Dunkirk

Today I finally watched this 2017 movie, which I picked up at the same time I fished Mortal Engines out of the cheapo DVD bin at Walmart. Directed by Christopher "Inception" Nolan, it features an ensemble cast including Mark Rylance, Kenneth Branagh, James D'Arcy, Cillian Murphy, an unrecognizable-until-literally-the-last-minute Tom Hardy and pop star Harry Styles, for what it's worth. Some of the characters played by actors whose names I won't mention because they probably won't make a dent in your consciousness (they didn't in mine) are probably more important than most of those played by the above, but everybody did a great job and it was altogether a great movie – considering that hardly any of the characters had names and most of the events are depicted from the point of view of little people, not the great personalities of history.

The closest the movie comes to dramatizing the towering figures on the world stage is when the main character reads aloud from a newspaper account of Winston Churchill's speech about the evacuation of Dunkirk ("We will fight them on the beaches," etc.) – which, if Darkest Hour depicted it accurately, fell flat in the House of Commons and doesn't sound much more inspiring in the monotone voice of the youngster whose struggle for survival we've been following for much of the movie. The music tells you you're supposed to feel moved at that point, but the bit that really moved me was the other hero youngster, Peter, putting a story in the newspaper praising the heroism of his friend George, who was killed in a senseless accident in the middle of the flotilla as the two boys and Peter's father were yachting across the channel to help rescue the British soldiers trapped by the German advance.

Oops. Spoilers. Well, the movie's been out for four years now, so quit your whining.

For those who have no idea what I'm talking about, first of all, shame on you; and second, Dunkirk is where a bunch of small civilian vessels pulled 300,000 British soldiers off the French shore in 1940 just in the nick of time to keep them from being destroyed by the Germans. The movie does a good job of portraying the desperateness of the situation, with one British soldier – the credits call him Tommy, but I don't remember his name ever coming up – standing in for the whole mass of military assets that fell into jeopardy at that early stage in World War II, when losing them would have been tantamount to anointing Adolf Hitler as emperor of the world. Though indeed a "colossal military disaster" in Churchill's words, the evacuation enabled the U.K. (and some French forces) to fight on until the U.S. entered the war. Where Darkest Hour depicts this story almost entirely from Churchill's war room and the floor of the House of Commons, where he rallied a reluctant country to oppose the Third Reich at all costs, Nolan's picture splits its point of view between a fighter pilot (Hardy), a Royal Navy commander overseeing the retreat (Branagh), the boy, his father and his ill-fated friend on the yacht (Rylance etc.), and this Tommy kid (somebody named – never mind), who seems to spend the entire operation swimming from one vessel to another just in time for the boat under him, or in front of him, to get blown up by a torpedo, an aerial bomb or even (in one instance) machine-gun fire. He finally ends up being literally the last survivor pulled out of the drink by Rylance's son.

The movie delivers a lot of suspense, terrific visuals and some gut-punch hard-to-watch examples of why war is hell. Among the terrible moments it depicts are a shell-shocked survivor of a U-boat attack inadvertently sending an innocent boy plunging to his doom; a moment where a group of soldiers decides which among them must go to his certain death to save the others; wholesale carnage as a mostly unseen enemy scores hits on the good guys' ships and planes; a pilot's decision to keep fighting the enemy even when it means not being able to make it home; life-and-death struggles to escape sinking vehicles; and other such carnage. It's not easy to see, and it doesn't always show people at their best, but there are some moments that Made It For Me, of which I'll name Three:

(1) Branagh telling the army colonel (D'Arcy), after evacuating all the Brits he can, that he's going to stay at Dunkirk to see the French saved as well. The nobility of this decision stuns D'Arcy and brings a lump to my throat. (2) Hardy's wingman gets shot down, ditches very successfully but then has trouble opening the hatch to escape from his sinking plane. Very suspenseful! (3) As I hinted before, the bit where Peter goes to the newspaper with his dead friend's picture and gets him written up as a hero – the moment, for the record, when soft touch that I am, I started crying. Of course, this pays off an earlier bit where the injured George confides that he'd always hoped to do something that would get him in the newspaper. From a character I almost didn't notice at first (George was more out front, at the very beginning) to being very tender with his dying and dead friend, and at the same time sparing of the feelings of the shell-shocked guy who caused his death (Murphy: "Is the boy all right?" Peter, who has just learned that George is dead, gulp: "Yeah") Peter, along with his dad, turns out to represent the fiber of the British people that made their country's survival possible in its – I have to say it – darkest hour.

The Book of Secrets

The Book of Secrets
by A.L. Tait
Recommended Ages: 11+

One moment, Gabe is minding his business as a novice at the Oldham abbey, happily illuminating manuscripts and going to daily prayers. The next moment, he is on the run, charged by a dying brother to protect a precious (though unreadable) book. The abbey's evil prior is in cahoots with the corrupt local nobleman, his brutal sheriff and more, and now they're all after Gabe because he has something precious, even if he doesn't know why it is. With nowhere else to go, he falls in with a gang of merry outlaws – one of them is actually named Merry, in fact – who all just happen to be runaway girls.

If all they had to do was hide in the woods until the coast was clear, it would be easy. But Gabe doesn't understand the first thing about what he's supposed to do with the book, and the only information he can get about it comes from inside the walls of the abbey. Meanwhile, two of the girls want him to help them spring their father from the castle dungeons, and when that plan goes sideways, they end up with another boy in their keeping – this one claiming to be the crown prince, who has been betrayed by his head bodyguard and replaced with a lookalike.

