We're getting closer, friends. In less than 24 hours we'll know who will be competing against Harriet Bedell for the Golden Halo. Yes, you heard that correctly, Harriet Bedell! Did anyone who filled out a bracket have Harriet competing in the championship round? Anybody? Harriet capped off a stunning Cinderella-like romp through Lent Madness 2014 by defeating Lydia yesterday 54% to 46% and will vie for the Golden Halo on Spy Wednesday with either Charles Wesley or Phillips Brooks.
But first, Charles and Phillips stare one another down in this battle of wordsmiths. Hymn writer and preacher. Though, to be fair, Wesley preached a bunch of sermons and Brooks wrote some hymns. And many generations have been inspired by their passion and creativity.
To make it this far, Charles Wesley defeated John Wesley, Thomas Merton, and Anna Cooper while Phillips Brooks turned away Simeon, Catherine of Siena, and Julia Chester Emery.
Oh, and congratulations to the Lent Madness Faithful for helping us achieve our goal of 10,000 likes on Facebook! We had great faith in you and the milestone was tripped at 10:18 pm Eastern Standard Time by a Canadian (of all things) proving that Lent Madness is indeed a global phenomenon. Or at least that Maple Anglican is a lot more influential than we thought.
After watching Tim and Scott's last Lenten edition of the award winning (well, not yet but we're optimistic and/or deluded) Monday Madness, let's see what the Archbishops have to say about today's match-up:
Charles Wesley
Charles Wesley Writing, by Richard Douglass
The other day, I asked a friend what I should say in order to convince you, dear reader, to cast your vote for Charles Wesley in today’s Lent Madness match-up. I was given a definite and absolute answer: “it’s all about the hymns!”
In one sense, of course the case for Charles Wesley centers on his 6,000+ hymns. For me, those hymns have been present at some of the most dear and cherished moments of my life –- I’ve attended weddings and funerals and sung Love Divine, All Loves Excelling. I recall the Christmas Eve eucharists as child where I would be so excited to sing Hark! The Herald Angels Sing. Easter morning was never complete without Christ the Lord is Risen Today/Jesus Christ is Risen Today.
His hymns punctuate the seasons of the church’s year (as with Come Thou Long Expected Jesus and Lo! He
Charles Wesley, from St. Gregory of Nyssa Episcopal Church, San Francisco, CA
Comes with Clouds Descending), and they provide language to express our desire to offer our highest praises to God (O For a Thousand Tongues To Sing!). At times, they simply stand in awe and amazement at God’s incredible love for us (And Can it Be That I Should Gain?).
But in a larger sense, I like Charles Wesley for way more than writing my favorite hymns. Because for Wesley, the hymns -– magnificent as they are –- were but other tools in his toolbox –- yet another way of striving to reach every last person with the Good News of Jesus Christ. Charles Wesley wanted every last person on earth to have that same feeling of confidence and assurance in Jesus Christ’s love for them, just as he had experienced his own “strange palpitation of the heart” and assurance that Jesus loved him on that Pentecost Day in 1738.
It’s no secret that this mission of Charles Wesley often led him right up to the edge of trouble. With his brother, Charles received disapproval from church authorities when, casting aside long-standing practice, he went out into the fields to preach the gospel to people who otherwise never would have had an opportunity to step into a church. And preach he did –- to thousands upon thousands.
And the hymns…Charles Wesley’s many hymns were to him yet another means by which the gospel could be heard, that Jesus Christ could be known, and Jesus’ love could be felt by everyone. The famous 19th century American preacher Henry Ward Beecher once confessed his understanding of the power of those hymns to stir the heart when he said: “I would rather have written that hymn of Wesley's, Jesus, Lover of My Soul, than to have the fame of all the kings that ever sat on the earth.”
Charles Wesley was described by those who knew him as “a man made for friendship.” And for him, that’s what all those hymns, all those sermons, and all his work was all about: friendship with God and with neighbor.
That’s a commitment, and a ministry, that we can sing about today and every day, even as we, like Charles Wesley, cast our crowns before Jesus… lost in wonder, love, and praise.
