Friday Prayer

 

God of grace and God of glory, let Your summoning voice break through the clutter of noise and emails and to-do lists, help us find a quiet center to abide in You.  O God, remind us that You call us over the tumult of life ~ those storms that rage internally and externally.  You are near to us and the One who is our vision.  You leadth us with an amazing grace.  And we once again sing the truth that we morning woke up with our minds/hearts/whole lives on Jesus.  Help us today join with the angels who sang, “Holy, Holy, Holy” to Isaiah.  Help us find ways to live the words of the hymn that, “Here I am, Lord…send me”.  Hold us, fill us, shape us, and send us with a love that never lets us go.  Let the truth of Your good news be shouted from the mountain tops of our life this day and throughout the days to come.  All this we sing and pray in Your name.  Amen. 

Hand-holding

 

As I have been gathering hymns from the congregation over the last few weeks, one of the hymns that gets mentioned by numerous people is, Precious Lord.  While I have included the words below, this really needs to be sung slowly.  So please take a moment to join your voice with mine as we sing this spiritual together knowing/trusting that in the mystery of God, your voice and mine might be intertwined, even if we are not singing at the exact same time.  That your voice intertwines with Mahalia Jackson who sang this hymn to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  That your voice intertwines with people in our church who have and continue to sing these words.  Let the communal connection of singing reverberate as we join our diverse voices in praying these words:

 

Precious Lord, take my hand, Lead me on, let me stand,
I am tired, I am weak, I am worn; through the storm, through the night,
Lead me on to the light, Take my hand, pre­cious Lord, Lead me home.

When my way grows drear, Precious Lord, lin­ger near,
When my life is al­most gone, Hear my cry, hear my call,
Hold my hand lest I fall: Take my hand, pre­cious Lord, Lead me home.

When the dark­ness ap­pears and the night draws near,
And the day is past and gone, at the ri­ver I stand,
Guide my feet, hold my hand: Take my hand, pre­cious Lord, Lead me home.

May God, who takes your hand; may God whose strength is steadying you and sustaining you and surrounding you be felt in real ways today; may God who hears our cries and carries us in an enfolding eternal embrace ~ remind you that you are loved and worthy and precious now and every minute this day. Amen.

Praise of Today

 

This week, we are turning our hearts to the words of hymns.  The last two days we dwelt and dived into the hymn, The Summons.  Today, I turn to another favorite of my, that sends goosebumps racing and running down my spine every time we sing it, Perpetual Praise.  Pray these words with me:

 

Your many blessings are new each morning

And with each dawning we sing your praise!

From early morning to restful evening our grateful hearts sing praises!

Your love and mercy, shining bright, bring hope and joy as we follow Your Light.

You breathe within us.

You sing within us.

You move our hearts to perpetual praise!

Through all of our days ~ perpetual praise!

 

Our hymnal is a prayer book and theological textbook.  Part of what makes any hymn a prayer is finding space and place to pause; letting the words sink and sing to our souls.  Based on what you just prayed above, what is a new blessing this morning?  This doesn’t have to be spectacular or special (see Monday’s meditation).  The blessing can be as ordinary as a bird singing, a phone call from a friend, or the smile of the clerk at the grocery store.  Is there a dawning (or newness) you are sensing in your life ~ physically or emotionally or relationally?  As May wraps up and winds down, breathe in the breath of God that is always a Pentecost moment – over 22,000 times each day we breathe.  Where are you singing praise to God and where do you need God’s mercy to shine bright today to follow God’s guiding light? 

 

Take a breath that God is breathing into you.

Sing a note that God is evoking within you.

Place your hands on your heart for the ways God is pulsating within you.

 

May these words move in our life now and in the hours that unfold today.  Amen.

The Hymnal of the Hidden

 

Yesterday, we dove into the words of the hymn, The Summons.  Today, I want to pick up verses three through five of this hymn.  I encourage you to take a deep breath and slowly exhale.  Do that again, making sure that your exhale is longer than your inhale.  One more time, so that your breath feels like it is tickling the tips of your toes!  Now read these words aloud with me:

 

Will you let the blinded see if I but call your name?

Will you set the prisoners free and never be the same?

