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Richard's Psalm Project Blog

Pentatonic Grace

April 24, 2008

“In Christ there is no us or them. We are knit together as one.”
— Paul, apostle and blue-collar worker (galatians 3)

Simply soak this in: Wintley Phipps on the pentatonic scale, slave history, and grace.

Like the man said: Alleluia, amen.

“Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.”
— Rumi

[Don’t] TaizÉ me, man!”

February 16, 2008

“If you’re afraid of being grabbed by God, don’t look at a wall. Definitely don’t sit still.”
— Jiyu Kennett

My title there reflects nothing but cuteness referring to the most quoted line of 2007. I, in fact, love Taizé worship.

I wanted to reflect about the contemplative service we are doing at First Lutheran through Lent. It’s Wednesday evenings at 6:30 after an uncommonly wonderful meal prepared by our Minister of Food-Love, Vicki.

If you are not familiar with a Taizé service, I’ll describe. The name refers to a community in France out of which has come amazing music and prayers for contemplative worship. The songs are typically very short, like one or two lines, so they are easily learned without music or words on a page. An example of one of my favorites for Holy Communion goes:

Eat this bread, drink this cup
Come to me and never be hungry
Eat this bread, drink this cup
Trust in me and you will not thirst.

Listen to songs from Taizé

And we do a song like this many times through. I can’t tell you how many. The community decides when to stop. The essence of worshiping in this way is being in touch with eternity. When we are losing track of time, losing track of how many times we are singing this little song, it’s a moment of beautiful out-of-control-ness, vital to authentic worship.

There are among the songs many moments of silence. I explained at last night’s service that many of us need practice at holding silence. Where in some contexts silence is construed as bad, awkward, a mistaken gap where there Should be Something Happening, here our silence is not a Missing Something. It is, in fact, a Fullness of Something.

I’m writing like Winnie-the-Pooh now.

Some of us are even trained to fill up silence with words or images so there cannot possibly be a lull of quietness. Our silence is for listening. For reflecting. Allowing thoughts and feelings settle, find their places in us. To accept what is.

Prayers are meditative and globally oriented. One of the gifts of the Taizé community to the One Church is a way of worshiping that are available to any culture. Many of the songs are in Latin, a dead language that can be claimed by anyone anywhere equally without bias to culture, class, race or denomination.

My preaching at these services is in a reflective style, looking at the weekly psalms of the lectionary. It’s a 5-7 minute meditation inviting the assembly to soak in these songs of our ancient heritage, which are the prayers that Jesus knew by heart.

For next week’s service, I’m thinking we’ll dim the lights slightly, to inspire quietness. (Lutherans do love to fellowship (FEL-low-ship: n., v. read: be in the company of a community; for Lutherans: to chat, drink coffee and eat potluck)) I’m grateful for a community willing to worship in various ways, in different styles so we are opening up to new-ness, stretching our boundaries, acknowledging our pet ways. What could be more important in worship but the release of our personal preferences to God’s will and way with us?

Blessings on the prayer life in your community this Lent.

Have a thought to share? Email me richard@worldmaking.net

Richard’s Ash Wednesday sermon

February 6, 2008

"What are we but a mass of thawing clay?"
-Henry David Thoreau

How many of you have been to a funeral in the past year? How about in the last couple of months? Funerals have a way of reminding us of something that we all know in our minds, but something we rarely feel is true: we’re all going to die one day. Everyone in this room.

How’s that for a snappy way to start a sermon?

Today’s Bible readings give us the Good News that though our earthly life may seem fragile and short, God is always about renewing us. (ONE) Renewing us through generous and unconditional forgiveness. (TWO) Renewing us through direction and purpose. (THREE) Renewing us through abundant, full, eternal Resurrection Life that’s spun through all our days on earth and beyond.

Renewal. Ahh, it feels like a deep breath. Would you take a deep breath with me? (------) Renewal. And it begins tonight… with Ash Wednesday and the journey of Lent.

Let us pray.

(If you are reading this, I invite you to make the prayer you need to make now.)

