Vacation, Day 9

Tuesday after Pentecost 2
June 8, 2010
Vacation, Day Nine

The Lord be with you

Yesterday my sister Claire gave me the hymnal School Carols, published by “The Ohio Synod.” The Ohio Synod began in the early 1800’s, was an original member of the Synodical Conference, conferred the degree of D.D. on C.F.W. Walther, and was in Altar and Pulpit fellowship with the LCMS for many years. Ohio and Missouri broke fellowship of the doctrine of predestination. In 1930 the Ohio Synod became one of the constituting bodies to form the “old” American Lutheran Church. (This is a different church from “THE American Lutheran Church,” which formed in 1959 by merger). The fly leaf of the hymnal is missing so I do not know the publication date, but clearly it was before 1930.

The reason I’m going into the background of this little hymnal is simple. I love hymns. In fact I collect hymnals, especially old Lutheran hymnals. I know many believers who also love hymns. Among these good-old-hymn-lovers can be found some who feel modern Christian music pales in comparisons to the hymns of old. As someone who looks at old hymnals I have a different perspective. I think the vast majority of Christian music written by any generation is weak. Time, though, weeds out the weak songs. After a hundred years or so, all the poor hymns are forgotten. Only five percent (give or take) live on to represent a generation. Only five percent (give or take) of the Christian music of today will live on (like every generation) to represent us. This old hymnal gives a great example of this. What follows are the first verses of two Stewardship hymns, the first you will recognize, the second you will not. They were probably both written no more than 50 years apart.

We give Thee but Thine own,
Whate’er the gift may be;
All the we have it Thine alone
A trust, O Lord, from Thee.

Hear the pennies dropping,
Listen while they fall,
Ev’ry one for Jesus, --
He will get them all.
Dropping, dropping, dropping, dropping,
Hear the pennies fall;
Ev’ry one for Jesus, --
He will get them all.

So if you are one of those who wonder why people don’t write hymns like they used to, just remember, all those good-old-hymns weren’t all that good either.

That hymnal story fits because I received the hymnal as a gift while on this vacation. However I want to say something about what we did today. We went to the San Diego Zoo. If you ever visit San Diego, this is a “must see.” We woke up and had breakfast burritos at Diane’s and got to the zoo by 10:00 AM. We met Laura Cecil there (she had arrived around 9:00). Laura had her son Zack and a young boy she watches named Alexander. She stayed for about another hour and a half before she had to leave to feed the boys and put them down for their naps.

The day remained cool, which was a blessing because the animals tend to become inactive on hot days. Therefore most of the animals we saw were out and about, instead of sleeping. We were all taking pictures and, in order to create room on the cameras, all pictures have been transferred to my computer. So today I will have pictures from all participants. With around 800 pictures to choose from, it is hard to pick just a few. After Laura left we took the bus tour. We also rode the “skyfari” which takes you to the opposite side of the zoo. Other than that, we walked the eight hours we were there, leaving at 6:00 PM. We went back to Diane’s where she made some great steaks, and most everyone went to bed rather early.

Blessings in Christ,
Pastor John Rickert

The Pictures below are:
1. Gregory, Kitty, John (me), Rachel, Dixie
2. Rachel, Gregory, Laura, Zach, Alexander, Kitty, Gregory
3. Polar bear (from Dixie)
3. Koala “bear”
4. Giraffe
5. Hippo (from Rachel)
6. Hippo (from Rachel)
7. Panda bear
8. I tried to upload a 60 second video from Gregory of a Kukabura laughing but it doesn't seem to want to corporate so instead ...

Kukabura sits in the old gum tree
Merry, merry king of the bush is he
Laugh Kukabura, laugh Kukabura
How gay your life must be.