Life and spirituality at the intersection of analog and digital
the personal blog of Beau Surratt
At the newcomer lunch I was at on Sunday, a parishioner whom everyone agrees embodies welcome told the story of a beloved, now deceased, parishioner who was the legendary welcomer-in-chief of the congregation who gave a load of bread to each newcomer to the community. In telling his story, and giving a load of bread to each person at the newcomer lunch, she was not engaging in nostalgia. No, she was embodying a double measure of his spirit and passing that spirit of welcome on to everyone gathered that day.
Sometimes we feel like our own inner world is the one that needs to be turned upside down. We see pictures of everyone’s fabulous lives on social media and it reminds us of how much we long for the deep connection with another, a connection we can’t ever seem to obtain. We empty ourselves caring for an ailing loved one and wonder if our own inner reserves will ever be filled again. Luke’s beatitudes and Mary’s song are for us to. God’s power comes out to meet us and to turn our world around, making our hearts to sing again, perhaps at first in a whispering song of tentative hope, and then later a full-voiced aria of rejoicing as God’s stronger-than-death love brings spring to our wintry hearts.
Hymn writer Susan Palo Cherwien writes:
“Singing together is one of the most important things the Christian community does together in worshiping God. We sing into ourselves, into each other, into the universe, holy stories, holy truths, wisdom, beauty. We are shaped into one body by singing together holy songs. We begin to vibrate together. We are changed. Into what are we being shaped by the songs that we sing?”
Renowned opera singer Renée Fleming has helped spearhead a collaboration among the National Institutes of Health, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts called “Sound Health” that supports research into the effects of music on the brain and the potential use of music and singing to treat symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, stroke, chronic pain, mental illness, and more.
When we open ourselves, our congregation, to relationship, we should expect to be surprised. When we begin with relationship, we are already creating open space for something new and surprising to emerge, something mutual, something life-giving to both our neighbors and our congregation. What surprising new partnerships might emerge as we begin to be in deeper relationship with our community?
On Sunday, June 23, the weekend of the “Our Creative Spirit” art exhibit, we welcome classical guitarist James (Jim) Baur who will be offering music during the Sunday liturgy.
People of God, the world desperately needs the Good News we know. So very many people have never been told just how madly God is in love with them. Who is to tell them they are loved? Who is to show them? Why not us?
God so loved the world. God so loves the world. Let us shed a little light on God’s love for the world, and bring this good news out of the shadows.
When 19 children and 2 adults are killed in a senseless act of gun violence…what do we do now?
When a beloved family member has a sudden health crisis and dies at the age of 45, what do we do now?
When more than four thousand people have been killed in Ukraine and Russia’s invasion has caused a refugee crisis with ripple effects across the globe, what do we do now?
When so many of the the things about our beloved church communities have changed and all we want to happen is for things to go back to the way they used to be, what do we do now?
What do we do now, Jesus?
The pattern of worship, modified a bit from descriptions in Evangelical Lutheran Worship, and the like, is this: gathering together, offering, transformation, sending. I want to focus on the gathering together and the offering because, at least in terms of worship, those are our work. The transformation and the sending are all God’s work.
In the reading from Mark's gospel that is part of liturgy on July 21, Jesus extends the invitation to "come away to a deserted place all by yourselves and rest a while." Rest is a blessing - a gift from God, and something as necessary to being human as our very breath. So, since we are in the summer season of rest and relaxation and we have in invitation from Jesus to rest, why not sing a hymn about rest?