Tuesday, July 23, 2024

It is the 23rd of July 2024. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

 

Ok- our first venture into an ill-planed trivia contest for actual prizes if you answer the question and do NOT cheat. I’ll ask the question and then you, if you’d like to play, can pause your pod.

The famous Scottish poet Robert Burns- author of Auld Langs Syne, had a horse named for a famous maiden in Scottish history- what was her name?

Pause.

Answer: Jenny Geddes. Yes- a surname and last name for a horse. And before “Geddes” became synonymous with sometimes creepy prints of small children in flower pots- Jenny Geddes was the most popular Geddes and one of Scotland's most popular folk heroes.

I visited the place where Jenny made her mark in Edinburgh—the High Kirk of Edinburgh—and while there is mention of her, there is no statue. However, there was a bronzed stool.

A three-legged stool- the kind a 17th c. street vendor would have. Geddes sold assorted foodstuffs and would have reason to worship in the church. Why did she bring a stool? It was not uncommon to have assigned pews- often with rents that were paid to keep the members in good standing (yup, Protestants had their own indulgences), and the poor would stand or, if you had a stall outside the church, you could bring in your stool.

Jenny would have had good reason to attend church on this, the 23rd of July in 1637- Charles I is King- the son of King James he would want to bring the churches into uniformity with one another and with the Anglican Book of Common Prayer.

The Scots didn’t want the perceived “English” Book of Common Prayer and their bishops and archbishops and the like… they were fine with Elders- what the Bible calls “Presbyters” and were thus, the Presbyterians. But this is before that split and before the Civil War that cost King Charles I his head.

On this day in 1637, the Dean of the Church, Dean James Hannay, was to preside over the Sunday service, and many were curious if he would follow the demands of the King- all the way down in England- or bow to the popular anti-English sentiment.

As he began the service, he started to read from the English Book of Common Prayer (recently revised for use in Scottish Churches). The story goes that Jenny Geddes grabbed her stool- shouted “Deil colic the wame o’ ye, false thief. Daur ye say Mass in my lug.”

In English: “May the Devil cause your bowels to bring into being an abundance of farting, you lying thief, Sir. How dare you say the Mass in my ear?”   

So, it's pretty high-class stuff.

The story goes that a riot broke out which snowballed into the Civil War, into the beheading of Charles, the Protectorate of the Cromwells and decades of disaster (it’s complicated- but, no one is a huge fan).

All because of a stool. A stool was bronzed, and a young girl gave her name to the national poet of Scotland. If you look for information on Jenny Geddes's stool, you will find it, and her, to be a fun bit of Protestant Hagiography. We don’t have saints stories and cloaks… oh, well… this is Jenny Geddes Stool- over there is Martin Luther’s inkwell he threw at the devil, and I’m sure we can find some relic of a Wesley or Spurgeon… maybe a handkerchief to display and rub for good luck. We are superstitious, all of us… 

To be generous, we do well to see these events and items as “totemic,” like having the Boston Tea Party stand in for the political events across the Atlantic in the 18th c. Or an image of Luther nailing something on a door… these are common things that point us to bigger stories about our faith and the faithfulness of God to his church.

Jenny Geddes, a stool, a riot, a Presbyterian revolution, a Civil War and regicide… it all starts on this day in 1637 with a curse of a preacher's bowels and tossing a stool- and it was either a really light stool, or she was really strong- because it’s a big church and she was in the back… but whatever… totem’s are gonna totem. And we remember this one on this day in 1637.

  

The last word for today is from the daily lectionary- a good word from Psalm 100- one of those that can be read and heard over and over from the RSV, the translation I first came to know well: 

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the lands!

    Serve the Lord with gladness!
    Come into his presence with singing!

Know that the Lord is God!

    It is he that made us, and we are his;

    we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving,

    and his courts with praise!

    Give thanks to him, bless his name!

For the Lord is good;

    his steadfast love endures for ever,

    and his faithfulness to all generations.

  

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 23rd of July 2024, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who could have done some cool Anne Geddes stuff with his kids- a flower bed, crayons in a box, a carton of eggs…  Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who wishes that the Devil would leave you and your loved ones' bowels alone…. I’m  Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.