Together, the four girls and two boys have a lot of close scrapes with the law, if it's even right to call that crooked bunch the law. While none of their schemes seem to get them any closer to their goals, they do inch closer to the truth about the book, a way to put the rightful prince back on his throne, and justice for the girls' dad. But a lot more danger lies ahead.

Gabe comes a long way in this book, facing challenges to his morally straight upbringing even while deeply missing his monastic home. His adventures are hair-raising and mysterious, but also envigorating at the same time. His depiction and that of his compatriots is sensitive and touching, when there's time to dwell on it between madcap chases, death-defying feats and suspenseful moments. But clearly, it'll take a sequel to get to the bottom of all that's really going on.

This is the first book of the Ateban Cipher duad, or duology, or whatever you call a two-book trilogy, by the Australian author of the (now four-book) Mapmaker Chronicles, the Maven & Reeve mystery The Fire Star and its upcoming sequel The Wolf's Howl, and the companion to this book, titled The Book of Answers.

Tacky Hymns 84

We continue with the Evangelical Lutheran Hymnary (ELHy, 1996). I repeat:

I'm pointing up three types of hymns in this series of critiques: (1) Hymns that I think the editors should have known better than to put in the pew hymnal of a liturgical, confessional Lutheran church – the kind that, doctrinally and artistically, qualify as "tacky" in the sense I've been using it on this thread; (2) noteworthy text-tune pairings; and (3) hymns of such high quality that I feel they deserve to be better known and more widely sung. I'll try, but not too hard, to avoid vain repetition from previous threads. That's a lot of material to try to keep in mind, you know.

(229) By faith we are divinely sure (Type 3) is another product of Danish bard Hans Adolph Brorson (1694-1764), set to one of two tunes I know of titled RUNG, both of which are by Henrik Rung (1807-71) and the other of which I've used with one of my original hymns. This RUNG is all right, though I think the ending is a little weak. In contrast, Brorson's hymn is better than OK and improves as it goes along. Stanza 1 recognizes that God creates faith in us; stanza 2 runs through the positive effects of faith, point by point; stanza 3 dwells on the forgiveness of sins that faith apprehends ("More than my sins His grace abounds"); stanza 4 founds faith on the Word of God; and stanza 5 does that which few Scandinavian hymns fail to do when it sings you into heaven.

(231) When Israel through the desert passed (Type 3) is a nice, economical little hymn (by a Baptist minister named Benjamin Beddome, misspelled as Beddone in ELHy) praising the word of God for its guidance, comfort, instruction and (at last) saving power. Maybe not a spectacular artifact, it's at least up to the caliber of stuff I try to write these days, and I think it deserves to be a little more utilized than it looks like, buried in a "bottom of the page text block" (BOTPTB) with only the suggestion of a tune (WINCHESTER NEW) pinned to it.

(232) How precious is the Book Divine (All three types) is an OK little hymn in praise of the Bible which I suppose some people might promote to "better than OK" because it's an old familiar chestnut. Less familiar, to me, is its pairing here with Georg F. Handel's tune SIROE, which besides reminding me of a tune from H.M.S. Pinafore is just another example of the sort of thing I've been lobbying against all throughout this long thread: bastardizing classical melodies into hymn tunes and yoking sacred poems to music that, to anyone who knows the literature, carries secular associations.

(238) Lord Jesus Christ, true Man and God (Types 2-3) is Paul Eber's hymn set, for once, to the tune named after it, HERR JESU CHRIST, WAHR MENSCH UND GOTT. (ELHy truncates the tune's title; LW preserves it when it sets the same tune to "The royal banners forward go.") My goodness, what a beautiful tune. And it really suits this emotionally stirring, Pre-Lenten hymn (earmarked for Quinquagesima Sunday, don'tcha know) that draws vast comfort for Christians out of Jesus' passion. The only potentially awkward thing about it is the fact that several of Eber's sentences run across the breaks between stanzas; but there's a certain quirky charm to that, if you're open to it. However, ministers who are in the habit of dividing up long hymns or omitting stanzas had better choose carefully when they come to this hymn.

(243) The power of sin no longer (Type 3) is a Thomas Kingo hymn, also relegated to a BOTPTB, that undoes the chilling effects of what Brorson wrote in Hymn 215 (shudder). For here Kingo confesses that baptism severed the bonds of sin and delivered me to live by grace for Jesus (stanza 1) and gives me the power to renounce the devil and embrace the cross (stanza 2). To be sure, it stresses the subjective aspect of justification pretty strongly ("It would bestow no treasure On me that Christ arose If I will not with pleasure The pow'r of death oppose," stanza 3). But it doesn't fail to mention that the Savior I embrace daily is the one who has redeemed me; otherwise I could do nothing. And in stanza 4 it returns to baptism, seeking Jesus' help "to drown my nature" and "daily die To sin and all offenses," through His cleansing blood. In my opinion, this hymn could give "God's own child, I gladly say it" a run for its money.

