting his revenge upon Claudius.

This is no different from what a Klingon would do. There is no honor - and revenge is not served - by killing an innocent man.

BTW, "to be or not to be" -- there is no verb "to be" in Klingon, so the translation (when translated back into English) says "to endure or not to endure".

[1] IIRC, of the 3(?) times the ghost appears - 2 times are similar and one is different - but I don't remember how anymore - perhaps once he was dressed & the other 2 not or something like that? Perhaps he was in armor twice? ...?