-- David Sibley
Phillips Brooks
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
In the later decades of the 19th Century Phillips Brooks, rector of Trinity Church, Boston, was a national celebrity. It was a time when, unlike today, being widely-known, much less widely-respected and beloved as Brooks was, was no small feat.
Once clocked by a reporter at preaching more than 200 words per minute, Phillips Brooks must have been a been a magnetic, not to say breathless, preacher. We can’t know. Thomas Edison’s phonograph was not widely in use by Brooks’s death in 1893, but Martin Luther King, Jr.’s son has claimed that the cadence of Brooks’s sermons influenced his father’s preaching style. If we have Brooks to thank, in small part, for “I Have a Dream,” then we owe a great debt.
Upon reading his sermons more than 100 years later, it’s remarkable how overcome I am by a potent jolt of inspiration. I want to be a better person. I want to serve God with my best self and my whole heart. Sign me up!
Listen to the man:
The danger facing all of us -- let me say it again, for one feels it tremendously -- is not that we shall
Hall of Fame of Great Americans, Bronx Community College
make an absolute failure of life, nor that we shall fall into outright viciousness, nor that we shall be terribly unhappy, nor that we shall feel that life has no meaning at all -- not these things. The danger is that we may fail to perceive life's greatest meaning, fall short of its highest good, miss its deepest and most abiding happiness, be unable to render the most needed service, be unconscious of life ablaze with the light of the Presence of God -- and be content to have it so -- that is the danger. That some day we may wake up and find that always we have been busy with the husks and trappings of life -- and have really missed life itself. For life without God, to one who has known the richness and joy of life with Him, is unthinkable, impossible. That is what one prays one's friends may be spared -- satisfaction with a life that falls short of the best, that has in it no tingle and thrill which come from a friendship with the Father.
Brooks knew that it all comes down to love, as he shared so eloquently in a letter to young Helen Keller.
Trinity Church, Boston
“There is one universal religion, Helen - the religion of Love. Love your Heavenly Father with your whole heart and soul, love every child of God as much as ever you can, and remember that the possibilities of good are greater than the possibilities of evil; and you have the key to Heaven.”
The words Brooks shares are not bound by time. “The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight.” Indeed, they are met in Christ every night of our lives. And his call to prayer to a God who knows no bounds sounds like it was written yesterday.
“Pray the largest prayers. You cannot think a prayer so large that God, in answering it, will not wish you had made it larger. Pray not for crutches but for wings.”
-- Heidi Shott
Vote!
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165 comments on “Charles Wesley vs. Phillips Brooks”
O Little Town has already trumped the UTO !!!!:(. I hope that it will not overpower The First Noel, and 18 others--many that I love.
And those are just the ones in the Episcopal hymnal.
Oh dear, this gets harder. But I came across this wonderful short film about Methodism earlier today, 'The Extra Mile' which looks at the legacy of John and Charles Wesley today, and although it's mostly about John, Charles does get a couple of honourable mentions so he gets my vote today (and there is also a horse for Nina to go with Charles dog...)
http://vimeo.com/79983356
One hums hymns, not sermons. The tune helps one to remember words and the joyous music that help one to remember those beautiful words. Thank you Charles Wesley for your wondrous hymns of praise to our Lord.
Had to go with Brooks. Wesley's hymns are grand and guaranteed to produce that familiarly cozy religious/church feeling and I've played and sung enough of them to know, but Brooks for me is more substantial than that.
Just messaged my nephew - who is at school in Oxford, England. He is voting for Charles Wesley. Anglicans from Oxford are bringing in the vote!! Charles Wesley for the Golden Halo. My dear mom loved his music, and I shall remember her fondly this Easter Sunday as we sing his wonderful music.
"Pray the largest prayers.......pray not for crutches but for wings."
I'm praying for Harriet
Both of these men have been tops in my book for years, so this may have been the toughest choice of all for me. In the end, it was Charles...maybe (and this is a pretty thin excuse) because the picture of him with his dog tipped the scales. But then...there are all those hymns I've known and loved all my life. Somewhere, my Methodist grandmother is dancing, but I would remind her that both Charles and John died Anglicans.