Will you kiss the leper clean and do such as this unseen,

And admit to what I mean in you and you in me?

 

Will you love the “you” you hide if I but call your name?

Will you quell the fear inside and never be the same?

Will you use the faith you’ve found to reshape the world around

Through my sight and touch and sound in you and you in me?

 

Lord, your summons echoes true when I but call your name!

Let me turn and follow you and never be the same.

In your company I’ll go where your love and footsteps show.

Thus I’ll move and live and grow in you and you in me.

 

I find the words, “Will you love the “you” you hide if I but call your name?  Will you quell the fear inside and never be the same?”  I could sing that every Sunday and never tire, because most weeks I do hide part of myself from others, from God, and from my own awareness.  There are things I shove into the cobwebbed corners of my soul.  I cover over a mistake, praying no one notices.  I stand on the sidelines, afraid to speak up, least the bullies/cynics/critics make me a target.  I think this is why Jesus said the greatest commandment was three!  Love God.  Love neighbor.  Love self.  That will take our whole life, then some, to explore ~ you will never exhaust (complete) loving God, others, self ~ such an invitation is always new each day.  What part of your life are you hiding?  What objections or obligations is fear insisting you attend to first?  What is faith courageously calling you to do, even if you think you will fall flat, splat, on your face?  May those questions and this hymn continue to stir within you these days.  Alleluia and Amen.

The Hymnal of the Ordinary

 

There are moments in life when we arrive at the corner of spectacular and stunning, when we find ourselves singing, “Celebrate Good Times” with Kool & the Gang.  No, I don’t even care that I just dated myself with that reference.  You know you are going to Google that song right now to listen and sing along!  But most of our life, many of our days are not lived at the intersection of Awesome Avenue and Amazing Parkway.  Most of us don’t hashtag every day as, “Best life ever” on social media.  There are days that are beige, ordinary, average, mundane, when most of the snail mail goes right into the recycling bin except for that one bill from your last doctor’s appointment.  Days when we are not quite sure where the hours went or what we did, but here you are getting ready for bed.  How do we sing amid the ordinary?  What do you do when the reverberations of Easter resurrection still faintly hum in your heart, but the tympani is stored away for the summer and there are no trumpets appearing in worship?  Yes, there is an afterglow of Easter, but reality has come knocking telling you that the laundry isn’t going to fold itself and don’t get me started on the cobwebs that are clinging to the light fixture over the table.  Here we are after Easter with the promise of new life, and yet things look suspiciously the same as they did before we visited the empty tomb.  Here we are after Pentecost, when the Spirit stirred transforming lives, but my oatmeal this morning still tastes the same.  How do we live betwixt and between; how do we faithfully inhabit the already and not yet? 

 

One way we do this is to pay attention to the on-going, unending melody of music in our soul.  One way we do this is to listen and lean in to hymns we sing in worship.  One way we do this is to be open to the sound of silence (not just the Simon and Garfunkel song ~ which you are also now going to Google), but actual silence.  The absence of sound, which is when your monkey mind loves to start chattering away.  “Great!” you mind says, “Now that I have your full attention, there are some recent mistakes and miscues and missteps, I’ve been wanting to cover.”  No wonder we reach for our phone in such moments!!  I invite you today to savor slowly with me the first two verses of the hymn, The Summons (one of my favorites).  I pray each syllable and sentence stirs something within you ~ connecting you to God’s presence which is right where you are.

 

Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?

Will you go where you don’t know and never be the same?

Will you let my love be show, will you let me name be known,

Will you let my life be grown in you and you in me?

 

Will you leave yourself behind if I but call your name?

Will you care for cruel and kind and never be the same?

Will you risk the hostile stare should your life attract or scare?

Will you let me answer prayer in you and you in me?

 

May the One who is calling you in love be heard calling your name in life-giving ways this ordinary Monday.  Alleluia and Amen.

Needing God Every Hour

 

Please pray with me the words to I Need Thee Every Hour

 

I need Thee every hour most gracious Lord
No tender voice like Thine can peace afford

I need Thee, O I need Thee every hour I need Thee
O bless me now, my Savior I come to Thee. 

