There is on the road leading from my office, a sign, probably twice the length, and twice the height of a #10 envelope. All that is written is the word REPENT. I wonder what the person putting up that sign would think would happen when people see the sign? And I wonder what reaction – other than indifference – the sign has generated? If someone were moved to repent as a result of this little sign, to whom and what would they repent?
I just read where Charles Dickens was in Albany, NY in March of 1868, where he read “A Christmas Carol” to a packed house. I was intrigued that one of our pastors last week compared John the Baptist, the forerunner to Jesus, with Jacob Marley, who warned Ebenezer Scrooge of the visitors to come. Scrooge did repent of his penurious ways.
So I wonder: is the most familiar Scrooge, portrayed by everyone from Mr. Magoo to Patrick Stewart, what repentance looks like in the minds of whoever posted that sign, and dozens like them?
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Last Sunday’s Advent service went well. I heard a recording on Friday. What’s missing from the CD, though, is the Amen. There are two amens and an introductory sentence that all start off with the same notes. While some of us sang the “Amen”, others, inexplicably, started singing “I was glad when they said unto me.” Train wreck on the EASY piece after getting down the much harder one.
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See Fred Hembeck’s post of December 14, where he shows his very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very obsessive-compulsive relationship with Santa Claus.