537. St. Matthias Hymn

Continuing my planned set of "Heroes of the Faith" hymns based on the Feast and Festivals schedule of Lutheran Service Book, the next up would be the Purification of Mary and Presentation of Our Lord (Feb. 2), on which I've already delivered a hymn. So let's skip to Feb. 24, the feast of St. Matthias, the guy who was chosen by lot to replace Judas Iscariot in the original 12 apostles. Post-Vatican II, the Roman church celebrates his feast day on May 14. Lessons for the service are Isaiah 66:1-2, Acts 1:15-26 and Matthew 11:25-30.

I can dispose of what Scripture reveals about Matthias in less time than even Thomas and Titus. It's all in that pericope from Acts 1, which only mentions his name twice. Early Christian writers variously identified Matthias as one Tolmai (father of Bartholomew?), Zacchaeus (the wee little man from Jericho, Luke 19), Barnabas (who accompanied Paul on his early travels, Acts 4-15), and that Nathanael who came and went from the company of disciples in John 1 and 21. Traditions about where Matthias went and what he did as an apostle are equally contradictory, mentioning such far-flung mission fields as Ethiopia and modern-day Turkey and Georgia and alternately claiming he was stoned and beheaded or that he died of old age in Jerusalem.

The procedure of casting lots for a decision (like, "Justus Joseph-a.k.a.-Barsabas or Matthias?") is interesting and brings to mind two charming stories. One is how my dad recently decided whether to accept or return a call to serve as pastor in a dual parish in Montana. He put multiple copies of the numbers 1, 2 and 3 in a hat – 1 meaning "no," 2 "yes" and 3 "draw again" – and drew pieces until he had an answer. A 2 fell on the floor and was put back in the hat. After praying for God's guidance, he then drew a 3, threw that slip away and drew again – a 2. Well, he's in Montana now.

The other story comes from my vicarage, where my supervising pastor opened a voters' meeting with a devotion based on this Acts 1 lesson. He then waxed poetic about how it might be for the church to make choices by lot rather than a popular vote. Someone raised his hand and said, "But Pastor, then we wouldn't be in control," and the pastor shot back, "Exactly!"

According to Apostle Peter (speaking in Acts 1), both Matthias and Justus Joseph were among the disciples who had accompanied the apostles throught Jesus' ministry, from the time of His baptism by John until His ascension. He was required, Peter says, to complete the complement of witnesses to Jesus' resurrection. Oddly, Luke (author of the book of Acts) concludes that Matthias was numbered with the eleven apostles, which kind of sounds like their attempt to restore the twelve didn't quite take. Perhaps it could be argued that the 12th spot really went to Paul. But one has to respect the concept of prayerfully leaving the choice up to God via a lottery-type drawing. Like the guy said, we're not in control! And God calls whom He will!

So ... how does one write a Christ-centered hymn about this mess? Well, let's try this:

To God, whose throne is heaven,
Whose footstool is the land,
What temple can be given
But what He shaped by hand?
The poor and contrite heart
That trembles at God's roaring,
That cries out for restoring—
Thereon rests God's regard.

Christ from the wise and prudent
His holy secret hides,
And yet the infant student
Thereto He gladly guides.
Christ—meekest, gentlest, best—
To those both sorely harried
And who His light yoke carried
Has pledged eternal rest.

Let those by God elected
Trust, and in no wise doubt,
That they will be perfected
And greet Him with a shout.
Our lot with Him is cast;
And as He chose Matthias,
He will do justice by us
And call us home at last.

Zootopia 2

I generally try not to make a practice of seeing the sequel to a movie I haven't seen, but I made an exception this weekend because I genuinely needed to go to the movies and I couldn't think of any other movie playing within an hour's driving radius of home that I wanted to see. For context, this beat out Marty Supreme, Anaconda, Avatar: Fire and Ash, The Housemaid, David (which I'd already seen) and the runner-up (by an inch), Song Sung Blue. The Spongebob movie had been playing last week and I refrained from seeing it as well. I feel bad about my reluctance to see Z2 now. I actually had a pretty good time. There's a lot more to this animated movie about a city of more-or-less anthropomorphic animals than you would expect, including jokes (and dramatic beats) that parents and film buffs in general will enjoy. Like Auntie Trunchbull's chocolates, it's too good for children. And though I wouldn't know, I heard from a dad who was seated in the row behind me with his wife and kids that this movie is actually better than the original.

