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Sunday, March 31, 2013

Tada!

In the children's sermon this morning, the pastor asked the children what they thought Jesus might have said when he rose from the dead and came out of the tomb. "Good morning" to the soldiers? "Tada!" like the Jack-in-the-box she had in her hands to surprise the kids?

That made me wonder about my response every time the resurrected Christ brings life to my deadness . . . my dead thoughts, words or deeds, that lie like crusty, wind-blown leaves across the front yard of my life. What an amazing thing that our Lord's resurrection permeates every aspect of our lives, giving us hope in adversity, peace in all circumstances, and joy that defies description. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is truly the most remarkable event in the history of the world.

From my morning devotional guide ...

"As Jesus rises from the dead, our hopelessness, fatalism, and despair all drop away. We leave in the wake of Christ's rising all that weighs us down: our self-absorption, insolence, and indignation. The higher we rise with Jesus, the smaller every enslaving thing becomes. What once seemed impossible is now altogether likely."

                                                                    Magnificat, April 2011, page 260

At the end of the children's message the pastor encouraged the kids to remember the resurrection every morning first thing and thank the Lord for his gift of life. Maybe even jump out of bed saying, "Tada! It's brand new day!" Now that would be a change for me in the morning. My husband could tell you I'm not a "Tada!" person first thing in the morning.

But maybe it's time to turn over a new leaf ...

Christos Aneste. 
Alethos Aneste. 
Christ is risen. 
He is risen indeed!


Painting on a reverse panel of Grünewald’s Isenheim altarpiece


~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Music for Resurrection/Easter Sunday:

Hallelujah! from Christ on the Mount of Olives - Beethoven 

This Joyful Eastertide

Vaughan Williams "Five Mystival Songs" (part 1):
"Easter"
"I got me flowers"
Vaughan Williams "Five Mystical Songs" (part 2):
"Love bade me welcome"
"The Call"
"Antiphon"

The Easter Oratorio - J.S. Bach

Lark Ascending - Ralph Vaughan Williams

I'd love to hear what some of your favorites are for this Festival day.



Friday, March 29, 2013

A Good Friday Reflection


At the cry of the first bird
They began to crucify thee,
O cheek like a swan.
It was not right ever to cease lamenting
It was like parting of day from night.

Ah, though sore the suffering 
Brought on the body of Mary's son,
Sorer to him was the grief upon her for his sake.

At the cry of the first bird
They began to crucify my Lord.

                                             An ancient Irish poem


Sung here in a choral composition of mine at a Good Friday service in 2012:
 
At the Cry of the First Bird

Video from the Tenebrae Choral Vesper Service at
Edenton Street United Methodist Church
Raleigh, NC, April 2012.
Nancy Gerst, Director

My friend, Izabela Spiewak, played first violin in the chamber group. Sadly, she died (shortly after being diagnosed with leukemia) in February of this year. I am so glad to have this beautiful memory of her playing for this service, especially on this anthem. 

In this still photo from the video, the anthem's text is on the phrase, "It was not right, ever to cease lamenting." I am reminded that death is our enemy and we will always, ALWAYS grieve when it takes a life. We lament because death is an enemy.

On this Good Friday, I am also poignantly reminded that this enemy is defeated. Jesus Christ willingly died, so that death would not hold sway over us, but that the risen Christ would raise us up to new life in  the last day. Thanks be to God for this gift and this hope.

Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting? 
The sting of death is sin, 
and the power of sin is the law.  
But thanks be to God, 
who gives us the victory 
through our Lord Jesus Christ.





Monday, March 18, 2013

Praying with My Fingers

Several years ago during a visit from my son Dennis when he was on leave from Ft. Benning, we had an interesting conversation about music. Listening to some favorite music while cleaning some of his gear, I couldn't help but overhear from the kitchen. It was loud, wild, and made my bones rattle. Music a 20-something young sergeant would find cool and a classical musician mother, not so much.

At dinner I asked him what it was about that kind of music that appealed to him. I couldn't discern any melody, harmony ... anything of beauty. 

His answer stuck with me ...

"It's raw power, Mom. Like I imagine it sounded when God created the world."

Raw power. Creativity unleashed. Awesomeness unveiled. Power for good things.

I can't quite imagine bass guitars accompanying, "Let there be light" ... but I'll give my son that he made me think and I'm still thinking about it. I replied that much of the organ repertoire has the same type of effect.

I've been working on a piece this spring that brought that conversation back to mind. LITANIES by Jehan Alain has that kind of sustained energy and cataclysmic ending that makes you hope the building won't come crashing down around you while you hold the final chord.

