The Beauty of God’s Law
Stories
Contents
“The Beauty of God’s Law” by Frank Ramirez
“Polio, Tears, and Covid-19” by John Sumwalt
The Beauty Of God’s Law
by Frank Ramirez
Psalm 119:9-16
I will delight in your statues; I will not forget your word. (v. 16)
It’s almost impossible to define what makes a poem, especially in the English language. Some great poets are able to craft memorable poetry without rhyme or meter, but their use of the language and their striking images set their work apart.
Still, most of the times when we think of poetry we think of rhyme and meter. Meter refers to the way we organize the strong and weak syllables. Take the type of poem called a double dactyl. A dactyl is a strong, a weak, and a strong syllable. Dah-di-Dah, and for a double dactyl you do it twice. Dah-di-dah, dah-di-dah.
Double-dactyls were invented in 1951 by Anthony Hecht and Paul Paschal. They’re meant to be fun, and funny. A proper double-dactyl has two stanzas, each consisting of three lines of double-dactyls and a final line called a choriamb, which goes Dah-di-di-dah. One time a line has to consist of a single word. The first line is usually nonsense, something like higgledy-piggledy. Don’t worry. There won’t be a test. Here’s an example.
Higgledy piggledy,
Benjamin Harrison,
Twenty-third president
Was, and, as such,
Served between Clevelands and
Save for this trivial
Idiosyncrasy,
Didn't do much.
I’ll bet most people are also familiar with limericks. A 19th century poet named Edward Lear made them popular. The first, second, and fifth lines rhyme and have the same rhythm, as do the third and fourth lines. The following limerick has been attributed to Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes (1841-1935). But who knows?
God’s plan had a hopeful beginning,
But we spoiled our chances by sinning.
We trust that the story
Will end in God’s glory
But at present the other side’s winning.
Now if you want to say something more significant, you should try the sonnet. Sonnets consist of fourteen lines. There are three stanzas in which the first and third lines rhymes, as do the second and fourth. At the end of three such stanzas there are two concluding lines, called a couplet, that also rhyme. Each line is ten syllables long, consisting of five iambs, which is a word an unstressed and stressed syllable.
Why go to all the trouble to use rhyme and meter? Sometimes it’s just because you can! The technical difficulty is part of what makes it worth doing.
Listen to this poem, called the Holy Sonnet 7, by the poet John Donne (1571-1631). He could have said, “Once the Last Trump is blown its too late to repent.” Instead, he wrote this:
At the round earth's imagin'd corners, blow
Your trumpets, angels, and arise, arise
From death, you numberless infinities
Of souls, and to your scatter'd bodies go;
All whom the flood did, and fire shall o'erthrow,
All whom war, dearth, age, agues, tyrannies,
Despair, law, chance hath slain, and you whose eyes
Shall behold God and never taste death's woe.
But let them sleep, Lord, and me mourn a space,
For if above all these my sins abound,
'Tis late to ask abundance of thy grace
When we are there; here on this lowly ground
Teach me how to repent; for that's as good
As if thou hadst seal'd my pardon with thy blood.
All of these pale in comparison to what some anonymous songwriter did centuries ago in writing Psalm 119. Now Hebrew poetry doesn’t have rhyme at all. It has rhythm, repeated patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables, as well as repetition of ideas.
But in Psalm 119, the poet makes it even tougher because each stanza begins with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet. There are twenty-two letters in Hebrew, and the psalmist goes from A to Z, well, actually aleph to tav.
This is a tremendous accomplishment. Why would someone go to all this trouble to write what is the longest poem in scripture? Because the beauty of God’s law, and the love behind that law, has moved the poet to tears, kindling the desire to share this great passion with all of us through all the centuries!
And because they could.
* * *
Polio, Tears, and Covid-19
by John Sumwalt
Hebrews 5:5-10
“In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.” (v. 7)
The Covid-19 pandemic has stirred memories of the polio outbreak in the late 1940s and early 50s. Most of us who were alive at that time knew someone who had polio. My uncle, Rev. Don Sumwalt, told me about coming down with polio shortly after he came home from World War II. He spent several miserable months in bed, and it was during that time that he accepted God’s call to pastoral ministry.
My colleague, Rev. Frank Gaylord, now retired in Sun Prairie, remembers it as “a truly frightening time.” Frank said, “One of my friends wound up in an iron lung for the remainder of her life...a dreadful big metal machine that breathed for her. It was not really life at all for her- just lying there in that machine as it manipulated her “breathing.”
