More Than A Cliche

So, you opened this post, saw the words at the top, and I wonder what were your first thoughts?

Maybe you thought back to a wedding you recently attended where the passage was read.
Maybe you recalled a sermon where the pastor pointed out that Paul penned these words not to a couple getting married, but to an entire faith community.  The image of love is not just for two, but for a whole house church to try to embody for and with each other.
Maybe there was even a bit of cynicism that crept in or you even thought, "That is so cliche." 

When a passage becomes so familiar that we think we have exhausted every possible meaning.  When a passage becomes so drenched and dripping with our own comfort and we think, "Been there, done that."
When our minds start to wander or we even excuse ourselves from trying to dive deeper into a passage because it just doesn't seem fresh or new, I wonder if we do this both to distance and even dismiss the demands these words invite us to inhabit. 

So, over the next few posts, I want to step into these ancient words of 1 Corinthians, explore and try to encounter them for right here and now.

To start, we could notice and name that Paul was talking to an early church community.  But this church had some problems.  They disagreed and debated about everything!  They argued about whose baptism was better (Apollos or Cephas or Christ - not sure if some were actually baptized by Jesus or if they were that person who always is trying to one up you - or Paul).  So, I picture Paul pacing around, pounding the soles of his feet into the ground, exasperated as he exclaimed, "Well, I am just glad I didn't baptize any of you people!...Well, okay, I did baptize a couple of you.  But that isn't the point!!"

If the Corinthians only were in a tiff about baptism that would be one thing. 

But, this messy human community (which is a bit redundant because all human community is messy at some moments), goes on and argues about leadership, spiritual gifts, what to bring to the church pot luck (I mean is meat dedicated to Zeus okay or is that off-limits?), and so much more.

For twelve chapters Paul tries to lay down the law, draw the line in the sand, teaching and telling them, and moments I picture Paul pulling out his hair saying, "Why can't we all just get along?!?"

There is a tension that simmers and sits in-between the words of this letter. 

Given this realize of disagreement and being disagreeable, when Paul starts his riff on love it is about as out-of-place as an inflatable snowman on a lawn in Florida in July!  If we thought Paul's description and definition of love was over-the-top and unattainable, imagine hearing this in a community where people are constantly bickering and bitterness hovers/hangs in the air.  Imagine hearing these words where there is supposed to be unity and all you are feeling is pain.  Imagine hearing these words when you are frustrating or feel forgotten.  Imagine hearing these words when people have stopped talking to each other or the only communication is passive aggressive.  Paul images a kind of love that isn't transactional, it is a holy love that is transformational.  A love that will change everything because this love changes everyone.

Do you feel the tension of speaking these words into a community where they were not singing, "Blessed be the tie that binds..." because the bonds had been stretched so thin that the fabric was down to a few threads? 

Do you sense that such descriptions above are not just about two thousand years ago, but also about here and now in a world where we don't talk to our neighbor?  Where tension still hovers and hangs around our communal moments.  Where we are frustrated and flummoxed and Paul wants to talk about love, but that feels too wishy-washy.

When the only time we prayerfully ponder this passage of scripture is a moment when love is palatable and dances in the eyes of a couple, we are not fully embracing the power of Paul's vision.  When the only time we encounter these words is at a wedding where the pastor knows that a twenty minute sermon is really out of the question and talking about how this was really written to a whole community will probably land with a thud. 
When we distance ourselves from these words, we also miss the moment and the power they might have for us in such a time as this.

I encourage you to go read 1 Corinthians today or tomorrow.  Read the words slowly, savoring each noun and verb.  Maybe read the passage in two or three translations.  You can click here for an online bible.  

So, dare with me to step into this passage for a few moments to encounter and experience what might be a prophetic and pastoral word for our souls in these days, and I believe might have more than a trace of God's grace.

Grace and peace to you ~~ 

The Meaning Music Evokes take Three

"Music washes away the dust of everyday life" so wrote Berthold Auerbach...

Which by the way...Berthold might just be the coolest name I had never heard of before.

But I also want to add to Berthold that music has a way of helping us make sense of the dust in our lives.  Sometimes the muck and mud...the dust won't scatter so easily.  Sometimes the thick layer of the past doesn't even budge when the winds of change swirl in the room.  The dust of life can be stubborn and cling tightly.

Because maybe that dust is trying to tell us something.