(245) At Jesus' feet our infant sweet (Type 3) is another BOTPTB, this time by Matthias Loy – and probably a fresh discovery for Lutherans just now turning the leaves of this book. Funny how so many of these serendipities are clothed in BOTPTBs! Loy, that American minister of whom I've previously mentioned a respected colleague's opinion that he's the greatest Lutheran hymn-writer in the English language, here gives us a two-stanza confession of the usefulness of infant baptism, complete with interchangeable pronouns to accommodate either boys or girls. Babies are sinners, too, needing forgiveness, it says. In Baptism, we are born again, it says. "Baptism doth now save," it says, in quotes, to make sure people who think the Bible doesn't say baptism saves get the point. And that's just stanza 1; stanza 2 locates the power of baptism not in the water but in God's Word, through which "Faith speaks, though reason may rebel: 'This flood is Jesus' blood!'"

(246) God's own child, I gladly say it (Types 2-3) is that hymn by Erdmann Neumeister that I was just talking about two paragraphs back. Despite Rev. Dr. David Scaer's criticism that this hymn is very "me-centered" (it is, admittedly, solidly in the first person), I'm with the many, many Lutherans who joyfully sing this hymn at any occasion connected with baptism because it so strongly confesses all the blessings and promises that come with baptism. However, participants in the LSB culture may consider this hymn inseparable from the tune BACHOFEN, while ELHy sets it to a tune by W. Weissnitzer called JESU, MEINES LEBENS LEBEN – not to be confused with the more well-known Darmstadt tune by the same name, to which the TLH-LW-LSB hymnal culture knows the hymn "Christ, the Life of all the living." Weissnitzer's alternate tune to that hymn (used twice in a 1970s Australian Lutheran hymnal, including with that hymn) is a very fine melody and I fully understand why people of my acquaintance, who use ELHy rather than LSB, prefer this tune for "God's own child" – even if I'll never hear it in my mind's ear without BACHOFEN.

(247) To Jordan came our Lord, the Christ (Types 2-3) is ELHy's translation of Martin Luther's baptism hymn, given in LW and LSB as "To Jordan came the Christ, our Lord." I've probably already said all this before, but I think this is such an essential hymn that its omission from TLH is black mark against that book, in spite of all its other beauties. And in my opinion, learning the 1524 Wittenberg tune CHRIST UNSER HERR ZUM JORDAN KAM (sometimes attributed to Luther himself) is another essential building block for Lutheran identity in America. Not to mention the fact that its presentation of baptism is magnificent.

(248) Now Christ, the sinless Son of God (Type 2) is a baptism hymn by no less a Lutheran light than Nikolaus Selnecker, one of the authors of the Formula of Concord. Set to the attractive tune DEUS TUORUM MILITUM, it also confesses such articles of the doctrine of baptism as the saving power of water joined with God's Word (stanzas 1-2), Christ's institution (st. 3), the presence of the Triune God and cleansing from sin (st. 4), its connection with daily repentance (st. 5) and being born again as God's children (st. 6).

The "Baptism of Jesus" section, appended after the Gesima Sundays in this book's large collection of hymns for all times of the church year, gives way next to the season of Lent, among which you may be surprised (unless you've poured over lists of "hymns of the day" as I have) to find "A mighty Fortress is our God" pigeonholed with Lent 1. (Hymn 250 is the rhythmic version, 251 the isometric.)

(254) In vain would boasting reason find is a nice little BOTPTB by Anne Steele, comparing human reason to the word of Christ. It could be useful at least as a comforting bit of devotional reading for someone who has been discomfited by anti-Christian propaganda or the arguments of liberal theologians and Bible critics.

(255) Lord, hear the voice of my complaint (Types 2-3) is an important Reformation-era chorale (words by Johannes Agricola, tune from Klug's 1535 Wittenberg songbook) whose tune figures in the organ works of many great church music composers, such as Bach, Buxtehude, Pachelbel, Sweelinck and Walcha. Unfortunately, to my extensive but incomplete knowledge, ELHy is one of only three English-language hymnals that has it; the others are the old Ev. Luth. Hymn-Book (the predecessor to TLH) and LHy, the predecessor to ELHy. It's a good hymn for folks who are struggling in their faith.

(256) When afflictions sore oppress you (Type 3) is another fine hymn of comfort and encouragement that I think deserves to be more widely known. The words are by the same Johann Gottfried Olearius who wrote "Come, Thou precious Ransom, come" and "When all the world was cursed," both in TLH; not, however, the Johannes Olearius of whom TLH has five equally fine hymns.

(259) The kingdom Satan founded (Type 3), second line "Shall now be overthrown," is a terrific Kingo hymn about "triumph over Satan" (as the topic blurb at the bottom of the page puts it). It represents the different ways the evil foe tries to blind us, deafen us, silence us and cripple us with regard to the things of Christ, but unambiguously portrays Jesus as the victor.

(260) Now let triumphant faith dispel (Type 3) is a BOTPTB ascribed to "Scottish Translations and Paraphrases, 1745, alt." But basically, it's a nice paraphrase of Paul's encouraging words in Romans 8:31-34.

(263-264) Jesus, priceless Treasure (Type 2) is set, in 263, to the same tune JESU, MEINE FREUDE that J.S. Bach used in his great choral motet on this hymn, and to which TLH-LW-LSB Lutherans know it well. Or should. LHy, however, had a lovely alternate tune for it by Ludvig M. Lindeman, GUD SKAL ALTING MAGE, which ELHy retains as Hymn 264. I may have said this before, but Lindeman's tune is so tender and beautiful that I've loved it since the moment I met it, and despite the fact that I would never dream of singing this hymn without JESU, MEINE FREUDE, I am all for having the other option available.

