We've had another senseless killing, this time in Arizona. And as always, the news media has asked the question: What goes wrong in the mind of an individual to cause one to strike out in such murderous fashion? With it comes that other question: Where was God when all of this happened? Perhaps you've wondered about it yourself. It's a legitimate theological question. And it's one that does not require a crazed killer; we can ponder that matter about an earthquake in Haiti or a tsunami in the Far East.

If you have wrestled with such questions you might find it helpful to read Philip Yancey's latest book, What Good is God? In Search of a Faith That Matters. Yancey is a well-known evangelical speaker and writer who has written about twenty books on a variety of aspects of the Christian life. And in this work he takes on the big global question: the presence of God in a world of evil and untold hardships. As the book jacket puts it: "What good is God in a world where terrorists attack tourist sites in Mumbai, where women and children are sold into sexual slavery, where a gunman kills 32 students and staff on a college campus, and where six million people in South Africa alone suffer with HIV/AIDS? Or, on a more personal level, does faith really matter when you're struggling with an addiction, when you get laid off from your job and your home is in foreclosure, or when chronic depression sets it?"

Yancey is no armchair theologian, pondering these issues in the serenity of his private study. He has gone out into the world to see how Christians have responded. And that forms the shape and character of his book, which is divided into ten major sections that span the globe. The names of some of these indicate his thrust: Virginia Tech, Memphis, Mumbai in India, and South Africa. He has been to Blacksburg, Virginia, and interviewed students whose lives have been forever changed, some physically, others psychologically. He has talked with Amish parents in Pennsylvania whose schoolchildren were gunned down. You'll find spiritual refreshment in reading how Christians responded in faith to these crises in their lives.

But Yancey has other things to say. One section deals with C. S. Lewis, whose writings were the pathway that brought Yancey from a skeptical college student to a young adult with a sincere and growing faith. He writes, "I find in Lewis something rarely seen in either secular or sacred society: a delicate balance of embracing the world while not idolizing it." And you will be interested to read what Yancey means by that. Still other chapters deal with situations in which you might not expect to find God, such as at a conference of former prostitutes in Wisconsin.

But in each of these chapters and others, Yancey is seeking to find and understand the presence of God and how God can matter whatever the form or style of life. It's an intriguing book. With Yancey, you will travel the globe exploring the variety of God's presence. It can be an enriching experience. Look for the book on our display table in the library. 

Music Participants: February 6, Sanctuary Choir. As soon as we have had consistent children's rehearsals without weather interruptions, I will send out a singing schedule!

Choir Anthem: The sanctuary choir anthem on February 6 is a setting of the fourteenth-century Latin text Ave verum corpus, which will be sung in its usual English translation, "Jesu, Word of God Incarnate." It is a prayer calling out for forgiveness of our sins through Christ's sacrifice, the remembrance of which is enacted in the communion meal. A number of composers have set it, most famously Mozart, in one of his final works. The choir anthem is a setting by English composer Edward Elgar that he wrote in 1887 when he was 30 years old. Elgar is best known for his Pomp and Circumstance March 1, which is a standard for graduation ceremonies, and his orchestral Enigma Variations. Elgar, a Roman Catholic, wrote a number of sacred choral works that remain in the repertory. This is a simple, yet very elegant, setting of a moving text.

Test Hymn: The words and music of the next test hymn (to be sung on February 6) were both written in the late 1960s; the text is by American Lutheran pastor Jaroslav Vajda (1919-2008), and the music is by Carl Schalk (b. 1929). Now the Silence has gained wide acceptance since its first publication in 1969, although it has not appeared in a Presbyterian hymnal. A later work (God of the Sparrow) by this pair is in our current hymnal. Vajda, of Slovak heritage, wrote a number of original hymn texts as well as translations of hymns from Slovak, German, and Hungarian. This text is unusual in that it doesn't fall into metrical stanzas but has a series of unpunctuated phrases, each of which begins, "Now the ..." About its creation, he wrote:

Since my teenage years I have been writing and translating poetry, so many poetic phrases run through my mind. ...Somewhere in the back of my mind, during ... years in the full-time parish ministry, I was accumulating reasons and benefits in worship. ... The hymn began to form in my mind as a list of awesome and exciting things that one should expect in worship, culminating in the Eucharist and benediction. ... Subconsciously I was producing a hymn without rhyme ... depending entirely on rhythm and repetition to make it singable. The reversal of the Trinitarian order in the [ending] was made not only to make the conclusion memorable, but to indicate the order in which the Trinity approaches us in worship: The Spirit brings us to the Gospel, by which God's blessing is released in our lives.

The melody Schalk wrote for these words perfectly matches its structure. On first look, it appears to be one long thought, but it is in reality a series of short musical phrases that repeat and then modify a very simple idea. - Steve & Vicki Fey

February 6: Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Lessons: Exodus 32:7-14; Mark 1:14-19

Sermon: The Urgent Call of Christ, Gordon Turnbull

In Our Prayers