I need Thee every hour stay Thou nearby
Temptations lose their power when Thou art nigh

I need Thee, O I need Thee every hour I need Thee
O bless me now, my Savior I come to Thee 

I need Thee every hour in joy or pain
Come quickly and abide or life is vain

I need Thee, O I need Thee every hour I need Thee
O bless me now, my Savior I come to Thee

May the abiding and attending Spirit of God continue hover and hum to your heart and whole life this day and throughout the days to come.  Amen. 

Singing the Seasons

 

Within the church, there is a Church Liturgical Year.  There are seasons that are repeated and rehearsed year after year.  The church year begins with Advent (four weeks before Christmas), Christmas follows (which has twelve days – now you are going to be singing that song all day) which leads to Epiphany (the arrival of the Wise Ones).  The season of Epiphany is one that is elastic and can expand over different numbers of weeks each year depending on when Easter is.  The day of Easter moves around a bit because it is an astronomical calculation that is based on the first full moon on or after the spring equinox.  Once you know when Easter is, you back up forty days excluding Sundays (which is the season of Lent) to find Ash Wednesday.  Any time between January 6 and Ash Wednesday is the season of Epiphany.  There are fifty days of Easter – this long season teaches and tells us that living in the mystery of resurrection is an invitation even greater/longer than Lent.  Fifty days after Easter is Pentecost.  After Pentecost, we enter ordinary time which is almost half a year ~ telling us that most of our life is lived in this season of holy ordinariness.  Ordinary time eventually rounds the corner to Christ the King Sunday celebrated in November right before the beginning of another Advent.  And the church-cycle repeats and replays again/afresh/anew.   There are hymns associated and connected to each season.  Christmas Carols to Lenten melodies often in a minor key to the bright brass accompanying us in belting out, “Christ the Lord is Risen today…alleluia!!” 

 

Just as there are four seasons in nature, these seasons of the church year invite us into a rhythm and refrain that can open us to God in our life.  Advent is characterized as waiting.  Christmas celebrates new life found in strange spaces (a barn!).  Epiphany is about awakening and awareness.  Lent reminds us of the less-than-perfectness of life.  Easter honors how God holds all that is human continually calling forth renewal.  Pentecost, as we heard on Sunday, celebrates the Spirit that enlivens and empowers.  A hymn that hymns in my heart today is, In the Bulb, please pray these words with me.

 

In the bulb there is a flower; in the seed, an apple tree;

in cocoons, a hidden promise: butterflies will soon be free!

In the cold and snow of winter there's a spring that waits to be,

unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

 

There's a song in every silence, seeking word and melody;

there's a dawn in every darkness bringing hope to you and me.

From the past will come the future; what it holds, a mystery,

unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

 

In our end is our beginning ;in our time, infinity;

in our doubt there is believing; in our life, eternity.

In our death, a resurrection; at the last, a victory,

unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

 

May the words above sing to the season or seasons (because sometimes we are in Advent waiting in one part of our life and Easter celebration in another part of life and holy ordinariness in still another place) of your life.  I pray God helps you listen to the humming a holy tune this day.  Amen.

What Kind of Story is This?!?

 

As people of faith, we claim that the Spirit took on flesh, breath, and bone in Jesus Christ.  From the peculiar place of Jesus’ birth ~ I mean, a barn, really God?  That was not going to get God a ton of likes on social media…the shepherds posts were not exactly trending.  Jesus, then, drops off the radar of everyone.  Sure, he showed up at 12-years-old in the temple to hang out with the rabbis and amaze everyone with his theological dissertation on love, but then Jesus goes underground.  Like a one hit wonder or a novelist whose debut mystery is such a smashing success, she doesn’t write anything for years.  Eventually, Jesus goes down to the river to pray, he wades in the water, and is baptized by John in the river Jordan.  Immediately, he is driven by the Spirit into the wilderness.  At this point, you should be shaking and scratching your head thinking, “Um, this is not going to be a Hollywood blockbuster of a movie!”  But wait, this Jesus hangs out with those on the fringe and fray, he humanizes those on the sidelines regardless of wealth or religious belief or if they have perfect attendance pins from Sunday School.  This Jesus confronts the powers that be by staging a parade (street theater) at the time of the Passover when the narrative of God’s liberating love from Exodus is retold as a way through the wilderness today.  You are thinking, “Finally!  A plot line we recognize.  Go get ‘em Jesus.  You conquer and overthrow that evil Roman Empire.”  Only, he gets crucified.  Wait, you think, come again!?!  Suffering as part of faith is the storyline we share year-after- year.  I think of the great hymn, Love Divine, All Loves Excelling.