(265) Wide open are Thy hands (Type 3) is a beautiful little BOTPTB by Bernard of Clairvaux, translated by Charles Porterfield Krauth, regarding Jesus' suffering to pay for our sins and the believer's response of hope and devotion.

(268) On Mary, Virgin undefiled (Types 2-3) is a hymn for the Annunciation (the angel announcing to Mary that she was going go give birth to Jesus) and even though it comes from such an exotic language as Danish, I can't understand why it hasn't penetrated the Scandinavian-German blood barrier within American Lutheranism. The tune MARIA HUN ER EN JOMFRU REN (or REEN?), written for it by a certain J.C. Gebauer, is so nice that I stole it for one of my original hymns.

(269) True God and yet a man (Type 3) is a 15th-century English ditty that muses on the "divine paradox" of Jesus' divine and human natures in one undivided Person. "What can thought well reply? What reason reason give?" It concludes, "Believe and leave to wonder!" The tune is adapted, I think, from a lute song by John Dowland, funnily enough titled DIVINE PARADOX. Again, not bad for Annunciation but perhaps even better as an encouraging devotion for folks struggling against rationalistic balderdash.

(272) O sinner, come thy sin to mourn (Types 2-3) is a great Lenten chorale, but I'm conflicted about the way it's presented here. ELHy sets it to a gorgeous, ornate harmonization by J.S. Bach which I would love to play on the organ or teach a choir to sing, but which I think will get in the way of the congregation learning this important but (in American hymnals) rare Lutheran hymn. I'm for teaching it with a very plain, straightforward, hymnal-style setting of the tune and letting the decorative version, like, decorate it once in a while.

(274) When our heads are bowed with woe (Type 3) is a kind of litany for the sympathetic presence of Jesus in our sorrows, at the time of our death, etc., based on His passion and redeeming work. The author, H.H. Milman, is also known for writing the passion hymn "Ride on, ride on in majesty." Alternating quatrains state the occasion on which we call on Jesus to hear us, then the aspects of His work that gives us reason to believe He will.

(286) Rock of Ages, cleft for me (Type 1) is sectioned under Passion week. I don't know about this, and there's more on why I don't here.

(288) Beneath the cross of Jesus kneeling (Type 3) is from a magnificent cycle of passion hymns by Icelandic poet Hallgrimur Petursson (1614-74), for two of which I wrote an original tune that (God willing) will be in Edifying Hymns. Not this particular hymn, though. "God wrought for man," Petursson says, first in the Old Testament exodus and more fully in the New Testament, "When Christ was pierced by Roman spear, And o'er the thirsty world down-streaming, Forth gushed a fountain ..." Am I allowing pious imagination to play the same trick on me that, in my opinion, a Lutheran hymnal's use of "There is a fountain filled with blood" (cf. ELHy 301) asks us to play on ourselves in order to believe that Cowper was thinking baptismally? Possibly, but I think it's less likely considering that Petursson was Lutheran. I urge anyone who has the means to get hold of a copy of Charles Venn Pilcher's translation of part of this cycle. I understand some Anglicans did a complete translation of it, but that it doesn't reflect Petursson's solid Lutheran theology quite as well as Pilcher's rendition. The Lutheran who completes what Pilcher left unfinished will do anglophone Lutheranism a great service.

(289) Join all the glorious names (Type 3) restores the original first stanza to Isaac Watts' hymn which, in such hymnals as TLH, is often trimmed down to a cento beginning with stanza 5, "Jesus, my great High Priest." The longer version touches on other names and titles for Jesus, such as Prophet, Counselor, Shepherd, etc.

(290) Thy soul, O Jesus, hallow me (Type 3) is another Matthias Loy translation of a Johann Scheffler/Angelus Silesius hymn, plumbing the depths of how Jesus' suffering on the cross can bring comfort to the believer. This time it would be very difficult to maintain that his line about the water from Jesus' side becoming a cleansing bath is about anything but baptism. A proud Christian must become more humble while reading this hymn with any sort of attention. An afflicted Christian, even at the extremity of despair, must take comfort from it.

(294) Near the cross was Mary weeping (Type 3), besides being a BOTPTB, is a remarkable thing to find in a Lutheran hymnal, even though it was also in this book's forerunner, LHy: a verse paraphrase of part of the Latin Stabat mater, a Roman Catholic sequence hymn that interprets the passion of Jesus through the sympathetic suffering of the Virgin Mary at the foot of the cross. I got to sing in the chorus of Rossini's Stabat during a St. Louis Symphony performance weekend in which the conductor mused, during a rehearsal, that this song is probably partly responsible for the Catholic Church taking emphasis off of blood atonement and leaning more into Marian virtues like empathy and compassion. Giving this adaptation credit where it's due, it takes its eyes off Mary fairly early and stresses what Jesus, on the cross, was doing for us.

