Friday, May 31, 2013

Trusting It Will Happen

     Sunday we will meet one of those minor, apparently walk-on characters Jesus likes to meet.

     It is a Roman centurion, and one of his servants is gravely ill.  He asks some synagogue leaders tell Jesus about the situation and ask Jesus to heal the servant.  The elders tell Jesus that the centurion is a friend to the synagogue and a worthy man.  Notice that the religious leaders and the relationship of a Roman citizen to the Jewish synagogue in Capernaum is positive and merely taken for granted, somewhat unlike other interactions of Jesus and the authorities.

     So Jesus agrees and sets off to the centurion’s house.  But the centurion send someone to tell Jesus he doesn’t need to show up.  He, after all, as a commander understands that Jesus can just say the word and his servant will be healed; he doesn’t even need to be there.  Jesus, says Luke, is impressed.  If the centurion says to a soldier, “Go,” he will go.  The centurion doesn’t have to check back on him.  So he expects that if Jesus says the servant will get well, he will!  He simply believes Jesus can do it… and that is good enough.  Luke has Jesus marveling at his straight-ahead trust it will happen.

     Part of my family lore is of my great-grandmother, Molly McKinney (yep, a lot of Scots-Irish blood in this Presbyterian!), who was apparently a mighty pray-er.  One of her favorite lines was, “I have to be careful what I pray for, because I will get it.”  By all accounts, she wasn’t showing off or bragging; she just prayed really well and in her trust that things would happen, they did.

     It’s too bad the centurion doesn’t get more publicity in the Bible, because this interaction is one of the most straightforward descriptions of faith.  Ask God.  If God says it, trust it will happen.  Brilliant.

     And remember our UCC motto?

     God is still speaking…!

     May we have such trust, such faith.
                                                                                                          
                                                                              In Christ,
                                                                                David

Please sign up for one of the small, informal conversations during June for people to share their experiences of this church over the years (not just in the past three) so I can understand the landscape and history.  Either email the church at office@fccithaca.org, call the church office at 607-257-6033, or sign up outside the church library and sanctuary on one of the many clipboards.  I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible!


Texts For Sunday Worship:
The Hebrew Bible         1 Kings 18:20-39
The Epistles                 Galatians 1:1-12
The Gospels                 Luke 7:1-10

Friday, May 24, 2013

The number this week is: Three

Last week I started my “Weekly Word” with the word, “Spirit.”  How could I resist this time with Sunday being Trinity Sunday?

The whole concept of Trinity is mysterious.  And not just a mystery boggling the mind of most of us trying to understand it, but an actual, official Mystery. The ancient creeds consistently call the triune nature of God— Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer— a Holy Mystery.  The exact way God can be One yet Three keeps defying various attempts at logic, yet it is consistently experienced as true by the faithful.  So theologians write explanations and preachers keep working on analogies like St. Patrick’s famous shamrock.  But most of us, when singing a Doxology know that we mean God is both the Three Persons and yet One God, have a hard time with the details.  And frankly, even as a “paid professional” in such subjects, I mostly pass up trying to outline all the theological subtleties and work with the certainty in my ribcage that I experience God as both three and one.  Modern confessions of faith seem to settle on the old word, “Triune” God, which is pretty much the same as declaring it a mystery for us to believe and to find comfort in instead of to understand.

For often-intellectual UCC and Presbyterians, it is hard not to be able to articulate the complex theology of the Trinity, but I notice that we can all sing “Holy, Holy, Holy!” with lots of feeling and lots of gusto and lots and lots of faith.

Sure, I’ll take a run at “explaining” the doctrine, but mostly I just feel it in my bones as true.  Just like 2000 years of believers before us.  Come join the celebration this Sunday.  And bring someone with you to enjoy it, too!

                                                                              In Christ,
                                                                                David

Please sign up for one of the small, informal conversations during May and early June for people to share their experiences of this church over the years (not just in the past three) so I can understand the landscape and history.  Either email the church at office@fccithaca.org, call the church office at 607-257-6033, or sign up outside the church library and sanctuary on one of the many clipboards.  I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible!


Texts For Sunday Worship:
Hebrew Bible        Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31
New Testament     Romans 5:1-5
Gospels               John 16:12-15

Friday, May 17, 2013

Wind of the Spirit

    The word this week is: “Spirit!”

    This week is Pentecost, the day when the Holy Spirit descended on the upper room of the disciples, filling them with, empowering them, sending them into the world to tell of Christ’s amazing love and resurrection, symbolized by people from all over hearing them speak in their own languages.  It is the breakout moment of the church.

    Pentecost is is one of the most layered of our church holy days.  It is widely celebrated as the “Birthday of the Church,” sometimes with birthday cakes.  Its color is red to catch the flames.  Most of us are familiar with the wordplay around “Spirit,” meaning in both Greek and Hebrew “breath,” “wind,” and the spirit that animates us.  And I’ve been in churches which pick up on those images with balloons, big fans, streamers, and even the occasional pyrotechnics!

    Our theme this year will move around wind, picking up some of Jesus’ words to Nicodeumus about the wind blowing where it will but you can’t see it, just its effects.  Where churches sometimes key in on the force of the wind, the power of the wind, this year we’re listening for the harmonies of wind rustling windchimes.  After a season of stormy weather, I want to remind us of the quieter, more melodious effects of wind, the gentle breeze, the tintinnabulation of tuned chimes, hopefully giving us a chance to re-experience the ways we play together on the wind of the Spirit.  In a way, the idea is kind of obvious, and we can agree that it’s so, but there is something moving in being together in the sanctuary with the tinging of the gently moving chimes filling the room… and us... with the reminder we are all borne on the Wind of the Spirit.