I want to explore with you tonight three ways God is renewing us day by day. You know, it’s occurred to me that most of my sermons have three points to them. And I think that’s because as a songwriter, the form I am most used to creating in is three verses and a chorus to get a point across. So let me say those three things one more time for those of you keeping score at home. First of all, the chorus of this sermon would be this: “God is renewing us day by day.” Sing along! “God is renewing us day by day.” Verse one is this: that God wants to renew us, especially through the forty days of Lent, through generous and unconditional forgiveness. Chorus: “God is renewing us day by day.” Verse two is that God is renewing us through direction and purpose. Chorus (sing along!): “God is renewing us day by day.” And verse three: God is renewing us through abundant, full, eternal, Resurrection Life in all our days on earth and beyond. Chorus: “God is renewing us day by day.”

Well, I mentioned Lent. So first of all, what is Lent? Well, Lent is the forty-day liturgical season beginning at Ash Wednesday and ending on Easter. The term Lent comes from the Anglo-Saxon word for “Spring.” Lent began originally as a time of preparation for new Christians, a season of conversion of heart and renewal of faith, at the end of which was celebrated in Holy Baptism

During Lent, the focus is primarily on the person of Jesus Christ. In fact, the season is forty days to mirror Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness that lasted forty days.

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, with our worship leading us to consider both our mortality and repentance in light of God’s Great Love. The “imposition of ashes” on the forehead is an ancient Christian practice, going back to the 10th century. Ashes being a symbol of purification and penitence.

Later in this service, as the ashes are placed on our foreheads in the sign of the cross, we will hear the words, “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return,” God’s words to Adam in Genesis 3:19. With this symbol of Christ on our bodies, we enter the forty day journey together that is rich with possibilities for renewal.

Renewal is the word I am choosing today. You hear this word when your magazine subscription is about to run out, or if library books are due. It’s time to renew them.

Sometimes you hear about a married couple renewing their wedding vows. Refreshing them, re-committing to promises they made years ago. Making them new again.

Our chorus: “God is renewing us day by day.” Sing along.

Ready for Verse 1? God renews us with forgiveness.

In the psalm that we read together, Psalm 51, we hear how God is a tender-hearted God, ready and willing to forgive. The Psalmist prays: “Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Sustain my spirit. God, open these lips, and I will praise you.” Part of what you will feel on your forehead tonight in the shape of a cross is the grit of ashes. Ashes in both the Older and New Testaments were used for cleansing in the absence of soap. And so this symbol of ashes for us can be like the pure waters of Baptism, a cleansing, a washing, a scrubbing down of what needs to be made clean and new again. Some of us have particular things on our minds for which we need forgiveness. It’s not a matter of “it would be nice to be forgiven’… For the psalmist, it’s life and death: “Give me a brand new heart.” Like Nicodemus the Pharisee who came to Jesus, he was desperate for a new start, a new life. Some of us can relate to that today.

The Good News for the world and for each one of us is that forgiveness is for us tonight. God is renewing us day by day with absolute forgiveness It’s free. Nothing you can do to win it, earn it, or pay it back. It’s free. You don’t win it like a prize, you not entitled to it like a paycheck, it’s pure gift.

It’s for you and for me. Thank God. Let that ashy cross just grind away what’s eating at you. At what’s holding you back. And let this community walk the journey of renewal with you.

And we come to the Chorus! All together now: “God is renewing us day by day.”

Verse 2: God wants to renew us in our sense of purpose in Lent. Everyone needs a purpose. My Grandma Lu is in her nursing home today in northern Minnesota, 94 years old, ready to die, so ready to die. She’s not despairing, she’s really not. But she is so ready. She’s out of purpose as far as she can see, and can’t wait to be done. She’s been a bit grumpy about this. She and God have some interesting conversations about why she is still around. In fact, she’s been complaining to God for 8 years. I imagine God is getting a little grumpy about this, too.