Thank you to the SEC and the Celebrity Bloggers for a wonderful, educational, and spiritual Lenten devotional discipline. This was my first Lent Madness and I learned so much from you and all those who made such in depth and enlightened comments. I'm already signed up for 50 Days of Fabulous, so I hope I will be seeing many of you in the near future.
Oh, make it hard, why don't you. Charles Wesley wrote so many of my favorite hymns.
Bp. Brooks went to VTS, though he was not particularly impressed with the place. Alumni loyalty won, just barely, but I already half regret not voting for Charles.
Oh, dear.
"O Little Town of Bethlehem" was my favorite as a child, but today my ear worm is happily "Love Divine All Loves Excelling". Glad to have learned about Brooks but have to go with Wesley!
Scratches on pieces of paper that translate to sound and the Glory of God.
I had Bedell vs. Emery, though I believe I had Emery winning. At least one side of my bracket looks ok.
I have an early childhood memory of "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing" that has nothing to do with Christmas. It was always one of my favourite carols (perhaps thanks to those annual broadcasts of A Charlie Brown Christmas?) but one day in the off-season the tune escaped me so I went in search of my mother to remind me of it. I found her in her bedroom, crying. I had never seen my mother cry before and it worried me. She explained that she was sad because she'd just gotten word her best friend's mother had died, whom she had known since she was a little girl growing up in her home town far away and who had been very important to her. That helped me understand, and I hope it helped her in the telling, but I was six and didn't know what else to do except ask what I'd come in there for: the tune to "Hark the Herald Angels". My mother, bless her, looked at me for a moment, then composed herself and we sang.
For that moment of (I hope!) mutual comfort in a long line of loving women, mothers in the faith, I must vote Wesley today.
I've vacillated already twice between Charles and Brooks, Brooks and Charles, while reading the Comments. And then I remembered what happened in Boston near Trinity Copley Square a year ago today. As with LM, all the contenders had some potential. Some got crutches, others got wings, and many lived to run another day. The city's spirit was not broken. Then the Red Sox won the World Series at Fenway Park for the first time ever on home ground. LM has again been a Marathon. In honor and memory of those who ran, and will return to run again, I place my vote for Philips, a stranger who became a friend because of LM. Celebrating the lives of both. Thank you, all.
This proves not only the beauty of the saints lives, but also the glory of the write-ups! After reading this one about Wesley, I was enthralled. Thanks, David Sibley, for making him so accessible and so delightful. Love those pictures of him looking so happy and welcoming! Charles Wesley for the win!
It's all about the dog. Every parson should have a dog to sit at his feet in the office. Charles, you are the man!
Another toughie, obviously, but my vote goes to Philips Brooks today. I love all the hymns, but Philips Brooks ministry touches me in a way I am not sure how to explain.
Child of a choir director, raised Methodist, now Episcopalian and devoted hymn lover. My funeral will have to include "Greatest Hits" because my list of hymns to sing is too long for the service :). Yet as much as I love Charles Wesley, and I truly do, I am sad that Brooks is running behind. His words, his ministry and his life move me deeply. He is the Saint I seek.
This was very, very hard. I voted for both of them all along, and now must choose. As a long-time choir member, I love to sing Charles Wesley's hymns, but sometimes it is easier to just sing familiar hymns than to reflect on the meaning of the words. The various quotations from Phillips Brooks' sermons resonated with me, so my vote goes to him. Either way, that are both great, as is Harriet Bedell, whom I voted for yesterday. Tomorrow will be another toughie.
“There is one universal religion, Helen – the religion of Love. Love your Heavenly Father with your whole heart and soul, love every child of God as much as ever you can, and remember that the possibilities of good are greater than the possibilities of evil; and you have the key to Heaven.”- Phillips Brooks for me. Go for the Golden Halo!