From the genre of 20th century French organ music, this piece has been a partner with me for mining the depths of my soul in prayer this Lenten season. It is a powerful piece of music, but not necessarily a "pretty" piece.The composer includes this inscription on the first page:


Quand l’âme chrétienne ne trouve plus de mots nouveaux dans la détresse pour implorer la miséricorde de Dieu, elle répète sans cesse la même invocation avec une foi véhémente. La raison atteint sa limite. Seule la foi poursuit son ascension. 

(When, in its distress, the Christian soul can find no new words to implore God's mercy, it repeats the same plea with vehement faith. The limits of reason are reached, and only faith can pursue its ascension.)    
A reference, I think, to what Paul said in Romans 8the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 
Groanings too deep for words. Alain understood how to allude to that in music.

A litany is a form of prayer, often used in public worship that has a repeated phrase. Psalm 136 is perhaps the psalter prayer that established this form:

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
    for his steadfast love endures forever.
Give thanks to the God of gods,
    for his steadfast love endures forever.
Give thanks to the Lord of lords,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;

to him who alone does great wonders,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
to him who by understanding made the heavens,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
to him who spread out the earth above the waters,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;
to him who made the great lights,
    for his steadfast love endures forever;    

        . . . continued through 26 verses

Here is another example from the Book of Common Prayer. The congregation says the recurring phrases in unison with the thanksgivings and petitions led by the pastor or other leader.


In LITANIES, the musical motif is repeated and woven with other "thanksgivings and petitions." Is this the story of a soul in anguish boldly running to God in prayer? Is the raw power a musical attempt at illustrating the greatness and power of God? Is it joy of a different language than we're used to? The inclusion of many keys, dissonances, massive layering of the organ's reed and foundation stops, the pulsating yet unmetered rhythm ... all these devices are used to create a prayer of a magnitude most of us rarely offer up. 

I'm thankful that Jehan Alain composed this wonderful organ work. It's stretched my prayer life in helpful ways this spring. I hope listening to this piece gives you pause to consider the freedom the Christian has to bring their fierce-faithed prayers to the One who understands prayers without words and has the wisdom and power to answer them.


Postscript:  My husband remarked a year or so ago after hearing this piece played for a postlude at Edenton Street UMC by Josh Dumbleton, that this was used in a work he knew from the rock band Renaissance in their piece called Running Hard. That's a very interesting connection. 


 ~ ~ ~ 

LITANIES - by Jehan Alain - an audio recording of me from a practice session today.

Here is Alain's sister, Marie-Claire, playing this piece. It is his most famous work, and after his untimely death as a soldier in WWII, she tirelessly promoted his works. A concert artist of the highest order, she died just this past February at the age of 86. More about her here.

Colorado Rockies - Photo by Jerry Begly
My brother Jerry posted this photo today on Facebook. It's a stunning illustration of the combination of rugged power and unspeakable beauty.

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Fair Maid and the Beast

I recently ran across this poem-for-tax-season that I wrote a number of years ago. This was before I married an accountant. Tax filing is much easier these days ... he takes care of it all. (That's him in the photo below.)

My apologies to the IRS and any faithful employees there who receive the short end of the stick in this poem. I write in hyperbole ... mostly.

Duty in Service and Paying Lots of Taxes


TAXES

"What a burden!"
She mutters as sloggingly 
Forms and dashes of paperwork
Are gathered into one pile
And sleeves rolled up
To attack the Beast.

Could there be a way to 
Brighten this task,
To turn grit into
Delectable morsel of duty?
Could the wordiness and
Numberliness and clumsiness
Be slimmed and trimmed
Into task of lighter fare?

Nay! Shouts the man whose
Paycheck depends on
Hatching numbers into 
Prepared statements of 
How-I-spent-last-year
Via numbers and columns and codes.

Nay! Shouts the politicians whose
Paycheck depends on 
Expanding the forms and
Explaining the numbers in 
Documents tedious, long, and overdone. 

Nay! Shouts the IRS whose
Existence bulges with the fatness of 
Forms and Instructions ad infinitum
And row upon row of terse-lipped
Lackey who spins the web of 
Helpful Confusion in
Media massive and tiny-fonted.


And so the yearly battle
Rages 'twixt fair maid
In slippered feet
And Revenue Beast in
Multi-layered Black and White cloak;
The brutal fight will end when 
She sighs and lays down her pen,
And remarks with quiet resolve,
"Next year I'll beat him at his game
And fire the first shot
Before he steals all the gold
From my tiny pot."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MUSIC LINKS

Toccata and Fugue in D Minor (JSBach) - after-tax version



Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Gigs, Entrepeneurs, and Amazing Days

For the past couple of years I have had the privilege of serving in interim music roles at four churches. This spring I will end another "gig," this one in the role of organist. It seems God is always teaching me new things . . . new ways to watch for His hand, new challenges that help me grow as a Christian. What will be next? 

This period of time doing interim work has been a wonderful opportunity to grow in my trust in God's good care. My years in the Reformed tradition taught me to call that Providence. Yes indeed. The Lord surely does provide!