Paul writes that in Christ, there is a new creation in us. “Everything old has passed away. See, everything has become new!” Don’t you love that? “All this is from God,” it says, “who reconciled us to God through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.” Given us a ministry. Given us a ministry. Used to be, loooong ago, people thought only the pastors were the ministers. That the common folk of the congregation, best we could do is sit and watch the worship service, sit and be inspired by the theology experts, by the music, by the prayers. Martin Luther and others helped us see that in our Baptism we are all called into ministry, every one of us. Paul calls us ministers of God …‘ambassadors for Christ’. Holy cow! God is letting us represent Christ in the world. You and me just as we are, skinned knees and all, poor grammar, forgetfulness, bad tempers… I wonder if God has a back-up plan…

What does it mean for you that your words, your actions, your life is representing the holiness of God in the world. For me, that’s a humbling thought.

Trish and Sam and I were out to eat last week, and who should come into the restaurant but my first wife Karen and her husband and little son. Hadn’t been in touch for about 9 years. Awkward! Sam didn’t know who this Karen person was, but I was thankful that he stepped up, stuck out his hand and said, “Nice to meet you.” He represented me well. He was a little ambassador of peace and kindness there. In that important, incredibly loaded and surprising moment, my son helped make the connection.

We are called ambassadors for Christ, connecting our neighbors, family and friends to God’s heart. This season, consider what it would look like if you gave yourself to that calling, to that full-time vocation of being the face of Christ. I don’t mean you have to change your job or say goodbye to your friends or stop what you’re doing in some area of your life, but then again, I don’t know- maybe you do. Through the next forty days, God is renewing our sense of purpose and direction.

Chorus: “God is renewing us day by day.”

Verse 3. God wants to renew us in abundant, full, eternal Resurrection Life that’s for today. Not just a going to heaven when I die kind of faith, but a knowing Christ’s death and resurrection is happening in me every day of my life kind of faith.

I mentioned that tonight when you get a cross of ashes on your forehead, you’ll hear these words that God spoke to Adam: “You are dust and to dust you shall return.” With all the heavy snow, this morning Doug told me he really didn’t need ashes on his head to be face to face with his mortality today.

Henry David Thoreau wrote: “What are we but a mass of thawing clay?”

Either way, together, we’ll remember that our lifetimes are short and a little fragile.

What’s the point of this? It can be scary to hear those words: dust to dust. Why would we want to tell each other that today? “Sounds like fun and church today, honey, we’re going to hear that we’re gonna die someday.” Well, it is the truth, and being reminded of this truth has a very important point. Once we accept that we are not so powerful, not so in control, not so able to manage every aspect of life including death, we can rest in God’s amazing love.

I learned this in a new way a couple of weeks ago from a friend who went to the doctor. I asked her if I could tell you this story because it’s perfect Ash Wednesday. She went in for a routine physical exam, got the bloodwork back a couple days later, and the doc was concerned about something. “White blood cells look, um, abnormal, and the count is very low. We want to redo the tests in a couple of weeks, see what might be different. Could be a fluke.” Okay, so my friend, she had time to think about this, and it crossed her mind that her brother and sister had both died of lymphoma, a kind of cancer. It sank in. The possibility that she might have the same thing. She called the doc. Second test happened. Numbers came back. Same results. Abnormal cells, low white blood cell count. Doc recommended a specialist.

One very anxious sleepless night, my friend laid in bed with her mind racing, weeping, and her heart gripped in fear. As a Christian woman, she has known very well that God loves her and so she need not fear death. But this, this was a new moment for her 60-some year old life. She was face to face with the possibility of her death. It was personal. She could have the same cancer that killed her brother and sister. She sat with that fear, she let it be with her as she meditated on Psalm 23: “Though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear nothing, for you are with me” And eventually, through the agony, came peace. She was startled to discover peace. She felt her life held in God’s entire love for her in a completely new way. Oh, it was transforming! See, once she understood in her bones that she was mortal, she could better grasp the scope of God’s eternity and the love that holds her and all the world. She had no idea she could grow in her faith this way! It was Ash Wednesday for her.