 

Love divine, all loves excelling, joy of heav'n to earth come down,
fix in us Thy humble dwelling; all Thy faithful mercies crown!
Jesus, Thou art all compassion, pure, unbounded love Thou art;
visit us with Thy salvation; enter every trembling heart.

 

Breathe, O breathe Thy loving Spirit into every troubled breast!
Let us all in Thee inherit, let us find the promised rest.
Take away our love of sinning; Alpha and Omega be;
end of faith, as its beginning, set our hearts at liberty.

 

I love the invitation for the Spirit to enter the trouble within us.  But remember from Sunday that sometimes the Spirit isn’t one of gentleness, but a burning breeze that disrupts and interrupts everything ~ inside and out.  This Spirit which will rummage around our lives, tossing and turning over our faith furniture ~ some of which has been handed down from generation to generation ~ doesn’t the Spirit know that cedar chest was our grandmothers?  Where is your heart trembling today?  Where do we long for rest physically, emotionally, relationally, religiously, socially?  Are we willing to let God/Christ/Spirit have the first and last word in our lives?  What would that look like or sound like?  Hold this hymn that it might hum within you today as a soundtrack to your life each moment.  Amen.

More than Words

 

Today, I want to share with you, a hymn about the expansive, elusive, evolving God.  Before we do this, I wonder what words are evoked in you when you encounter the word, “God”?  What images/artwork/crayon-color picture/songs/poems/sermons stir within you when you just read the word, “God”?  Or maybe it all feels like a mystery?  Sometimes when I focus on God, I can feel a dizzying disorientation.  My words all raise their hands and asked to be excused because none of words fit or feel quite right.  In some circles of faith, the name “God” is too holy to be spoken.  Some people take out the “o” in God, writing, “G-d” to denote the marvelous mystery that is beyond our comprehension and control.  One hymn that sings of the expansiveness of God is Brian Wren’s Bring Many Names.  Slowly and prayerfully read these words:

 

Bring many names, beau­ti­ful and good, Celebrate, in pa­ra­ble and sto­ry,
Holiness in glo­ry, liv­ing, lov­ing God. Hail and Ho­san­na! Bring ma­ny names!

 

Strong mo­ther God, work­ing night and day, Planning all the won­ders of cre­ation,
Setting each equa­tion, ge­ni­us at play: Hail and Ho­san­na, strong mo­ther God!

 

Warm fa­ther God, hug­ging ev­ery child, Feeling all the strains of hu­man liv­ing,
Caring and for­giv­ing, till we’re re­con­ciled: Hail and Ho­san­na, warm fa­ther God!

 

Old, ach­ing God, grey with end­less care, Calmly pierc­ing ev­il’s new dis­guis­es,
Glad of good sur­pris­es, wis­er than des­pair: Hail and Ho­san­na, old, ach­ing God!

 

Young, grow­ing God, ea­ger, on the move, Saying no to false­hood and un­kind­ness,
Crying out for jus­ti­ce, giv­ing all you have: Hail and Ho­san­na, young, grow­ing God!

 

Great, liv­ing God, ne­ver ful­ly known, Joyful dark­ness far be­yond our see­ing,
Closer yet than breath­ing, ev­er­last­ing home: Hail and Ho­san­na, great, liv­ing God!

 

May the words above awaken your sacred imagination.  May you find ways to add verses above with adjectives that are now sitting and stirring on the tip of your tongue.  May you enter the wonderous mystery that is God’s ongoing melody and music of our still Conducting and Composing God, sensing G-d’s invitation to you to join the symphony of life.  Amen.

