Music

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November 13, 2011

The gospel reading this week at first glance seems pretty harsh.  “Worthles slave,” and “weeping and gnashing of teeth” are images I’d generally rather not dwell on.  I believe, though, that Jesus is not threatening us; rather, he is teaching us the consequences of walking on two different paths.  What separates the good slaves from the bad one is that the good slaves lived from a place of abundance and the bad slaves from a place of scarcity.  In trust and hope, the good slaves invested their money and received a good return. In fear, the bad slave hid his money and the result was that his money was useless.

Our culture is defined by a belief in scarcity. We live in constant fear that we won’t have enough, that if someone else has, then I won’t have. Jesus is calling us in this lesson to embrace the abundance of God.  It brings to my mind when Jesus taught his disciples about the birds of the air who don’t worry about what they are going to eat, or the flowers of the field that don’t worry about what they are going to wear.  God is abundant, this earth is abundant.  If we live from a belief and trust in abundance, we will have plenty.  However, if we believe and live from a place of scarcity, we will never have enough and we will always be afraid.  Images like the outer darkness and weeping and gnashing of teeth begin to make sense as a metaphor of the result of living from a place of scarcity.

Our opening hymn for this week, “Not here for high and holy things” (hymnal #9) has many images of abundance, or service without counting the cost, of the joy and fullness of nature. The post-communion hymn, “O Jesus I have promised” (hymnal #655) is a prayer and promise of service and trust.  Our closing hymn, “Open your ears, O faithful people” (hymnal #536) is both an acknowledgement of all the times we miss the mark and a prayer to be open to the wisdom of God.

November 6, 2011

I was struck in this week’s lectionary readings by the phrase “knit together” found in the collect. I can think of so many different ways to understand All Saints Day, but “knit together” ties them all together, if you’ll excuse the pun. For me, there is a powerful dialectic between this idea of oneness and the connection to death. In a sense, we can think of death as a connecting point. It is what allows new life to occur and grow from. Without death, there would be no life and there would be no body.

In the gospel, I hear Jesus calling out our judgments. He acknowledges, accepts, and appreciates those states of being we often view as negative. The poor in spirit are as much in the kingdom of God as those who are full in spirit. Those who mourn will be comforted as those who are joyful. All states of being in this life are from God and in God. Nothing can come between us and God, not death, sorrow, not persecution –  nothing. Entering the kingdom of God is simply accepting each moment, each experience, as blessed. As John says in the epistle reading, “When he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is.” Perfection is simply seeing the world as it is.

Our opening hymn, “we are one in the spirit,” speaks to the theme of unity. Our offertory hymn, “myn mair,”  is an ancient welsh hymn. It is a prayer to Mary for the soul of a friend who has passed away. The communion music is a musical setting of the beatitudes by David Haas, the prolific catholic composer. Our closing hymn is from the hymnal, Hymn #279, “for thy dear saints, O Lord.” I especially like the lines, “in one communion ever knit, one fellowship of love.”

Jack