And I would wish for us an experience like this tonight. Because the result will be a renewal of life, a revival of hope, and a re-minder of God’s unfailing love that holds our little lives! That calls us to be none other than the presence of Christ in the world! That carries us through cancer, and divorce, and addiction and fear and weariness! Family of God!...

Receive the gifts of this Lenten season! Feel the ashes, feel the cross on your head as we start this journey of renewal together. Let’s learn together what it means to be clear and honest with ourselves, to turn from our sicknesses and habits that drive us nowhere, to welcome forgiveness and to try to forgive, to explore a clear purpose and direction in life, to be sharing the death and abundant, full, eternal Resurrection Life of Christ.

Like Jesus said, go into your closet these forty days, go into your heart. Listen carefully. There’s where the quiet but radical transformation is happening even now.

To close. Meister Eckhart wrote that seeds produce what they are supposed to produce.. Bean seeds produce bean plants. Apple seeds produce apple trees, and seeds of God bring forth God. And we have seeds of God in us. Let them grow. And in these forty days, be renewed.

And we close with our Chorus: “God is renewing us day by day.”

Amen.

Go Tranfigure

January 29, 2008

“Suddenly this bright cloud overshadowed them, and from out of the cloud a voice said, ‘This is my dear, blessed Son with whom I am most proud and pleased; Listen to him!’ When the disciples heard this, they fell down, gripped with fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying with a solemn smile: ‘Friends, get up; Don’t be afraid. Hey, it’s me.”
-Matthew 17.5-6
(richard’s paraphrase)

This coming Sunday has us in the story of the Transfiguration of Jesus Christ, one of those X-files moments in Scripture that’s difficult to reasonably and rationally explain. And it’s best we don’t try. Like Jesus’ Baptism which came up in the lectionary three weeks ago, the Voice from heaven speaks (cue thunder and James Earl Jones (or Alanis Morisette?)) to announce Jesus as God’s Son. In the gospel according to Matthew at least, everyone seems to hear this voice, and understand about what’s going on.

Below is a scratch demo for a song in progress: Psalm 99, “Holy Is This One.” The psalm text connects us to the Great Mystery of God. “YHWH is holy” is the refrain in the psalm. On the occasion of Jesus’ baptism and again at the transfiguration scene, similar blessing words come. I thought it would be cool for the worshiping assembly to join in praising the the Christ as he is announced coming out of the water, the Great Mystery breaking through in our brother and mentor Jesus Christ among us in dazzling white, the Holy One whose Holy Spirit claims us for the gift of faith.

Enjoy this part psalm, part awe-struck Sanctus. I notice it sounds a little like a lullaby, too.

Holy, holy, holy is this One
Holy, holy, holy is this One

In the wilderness
on the mountain
Were you always?

Here among us
come to love us
Were you always?

The “Group W” Bench

January 21, 2008

Only Arlo Guthrie fans will get this, the pic taken outside our hotel in Des Moines. If you can’t read the plate on the bench, it reads “Group W”. The manager has a thing for folk music.

What does it say about me that my friends and I in high school had “The Alice’s Restaurant Masacree” completely memorized, to be referenced liberally among those from the Holy Grail, Life of Brian, Spinal Tap, Bill Cosby, the Far Side, Hill Street Blues… I think I need a question mark at the end of that sentence. But you’re with me, right?

Thanks to Dan, Eric, Gerald, Brian, and Rick. Here’s to Spanish camp, Face, and Cosby.

Original news story about The Ordeal from 1966.

Ah-da da-da-da-da dom
at Alice’s Restauraaaant.

Tom Bosley, Man of Mystery

January 18, 2008

When eating bamboo sprouts, remember the man who planted them.”
-Chinese proverb

It’s just that when I hear Mr. Bleekman’s voice on Clifford , I always think of him It’s not, actually.

Thich Nhat Hahn has a poem about a bell: “Listen, listen! This wonderful sound calls me back to my true home.”