Fall Afresh on Me/We

 

Yesterday in church we celebrated the sweet, sweet Spirit that stirred amid the disciples and empowered them to share the good news of God’s expansive/evolving love.  The Book of Acts tells us this Spirit was not some gentle soft breeze but a burning breeze that shook the disciples to their core.  They physically felt the force on their face/flesh, and this awoke their shy souls to start singing in every language.  Amid the cacophony there was a connection.  Amid the chaos there was a community formed.  What if this story isn’t just about then and there, but here and now?  How do we open to swirling Spirit?  I am not sure we can plan or predict how/when/where the Spirit will show up ~ which can frustrate the Type-A people in our midst like me.  And we may need to let go of the self-help gospel that preaches you can have your best life now!  The Spirit is the holy part of God bursts through the locked doors and carefully cultivated parts of our life.  One of the hymns that hymns in my heart is Spirit of the Living God…pray these words with me:

 

Spirit of the Living God,

Fall afresh on me.

Spirit of the Living God,

Fall afresh on me.

Melt me, mold me, fill me, send me.

Spirit of the Living God,

Fall afresh on me.

 

Where do you need the Spirit of the Living God to fall afresh?  Where are you unsure you want God stirring up dust amid that cobweb corners of your soul where you have put in boxes all that “stuff” you’d rather not deal with?  Where do you long to be refreshed?  Where do you find some resistance ~ perhaps with that person who you keep adding wood to the fire of resentment or anger?  What events coming up do you long for the Spirit?  Where are you pouring out your Jonah-like energy to refuse or refute following God’s nudges?  What would happen if the Spirit showed up in that meeting later today or tomorrow?  What happens if you sang the words above before a meeting today?  Prayed the words above before a doctor’s appointment?  Sat with these words in stillness this week?  May you find ways to let the melody and message of this hymn hum within the soundtrack to your soul.  Amen.  

Friday Prayer

 

God, there is a sweet, sweet Spirit in this place that hovers and hums and holds us.  God, You continue to conduct the music of our soul and continue to find a release of the tension that is unresolved within us.  Help us find ways to hold onto the truth that each person in our church has a hymnal that is holy in his/her/their heart.  This isn’t a competition to convince others ours is the best.  Our job is not to edit someone else’s hymnal or educate or advise.  Our calling is to craft a spaciousness in worship, to listen and learn from why the words and melody provide meaning to others.  God guide us to let our hymnal be not only a prayer book, theology textbook, but also a source of stories for our shy soul’s expression.  Help us as we search for a Director of Music who will join us in the unfolding, ongoing journey of singing our faith to You.  In the name of the One who is the Lord of the Dance, Jesus the Christ.  Amen. 

Hymnal of Our Soul ~ Part 8

 

Don Salier writes this, “In our present North American cultural context, the singing assemblies in our churches and synagogues are among the very few remaining places where words and music actually form human beings in communal identity.  The phenomenon of public singing at civic events has shriveled to an occasional ‘Happy Birthday’ or ‘Take Me Out to the Ball Game,’ or perhaps a weak effort at the national anthem.  But when people meet to worship, public singing still offers formation in a shared identity.  This identity flows out of an ancient story that continues to take on new life, in the words and tunes that speak today.  It gives voice to individual people in praise, lament, and need, but it does not leave them isolated, surrounding them instead with a great choir.” 

 

To be sure, you may think, “What about concerts?”  We can get swept away in a stadium overflowing with others singing along with a tribute band bringing back the classics from when we were in High School.  This could be the Temptations to the Eagles to Bruce Springsteen to Taylor Swift (whose tour right now has generated over a billion dollars ~ talk about a shared experience!!)  But those moments are fleeting and fading.  Most of us don’t become groupies, traveling around to attend every show.  The experience of that one concert can wedge itself into our soul in meaningful ways, but it is a one-off moment.  The church gathers week-after-week to share our faith in song.  We gather for that collective first breath, we inhale together (literally con-spire), before belting out, “Joyful, joyful, we adore You, God of glory, God of love!”  We also sing how we feel like a “motherless child.”  We get homesick and heartsick (see Frost quote from Monday).  We need to express how we are flummoxed with God and feel like agnosticism has a point or two.   In Salier’s quote, he paints a picture of a spaciousness that welcomes all we bring.  Bring your faith that is strong and where your soul’s wi-fi is weak.  Bring your questions and where you struggle.  Bring your sweet song and your exhaustion that can’t form the words anymore.  Bring all that to church.  Because the truth is, when you can’t sing, the church sings for you and to you.  When the holy reverberation has ceased, the community keeps saying, “We are here with you.”  Maybe we even find the song of silence, stillness, breathing together as a melody of life itself.  Look over your list.  Which hymns are ones of praise, which ones give you strength, which ones help you process pain, which ones can you sing every day and never tire, which ones are you good with singing once or twice a year.  Begin to dive deeper into the hymnal of your heart.  Amen.