The cast is a blast. And it goes on and on. Headlining it as a rabbit-fox pair of buddy cops, Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde, are Ginnifer Goodwin (previously Snow White on TV's Once Upon a Time) and Jason Bateman (Michael Bluth on Arrested Development). Joining them are recent Oscar winner Ke Huy Quan (The Goonies, Everything Everywhere All At Once) as Gary De'Snake, Andy Samberg (Hotel Transylvania, Brooklyn Nine-Nine) as Pawbert, the misfit runt of a powerful family of lynxes, David Straithairn (Delores Claiborne, Good Night and Good Luck) as Pawbert's villainous dad, Macaulay Culkin and his partner Brenda Song as a couple of Pawbert's lynx siblings, Shakira as a pop-singer gazelle, Idris Elba as a Cape buffalo police chief, Michelle Gomez (Missy on Doctor Who) as a razorback cop, an outrageous Patrick Warburton (The Tick, The Emperor's New Groove) as Zootopia's horsey mayor, Danny Trejo (Machete) as a reptile, Bonnie Hunt (Return to Me, Jumanji) as Judy's rabbit mum, June Squib (Nebraska) as her grandma, Wilmer Valderrama (NCIS, That 70s Show) as a zebra cop, Jean Reno (Leon: The Professional) as a pair of goat cops, Alan Tudyk (Firefly, Resident Alien) in multiple roles, John Leguizamo as an anteater, Maurice LaMarche (voice of The Brain, the lab rat that kept trying to take over the world) as a shrew mobster ironically known as Mr. Big, Josh Dallas (Prince Charming on Once Upon a Time) as a pig, Tommy Chong as a yak, TV chef Nick DiGiovanni as an iguana barback, Tig Notaro (Star Trek: Discovery) as a grizzly bear, Ed Sheeran as a sheep who (funnily enough) is seen getting sheered at a barbershop, Michael J. Fox as (duh) a fox, Josh Gad (Olaf in Frozen) as a mole, Mario Lopez (Saved by the Bell) as a wolf, Robert Irwin (the late Steve Irwin's son) as a koala, Jenny Slate (SNL, Bob's Burgers) as a villainous sheep from the previous installment, Mark Smith (Rhino on Gladiators) as (like, duh) a rhino, archival recordings of the late Tiny Lister (president of Earth in The Fifth Element) as a fox who goes undercover as a baby bunny, Dwayne Johnson as a dik-dik (snort) whose only audible line to my recollection is a brief scream when he gets blasted out of a tuba (don't ask), and among several animation studio honchos making cameos, Disney CEO Bob Iger as a tiger weatherman. Whew!

So, it's a movie with a lot of speaking characters in it. Obviously, being open to diversity is a not very subtle theme. The hero bunny and fox have to overcome differences of personality and culture to work together and solve a case involving a forbidden reptile in the all-mammal city, who seems to be trying to steal a precious artifact of one of the city's founding lynxes. But there's more to the maguffin than meets the eye. I mean that literally. And the outcome is two rookie cops having to go on the run, framed for crimes they didn't commit, trying to get to the bottom of things and clear their own names while being chased by other cops as well as fiendish bad guys. There are perilous pursuits and escapes, a potentially deadly betrayal, lots of close calls and some therapeutic work on the central relationship, which a well-timed movment of levity just barely saves from being too on-the-nose. There are film buff Easter eggs, satirical gags (nothing is spared) and downright breathtaking scenery, art, animation and animated-character acting. It has a good story, good dialogue, good voice acting, the whole works. I fully endorse this movie.

And now, to the Three Scenes That Made It For Me: (1) Danger, division and structural collapse in a crumbling, mountaintop chateau. Or whatever that was. (2) Judy and Nick are warned not to refuse an offer of food when they visit the reptiles' speakeasy ... and are immediately put to the test with a bowl of squirming grubs. (3) The climactic crisis in which snake venom and antivenom play key roles. Actually there are so many scenes that I could have put on this list, including everything surrounding the Marsh Market as well as a thrill ride in a sloth's hot rod. Here I am, a well-known (?) hater of sequels, wondering where this franchise will go next.

536. St. Titus Hymn

Continuing my hymn-writing tour of the Feasts and Festivals lectionary in Lutheran Service Book, I've decided to skip past New Year's Eve (because it doesn't fall under the "Heroes of the Faith"), as well as the Circumcision and Name of Jesus (Jan. 1), the Confession of Peter (Jan. 18), St. Timothy (Jan. 24) and the Conversion of Paul (Jan. 25), which leads us to Jan. 26 and the feast of St. Titus. Funny how Timothy and Titus bookend Paul like that. But other than New Year's Eve, I've already written hymns for these other celebrations; see the links back here.

