And...we're back for another week of hard-hitting, halo-busting Lent Madness action! Today we have a battle between a renowned 19th century preacher and an aged Biblical figure who held the newborn Jesus in his arms. It's "O Little Town of Bethlehem" vs. the Nunc Dimittis as can only happen in Lent Madness.
This week we'll see the conclusion of the Round of 32 and on Thursday we'll commence with the Round of the Saintly Sixteen. To paraphrase Scripture, "Many (well, okay, 32) are called, but only one will receive the Golden Halo." Onward Christian Voters!
Phillips Brooks
While in our day Phillips Brooks is best-known as the man who wrote the words to “O Little Town of Bethlehem”—and the prayer on the back of Forward Day by Day issues—in the mid-to late-nineteenth century, he was so renowned as a preacher that he was invited by Queen Victoria to preach at her private chapel at Windsor Castle.
Born into a distinguished, devout family in Boston in 1835, Brooks was one of six brothers, four of whom became Episcopal priests. Educated at Boston Latin, Harvard, and Virginia Episcopal Seminary, he was ordained in 1860 and served the first ten years of his ministry in Philadelphia. He was known there for his support of emancipation and, after the Civil War, full voting rights. The sermon he preached after Lincoln’s death is still highly regarded for its eloquence.
However, his home in Boston called to him, and in 1869 he became rector of Trinity Church. Three years later, the building on Summer Street was destroyed by fire, but as a testament to his leadership and gifts as a pastor, the church continued to thrive. According to Harvard Magazine, the congregation was known for its “evangelical warmth, diversity of classes, and charitable activism.”
After land was purchased at Copley Square in 1872, Brooks and his friend, the architect H.H. Richardson, designed the new Trinity, a church that became one of Boston’s most magnificent landmarks. The uncommon placement of the altar in the center of the chancel embodied Brooks’s vision, which he called “a symbol of unity; God and man and all God’s creation.” Unlike most preachers of his day, he didn’t preach from a pulpit. He was also a supporter of congregational singing.
After serving as rector of Trinity for twenty-two years, Brooks was elected Bishop of Massachusetts. He served for only fifteen months before dying of diphtheria at age fifty-seven. Harvard students carried his coffin, and the people of Boston of all religious stripes mourned the passing of a great figure.
At six feet, four inches tall and nearly 300 pounds, he was both a big person and a huge personality who was regarded as a faithful pastor along with his fame as preacher and leader of a large parish. Throughout his ministry, he devoted a great deal of care to the nurture of young people. When one young man wrote to him asking the secret of life, Brooks replied, “I am sure that it is a deeper knowledge and truer love of Christ... I cannot tell you how personal this grows to me. He is here. He knows me and I know him. It is no figure of speech. It is the realest thing in the world. And every day makes it realer.”
Collect for Phillips Brooks
O everlasting God, you revealed truth to your servant Phillips Brooks, and so formed and molded his mind and heart that he was able to mediate that truth with grace and power: Grant, we pray, that all whom you call to preach the Gospel may steep themselves in your Word, and conform their lives to your will; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
-- Heidi Shott
Simeon
Simeon, we read in the Gospel of Luke, was a righteous and devout man living in Jerusalem. His name is the same as Simeon (Hebrew Shimon), the second son of the patriarch Jacob and his wife Leah and namesake of the Israelite tribe of Simeon. One translation of the name is “he has heard my suffering;” this meaning echoes scripture that tells how Jacob favored his other wife, Rachel, over Leah, Simeon’s mother.
An ancient legend tells that the Egyptian pharaoh Ptolemy II called seventy scholars together to translate the Holy Scriptures into Greek for the library at Alexandria (this translation would become known as the Septuagint). Simeon was one of the seventy, and while he was translating the book of Isaiah, he read, “Behold, a virgin shall conceive in the womb, and shall bring forth a Son” (Isaiah 7:14). Thinking the word virgin should read woman, Simeon began to make the correction. An angel appeared to him, saying, “You shall see these words fulfilled. You shall not die until you behold Christ the Lord born of a pure and spotless Virgin.”
According to Luke, the Holy Spirit guided Simeon into the Temple when Joseph and Mary brought Jesus there for customary Jewish rites. Simeon took the infant Jesus into his arms and prayed what has become known as the Song of Simeon, or Nunc Dimittis, traditionally used as a canticle at Evensong in The Episcopal Church:
Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; To be a light to lighten the Gentiles, and to be the glory of thy people Israel.
— The Book of Common Prayer, p. 66
When Simeon holds the infant Jesus, the ancient tribes of Israel meet the new incarnation of God. The laments of Israel are heard; the Messiah has been born and is presented in the Temple, held in the arms of the namesake of a tribe of Israel.