Editing the Hymnal in Our Soul ~ Release

 

As we continue to survey and scan the hymnals of our heart, it is important to spend a few moments focusing on hymns that have passed their expiration date.  Not every hymn we have sung in the past is a gem.  Not every hymn is an oldie but a goodie.  Some hymns need to be retired.  For example, I struggle in my soul with hymns that talk about Jesus’ blood being shed as a sacrifice.  It sends a shutter down my spine, my mind yells, “Objection!!”.   I want to put my fingers in my ears and shout, “I can’t hear you.”  One hymn in this category is, “There is a fountain filled with blood.”  I want to be clear, if this is on your top ten list, please know I do want to hear why you find this meaningful and what warms your heart.  For me, when I hear the words, “There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel’s veins; and sinners, plunged beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains,” what I hear is a very violent theology about God who demanded a transaction rather than God who vulnerably and loving faced the cross in the flesh and breath of Jesus.  I hear the words of an era that was so concerned about our sinfulness that never quite grasped our in-God’s-image-ness.  A fountain of blood image makes my stomach queasy and soul uneasy and I understand why people have walked away from this theology. 

 

Part of the difficulty of hymns is that there is emotion woven into the melody.  We don’t want to admit that what we are singing is in tension with our current theology and understanding of God.  We like what we like, even when there are contradictions.  Moreover, we can feel defensive when someone else suggests that our favorite hymn isn’t perfect or meaningful or their favorite.  This causes our amygdala to shift into overdrive wanting us to fight or flock (we say, “Well, everyone else likes this hymn or wants to do it this way”) or flee (we are outta here if you are not going to sing what I want when I want it).  Music is deeply personal, like the art in your house.  You may love your oil painting of dogs playing poker that another person finds tacky.  You may flock to see Hamilton while others think that is so 2020.  What you find meaningful, another may find offensive.  Diversity is not only about race or religion or gender or sexual orientation, but also about what we read, listen to, watch, and ways we fill our days.  We love to recommend our favorite shows saying, “You must watch this…” because that is a connection to another in a lonely world.  And when someone doesn’t get a lump in their throat when singing, “The dying thief rejoiced to that fountain in his day…” we might feel judged or jaded or jilted by the disconnection and discord we now feel.  Art matters.  Art can also create divisions because of the diversity.  How do we sing when the hymnal in your heart is as unique as your fingerprint?  That is the question we will continue to ponder and discuss as a people of God in these days.  For today, is there a hymn on your list that maybe you are not so sure that the words still warm your soul?  Can you thank a hymn for helping sing your way to the place you are now and release that hymn to no longer be on your top ten list?  Not every hymn from yesterday needs to be on our greatest hits list today.  May this invitation help you as you look over the hymnal of your heart that hums in your life today.  Amen.

Hymnal of our Soul Part 6

 

We are continuing to explore the pages of the holy hymnal that lives, breathes, and moves within us.  Yesterday, I asked you to read slowly, prayerfully ponder, the words of one hymn from your list.  Today, I want to introduce you to a new hymn, A Hymn for Self-Acceptance by Wesley King.  This is part of a new hymnal by the Hymn Society, and we will be singing these words during PRIDE month in June.  I invite you to read these words aloud.  Yes, I do mean this!  Please say each word as if God is singing, speaking, whispering the word to you.

 

When you feel change might be hopeless, when you’ve given up on God.

When you feel you’re not worth saving, that your being-ness is flawed.

When your prayers still seem unanswered, not a sound from the Divine,

Maybe you have been mistaken.  God is sending you a sign.

