Till the Break of Day<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I'm over at Stand Firm today. Apparently, Mr. Biden made a speech yesterday and in it quoted On Eagle\u2019s Wings. I thought about going and trying to find\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2020\/11\/08\/till-the-break-of-day\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Till the Break of Day\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I'm over at Stand Firm today. Apparently, Mr. Biden made a speech yesterday and in it quoted On Eagle\u2019s Wings. I thought about going and trying to find\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2020\/11\/08\/till-the-break-of-day\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Preventing Grace\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-11-08T13:17:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/578\/2020\/11\/joshua-j-cotten-SGc2FZWTt4A-unsplash.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"576\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anne Kennedy\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Anne Kennedy\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2020\/11\/08\/till-the-break-of-day\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2020\/11\/08\/till-the-break-of-day\/\",\"name\":\"Till the Break of Day\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-11-08T13:17:53+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-11-08T13:17:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/#\/schema\/person\/41b88caa73803c3767a1bbd8722774f1\"},\"description\":\"I'm over at Stand Firm today. Apparently, Mr. Biden made a speech yesterday and in it quoted On Eagle\u2019s Wings. I thought about going and trying to find\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2020\/11\/08\/till-the-break-of-day\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2020\/11\/08\/till-the-break-of-day\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2020\/11\/08\/till-the-break-of-day\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Till the Break of Day\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/\",\"name\":\"Preventing Grace\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/#\/schema\/person\/41b88caa73803c3767a1bbd8722774f1\",\"name\":\"Anne Kennedy\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fc7e11f6837fe0689905ef34797be59b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fc7e11f6837fe0689905ef34797be59b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Anne Kennedy\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/author\/akennedy\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Till the Break of Day","description":"I'm over at Stand Firm today. Apparently, Mr. Biden made a speech yesterday and in it quoted On Eagle\u2019s Wings. I thought about going and trying to find","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2020\/11\/08\/till-the-break-of-day\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Till the Break of Day","og_description":"I'm over at Stand Firm today. Apparently, Mr. Biden made a speech yesterday and in it quoted On Eagle\u2019s Wings. I thought about going and trying to find","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2020\/11\/08\/till-the-break-of-day\/","og_site_name":"Preventing Grace","article_published_time":"2020-11-08T13:17:53+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":576,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/578\/2020\/11\/joshua-j-cotten-SGc2FZWTt4A-unsplash.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Anne Kennedy","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Anne Kennedy","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2020\/11\/08\/till-the-break-of-day\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2020\/11\/08\/till-the-break-of-day\/","name":"Till the Break of Day","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-11-08T13:17:53+00:00","dateModified":"2020-11-08T13:17:53+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/#\/schema\/person\/41b88caa73803c3767a1bbd8722774f1"},"description":"I'm over at Stand Firm today. Apparently, Mr. Biden made a speech yesterday and in it quoted On Eagle\u2019s Wings. I thought about going and trying to find","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2020\/11\/08\/till-the-break-of-day\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2020\/11\/08\/till-the-break-of-day\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2020\/11\/08\/till-the-break-of-day\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Till the Break of Day"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/","name":"Preventing Grace","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/#\/schema\/person\/41b88caa73803c3767a1bbd8722774f1","name":"Anne Kennedy","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fc7e11f6837fe0689905ef34797be59b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/fc7e11f6837fe0689905ef34797be59b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Anne Kennedy"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/author\/akennedy\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2373"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":13349,"date":"2020-11-08T09:17:53","date_gmt":"2020-11-08T13:17:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/?p=13349"},"modified":"2020-11-08T09:17:53","modified_gmt":"2020-11-08T13:17:53","slug":"till-the-break-of-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/preventingrace\/2020\/11\/08\/till-the-break-of-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Till the Break of Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019m over at Stand Firm<\/a> today.<\/em><\/p>\n

Apparently, Mr. Biden made a speech yesterday and in it quoted On Eagle\u2019s Wings. I thought about going and trying to find it, but I have a policy of never listening to any speech any politician makes, and I don\u2019t intend to begin now, even to hear something so fantabulous. Twitter, by turns, seemed enthralled and horrified depending not only on the feelings of affection or loathing for Mr. Biden, but also for the song. This seems to me to be peak 2020.<\/p>\n

The lections for this morning include another kind of folksy verse that many people know about because it was once quoted by a famous person who, I believe, knew his Bible a tad better than any politician alive today. He used it to great effect long ago, and it became lodged in the emotional center of American life. This, and that verse from Micah 6, about doing justice and loving mercy and walking humbly with God comprise the core of American religiosity, the straining notes of Eagle\u2019s Wings wafting in the background.<\/p>\n

Whereas, the Amos bit is quite the text, especially when paired, as it is in the lectionary this morning, with the one about the wise and foolish virgins (or bridesmaids as I like to call them in Sunday School when I\u2019m not up for any lengthy explanation about the facts of life). You remember the one\u2014there are ten of them with their lamps and their oil (this would be as good a moment as any to break out that other ghastly old song, \u2018Give me Oil in my Lamp\u2019) waiting around interminably for the bridegroom to show up so they can go into the feast. Five of them bring oil, and five of them forget and wander away to look for some, and when they wander back, the bridegroom has already come and gone and barred the door. When they bang on it, crying out to be let in, he says, \u201cTruly I say to you, I never knew you.\u201d In other words, the usual picture of a tolerant and forward-thinking God, the very one who loves popping in on funerals to hear On Eagle\u2019s Wings just one more time.<\/p>\n

Which is what the epistle is about\u2014the bit about the trumpet sounding and everyone who loves Jesus being caught up in the air to meet him, the bridegroom if you will, while everyone else wanders around wondering what all the fuss is about. If you\u2019re in for a full measure of nostalgia, you could go watch a Kirk Cameron movie and sing the You\u2019ve Been Left Behind song as an extra treat. Goodness, gathering it all together in one place, a lot of the music and assumptions of American Christianity seems to be\u2026what would you call it? Due for a tune-up?<\/p>\n

Anyway, I recently, for reasons I can\u2019t remember, looked at the whole chapter of Amos, all of the verses leading up to the justice rolling down like water one, and I found them rather discouraging if I\u2019m honest. Here they are:<\/p>\n

^{18\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Woe to you who desire\u00a0the day of the\u00a0Lord!
\nWhy would you have the day of the\u00a0Lord?
\nIt is darkness, and not light,
\n^{19\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0as if a man fled from a lion,
\nand a bear met him,
\nor went into the house and leaned his hand against the wall,
\nand a serpent bit him.
\n^{20\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Is not the day of the\u00a0Lord\u00a0darkness, and not light,
\nand gloom with no brightness in it?<\/p>\n}}}

^{21\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>\u201cI hate, I despise your feasts,
\nand I take no delight in your solemn assemblies.
\n^{22\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Even though you offer me your burnt offerings and grain offerings,
\nI will not accept them;
\nand the peace offerings of your fattened animals,
\nI will not look upon them.
\n^{23\u00a0<\/sup><\/strong>Take away from me the noise of your songs;
\nto\u00a0the melody of your harps I will not listen.<\/p>\n}}}

This darkness might remind you of two other times of darkness\u2014the deep searching three days of darkness that fell over the land of Egypt before the final plague, the death of the first-born son. A darkness so deeply felt that\u2026read the rest here<\/a>!<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"