I find that statement troubling theologically. It is not our love for anyone, we are imperfect about anyone we love. We put conditions on that love. And it is not about what we can do -- it is a given that we will utterly fail at that! It is about Christ's love unconditional and his Amazing Grace (another line from a hymn) -- granted not because we deserve it, but because God's infinite love for us caused him to send Christ into this world to bring about salvation. Not our doing, but God's doing!
Oh Phil...
From other Brooks' quotes, I don't think that he would disagree with you: grace is God's initiative and is given abundantly to all without being earned. You would be correct if Brooks was speaking to someone who just wanted to be good and had not received grace. I doubt Brooks or Keller were of that sort. Grace is real, and once received, there are implications...there is a response. His sermons challenge me to pass on the grace that I have received. It is not a gift for me alone.
Voted for Phillips Brooks--"That is what one prays one’s friends may be spared — satisfaction with a life that falls short of the best, that has in it no tingle and thrill which come from a friendship with the Father." Perhaps that's what St. Paul meant by "[falling] short of the glory of God," just missing the glory.
Thanks for introducing me to this amazing stuff.
Whoever wins today, tomorrow's going to be really tough!
What we need here is a setting of a Brooks sermon to Wesley music. Followed by an urgent petition to the SEC via the Clairvoyatron to make the Halo bigger.
Yes, it's all about the hymns! While I love "Oh, Little Town of Bethlehem," and so many of Brooks' words still ring true for us today, I just couldn't turn my back on the man who gave me so many happy times in church singing his precious hymns, one of which I look forward to singing this Sunday! On a side note, the dog in the painting helped clinch this vote! 😉
I find it remarkable that Charles Wesley has made it all the way to the Final Four when he was on the lineup in 2011 and was knocked out by Perpetua in the first round. It really is the luck of the draw to some extent, isn't it?
Have to go with Wesley on this one. My love for "singable" church music must prevail. (Good on Luther for his quote about she who sings prays twice.) I sat out J. S. Bach--my favorite creator of melodies--and was astonished when he lost (Christina the Astonishing being my first and most enthusiastic choice lo! these many weeks ago). Next choice was Lydia, but she went down also. So I'm not sure I'm doing Chuck any favors here. But I have learned much during this Lenten "exercise," so I'm grateful I hung in until the end.
"Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" is right up there with "Love Divine" sung to Hyfrydol (hope the Anglicans will try that combo some time).
Willing to share recipe? In the spirit of Lenten generosity? (guilt, guilt)
FYI It was St. Augustine of Hippo who "he who sings, prays twice".
I meant who said ......
I voted for him, but I wouldn't go so far as to let him define Easter!
Yes, Phil, I did a mea culpa on that on another post.
So many deserving candidates for The Golden Halo. Perhaps the three of the Faithful Four who did not advance to the final matchup should automatically be included in 2015's Madness? Or at least the lower vote getter in the last round (cannot use the word "loser" here!) could automatically compete in 2015. Just a thought...... Thank you for a lively Lenten Madness filled with difficult choices!
I really like this idea. As a newcomer to LM, I looked up the past years' brackets to see who had already been considered. There are sooo many for whom I would have liked to vote. Perhaps the "lower vote getters" in each of the other years could return as well as this year's for 2015. Thank you all again for an enjoyable and enlightening Lenten devotion.
Or perhaps a "Wild Card" slot for the highest vote getter who did not win an earlier round in that same year. (Christina the Astonishing!)
"There is one universal religion, Helen, the religion of love." That did it for me...Brooks it is! I think I'm just going to stay in bed tomorrow and not vote............
I voted for Brooks--love his prayers and preaching--and the family connection--he baptized my Granddaddy. But I won't be sad if Wesley wins this penultimate round--his hymns have blessed so many. Thank you, SEC for a wonderful LM adventure!
The real winner are US - the voters. We learn so much from the CBs, thank you!
Thanks also to the SEC, Maple Anglican and the Archbishops.
Already looking forward to next year.
I totally agree with JAMG. I have so many resources and sites and books I want to research and read after this years LM. Thanks to everyone from the SEC to the commenters.