 

I love how this verse begins with an honest lament that we get flustered and frustrated with God.  We walk (or run away) from the Holy, often because “religious” people and systems don’t want to accept or affirm our experiences and encounters of the Eternal.  I love that we can sing about times we give up on God and at the same time acknowledge God doesn’t give up on us.  Notice in the second line of the poem shines a light on the inner critic who wants to tell me that I am not worth saving.  The church has preached transactional theology for so long.  Just be a “good” person to earn badges for your eternal salvation sash.  We skip over Genesis 1 and 2, that YOU are created and crafted in God’s goodness.  We jump right to talking about our flaws and faults and failures.  Or more likely, we point out “others” whose flaws are even worse than ours.  The third line is equally powerful ~ that the silence of God can be deafening.  The further we run from God; the softer God’s voice can be.  And we also know that there is nowhere God is not.  God is a circle whose circumference extends beyond the furthest galaxy and whose center is right where you are.  When we are exhausted from running, proving, arguing, and punching our way to peace, maybe that is when we fall flat on the ground sobbing.  In this moment, we remember anew that at the end of our rope is God’s address. 

 

Friends, keep praying the words of the hymns that are sacred to you.  Keep scanning the hymnal of your heart and even stop by the church to look through the one in the pews.  Search for new hymns (the Hymn Society is a great place to start).  It is my prayer you will continue to let your life flow on in endless song above the lamentations that are honest/heartfelt and there is a new creation being crafted by our still creating God.  Amen.

Hymnal of our Soul Part 5

 

Robert Frost once said, “A poem begins with a lump in the throat; a homesickness or a love-sickness.” The same could be said for the hymnal that hums and hovers within each of us.  The music that is repeating and replaying on a loop in the cobwebbed corners of your soul.  Some of the hymns call you back to meaningful memories of your life while others evoke and provoke so many emotions.  The melodies have the power to transport you back to that moment when the harmony first tugged at your heartstrings and embedded the notes inside you.  Last week I asked you to begin to make a list of your favorite hymns.  I encouraged you to think about Christmas Carols, camp songs, and what you learned in the cherub church choir.  Or to think about the words you sang at your mother’s funeral with tears streaming down your face maybe you sang, “Great is your faithfulness.  Great is your faithfulness.  Morning by morning new mercies I see.  All I have needed your hand has provided.  Great is your faithfulness, God unto me.”

 

I asked you to read the words of some of the hymns humming in you.  For example, the words above can be on the one hand about the faithfulness and dedication to the church of people you have known and even your own expanding/evolving faith.  But on the other hand, the hymn above could be read about God’s faithfulness.  Wait, how often do we think that God has as much faith in us as we have in God?  Or maybe God has more faith in us?!?  Re-read that line above and take the word, morning.  Is there a new mercy you perceive this morning ~ a way God showed up disguised as your life alongside your bowl of oatmeal.  Or consider how the word, “morning” sounds like, “mourning.”  Has there ever been a time in your life when through blurry tears of heartbreak and soul ache you “saw” new mercies, what can be called, a “bright sadness”?  Or to quote Jesus, “Blessed are those who mourn.”  Grief gives us a particular insight that none of us ever want, but a perspective that can change everything. 

 

This is one refrain from one hymn.  Today, I invite you to return to your list from last week.  You may want to keep adding more music and melodies that you are discovering in the hymnal of your heart.  Today, pick one hymn and slowly/prayerfully read the words.  Let each syllable sing, settle, and stir your soul.  Name and notice what is provoked and perceived as you do this.  For example, “Precious Lord, take my hand.”  Pause to hold out your hands and imagine Jesus taking your hands ~ feel the sensation.  How does the sacred hand feel to you?  Is there a warmth, is a weathered-ness to the Holy’s hand?  Is the Holy’s hand soft or rough with creativity?  Is God’s hand splattered with splotches of paint from continued creation?  Is God’s hand one color of skin or all the shades human hands come in?  Let your hand be held by the Holy.  Breathe and be.  Then, keep singing with me, “Lead me on, help me stand.”  Pause to ponder where do you feel lost and in need of God’s GPS (turn-by-turn navigation) right now to lead you.  I am thinking about our search for a new Director of Music.  I am singing, “Lead us O God…” because honestly, I don’t know what will happen as we prepare to post the job description.  Where am I needing God to be the rock that helps steady me as I stand or a stability for me to lean upon?  I think of the Irish saying, “You are the place where I stand on the day when my feet are sore.”  Continue singing with me, “I am tired, I am weak, I am worn.  Through the storm, through the night, lead me on to the light.  Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me home.”  Let all the exhaustion of life be released and rest in God.  Relinquish the responsibility, for a few fleeting moments, that you don’t have to put on a cape and be Superman and Wonder Woman to save the day.  You are called to be you, with all your fabulous foibles.  And may you today find meaningful ways to embrace and embody this line from the hymn, The Summons, “love the you, you hide when God calls your name.”  May you and I keep listening and learning from the holy hymnal that lives inside each of us.  Amen.  

