Posts Tagged with music

Take Me Home.

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Today was bitterly cold outside. So cold in fact that they cancelled school. And I cancelled church activities. You just didn’t want to go outside unless you had to. I’m not being a wuss – I’m talking record setting all time lows here – you would get frostbite in 7 minutes in this weather.

I have never been in weather that was quite this cold before. And I didn’t really feel all that prepared for it. At least not footware wise.

The one trip I did make out of doors was to the nursing home for my monthly worship service there. And of course, I wore my cute little ankle boots with the pointed toe and heel…. but with fuzzy warm hot pink socks on underneath. I need a pair of uggs, or at least really warm boots, or something.

I really enjoy worshipping at the nursing home. I almost always share communion with them, and found that I am the only one who brings communion to their community worship. The Catholics have a separate mass, and the other denominations are more exclusive about who is welcome at the table. So, it is a joy to be able to walk around the room and share the bread of heave and the cup of salvation with these dear old folk.

Today, however, I largely used the service from the previous Sunday in church, and so we remembered our baptisms. I had a basin of water and invited them to dip their fingers in and remember that God loves them and has called them each by name. As I came to one woman, she said with joy, “I was baptized in the Iowa River!” Of course, there was the other woman who had fallen asleep and was gently nudged by her neighbor when I showed up with the bowl, but that is pretty typical with this group.

This congregation is largely women – in fact, I think there was only one man in worship today. His name is Bill and he is a beloved old member of my congregation. He was a farmer and milked cows by hand for 60+ years, which has caused his fingers to literally freeze up all curled together from the arthritis. I think about my dad and what he will be like at the age of 97 if he lives that long, and I see much the same type of body. A hard worker whose body has long ago worn out.

There was one woman in particular that I sat with after worship today. Her name is grace and all throughout the service, she asked who was going to take her home. At the end I had a chance to chat and she really wanted to know why she had gone outside in this weather and who was going to come and get her and take her home. I told her gently that this is her home now, this is where she belongs and there are wonderful people who are here to take care of her.

Partly it was her dementia, but partly, don’t we all want someone to take us home? To take us back to that place of comfort and rest and belonging that we know so dear? And aren’t there all of those songs that tell us we are just waiting to be rescued and taken to our eternal home?

We sing a lot of those songs in worship at the nursing home. “I’ll Fly Away.” “In the Garden.” And I think what is hard for even us to understand is that THIS is our home. This is where we are meant to be right now. And we too, have to get used to this place, to find our place here, and figure out how we can be at home among one another.

Epiphany

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Today I really got back into the swing of church work because our regular groups started meeting again in the new year. This morning, it was the Sharing As Caring Christians fellowship, or SACC. They meet around food and take turns sharing devotions and then a lesson for the day.

This is one group that I really feel blessed to be a part of, because normally, I’m just another member of the group. I don’t have to have my pastor or teacher hat on, unless I want to have it on. I can simply come and be.

For the next six weeks in the group, I will be leading our lessons based on Joyce Rupp’s “The Cup of our Life.” It is a study that I have been wanting to do with others for some time now, and I’m really looking forward to it. A hidden desire out of this is also to get the group to each bring their own mug for use each week, so that we aren’t constantly using styrofoam cups.

After SACC group, I took some time to finish work on the bulletins for Sunday. I am a very rudimentary piano player… I can pluck out a tune with one hand, and sometimes I can get some harmony in there if I am really slow about it. But it is always easier to pick hymns if I am at the piano and know what each one sounds like. It lets me know how easy they are to sing, how familiar they might be, and something that is also important to me – how well they each fit together.

One of my passions in worship is a well fit together service. I want the message in the music to match the message in the written word, to match the message in the spoken word, to match the message in the prayers. Then, at least in one way or another, the congregation will have the gospel come to them, and hopefully reinforced.

What makes that difficult, is that it takes a lot of time to put a service together. And because I change the order of worship and the liturgy to match whatever season we are in, it also is a challenge each time a new season begins to craft the structure for the next few weeks. The upside is that the congregation never fully settles into a routine in worship, and at least while I’m here, they can’t ever say “but we’ve always done it this way…”

Lectionary Leanings – All Will Be Well

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December 14
Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11, Psalm 126 or Luke 1:47-55, I Thess. 5:16-24 , John 1:6-8, 19-28

A few summers ago in seminary, I participated in a course called “Church in the City.” We traveled around Nashville exploring many diverse neighborhoods and heard many powerful stories of how churches were impacting the communities that they lived in. Throughout our lessons that summer, one scripture kept coming back to us—today’s lectionary passage from the book of Isaiah. Whoever this author was, he was speaking to people in exile, people who were longing to go back home, people who were desperate for a word of hope. And his word of hope was that good news was on its way—that they would soon be set free and that God would lead them back to Zion.