(295) Over Kedron Jesus treadeth (Types 2-3) is a passion hymn by Kingo, set to a richly harmonized, pathos-filled melody by Lindeman. It brings in David as a type of Christ (stanza 2), calls Adam to witness Jesus' agony in the garden (stanza 3), and goes on to dramatize the scene very vividly for several more stanzas – but not without application: "World's redemption thus fulfilling" (stanza 5), Jesus' "blood, thus freely given, Makes my soul the heir of heaven" (stanza 6). If I'm a little dissatisfied with the way Kingo finally depicts the life of daily repentance as a mental trip to Gethsemane, it's only because I've never really liked the "pious flight of imagination" as a substitute for the means of grace.

(299) Nature with open volume stands (Type 3) is a little BOTPTB by Isaac Watts that I only mention because it may be new to folks of the TLH-etc. tradition. Watts, whatever his faults may be, at least has the nous to ascribe the "brightest form of glory" to Jesus' cross, on which His blood spells out "His whole name," where God's "grace and vengeance strangely join," and "where God the Savior loved and died."

(302) The tree of life with every good (Types 1-3) is Stephen Starke's hymn, of which I didn't become aware until the run-up to LSB in the Missouri Synod, so I had always thought it was written for that book. And here it is, in another hymnal published a decade earlier! I'm on board with Starke's wordplay on "tree" to connect the fall of Adam and Eve with the cross of Jesus. I've just never been a huge fan of Bruce Backer's tune written for it, which has always triggered associations with Billy Joel's "And So It Goes" in my mind. Also, I think its balladlike rhythm, with long notes in the middle as well as the end of each phrase, makes it a little awkward for congregational singing and maybe just an eensy bit wearing on the patience, during the course of four long stanzas.

(303) My song is love unknown (Type 3) is worthy of mention for two slight reasons: first, because people who are still using TLH are missing out on a really beautiful passion hymn by Samuel Crossman; and second, because by consigning it to a BOTPTB, this book denies the casual user the opportunity to directly experience John Ireland's beautiful tune LOVE UNKNOWN. Also, on a Type 2 note, the Ireland tune isn't the only one this hymn has had. SBH, for example, sets it to RHOSYMEDRE. How do you like them apples?

(306) What wondrous love is this (Type 1) is a topic I've covered before, so I won't belabor it again – other than to confess that, whenever one of my clergy/church musician friends "vaguebooks" complaining that not every hymn on the current hymnal's "hymn of the day" list is worthy of inclusion, this is the song my mind darts to.

(310) At the Lamb's high feast we sing (Type 3) is another red cape I'd like to wave in the snout of people still using TLH as if they're not missing anything in the world of hymnody. Since I got to know it, I've tended to think of this as an essential Easter hymn. Interestingly enough, ELHy casts it as a Maundy Thursday hymn. I guess I can see that, too – unless you're of the mindset that considers any date between Ash Wednesday and Holy Saturday closed to Alleluias.

(312) Bread of the world, in mercy broken (Types 2-3) is a three-stanza paraphrase from the third-century Didache translated piecemeal by Reginald Heber (st. 1) and F. Bland Tucker (sts. 2-3), set to the Strasbourg Psalter tune RENDEZ À DIEU, which I quite enjoy. Again, this is what you're missing, TLH-only folks! For what it's worth, LSB has Tucker's stanzas only ("Father, we thank Thee who hast planted"), and I think his lines are more faithful than Heber's to the teaching that we receive Christ to eat in the Sacrament.

(316-317) Jesus Christ, our blessed Savior (Types 2-3) joins LW in turning Jan Hus(s)'s communion hymn into a beautiful super-hymn that can be sung to its two 16th century chorale tunes, alternating stanza by stanza from one to the other. Sadly, for us Missouri sinners, LSB rolled back this option (which LW likes to call a "celebration") to just including the tune that's in TLH, i.e. ELHy 316. The footnote at the bottom of each hymn notes that if you prefer, you can sing all the stanzas to one tune or the other. I like having the choice – both "one or the other" and the celebration – because it really works, and both tunes are valuable pieces of Lutheran culture underscored by some great organ works.

(319) Just as I am (Type 1) – been there, done that. But really ... Maundy Thursday?

(321) Zion, to thy Savior singing (Types 2-3) is a BOTPTB translated from a hymn by Thomas Aquinas, which has a suggested tune (ALLES IST AN GOTTES SEGEN) that I like, in and of itself; but for some reason, my mind clings to the idea of this hymn being sung to PAA SIT KORS (cf. LHy 311). That must be where I first got to know it. Whatever faults you may find in the sententious Thomas (who gave his name to Thomist theology and is implicated in the medieval scholasticism that bore much criticism in the writings of Luther et al.), you've got to acknowledge that he had a high view of the Lord's Supper. Stanza 2: "What than this can greater be, That Himself to thee He giveth? He that eateth ever liveth, for the Bread of life is He." He goes on to state even more clearly that he's talking about the divine service when he mentions eating living bread. Then there's the "Christ our Passover" bit, stanza 4: "Shadows of the law are going, Light and life and truth inflowing." Stanza 5 equates Christ with the paschal lamb and manna from heaven, and even mentions Isaac as His type. This is a eucharistic hymn that bears deep meditation.

(323) My God, and is Thy table spread (Types 2-3) is a communion hymn by Philip Doddridge, who is represented by six hymns in TLH but not this one. Also not in TLH is the wonderful tune HERRNHUT by Bartholmäus Gesius. In three brief stanzas, Doddridge wastes hardly a moment getting to the point that this "sacred feast, which Jesus makes" is a "rich banquet of His flesh and blood" (stanza 2). Stanza 3 asks that we may be worthy partakers, to the salvation of "each soul ... that here its sacred pledges tastes." Not bad for an Anglican who went Methodist.

