February 20: I am the Chief of Sinners
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♫ Music:
Friday, February 20
Scripture: 1 Timothy 1:15
The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.
I AM THE CHIEF OF SINNERS
The Apostle Paul. Saint Paul. Often when we add these appellations, we are reminded of who Paul became, but it obscures the fact of who he used to be. If anybody was realistically cognizant of his past, it was Paul himself. “I am the chief of sinners!” he cried. But to us, we dismiss that as hyperbole: “Surely Paul cannot be the worst sinner that ever lived,” we think. But consider this: he murdered Christians in the name of God. There is a very obvious modern-day parallel: killings perpetrated by radical Muslim terrorists seem to show no signs of abating today, from 9/11 to Hezbollah to ISIS to Charlie Hebdo. Of course not all of them target Christians, but many of them do specifically. Leaving aside, for now, the issues of how to address these, and also recognizing the fact that many other parties on all sides are also culpable of some degree of violence, this image is mainly used here to illustrate this visceral point: imagine if Osama Bin Laden walked through the door of your church and said that he was a converted believer (and let’s say for a moment this were true). How would you feel? How would you react to him? Could you accept him into your fellowship? How long would it take you to “get over” what he had done? When would you finally be able to trust him? Could you ever forget and forgive his past? Would you ever go so far as to call him a saint, no matter how “good” he became later on in his life?
Today we Christians often turn too quickly to the victory and the triumph, without walking through the valley of the shadow of death first. We can glory in the resurrection without feeling the crucifixion. We want Easter without Lent or Good Friday. We expect forgiveness without sufficient dwelling on our depravity, the utter wretchedness of who we were as “sons of wrath” and “children of disobedience” (Eph. 2:2-3). This is not meant to keep us in bondage to guilt but rather to highlight how far God has brought us. This is the point of Lent: to walk that journey and that Passion with Jesus, and to remember the sinfulness of who we were—and still are. It underscores our utter incapability to redeem ourselves, and it is a deterrent to cheap grace.
Paul wrote these words while in prison in Rome. By this time, he is a senior apostle with tremendous influence. He is about to be martyred for his faith by the most powerful man on earth, Caesar. He was so beloved that the Ephesian elders wept over him (Acts 20:17-38). And yet he still called himself the chief of sinners. Not in the past, but now. Because compared to the goodness of Jesus, he still is. And we all are. But it just goes to show: nobody is beyond God’s reach.
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, you have called us to walk this Lenten journey with you. Though you were sinless, you still felt pain as you bore the sins of the world. In order for us to know redemption and the ultimate good of your faithfulness, the painfulness of our prior selves must be revealed and experienced. But instead of keeping us in our shame, lift up our heads. After we have experienced our wretchedness, be our Savior. Help us to die to ourselves daily, and make us utterly and completely yours, because you have bought us with your blood. Amen.
Allen Yeh, Professor of Intercultural Studies & Missiology
Conversion on the Way to Damascus
Caravaggio
1601
Santa Maria Del Popolo, Rome, Italy
Oil on canvas
About the Artist & Art
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571 – 1610) was an Italian Baroque painter whose influence and fame spanned far beyond his short career. He was trained in Milan and joined the art scene in Rome with his first two commissions in 1600, after which he never lacked in patronage. Despite his wild personal life and death at age 38, the influence of his work can be seen in the works of other important artists such as Peter Paul Rubens, Bernini, and Rembrandt; direct followers of Caravaggio's style were called "Caravaggisti" or "Caravagesques.” His distinctive style is characterized by a realistic observation of the human state, realistic depictions of emotional responses, and the use of tenebrism, or intensely dramatic lighting. Conversion on the Way to Damascus, which depicts the Apostle Paul's miraculous vision of Christ, is one of his masterpieces. It was done for the Cerasi Chapel of the church of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome, where it still resides.
About the Music (Piece 1)
Cast Me Not Away lyrics (from Psalm 51)
Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
About the Musicians & Composer
The Moscow Synodal Choir (also called the Moscow Cathedral Choir) was founded in 1721 at the Moscow Synodal School. The Synodal School was dissolved in 1919 and the choir merged with the Moscow Conservatory, but in 2009 it was revived as the Moscow Synodal Choir once again.
Pavel Chesnokov (1877–1944) was a prolific Russian composer, conductor, and teacher mostly of sacred choral music. He produced over four hundred sacred works, but near the end of his life under the religious oppression of the Soviet regime, he produced many more secular works, and then eventually ceased writing music altogether. Cast Me Not Away, which is based on Psalm 51, is a solo for basso profondo, and one of his most well-known works.
About the Music (Piece 2)
A Hymn to God the Father lyrics
Wilt thou forgive that sin where I begun,
Which was my sin, though it were done before?
Wilt thou forgive that sin, through which I run,
And do run still, though still I do deplore?
When thou hast done, thou hast not done,
For I have more.
Wilt thou forgive that sin which I have won
Others to sin, and made my sin their door?
With thou forgive that sin which I did shun
A year or two, but wallowed in a score?
When thou hast done, thou hast not done,
For I have more.
I have a sin of fear, that when I have spun
My last thread, I shall perish on the shore;
But swear by thyself, that at my death Thy Son
Shall shine as he shines now, and heretofore;
And having done that, Thou hast done;
I fear no more.
About the Musicians & Composer
The King’s Men are a six member vocal a cappella ensemble from the Conservatory of Music at Biola University. Their director, Walt Harrah, arranges the music they sing. They represent the university in concerts throughout Southern California and beyond.
http://academics1.biola.edu/music/booking/kings-men/
John Donne (1572-1631) was an English poet, satirist, lawyer and a cleric in the Church of England. He is considered the pre-eminent representative of the metaphysical poets. It is assumed that Donne wrote the poem A Hymn to God the Father in 1623, following the death of his wife Anne and his own recovery from a fatal disease a few years later. This hymn was set to music by John Hilton during Donne’s lifetime, and was probably sung in English churches during the seventeenth century.