You see if the goal is only to clear and clean our lives of dust, most of us will not pass - I am talking both literally about my living room AND metaphorically about my life.  There is dust on the shelves and on my soul.  But that dust...the remnants/remains of past might actually be important for this moment.  Sometimes what lingers and lays in our life is trying to tell/teach us something.

Maybe the goal is to eliminate all the dust...but to listen to it and pay attention to it.

But Berthold is right in that I think music can help us make sense of the dusty remains of yesterday.  Music can help us process pain...both physically/mentally/spiritually...and help us imagine new todays and tomorrows.

So here is a hymn that for me that sings out I am trying to say...

It is my heartfelt prayer that the music and thoughts this week have caused new ideas to stir within you.
It is my heartfelt prayer that considering the profound power of music this week has unclogged your ears to hear new music around/within you.
It is my deepest prayer this week has offered more than a trace of God's grace.

The Meaning Music Evokes take Two

What songs...melodies...are moving around you this week?
Which notes are nudging you in new directions?
What lyrics are awakening you to the traces of God's grace all around?

In the last post I offered a quote from Charles Darwin.  And recently scientists have been hopping on that bandwagon studying the positive impact of music.  Recent research suggests that music releases dopamine - the natural feel good chemical of your brain.  Music can, at the same time, decrease the stress hormone cortisol.  When you are working out (walking or running or biking) music has been shown to boast your performance.

To be sure, I am not convinced that all music does this for every single person.

You probably known of music today that doesn't do any of that.  Music that can sound more like a cat screeching on a hot tin roof or nails being run down a chalk board.  Some music may make your soul shout/sing out...but for the next person those notes only produce a yawn and a glance at his cell phone to check the time.

Some people love classic music...others enjoy jazz.
Some people prefer organ...others piano...guitar...ukulele (which I discovered when doing research for this week, I learned Warren Buffet plays the ukulele. That is awesome!)

The invitation isn't just for you to decide and then defend your preference to everyone else.

The invitation is for you to know what stirs your soul...try to finger out why!

Why you find a song meaningful is so much more insightful and interesting to me than you trying to convince me that I should love the song too and join you for a three-day opera fest going on next week.

For example, here is another song stirring my soul by Carrie Newcomer

Why do I find this meaningful??  I am delighted you asked!!

First, I really love storytelling folk music...guitar/voice/piano/light drum is part of the soundtrack that stirs my soul.
Second, I love it when the melody and words invite us into something deeper.  I am not a huge fan of lyrics that repeat over and over and over...and over again.
Third, I think that Carrie is exactly correct that everything we need isn't somewhere out there, it is right here within and between us.  I love the notice that within me and between you/me God's grace is awakening what we need for such a time as this.

That is a prayer I long not only to sing, but I pray my life sings out with more than a trace of God's grace.

Blessings ~~

The Meaning Music Evokes take One

Recently, I have found myself invited into music that was evoking and invoking traces of God's grace. 

Music has a profound power in our lives.

The notes stir the soul.
The words awaken new ideas and insights.
It can take us back to our childhood and grandmother humming hymns as she baked bread.
Or dad's bass voice booming from the choir.
Music is ingrained within us...and can bring us together in ways that prose - no matter how poetic or prophetic - may not.

Vincent Harding, the civil rights leader, recalls the way people would constantly sing before, during, and after marches.  "We Shall Overcome" wasn't just some words to pump up the crowd...it was a heartfelt prayer of African-Americans being denied rights and liberties.

Music has a power to transform us from the insight out.

This only makes scientific sense since inside each one of us is a beat of a heart...a constant rhythm keeping us alive.  There is a time signature to our breathing.  There is a melody of every single moment.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel says, “Religious music is an attempt to convey that which is within our reach, but beyond our grasp.”  He also said... "To sing means to sense and to affirm that the spirit is real and that its glory is present. In singing we perceive what is otherwise beyond perceiving."

Or consider this from Charles Darwin once remarked, “If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week.”

And you thought his best work was on evolution.

So, this week, I want to invite you to listen with me.  Listen with ears and hearts wide open.

The first song that is stuck on repeat in my heart is by the Indigo Girls.  Krista Tippet recently shared an interview with them...which is where I got the Heschel quote above.  You can click here to listen or read that episode of On Being.

But the song, "Closer I Am to Fine" has been part of the music swirling in my mind and speaking to my soul.  Here is a video:

For me, the opening words are an invitation for me during this time that I have away on sabbatical:

I'm tryin' to tell you somethin' 'bout my life
Maybe give me insight between black and white
And the best thing you've ever done for me
Is to help me take my life less seriously
It's only life after all...