Today for me is about being re-Minded. A word overheard last week took me back to a dream I thought was lost forever. The scent of old yarn in boxes arouses my imagination backwards to my Grandma Lu’s house on the farm. Christ invited his friends to be re-Minded of him every time they ate and drank together.

On a sub-zero day like today here in Ioway, let me be aware that seasons turn again. Let me be re-Membered to the whole, gathered back into creation where all is good. “Jesus, re-Member me when you head home.”

I was at a Holocaust remembrance service a few years ago when I heard the man say, “Only that which is remembered can be healed.” I think those words hit all of us as hopeful, even though the remembering does take energy, time and work sometimes.

In a few months, it will be 100 degrees warmer! Memory of the past makes the future hopeful.

Oliver Sacks knows a man who has virtually no short-term memory. Memory is our link to identity. Great Radio Lab show about that here.

Mr. Bleekman’s voice-over guy reminds me of Mr. C, and the Fonz-style switch-comb I had when I was in 6th grade.

Today as I am re-membering elements of my life, I invite you to gather your past selves-- the You that once didn’t know how to speak words, the You that once called parmesan cheese “farmer john cheese” because you didn’t know, the You that never worried about the things you worry about now. There’s great value to remembering what is true from your past as a way to help make sense of the path forward. I wrote a song called “Better Git Home” about that idea a few years ago. Re-Membering means integrating.

May the God who holds us and keeps us (Psalm 121) bless you in this season of claiming memories and moving forward.

Cry

January 10, 2008

“If I don’t have red, I use blue.”
-Pablo Picasso

Where I come from, tears are a gift. You offer this wonder when you are willing to share your tears with someone.

This ad was the first thing I saw this morning on tv as I turned on the telly to check the weather. It reminded me what a blessing it is to be in a friendship, a community, or a place of solitude to witness tears. Crying cleans our bodies. Crying changes our chemistry. Crying brings people together. Crying helps.

Tom Bodett wrote that maybe men resist crying because they’re afraid once they start, they’ll never stop. That he thought we’d stop as soon as we feel better.

Here’s to tears.

let it out by Starrfadu

do you want to lay your head on my shoulder? i don’t mind if you cry sometimes we all just need to let it out

just let your tears run down my arm so I can keep them in a blue jar we’ll drink them later so just let it out

let’s take a walk just to clear our heads i don’t mind that you’re holding my hand you say you love me so just let it out

your smile is a pleasant change from before when you saw you couldn’t take any more sometimes we all just need to let it out

What is Lent?

January 9, 2008

Good question. Since the first volume of The Psalm Project, “Sharing the Road”, is centered on the Lenten season, let’s dig.

Lent is the forty-day liturgical season beginning at Ash Wednesday and ending on Easter. The term Lent comes from the Anglo-Saxon word lencten, which means “Spring.” Lent began as a time of preparation for converts to Christianity, a season of conversion of heart and renewal of faith.

During Lent, our focus is primarily on the person of Jesus Christ. In fact, the season is forty days to mirror Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness that lasted forty days. The forty days, by the way, do not include Sundays because each Sunday represents a “little Easter”. It’s not necessarily a somber season, Lent, but certainly an intense one. You will notice in worship that we “bury” the Alleluias that we typically sing in the liturgy until Easter day.

Great article on worship design Lent through Easter.

Now, so that you, too, can be the life of the party with these tidbits of Lenten liturgical trivia:

“What are we but a mass of thawing clay?”
Henry David Thoreau

Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of Lent, with worship leading us to consider both our mortality and repentance in the light of God’s great love. The “imposition of ashes” on the forehead is an ancient Christian practice, going back to the 10th century. Biblically, ashes are a symbol of purification and penitence (see Numbers 19:9, 17; Hebrews 9:13; Jonah 3:6; Matthew 11:21, and Luke 10:13 ).

In worship, as the ashes are placed on our foreheads in the sign of the cross, we will hear the words, “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return,” God’s words to Adam in Genesis 3:19. With this symbol of Christ, we enter the forty day journey together that is rich with possibilities for renewal.