(324) O Jesus, at Your altar now is a Kingo hymn translated by the saintly Rev. Juul Madson, who was a professor at the ELS's Bethany Seminary when I attended the adjacent college. I actually remember when he rolled this translation out; I was so thrilled that I wrote an original tune for it (but HERRNHUT is much better, thank you ELHy). Here are some of his lines: "He bids you now to sit at meat With Him – and of Himself to eat" (st. 3). After stanza 4 describes it as eating and drinking Jesus' body and blood "in" the bread and wine, stanza 5 notes that the angels never had such food. Stanza 6 lays the ghost of the Loeschmann heresy with the lines "My Jesus here entire and whole Is food and drink for my poor soul." Succeeding stanzas explore the paradox of Jesus' presence in the elements of bread and wine even further, and admits that reason cannot grasp it. The seriousness of Christ's testament is put in stark terms in stanza 10: "God has cursed Himself for you." Stanza 13 has a punctuation mark that I don't like, in the line "Your body/blood once shed for me," which I think would be less ambiguous if the slash were a comma. (Jesus did not "shed" His body.) All in all, though, I'm proud to have known the man who made this translation.

I'm going to quit before Hymn 330, where the Good Friday section begins. Sorry, I was hoping to make it all the way to the Easter section, but I'm just pooped. Also (spoiler!) I'm discouraged at the sight of the next hymn in front of me. So, till next time, let the above prevalence of Type 3 over Type 1 serve as sufficient advertisement for you to call the Bethany College bookstore and order yourself a copy of this book. What, you expect me to make it easy for you? You're on the internet; look it up. Night-night!

303. Parables Hymn

Here's a hymn I posted piecemeal while it was under construction so it might perhaps benefit from friendly suggestions and feedback – to which I'm still open. It's another long one, but of the type that can be broken up into shorter segments for, say, a sermon series on selected parables, by just singing the first and last verse and plugging the gap in the middle with whichever stanza is relevant to the present lesson. I haven't covered every single thing in the teaching of Jesus that flies under the pennant of a parable, but you have to quit somewhere. I decided to do so when I reached a point where I felt like I was repeating myself, and then deleted a partially complete stanza to repent of that sin. Like a lot of my longer hymns, it gives me the ironic satisfaction of being really economical with the material – an impression that may not hit you right away, given how much material that was. Anyway, the tune I have in mind for it is JESU, MEINES LEBENS LEBEN – perhaps known to you with "Christ, the Life of all the living," one of my favorite Lenten hymns.

Jesus, e'er in figures speaking,
Longing eyes and hearts to bless:
Needy souls, God's favor seeking,
You enrich with righteousness;
Yet these words cause those who grumble
In still deeper gloom to stumble.
(Refrain:) Help, Lord Jesus! Teacher dear,
Give us ears Your truth to hear.

(Mustard seed, leaven)
Thus the kingdom of the heavens,
Like the tiny mustard seed
And the crumb that much dough leavens,
Grows and spreads with wondrous speed.
Where Your doctrine is implanted
Faith and life are richly granted. (Refrain)

(Strong man armed, unclean spirits)
With the strong man you have striven,
Leaving bound our former lord;
Demons, to waste places driven,
Find their homeward threshold barred,
For the Spirit whom You send us
Will indwell us and defend us. (Refrain)

(Hidden treasure, pearl)
As a man found hidden treasure,
Selling all to buy that field,
Son of God, it was Your pleasure
For mankind Your flesh to yield:
By Your suffering and dying
One dear pearl, salvation, buying. (Refrain)

(Wicked tenants, Good Samaritan)
You are He whose tenants reasoned
They should slay their Landlord's Son;
He whose way with pain was seasoned,
All flesh to redeem as one.
While at You men were offended,
You the sinner's wounds attended. (Refrain)

(Lost coin, sheep)
Like that wife, the corners combing
One lost coin to find and keep;
Like the shepherd, pastures roaming,
Leaving all to find one sheep,
Hark! Your angels sing with gladness
When one sinner turns from badness. (Refrain)

(Unmerciful slave, two debtors)
Lo, the slave forgiven many
Yet begrudged a paltry few!
Let us, rather, pardon any,
Knowing what we owe to You:
Freely as we have been shriven,
From our hearts to give as given. (Refrain)

(Vineyard laborers, prodigal son)
As a farmer one wage offers
Those who little toil or much,
One reward Your kindness offers;
Guard our hearts from envy's clutch.
Yea, the Father's love is burning
For the prodigal's returning. (Refrain)

(Unrighteous judge, dishonest steward)
Even the unrighteous sleeper
Woke to hear the widow pray;
And the devious bookkeeper
Gave his master's bond away:
So we know our prayers will find You
And Your word of grace must bind You. (Refrain)

(Rich fool, talents)
Let us not, with greedy pleasure,
Store up this life's fleeting things
Nor employ with grudging measure
All the gifts Your kindgom brings.
Make us stewards, true and fervent,
Till You cry, "Well done, good servant." (Refrain)

(Salt, light)
Since with us the world is salted,
Let Your favor on it smile;
With its dissolution halted,
Faith may flavor it awhile.
Grant that such light through us blazes
As to draw the nations' gazes. (Refrain)