The verse that really struck us, however, as we read this good news is found in verse four: “They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities…” Yes, God will lead them back, but they will be blessed with the opportunity to repair and rebuild and restore the devastation of many generations. That is what we witnessed in those communities in Nashville. Families that had been exiled by gentrification, individuals who literally had been imprisoned, churches that were broken down and falling apart, were returning to and reviving these neighborhoods, rebuilding the city around them.

This message of promise and hope from Isaiah was renewed this summer as my state of Iowa was devastated by flooding. Five months after the waters crested twenty feet above the flood stage in Cedar Rapids, many city blocks still look like a war zone. Many families have crowded into homes with friends or relatives or into the FEMA trailers delivered to the area. Exile is a very real concept to many of these close-knit neighbors who are now scattered across the city.

But little by little, they are returning to these flooded neighborhoods. Little by little, there are signs of rebirth. Whether it is another business reopening or another home that is gutted and rebuilt, the people of Cedar Rapids are raising up the former devastations. They are rising above the floods that threatened to overwhelm them. It has been amazing to witness how the good news and the grace of God have been present in the recovery. Strangers are going out of their way to help one another. Churches have become beacons of hope. There is a very real sense that while this was a terrible tragedy, while the way forward is unknown, God is there. And the people are not rebuilding alone.

There is a sense of pride, as there should be for the countless hours of hard work that have gone into making a dent in the devastation. But that pride is tempered by the knowledge that the job of the church is not to take credit, but to simply point to the gospel and the One who came to bring the good news to life. Like John the Baptist, we know that we are not the Messiah, but we are witnesses to the light of Christ that has broken into our midst. And we hold onto and proclaim the promise that “all will be well. You can ask me how but only time will tell.” (All Will Be Well, by the Gabe Dixon Band).

FF: Independence Day

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1. Barbeque’s or picnics ( or are they essentially the same thing?)

Definately NOT the same thing. BBQ’s involve a grill, and a backyard, or a park, but definately involve fire and yummy grilled things. A picnic to me is more cold items, packed in a basket that you take with you to some place wonderful. Or your backyard, or wherever. When I think picnic, I always think blankets and baskets.

2. The park/ the lake/ the beach or staying at home simply being?

Well, we celebrate in my new town on the 3rd! So we had a day full of activites and for the fourth, we had lots of time off to disc golf all day at local parks. Then that evening, we went home and watched movies, b/c we had already done the fireworks thing.

3. Fireworks- love ’em or hate ’em?

I love fireworks. And I think I love them even more after working with some of the people that shoot them off. I worked for a city’s yearly shindig and got to talk a lot about fireworks (they had three different fireworks events and were at the time talking about a yearly fireworks competition). And then, working at a county fair a few summers later I got to hang out with the fireworks guys again. I especially love the fireworks that are choreographed to music!!!

4. Parades- have you ever taken part- share a memory…

Oh my goodness. Lots of parades. When I was young, I rode on the local county Cattlemen’s float with my grandma. And then, in high school I was first the Czech Princess, and then the Czech Queen. LOTS of parades with that – in fully costume, which was kind of hot! Not so many parades recently, but I was definately seen in kroj on the back of a few sports cars in my day =)

5. Time for a musical interlude- if you could sum up holidays in a piece of music what would it be?

imagine this video:

Friday Five

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So, i’ve been hanging out a lot at RevGalBlogPals.blogspot.com when I work on my sermons and prepare for worship and what not. and they have this thing called friday five where there are five things to blog about… so i’m going to start doing it.

This week: Free word association with the following words

1. rooftop

for some reason, I am thinking of my kindergarten christmas music program and doing a little song and dance to “up on the rooftop, reindeer paws, out jumps good old santa claus”

2. gritty

there is sand everywhere. gritty gritty sand. and much of it is because of the flooding we have been experiencing. i helped fill sandbags twice and it was good, hard, fun work. so that part was good. but then, having to see all the awful, stinky, sopping wet mucky sandbags left behind after the flood waters on wednesday – didn’t seem so fun anymore.

3. hot town (yeah, I know, it’s two words)

thinking again of children’s songs – and climbing volcanos! my family has made several trips to hawaii – oahu more specifically – and always make a trek up Diamond Head. there is a great trail leading up the inside of the crater and into the military bunker. we always take the kids and sometimes they need a little bit extra push to make it all the way up. so we sing camp songs the whole way. one of which is about the great chicago fire “it’s gonna be a hot time in the old town tonight.. FIRE FIRE FIRE”

4. night

I just read “the curious incident of the dog in the night-time” it was such a great book! it is written from the perspective of a young boy with autism and it was just so engaging… it really had the ability to get me out of my own state of mind and point of view and into his world – i felt very connected to what he was going through, what he was afraid of, and when i finished, really wanted to know more about autism and programs to help children find their voice. it really felt like i walked a mile in his shoes… i highly recommend it!

5. dance

wow – i haven’t been dancing for a long time. Probably since my brother’s wedding last September, and then my own in August. Either I need a girls night out, or i’m just going to have to hold out until the next slew of weddings comes along this August. I have three weddings back to back! eep!

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