We don’t encounter Simeon again in Holy Scripture. Tradition says he died at a very old age. Simeon is called the God-receiver in the Orthodox Church. In the Western Church, Simeon is predominant in the Feast of the Presentation (also called Candlemas) on February 2, where the Church commemorates the dedication of Jesus in the Temple by his parents.
Collect for Simeon
Almighty God, you gave to your servant Simeon the hope and consolation of seeing your salvation in the baby Jesus at the temple. Like Simeon, give us eyes to see your salvation, that when our day comes, we too may depart this world in peace. In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
(Collect written by Nancy Hopkins-Greene.)
-- Laurie Brock
Vote!
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154 comments on “Phillips Brooks vs. Simeon”
I was going to go with Simeon (the Nunc Dimittis is an oft used and much loved prayer) but the apocryphal story of Simeon translating Isaiah changed my mind. Why do we feel the need to go beyond scripture?
Just wait till we get to the round of saintly kitsch.
Wish Simeon had stuck to his guns while translating and kept "woman."
Amen.
Didn't even try to mull this one over, I don't think I could have chosen one over the other. Just let my finger twitch and hit Simeon, then when I saw he appeared to be the "underdog", that became my excuse...I do love the Nunc Dimittis, tho. Really enjoyed learning more about Phillips Brooks too. This is why Lent Madness is so much fun, and so addictive!
Another very tough choice! "O Little Town of Bethlehem" v. the Nunc Dimittis! This is the version of the latter that I grew up with! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1q9GNUc9OE
As a musician, I have no basis for decision. Simeon was the first to declare Jesus as Lord of all! And Phillips Brooks did lots of great things too, including the words to "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and introducing Helen Keller to Ann Sullivan. I ended up voting for Simeon, no basis, just a mental flip of the coin!
Another very tough choice! "O Little Town of Bethlehem" v. the Nunc Dimittis! This is the version of the latter that I grew up with! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1q9GNUc9OE
As a musician, I have no basis for decision. Simeon was the first to declare Jesus as Lord of all! And Phillips Brooks did lots of great things too, including the words to "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and introducing Helen Keller to Ann Sullivan. I ended up voting for Simeon, no basis, just a mental flip of the coin!
Wow - there's a whole lot more to Phillips Brooks than I knew. But a sermon preached by a priest in our diocese this past Candlemas about Simeon and Anna has stuck with me. Here's a bit about Simeon:
"Simeon knew that holding baby Jesus in his arms was the absolute pinnacle of his entire life. He had kept the faith for so many years and devotedly worked in the Temple, and so he sings out his praise to God with a great deal of finality. He is ready to die after this moment. He gives thanks to God for letting him, God’s servant, depart this earthly life in peace. Simeon is a witness to what it means to know that a task is finished, to celebrate the ending of an era, to die well."
Gotta go with Simeon. (Read the whole sermon here: http://www.roofcrashersandhemgrabbers.com/this-is-how-brave-we-have-to-be/)
Tough choice. I love Simeon and the idea that of all the families with little children he'd seen come and go , making the ritual offering, he was able to see that this child, born to a peasant couple, was God's Messiah. However, I'm inclined to go with Brooks. It is sais that he wrote the fourth verse of "O Little Town", as an outraged response to the well-heeled congregants of Trinity Copley walking by and over the poor and ragged folk who would gather to beg an offering. That, plus I serve a parish in the DioWMA where the Bishop's chair was made for Bp Brooks when the DioMA and DioWMA were one. Anyone who sits in it looks like Lily Tomlin's Edith Anne because their feet barely reach the floor.
Phillips Brooks is a great and admirable figure and would get my vote in a second, but modern Americans are well represented in the Saintly 16 already and there are no biblical saints so far. So I'm voting for Simeon if only as a form of affirmative action.
I forgot about Lydia. Oh, well.
Simeon holding the Baby Jesus won me over.
An easy choice. St Simeon is a character in a biblical narrative; Phillips Brooks is a saint in the usual sense.
Simeon is not merely a biblical character, he confesses Jesus as Lord and Savior, the first to do so, after holding Jesus as a mere infant and is ready to die as a very old man after doing so! That is NOT being a MERE biblical character! It is quite a miracle, since he could not know except through the Holy Spirit that Jesus was the Messiah!
Phillips Brooks challenges me to be faithful to the Gospel every time I step into the pulpit: "If you are afraid of men and a slave to their opinion, go and do something else... But do not keep on all your life preaching sermons which shall say not what God sent you to declare."
How to pick between these two men. Both are especially deserving.
Nunc dimittis is easily my favorite canticle, especially with the antiphon at the end of compline. Is there a better way to end your day?