The Psalm Project song “Wash Me Clean” comes from Psalm 51, a central text for this day.

On Maundy Thursday we focus on the scenes of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet, Last Supper, Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemene and the betrayal of his friend Judas Iscariot. Maundy comes from the latin mandatum, meaning “commandment”. It refers to the teaching of Jesus as he washed his disciples’ feet: “A new commandment I give to you, That you love one another; as I have loved you.” (John 13:34) The worship service usually culminates in the stripping of the altar of all our typical worship symbols. The Psalm Project song “Now to God I Make My Vows” was written expressly for this moment in the service.

Good Friday focuses on the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ. On this day we proclaim the central event of our faith, the story of God’s loving work in Christ to redeem all people.

The term “Good Friday” is possibly a distortion of the English “God’s Friday.” Other names for the day are “Holy Friday” among Latin nations, “Great Friday” among Slavic peoples, “Friday of Mourning” in Germany, “Long Friday” in Norway, and “Holy Friday” (Viernes Santo) among Hispanic peoples.

Easter Vigil is a worship day of telling the stories of faith and celebrating renewal of faith. On this day, all over the world, adults will be Baptized and claim the promise of God that is pure gift to all of us. Consider Easter Vigil kind of a sequel to Good Friday.

Great article on Easter Vigil, including hors d’oeuvres and champagne reception.

Easter Sunday worship celebrates a cornerstone of our faith, the resurrection of Jesus Christ in which we find all our hope. The lily is a sign of the Resurrection. Like other bulb flowers that seem to die away then return with new life each year, the white lily is a sign of the pure new life that comes through the Resurrection of Jesus.

As we approach Ash Wednesday and make plans for Lent, God is with us!

I’ve been doin’ some hard travelin’
I thought you knowed
I’ve been doin’ some hard travelin’
way down the road
Well, if you don’t think I’ve been through hell,
Just follow me down to the places I’ve been
I’ve been doin’ some hard travelin’, Lord.

Woody Guthrie

The Wedding Song That Ate the Earth

January 6, 2008

Perhaps everything terrible is,
in its deepest being,
something that needs our love
-Rainer Maria Rilke

It’s not that I’m a grinch about weddings or wedding music. Trish and I do several wedding gigs a year, and we typically learn any song the couple wants to bless their little nuptials.

We may need to change that policy.

Last year, we did music for wonderful weddings. A few of the songs I didn’t like.

Compiled for you here, now, a few lines from actual songs. Were one inclined to evil, these fragments might be assembled into one single song and could destroy life on our planet. So, gentle reader, for the sake of all that is good, be careful with these. I should apologize for any songs that I am coming down on that you may enjoy. I really should.

“When God made you,
He must have been thinking about
me.”
(Yes, I always suspected my beloved was only given life on the planet for my benefit.)

“Some people wait a lifetime
for a moment like this.”
(Apparently these people are wed on their deathbeds after a lifetimes of waiting.)

“From here on after,
let’s stay the same we are right now.”
(Apart from a cryogenic honeymoon, I’m thinking juust about everybody changes over time. I’m pretty sure this idea is the best recipe for disaster in a marriage.)

“Now that I’ve found you,
I believe a miracle has come,
when God sends a perfect one.”
(My wife must be so contented knowing I can do no wrong.)

“I promise to give all I’ve got to give
to make all your dreams come true.”
(Think of me as your personal omnipotent savior, master of time and space.)

“I live only for your happiness.”
(Let’s hear it for codependence!)

“There’s no way
I could ever let you go,
even if I wanted to.”
(Please, someone ‘splain me.)

Please feel free to email me with your favorite or least favorite weddings songs. I keep a file.

rcbc

In the CD Player

December 19, 2007

Is is both terrible and comforting to dwell in the inconceivable nearness of God, and so to be loved by God that the first and last gift is infinity and inconceivability itself. But we have no choice. God is with us.
- Karl Rahner

In the CD Player

I am feeling better, almost up to full power, thanks to Throat Coat tea, Zinc lozenges, and Trish’s comfort food soup. I believe ‘lozenge’ is among my favorite words.