(Sower, vine and branches)
You have sowed Your word among us,
Though the devil's wiles attack;
Woes and wealth have choked or stung us;
Your own hand has pruned us back.
By Your vigor, flowing in us,
Unto fruitful harvest win us. (Refrain)

(Tower, warring king)
When a builder starts a tower,
Does he not first count the cost,
And a warring king his power
Lest his campaign should be lost?
As we bear our cross, dear Master,
Lead us on despite disaster. (Refrain)

(Dragnet, sheep and goats, tares)
Soon Your angels, You exhort us,
Will with keen discernment come,
As good fish from bad to sort us,
Sheep from goat, each to its home.
Till then, help us be forbearing,
Neither weed nor corn up-tearing. (Refrain)

(Fig tree, wedding feast, ten virgins)
See, the signs are multiplying
Of Your coming marriage feast!
Bid us come as day is dying,
Though unworthiest and least;
Found awake at Your returning,
Lamps alit with hopeful yearning. (Refrain)

(Last stanza)
Lord, whose word is never broken,
Give clear vision to our eyes.
Let the secrets You have spoken
To salvation make us wise,
Till the seed You here are sowing
Blossoms into blessed knowing. (Refrain)

The Unbreakable Code

The Unbreakable Code
by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman
Recommended Ages: 12+

Emily and her best friend James have already bonded over an online puzzle game that led them to discover a previously unpublished novel by Edgar Allan Poe. At a party to celebrate their achievement, the pair notices their teacher, Mr. Quisling, seemingly stealing from a woman's purse. Before the evening is out, they're on the trail of another puzzle – a famous cipher that hasn't been solved since 1851 and that some people believe comes with a curse. Among the people who previously tried to solve it were Mark Twain and his friend, the real-life Tom Sawyer; but all their efforts went up in flames. Literally. Now it seems someone is setting fires around San Francisco, and it has something to do with a series of Book Scavenger hunts in which Mr. Quisling and another mysterious person are exchanging messages in code.

The kids' curiosity is more than piqued by the possibility that Mr. Quisling might somehow be involved with a series of arson attacks – particularly when one of the fires puts Emily's life in danger and destroys the bookstore run by her friend Hollister. The identity of a Book Scavenger player calling him- or herself Coolbrith is one mystery. The solution to a puzzle more than 150 years old is another. It doesn't hurt that there may be gold at the end of the trail of clues: particularly with both kids worried about what will become of their financially challenged families. But the danger of solving the mystery might be even more pressingly real, with a dangerous firebug targeting them (among others) for revenge.

This is the second book of (currently) three in the Book Scavenger series, between Book Scavenger and The Alcatraz Escape. It's a nice entry in the growing genre of books featuring youngsters cracking puzzles that span the history and geography of a big city. For more examples of this type, see for example The Shadow Cipher by Laura Ruby. James, Emily and her older brother Matthew are among a growing cast of well-drawn characters who go right to your heart, particularly given Emily's vulnerability and her courage to rise to new challenges – such as getting involved in a school dance planning committee and helping her hero, the inventor of the Book Scavenger game, get his spirit of fun back after a harrowing experience in the previous book. The book closes with a tease of what may come next for the friends, among whom readers will surely count themselves.

Mortal Engines

Here's another movie I pulled out of the cheapo DVD bin at Walmart. And that's despite the fact that it advertises a connection with the filmmakers behind the blown-way-out-of-proportion Hobbit trilogy, which started middling and went downhill. To be sure, the credits are plastered all over with the names of Peter Jackson, Phillippa Boyens and Fran Walsh; it even has Hugo Weaving in it, the only actor whose name I recognized in the end credits, and who just about takes the prize for "most unnecessarily expanded role in the LOTR cinematic universe." However, it's the feature film directing debut of some guy named Christian Rivers, who has toiled in the visual effects and art departments of many Peter Jackson films (including ones that didn't suck). And frankly, I'm impressed by his work and this movie overall.

Mortal Engines takes us to a dystopian world somewhere north of 1,000 years in our future, when mechanized cities roll about the landscape, devouring smaller communities and stripping the landscape of resources. Recently, London has managed to cross the land bridge(!) to continental Europe, and as the movie opens we find it gobbling up a German mining town and with it, a girl named Hester Shaw with a scarred face and a vendetta against the guy who killed her mother – Weaving as the leader of a top-secret project to tilt the balance of survival back in favor of London, as opposed to such walled fortresses as Shan Guo. Did I get that name right? Sorry if not. Anyway, to make a long story short, an enterprising lad named Tom chases Hester off the ship, but then Weaving's character, ironically named Valentine, gives Tom a push after her and the pair team up (reluctantly, on her part) to survive.

Survival is tricky, with an undead cyborg on Hester's trail, sworn to kill her (his ultimate fate proving poignant in a Blade Runner-ish way), gangs roaming the landscape scrobbling people to sell as slaves (or, if they won't fetch a high enough price, as sausage meat), and an "anti-tractionist" terrorist cell recruiting people like Hester to help them fight the power. Tom and Hester fall in love, which is lovely, and he proves to be more useful than one would have guessed to look at him at the start, and the race to stop London from destroying Shan Guo accelerates to a gigantic climax involving sword fights, aerial combat, secret passages, crashes, explosions, and the deployment of a super-weapon.