    So please bring wind chimes to jingle during the service when we hear the scriptures say “Spirit,” and wear flame-bright reds and oranges and magenta in your wardrobe to “get into the Spirit” of Pentecost.

    Come join the celebration this Sunday.  And bring someone with you to enjoy it, too!

                                                                           In Christ,
                                                                                David

Please sign up for one of the small, informal conversations during May and early June for people to share their experiences of this church over the years (not just in the past three) so I can understand the landscape and history.  Either email the church at office@fccithaca.org, call the church office at 607-257-6033, or sign up outside the church library and sanctuary on one of the many clipboards.  I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible!


Texts For Sunday Worship:
Gospels                 John 14:8-17, 25-27
New Testament       Acts 2:1-21    

Friday, May 10, 2013

Weekly Word from the Interim Pastor

What do Ascension, the day when the church observes Jesus’ ascent up into heaven, Confirmation when some of our young people confirm that the faith of their parents and of the church, and Mother’s Day all have in common?

Well, we celebrate all of them this Sunday!

Sometimes we can get all sorts of things piling up at the same time, but in this case, have a chance to look into heaven with the disciples as Jesus has his transition from this plane to the next, with the reminder he will send the Holy Spirit, the Comfortor, the Advocate to them… and to us.  We also mark with our confirmation class their growing into the faith they have been reared within; please plan to remain for a refreshment time celebrating this step in their lives.  And, of course, it would be a nice thought (at least to the interim minister!) to take Mom to church before heading off to your other plans.

Sort of like the other big thing this time of year, graduations, Ascension and Confirmation are times of transition, of marking the end of one experience and the beginning of another one.  Many times we have mixed feelings about those transitions.  We are excited to start something new, but we realize we are leaving some things and some people.  We are excited, yet we can dread the unknown.  We are happy, but sometimes ambivalent.  Such is life.  Such is growth.  Such are transitions.  Thinking of those boundary-crossing moments in our lives can also get us in touch with the way the disciples felt as Jesus departed, even when he promised the Spirit for next week, Pentecost.  “Wow, look at that!” gets mixed up with, “uh, he’s really going.”  Like the audience at graduation, we are grinning at the accomplishment, yet also feeling a twinge of sadness that things won’t be the same from now on.  The perspective of faith reminds us that the ambivalence is all under the category of “celebration,” of anticipation more than loss, of going forward and not looking back too much.

Jesus goes up, our youth step up, and our moms help us grow up.  Come join the celebrations this Sunday.  And bring someone with you to enjoy it, too!

For the next act, Pentecost next week, May 19, please bring windchimes to jingle during the service when we hear the scriptures say “Spirit,” and wear flame-bright reds and oranges and magentas in your wardrobe to “get into the Spirit” of Pentecost.
                                                                                                            In Christ,
                                                                                                                    David

Please sign up for one of the small, informal conversations during May and early June for people to share their experiences of this church over the years (not just in the past three) so I can understand the landscape and history.  Either email the church at office@fccithaca.org, sign up on our website fccithaca.org, call the church office at 607-257-6033, or sign up outside the church library and sanctuary on one of the many clipboards.  I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible!


Texts For Sunday Worship:
New Testament       Acts 1:1-11
Epistles                  Ephesians 1:15-23
Gospels                 Luke 24:44-53

Friday, May 3, 2013

The Mass in G Major

To most of us, the name Franz Schubert brings to mind the famous “Unfinished Symphony.”  There are good reasons for this.  His short life spanned less than 32 years, leaving much unfinished.  But what he did finish includes an impressive list: some 600 songs, dozens of pieces for piano, many string quartets and other chamber works, nine symphonies, and several pieces of church music.

Schubert’s church music has special significance.  His father was a widely respected schoolmaster in the church parish of Lichtenthal, just north the center of old Vienna.  Schubert had early music training as a choirboy at the Vienna cathedral, where he studied with Antonio Salieri, a legendary rival of Mozart.  Like Mozart – though born 6 years after his death – Schubert showed great talent at an early age, and composed several works for the church during his early years.

His earliest such works are a series of four Masses written for his own parish church in Lichtenthal, where they were performed to great acclaim.  These four Masses date from the years 1814 to 1816, Schubert being between the ages of 17 and 19.  All four have especially fine roles for a soprano soloist, and it appears that Schubert had a particular soloist in mind.  She was a blossoming singer named Theresa Grob, two years younger than Franz, whose family were neighbors of the Schuberts.  The two were clearly in love, but Franz’s musical courtship came to nothing, for he was unable to prove financial stability, a legal requirement for marriage in Vienna at that time.  In the end he never married, though he always claimed, with sadness, that he had wanted to do so.

The Mass in G Major, which we sing this week, is the second of these four Masses.  It has gained widespread admiration as an early masterpiece of Schubert.  It sets the text quickly, with little repetition and great economy of style.  At the same time it incorporates many lovely and memorable melodies, the hallmark of all Schubert’s music.  It is truly a gem of the choral repertoire.

                                                                              Bill Cowdery
                                                                              Music Director and Organist