The Beatles, naturally, is good any time of year. Bobby McFerrin’s “Spontaneous Inventions” is also popular with Sam in the car these days.

Don’t worry.
richard

Where else would God be?

December 17, 2007

The Advent mystery is the beginning of the end of all in us that is not yet Christ.
- Thomas Merton

It’s a chilly Monday, my usual day off, so I am trying to take it easy today. A few things on my list-- pay bills, drink tea, record a guitar part for a CD my wife and I (link to www.riversvoice.com) are working on, flesh out the order of worship for our Christmas Eve service at First Lutheran… I am hoping to have several children read pieces of the Christmas scriptures from Luke this year. Young voices are good for that, like Linus or if there’s a way to get the video right on the site, could you do that for me?) in the Charlie Brown special. Nothing makes grown-ups pay attention like a kid telling a story.

I had a seminary prof who talked about the incarnation this way: It is the particularity of the incarnation that makes the Christian faith so radical. Not just that God came as a human. It’s that God comes in you, and me, and in that swimming fish down there. Astounding.

But really, where else would God be than right here?

To celebrate Christmas is to bow to the Christ in every particle of creation.

The Hindu tradition that says there is one God, and infinite manifestations of that One. Something in common to celebrate and learn from.

I wrote an incarnation song a few years ago playing with an idea of theologian Sallie McFague, that of all the models of what God is to us, one for our time and place might be God as the Whole of Creation of which we all are a part. What would it be like to know God in the manger, but also in the straw underfoot and in the cows? To know God in the cross and tomb, but also in friendships that renew our lives.

I’ll try to get the aforementioned song, “Body of God,” posted before Christmas.

God is with us.
richard

Pregnancy, Wilderness Prophets, and Mucus

December 16, 2007

“We are all meant to be mothers of God.
For God is always needing to be born.”
-Meister Eckhart

My winter cold has landed. Ugh. My voice is down the scale closer to Leonard Cohen than normal. Fun for awhile to be able to moan along with Crash Test Dummies, but I miss my own voice. It made worship leading today interesting to not have a singing voice to speak of (heh). I’m thankful for my worship team. Last weekend, friends in Des Moines took us to see the Grossology exhibit. All you need for party conversation about various bodily functions popular with our first grade son. Maybe I picked up something there, because I am now the poster boy for the “Nigel Nose-It-All” presentation. Let’s leave it at that.

Advent is about waiting, hoping, expecting. I always identify with Mary and Elizabeth in this season more than even Joseph and Zachariah. Pregnant women embody the story of Advent beautifully for the rest of us these days in a solemn and joyful way. So thank them if you know them.

On the other hand, Advent is also not so lovely… it’s also about urgently getting things in order. John the Baptizer yells at us from across the centuries to take it seriously, this time to prepare for God coming in the flesh. It’s good we have this season as a wake up call: What changes do I need to make to be faithful? What things do I need to say Yes to? And say No to?

Our story of Incarnation-- Emmanuel, God With us in the flesh-- is arguably the most radical part of Christianity.

Here’s a song about John’s call in Advent: “Prepare the Way For Love” Enjoy.

richard

Welcome

December 10, 2007

By virtue of the creation and, still more, of the incarnation, nothing here below is profane for those who know how to see. - Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (I think I will often start blog entries with a quote like this. Can you find a cool way to set it off?)

Hi. First entry. Stardate 12.10.2007. Thanks for stopping in.

I started a blog a couple years ago but it didn’t stick. That surprised me because I used to be an avid journaler, and I thought I’d just channel that into blogging. I think I was self-conscious about what I would write, and that’s a recipe for boring.

In this blog I hope to offer some conversation and questions around my study of the Psalms, being a worship leader in a big Lutheran church, being a daddy and husband, and doing my best to be faith-full with what I’ve got in front of me.

I invite you into the conversations, the music, and the mystery. Thanks again.

richard