My friend, Jenny Carr says, “Those of us who lived through the polio epidemic know the importance of social distancing. My brother contracted it and suffered through multiple surgeries and months at a Shriners Hospital. He wears a brace on one leg to this day. It saddens me to see how folks are ignoring the experts today.”
Jan Maynard posted tells this touching polio story:
“My freshman year of college, I had an English professor who taught the entire semester with his hand in his pocket. I thought it was affect; his way of being nonchalant as we dissected old English poetry and short stories. But a few weeks before the end of term, a kid made a comment in class about survival of the fittest and it really set the teacher off. He reached into his pocket with the hand in it and pulled out a shriveled, limp arm. His arm. Holding that arm and flapping it at us like a dead fish, he told us about polio.
“About the summers the mothers kept their kids at home, and the swimming pools closed, and no kids were allowed in the front yard or at birthday parties, because their town had a polio outbreak. How schools started late into the fall to make sure the illness had died out in town.
“He talked about how death was bad and something everyone was scared of, but that they were equally scared they’d get it and then never walk again. Or worse, never breathe on their own again. How he got it as a young teen one summer there was an outbreak in town, and from then on, his arm never worked. It never grew to fit his man-sized body. He never played ball again and struggled to find the confidence to date.”
Jan said, “I think about that constantly right now. About how everyone thinks the death toll from Covid is the only metric worth analyzing. About how we are hearing of people stroking out after they are recovered. About what Covid does to kids. About neurological deficiencies after recovery, about decreased lung capacity and damaged cardiovascular systems, and I wonder why we aren’t worried about the long-term health implications. Why do we think herd immunity is a good thing, or that it’s going to save us?
What health consequences will we suffer because we are so myopic in our view of the worst that can happen? Why are we so willing to let history repeat? Especially LIVING history. There are still many people alive who remember this time. Who bear the scars of it. Who speak their warnings into the void of angry people who just want to get their hair done.”
I spend a good deal of time, in these long days of quarantine, wondering what would Jesus say to us about the pandemic? I imagine him “offering up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears,” and I pray with him in “reverent submission.”
*****************************************
StoryShare, March 21, 2021 issue.
Copyright 2021 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
“The Beauty of God’s Law” by Frank Ramirez
“Polio, Tears, and Covid-19” by John Sumwalt
The Beauty Of God’s Law
by Frank Ramirez
Psalm 119:9-16
I will delight in your statues; I will not forget your word. (v. 16)
It’s almost impossible to define what makes a poem, especially in the English language. Some great poets are able to craft memorable poetry without rhyme or meter, but their use of the language and their striking images set their work apart.
Still, most of the times when we think of poetry we think of rhyme and meter. Meter refers to the way we organize the strong and weak syllables. Take the type of poem called a double dactyl. A dactyl is a strong, a weak, and a strong syllable. Dah-di-Dah, and for a double dactyl you do it twice. Dah-di-dah, dah-di-dah.
Double-dactyls were invented in 1951 by Anthony Hecht and Paul Paschal. They’re meant to be fun, and funny. A proper double-dactyl has two stanzas, each consisting of three lines of double-dactyls and a final line called a choriamb, which goes Dah-di-di-dah. One time a line has to consist of a single word. The first line is usually nonsense, something like higgledy-piggledy. Don’t worry. There won’t be a test. Here’s an example.
Higgledy piggledy,
Benjamin Harrison,
Twenty-third president
Was, and, as such,
Served between Clevelands and
Save for this trivial
Idiosyncrasy,
Didn't do much.
I’ll bet most people are also familiar with limericks. A 19th century poet named Edward Lear made them popular. The first, second, and fifth lines rhyme and have the same rhythm, as do the third and fourth lines. The following limerick has been attributed to Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes (1841-1935). But who knows?
God’s plan had a hopeful beginning,
But we spoiled our chances by sinning.
We trust that the story
Will end in God’s glory
But at present the other side’s winning.
Now if you want to say something more significant, you should try the sonnet. Sonnets consist of fourteen lines. There are three stanzas in which the first and third lines rhymes, as do the second and fourth. At the end of three such stanzas there are two concluding lines, called a couplet, that also rhyme. Each line is ten syllables long, consisting of five iambs, which is a word an unstressed and stressed syllable.
Why go to all the trouble to use rhyme and meter? Sometimes it’s just because you can! The technical difficulty is part of what makes it worth doing.
Listen to this poem, called the Holy Sonnet 7, by the poet John Donne (1571-1631). He could have said, “Once the Last Trump is blown its too late to repent.” Instead, he wrote this:
At the round earth's imagin'd corners, blow
Your trumpets, angels, and arise, arise
From death, you numberless infinities
Of souls, and to your scatter'd bodies go;
All whom the flood did, and fire shall o'erthrow,
All whom war, dearth, age, agues, tyrannies,
Despair, law, chance hath slain, and you whose eyes
Shall behold God and never taste death's woe.