So, all in all, it's just about the most satisfying movie I've seen in a wee bit. I really enjoyed falling into this fantasy world, and I found the cast of characters attractive and fun to watch despite not being very familiar. I realize now that Ronan Raftery, who plays a guy named Bevis, was in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them; hero guy Robert Sheehan is a star of the superhero series The Umbrella Academy, which I suddenly want to see; Icelandic actress Hera Hilmar, playing Hester, is definitely a force to watch; that you might (though I wouldn't) know Leila George (Valentine's daughter) from the TV show Animal Kingdom; that Patrick Malahide (the Lord Mayor of London) played Chief Inspector Alleyn in Alleyn Mysteries back in the 90s; that Stephen Lang (Shrike) was in Avatar, which I still refuse to see; that Colin Salmon, playing the museum director, was Gen. Zod in the series Krypton; that Frankie Adams (a member of the anti-tractionist cell) is a regular on The Expanse (another show I still haven't seen); that Kee Chan, playing the Shan Guo governor, was in the last Star Wars movie I ever saw or intend to see (Episode III); that Jihae, who plays the badass Anna Fang, starred in a TV series about colonizing Mars; and that the cast also includes the author of the source material, Philip Reeve.

Three Scenes That Made It For Me: (1) Shrike, the undead cyborg I mentioned, finally catches up with Hester and realizes, as she begs for Tom's life, that she loves him. (2) Chaos at the slave market when Anna Fang pops up out of nowhere to give Hester and Tom a chance to run. (3) The whole climactic build-up, with the aerial battle, armed and unarmed combat, stuff blowing up and the fate of two cities literally in collision. Truly, a surprisingly good film in the epic register from the writing team that brought us waaaay too much Hobbit and whose Lord of the Rings and King Kong movies have lost a bit of their original savoriness amid the passing years. I think this may be one of those movies that starts out underappreciated and grows in popularity, like The Fifth Element, only without an obnoxious character like Ruby Rhodd. Expect it to be mentioned as a cult favorite in future years. It deserves that.

Exodus: Gods and Kings

I snapped up a cheapo DVD of this movie at Walmart and watched it earlier this week. I'll say the good thing about it right up front: it has great production values. But the main thing I want to say about it is that is an offensively bad account of the story of Moses and the Hebrew people's exodus from Egypt. Unfaithful to the source material at every level of magnification, from macro to micro, it gets absolutely everything about the story completely wrong and is most egregiously wrong wherever God is involved.

It actually presents miraculous events reported in the Bible – the burning bush, the 10 plagues, the crossing of the Red Sea and the drowning of Pharaoh's army – while at the same time seemingly struggling to undercut their miraculousness. It depicts the whole series of plagues (except for the last one) as affecting the Israelites as well as the Egyptians; without the intervening negotiations between Moses and Pharaoh; and with both Moses and Pharaoh passing judgment on God for his meanness. It depicts Moses as having to act most of the time on his own, without God speaking to him, telling him what to do or helping him. It depicts God as a mostly absent being who only occasionally pops in and pretty much abandons His prophet. That God is depicted (in his appearances to Moses) as a little boy is a novelty but I'll accept it as a case of creative casting-against-type; that there is always room for the ambiguous suggestion that He's only a hallucination brought on by a blow to Moses' head is less forgivable. And instead of a bashful, slow-of-speech Moses whom God recruits in order to show his strength in human weakness, we get a warrior stud Moses to whom God says, "I want a general." What?

All that is besides other historical liberties or lack of representation, such as the failure to depict the Passover feast, the idea that Miriam spent all those years passing as an Egyptian rather than a Hebrew slave, the idea that Moses was exiled for turning out to be a Hebrew rather than fleeing from justice when he killed a muleteer, the time the movie invests in shaming Moses for leaving his family (temporarily) to deliver his people from bondage, the suggestion that the Red Sea crossing was made possible by some kind of natural phenomenon, the depiction of Moses as a freethinker who encouraged his son's skepticism and his wife's adherence to whatever faith she brought to their marriage, God's rather democratic attitude in allowing Moses to make up his own mind whether the 10 Commandments were a good law to hand down to his people ... I could go on ad nauseam, but then I'm afraid I would have to barf.

The movie is directed by Ridley Scott, he of Gladiator, Black Hawk Down, Blade Runner and the original Alien. It takes advantage of the acting talents of Christian Bale as Moses, Joel Edgerton as a young Pharaoh (with whom Moses was raised as something like a brother), John Turturro as an older Pharaoh (who tells Moses he wishes he could inherit the throne instead of Ramesses), Ben Kingsley as Nun, Aaron Paul of Breaking Bad as Joshua, Tara Fitzgerald of Game of Thrones as Miriam, Ben Mendelsohn of Ready Player One and Darkest Hour as the corrupt viceroy of Pithom, Sigourney Weaver as the Queen Mum (ha) and a beautiful Spanish actress named Maria Valverde, who happens to be the wife of conductor Gustavo Dudamel, as Zipporah, the wife of Moses.

No Three Scenes that Made It For Me this time. The good news is that I watched it all the way through and was less disappointed overall than I meant to be. But good filmmaking doesn't always make a good film and this is a case in point. How could Ridley Scott et al. have done better? Respect for the source material (which stands on the authority of Moses himself) would be a great place to start.