That to me sounds like a beautiful prayer.
This to me echoes in my soul as truth.
The melody and words offer me more than a trace of God's grace...and I pray will do the same for you today.

Blessings ~~

Sitting at the Table

The last drips of coffee have crossed my lips...the last spoon of granola has too.  Outside a neighbor's noisy saw cuts and chops away at an overgrown bush, dropping branches on our side of the fence.  Our dog lets her protest be known by barking at how this is interrupting and disrupting her nap.  I wonder sitting here at the table, what today might hold?  What will unfold as the seconds slip past and minutes pile up making hours?

I know what is on my list...but I wonder if in the small spaces in-between the lines of my list...God might be move in mischievous ways?  I wonder if God beside me, here at the table, might pick up the pen and start to scratch out other priorities and tasks...like laughing, listening, being, breathing, staying open, noticing...along side vacuuming and washing the floor.  Is God's to-do list for me different than what I have written?  Or is God moving in the midst of every moment?

I love the quote that says God is the one whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is no where.  That is, wherever we are...there God is.  That the burning bushes can be encountered in our daily wanderings.

As I sit at the table this morning, I wonder as I wander around this day...how might I be open/awake/ aware of God? 

It is time to see.

May you and I be surreptitiously surprised by traces of God's grace today.

Grace and peace ~~   

I Had to Hurry take Two

In the last post I shard a picture and poem about capturing the beauty of the clouds when I was out walking one morning last week.  I was taken by the ways orange, red, and pink were all playfully painting the sky...but also noticed how the gray was starting to erase the colors.  The thought, "I have to hurry..." crossed my mind because I wanted to get a picture of the beauty before it disappeared.

Which makes me think about how much in the blur of life I might miss those traces of God's grace because it isn't on my calendar.  I mean, why can't God schedule the burning bush moments or text me when I should pay attention?  Perhaps that is why Paul encourages us in 1 Thessalonians 5 to, "pray without ceasing." 

Yet, I am not sure I was every taught or told how to persistently present and open and aware/awake to God's swirling presence around/within me.  It is a practice.  Rather than the rut of getting stuck in my schedule (as I am wont to do)...or stuck in my mind (that I am really good at too).  This reminds me that on vacation I saw a t-shirt that read, "Wait a moment while I overthink this."  I resemble that remark.  Yet, Paul is inviting us to pay attention to God's presence in our midst...to have a running commentary or listen to God's play-by-play of our life.

I love the idea that God might offer a running reflection on my life.  I just hear God, "Wes is in the store, going down the cereal aisle.  He has picked up the Fiber One, scanning the nutrition label.  Oh, wait, he is eyeing the Captain Crunch, looking around to see if anyone is watching, he tosses it in his cart covering it with some lettuce and quinoa.  I did not see that coming...or maybe I did."

Maybe that is a fun prayer practice for you.  To pause and listen for what God might be saying at that moment in your life.  To pray without ceasing may not mean that we have an endless monologue to God...it might mean we take regular moments to listen/lean in to what the sacred might be trying to say to us.  When we are stopped at a red light (especially if you are running late).  When we are about to meet a friend for lunch.  When we are settling in at night to watch some television or read a book.

What might our still speaking/singing/stirring God be up to?  Even right now as you are reading this?  Maybe you might even write down some what you are hearing God's reflection and response to you.

It is my prayer that such a practice might offer more than a trace of God's grace this day.

Grace and peace ~~

I Had to Hurry

I had to hurry...
Not because I was running late.
Nor was it because of a date.
Nor to avoid a line where I might wait.

I had to hurry...
Not because of a calendar demand.
Nor for me to stay, stick with my daily plan.
Nor because someone would be mad.

I had to hurry...
Because the pink of the cloud was fading away.
The brilliant beauty was starting to turn gray.
In a few moments it would be gone to my dismay.

The fleeting, fading glory that greets us each day
I too often miss because my schedule holds sway.
But not today! The red, orange, pink invited me to pray.
And not miss the beauty as the colors in the sky played.

I had to hurry...
To soak it all in with a smile on my face.
To know that in that moment I was in the right place.
To sense the holiness in this trace of God's grace.

And may you be quick and open to such sacred moments that saturate each day this week.

Grace and peace ~~