Hymnal of our Soul Prayer

 

God, You are our help in ages past and You are the hope for years to come.   How can we say thanks to You, O God, for the ways You have taken our hand, led us on, helped us stand.  For Your love divine, all love excelling; for the wideness in Your mercy, for Your peace like a river, and for the truth that every time we feel the Spirit moving in our heart is a moment we pray; thank You!!  Even in the middle of spring, on the cusp of summer, we can still sing, “O come, o come, Emmanuel (God with us)” and “Come, thou long expected Jesus!”  These are still honest prayers of our hearts in May.  We can belt out joy to the world.  You continue to call us to follow you (and never be the same) to be collaborate and conspirators with You to bring forth the reign of mercy, bring forth the reign of peace; bring forth the reign of justice, bring forth the City of God.  We pray that You will abide with us, especially when the Your light to the world is eclipsed by those who continue to deny and dismiss and even betray us.  Let the narrative of our life be found as we tune and turn our ears/hearts/souls to the jukebox that lives within us.  Bless be the ties that bind us, even when it confines and confounds us.  And may God’s healing, love, peace, and presence be with you every hour this day.  Glory, glory, hallelujah, since we laid our burdens down for we will keep singing and marching and praying in the light of God today.  Amen.  

The Hymnal of our Soul Part 4

 

Engaging with art means we have to slow down to allow a new experience to enter which perhaps cannot be accessed in another way. It can be an expansive experience.  Lourdes Bernard

 

So far this week you have been making a list and checking it twice or more for hymns that are a soundtrack to your soul.  Yesterday, I asked you to do the difficult, demanding, work of looking at hymns that irk or irate you, that you want to scratch like a rash that won’t go away!  Today, I am going to ask you to scan, survey your list to find five hymns (or ten if you want), Google the lyrics, and read them.  Or come to church, find a hymnal, settle into the pew to read.

 

What are your favorite hymns preaching and proclaiming?   What are your favorite hymns saying about the sacred?  What do the lyrics illuminate about the human condition?  Like scripture, hymns sometimes point out a problem.  For example, here is the second verse of “God, Who Stretched the Spangled Heavens”

 

We (meaning humans) have ventured worlds undreamed of since the childhood of our race.

Known the ecstasy of winging through untraveled realms of space;

Probed the secrets of the atom, yielding unimagined power,

Facing us with life’s destruction or our most triumphant hour.

 

In that verse we hear a celebration of ways human scientific achievements from things like space travel, personal computers, smart phones, and renewable energy sources.  We share inventive powers with God.  But the second part of the verse reminds us, in the immortal words of Spiderman’s uncle, “With great power comes great responsibility.”  Humans haven’t always been as ethical as we could be with our responsibility – true then and now.  We have valued profit over people, bottom lines, and bank accounts to define worth rather than the truth that we are each in God’s image.  I hope you start to sense that when you slowly read the words of the hymn, you are entering a world.  Often, because of the way music functions in our worship, we don’t allow space to pause, letting the melody and music and meaning of the hymn fall afresh on us.  Find a few hymns or one hymn or however many you’d like to savor each syllable as though this was food for our souls ~ what lingers on the tip of your tongue as you taste what we sing?  May this question be held in each of our hearts now and in the days to come.  Amen.