What does Scripture tell us about Titus? He is often mentioned in Paul's epistles as a protégé and partner in preaching the gospel. Paul addresses an entire epistle (letter) to Titus, calling him "a true son in our common faith" and trusting him to operate independently, such as leaving him behind in Crete (Titus 1:5), commending him to the church in Corinth (2 Corinthians 7, 8 and 12), and bringing him along to Jerusalem (Galatians 2). In 2 Corinthians 2, Paul confesses to feeling anxious without Titus in Troas. In Titus 3, Paul urges Titus to join him for the winter in Nicopolis. In 2 Timothy 4, his last writing from house arrest in Rome, Paul mentions that Titus traveled to Dalmatia, across the Adriatic in what is now Croatia and Montenegro. However, the way Paul connects this with a complaint about his supporters bailing on him makes it unclear whether Titus went there as an evangelist or to escape martyrdom. If Paul is complaining about Titus, it would be the only hint of discord between them; so let's let his descriptions in 2 Corinthians and in the epistle to Titus stand as a glowing record of service to the gospel and to Paul personally. Readings for Titus, according to LSB, are Acts 20:28-35; Titus 1:1-9; and Luke 10:1-9.

Equip the church, O Savior,
With stewards of Your grace,
Blameless in their behavior,
To serve in every place;
Fit them to oversee us,
Your faithful word hold fast
And by sound teaching free us
From our vain works at last.

Secure their hearts from loving
Wine, money, pow'r and ire,
Kind and high-minded proving,
Drawn but to holy fire.
Incline our hearts to hear them,
To curb hostility,
To succor and to cheer them
And follow faithfully.

Through Tituses among us
Your kingdom, Lord, draws near.
Wherever life has flung us,
Through them Your voice we hear.
Enrich them with Your Spirit
To preach in parlous lands,
And grant that we who hear it
Hold up their weary hands.

ART: An icon of "Holy Apostle Titus of Crete" from 14th century Kosovo.

535. St. Thomas Hymn

Another "backfill" in my Heroes of the Faith hymn project, this feast on Dec. 21 (per the Lutheran Service Book; it's July 3 in Roman Catholicism) commemorates the apostle who was absent when the resurrected Jesus first appeared to His disciples, and who famously wouldn't believe them when they told him Whom they had seen. But a week later – and note that well, it figures in the lessons for the first Sunday after Easter – he was with them when Jesus appeared again, and Jesus offered him the look-and-touch test he had avowedly held out for. And then, as the Gospel lesson for the feast (John 20:24-29) tells us, Thomas immediately confessed his faith in the words, "My Lord and my God!" After which Jesus gently chided him for his seeing-is-believing attitude.

That's most of what we know about Thomas from Scripture. Both his Aramaic name and his Greek "a.k.a.," Didymus, mean "twin." The synoptic gospels only mention him once each, in a list of the 12 apostles. John gives him a couple of lines, including the melancholy remark, "Let us also go, that we may die with Him," in John 11; and the question, "Lord, we do not know where you are going, and how can we know the way?" in John 14. He was also in that group that met Jesus by the Sea of Galilee in John 21 (see also St. Andrew); and he was with the other 11 surviving apostles when Matthias was selected to replace Judas Iscariot in Acts 1. The rest is folklore and tradition, such as the belief that he was killed with a spear in India. And there are also a couple of apocryphal (and heretical) gospels attributed to him.

Other readings for St. Thomas' day, according to LSB, are Judges 6:36-40 (where Gideon puts God to the test) and Ephesians 4:7-16, obnoxiously omitting verses 8-10. Someone needs to shake that lectionary committee to its senses, in my opinion. So, on to the hymn!

Our Lord and God, arisen from Your rest,
Forgive us when we put You to the test.
Bear with our weakness, as when You spoke peace
To Thomas, that in faith we may increase.

When we are weak, encourage us by sign
And sermon to believe Your grace divine,
Still giving men to shepherd us and teach
Such faith that we might in Your nailprints reach.

For in full view of Thomas and the ten
You freed the captive, giving gifts to men;
You rose above the skies, all things to fill,
Your presence and Your peace to bring us still.

Our Lord and God!—We join in Thomas' creed—
In You is life and light and all we need;
Grant that we be on all Your riches fed,
And grow in truth and love to You, our Head.

ART: Martyrdom of St. Thomas by Peter Paul Rubens, public domain.