But let them sleep, Lord, and me mourn a space,
For if above all these my sins abound,
'Tis late to ask abundance of thy grace
When we are there; here on this lowly ground
Teach me how to repent; for that's as good
As if thou hadst seal'd my pardon with thy blood.
All of these pale in comparison to what some anonymous songwriter did centuries ago in writing Psalm 119. Now Hebrew poetry doesn’t have rhyme at all. It has rhythm, repeated patterns of stressed and unstressed syllables, as well as repetition of ideas.
But in Psalm 119, the poet makes it even tougher because each stanza begins with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet. There are twenty-two letters in Hebrew, and the psalmist goes from A to Z, well, actually aleph to tav.
This is a tremendous accomplishment. Why would someone go to all this trouble to write what is the longest poem in scripture? Because the beauty of God’s law, and the love behind that law, has moved the poet to tears, kindling the desire to share this great passion with all of us through all the centuries!
And because they could.
* * *
Polio, Tears, and Covid-19
by John Sumwalt
Hebrews 5:5-10
“In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to the one who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission.” (v. 7)
The Covid-19 pandemic has stirred memories of the polio outbreak in the late 1940s and early 50s. Most of us who were alive at that time knew someone who had polio. My uncle, Rev. Don Sumwalt, told me about coming down with polio shortly after he came home from World War II. He spent several miserable months in bed, and it was during that time that he accepted God’s call to pastoral ministry.
My colleague, Rev. Frank Gaylord, now retired in Sun Prairie, remembers it as “a truly frightening time.” Frank said, “One of my friends wound up in an iron lung for the remainder of her life...a dreadful big metal machine that breathed for her. It was not really life at all for her- just lying there in that machine as it manipulated her “breathing.”
My friend, Jenny Carr says, “Those of us who lived through the polio epidemic know the importance of social distancing. My brother contracted it and suffered through multiple surgeries and months at a Shriners Hospital. He wears a brace on one leg to this day. It saddens me to see how folks are ignoring the experts today.”
Jan Maynard posted tells this touching polio story:
“My freshman year of college, I had an English professor who taught the entire semester with his hand in his pocket. I thought it was affect; his way of being nonchalant as we dissected old English poetry and short stories. But a few weeks before the end of term, a kid made a comment in class about survival of the fittest and it really set the teacher off. He reached into his pocket with the hand in it and pulled out a shriveled, limp arm. His arm. Holding that arm and flapping it at us like a dead fish, he told us about polio.
“About the summers the mothers kept their kids at home, and the swimming pools closed, and no kids were allowed in the front yard or at birthday parties, because their town had a polio outbreak. How schools started late into the fall to make sure the illness had died out in town.
“He talked about how death was bad and something everyone was scared of, but that they were equally scared they’d get it and then never walk again. Or worse, never breathe on their own again. How he got it as a young teen one summer there was an outbreak in town, and from then on, his arm never worked. It never grew to fit his man-sized body. He never played ball again and struggled to find the confidence to date.”
Jan said, “I think about that constantly right now. About how everyone thinks the death toll from Covid is the only metric worth analyzing. About how we are hearing of people stroking out after they are recovered. About what Covid does to kids. About neurological deficiencies after recovery, about decreased lung capacity and damaged cardiovascular systems, and I wonder why we aren’t worried about the long-term health implications. Why do we think herd immunity is a good thing, or that it’s going to save us?
What health consequences will we suffer because we are so myopic in our view of the worst that can happen? Why are we so willing to let history repeat? Especially LIVING history. There are still many people alive who remember this time. Who bear the scars of it. Who speak their warnings into the void of angry people who just want to get their hair done.”
I spend a good deal of time, in these long days of quarantine, wondering what would Jesus say to us about the pandemic? I imagine him “offering up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears,” and I pray with him in “reverent submission.”
*****************************************
StoryShare, March 21, 2021 issue.
Copyright 2021 by CSS Publishing Company, Inc., Lima, Ohio.
All rights reserved. Subscribers to the StoryShare service may print and use this material as it was intended in sermons, in worship and classroom settings, in brief devotions, in radio spots, and as newsletter fillers. No additional permission is required from the publisher for such use by subscribers only. Inquiries should be addressed to permissions@csspub.com or to Permissions, CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 5450 N. Dixie Highway, Lima, Ohio 45807.