When my children were young and I was working part-time in music ministry, I also worked out of my home doing transcription, document design and dissertation editing. As I chatted about finding a name for that little business at dinner one evening, my daughter's creative juices started flowing. 

Rachel in her studio at age 7
The next day, she pitched her suggested business name. Little entrepreneur that she was, it came in the form of the presentation of a collage she'd made from magazine clippings that were (in her 8 year old mind) related to what I would be doing. At the top of the poster she wrote "LWP WORD PROCESSING. The Lord will provide, and you'll say THANKS!" 

I have saved that scrap of her early "artwork" somewhere in my boxes of Special Things. Yes indeed. I've had occasion over and over through the years to say "Thank you Lord" for all God's kind, wise, and loving care and leading.

While I do the legwork to get the "next thing" in place, I'm very aware that what I'm doing today needs my full attention. I blogged about that period of transition in an earlier blog where I included my poem Finish Well. Here's the link to that post. It also includes some music that I listen to often and think you will find meaningful too.

God's provision is all around us ... let's not forget to say thanks today! 

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 

MUSIC LINKS

1. I Thank You for this Most Amazing Day - Whitacre/ setting of e.e. cummings poem


2. Thanks Be to God (Dank sei Dir Herr)- Handel

Dank sei Dir Herr - Festival version by the Christelijk mannenkoor Soli Deo Gloria
Dank sei Dir Herr - sung by Renee Fleming


3. What a Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong



Magnolias and Irises - Louis Comfort Tiffany

I had the privilege of seeing this beautiful stained glass piece when it was at the Richmond Museum of Art. A lovely afternoon spent touring that special Tiffany exhibit with my dear friend Joan.


Sunday, March 3, 2013

Succumb or Soar

Have you been watching a football or baseball game on TV and seen one of those signs someone holds up that says, "JOHN 3:16"? Imagine this little post is the back side, the fine print of such a sign . . .

A devotional guide I was using this week had the following prayer in it that caught my attention like a thunderbolt:
Lord, forgive all iniquity.

You speak to us daily through our conscience,
--but we have often been deaf;
Forgive all iniquity.

You speak to us of peace,
--but we have often chosen conflict:
Forgive all iniquity.

Your speak to us of life,
--but we have often succumbed to the small deaths of the spirit that lead one day to destruction:
Forgive all iniquity. 
Succumbing to small deaths? Little ole' moi? I expect to die all at once. What's this about small deaths leading to destruction?

I admit that praying that prayer made my heart squirm a bit. Surely I haven't been guilty of giving God a deaf ear, or choosing conflict ... succumbing to small deaths of my spirit which put me on a path to destruction of myself or others.

As I made dinner that phrase turned over and over in my heart, "we have often succumbed to the small deaths of the spirit ..."  How subtle sin is. I'm not tempted to rob a bank, or shoot someone, or run off with the mailman. 

My temptations are more subtle. Just this once I'll not __show kindness/do the right thing/etc.___. Lord, you know how __busy/tired/etc.__ I am today. Surely you'll let me off the hook this once? 

What help, what remedy is there for bank robbers and for you and me? 

These ponderings help me understand and prepare for the annual remembrance of Holy Week and Christ's journey toward the cross and tomb. 
The problem of sin is the universal perplexity that demands a trustworthy solution . . .
It's not very fashionable these days to talk about being saved from ourselves, i.e. our  sin. It's okay to talk about being spiritual, or enlightened, or any number of similar things. But sin? Forget it. We're pretty good people and we don't really need a Savior. That attitude is one step in the direction of succumbing to small deaths of the spirit. Sticking my fingers in my ears and insisting that I'm not dead to God's voice ... I hear just fine! That's why I need a prayer like the one above. Lord, forgive ME!

The Temptation of Christ in the Wilderness - 1898, Briton Riviere
God's promise of forgiveness is summarized in John's Gospel, chapter 3. John 3:16 may be the most well-known, beloved, and perhaps most scoffed-at verse in the Bible; but it is the crux of the matter, the simple description of the solution
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
Amazing love isn't it? When I take my fingers out of my ears and hear this amazing love song from God, peace accompanies my repentance, and those small succumbing steps are replaced by soaring on wings like an eagle in the joy and power God gives. 

For all this, I say, "Thanks be to God!"

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 
MUSIC LINKS 

Here is John Stainer's beautiful choral setting of John 3:16:

God So Loved the World 
Sung by the Sanctuary Choir at Resurrection Lutheran Church, Cary, NC 

Here is a contemporary setting of Isaiah 40:29-31 that sung is in many churches around the world:
On Eagle's Wings - Joncas

My spirit soars when I play music. Here I am playing a joyful, soaring TOCCATA by Buxtehude.