For you J. S. Bach fans, "Ich Habe Genug" BWV 82. Written for the Feast of the Purification. For all bass/baritones who usually get stuck with the "villain" role. Simeon and Anna have always been favorites.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XopQG0Gjgmo&feature=kp
Lots of great music posts today. Very enjoyable! As for the vote, not so much. I'm conflicted.
As a graduate of Virginia Seminary I had to vote for Phillips Brooks. I remember seeing his bust at the back of chapel every day. It is time we honor the good pastor and preacher.
Going with Phillips Brooks, even though he himself was probably formed by the words of Nunc dimittis as I am.
And this is pretty much my prayer and approach, too: "Grant, we pray, that all whom you call to preach the Gospel may steep themselves in your Word, and conform their lives to your will."
Another tough one, but again I went with my gut and voted for Philips Brooks.
Remember that Simeon sees th baby Jesus and says he can now "depart in peace." It was Anna who went out and actually spread the good news. I'm going with Phillips Brooks. He did so much more than write a hymn!
We have a wonderful new rector at The Church of the Holy Cross. He was born in Africa, graduated from Virginia E Seminary and was a pastor in Philadelphia. Phillips Brooks' life has links to my present. In addition our most recent pastor preached didn't preach from the pulpit either - I liked that. Finally, I recite his prayer most mornings as I spend time with Forward. All the connections are there, had to vote for him.
I agree with Jamie. Not only do I use Forward Movement, our table sits in the middle of our altar and our priest many Sundays preaches without the pulpit. Went with Philip Brooks, since we are trying to be a little more evangelical in our church and he certainly led the way!!!!
Lovely!
Such a hard choice, but I went with Simeon.
T.S. Eliot's A Song for Simeon
So we have a competition between:
"Where children pure and happy
pray to the blessed Child,
where misery cries out to thee,
Son of the Mother mild;
where charity stands watching
and faith holds wide the door,
the dark night wakes, the glory breaks,
and Christmas comes once more."
and:
"Lord, you now have set your servant free
to go in peace as you have promised;
For these eyes of mine have seen the Savior,
whom you have prepared for all the world to see:
A Light to enlighten the nations,
and the glory of your people Israel."
Ouch!
Another challenging choice. Beautiful, beloved Simeon, with a most heart tugging icon, has already secured his place in the pantheon of saints. My voting for Phillip Brooks will not diminish Simeon's stature one cubit.
Thanks for the YouTube music web sites. A lovely addition to LM.
Ooops. That is PhillipS Brooks.
Sigh. Hard choice! I, like so many others, love the Nunc dimiittis. However, Brooks' connection with Helen Keller won me over to vote for him. Here is a letter Helen sent to Brooks in 1891:
My dear Mr. Brooks,
I send you my picture as I promised, and I hope when you look at it this summer your thoughts will fly southward to your happy little friend. I used to wish that I could see pictures with my hands as I do statues, but now I do not often think about it because my dear Father has filled my mind with beautiful pictures, even of things I cannot see. If the light were not in your eyes, dear Mr. Brooks, you would understand better how happy your little Helen was when her teacher explained to her that the best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen nor even touched, but just felt in the heart. Every day I find out something which makes me glad. Yesterday I thought for the first time what a beautiful thing motion was, and it seemed to me that everything was trying to get near to God, does it seem that way to you? It is Sunday morning, and while I sit here in the library writing this letter you are teaching hundreds of people some of the grand and beautiful things about their heavenly Father. Are you not very, very happy? and when you are a Bishop you will preach to more people and more and more will be made glad. Teacher sends her kind remembrances, and I send you with my picture my dear love.
From your little friend
HELEN KELLER.
What torture today! Choose between the author of A Morning Resolve and the author of the Nunc Dimittis! The prayers for the beginning and for the end of the day. Absolute torture! OK. OK. I vote for Simeon who held the baby Jesus in his arms and, even more importantly, recognized the Son of God. Of all the babies brought to temple, Jesus is recognized, at different moments, by two, aged, religious people. I think of Anna and Simeon as spiritual God-parents of Jesus.
I was so torn over these two today. The comments helped so I am very glad I didn't vote until mid afternoon. I am going to go with Brooks. I have a friend who sings at Trinity semi regularly. I love that he had the altar in the center and encouraged congregational singing. I sing in the choir at my church in Tallahassee and we do three evensongs a year and I love the nunc dimmitis but a more contemporary active priest from the USA is important too. Thank you so much folks for the comments, the music and the Helen Keller letter.
Love the Carol and Philips Brooks is awesome, but holding the Christ child in your arms and in the heart trumps it all.
I have given up trying to decide in advance (like a good little educated voter). Inevitably the Holy Spirit speaks to me in some way that totally surprises me, and I end up voting against my own filled in bracket. So there you go. Thank you Phillips Brooks for your insight and foresight. Thank you for pulling the altar out into the midst of the congregation. Amen.