As Judas tried explaining to Jesus, that Precious Ointment could've been sold to feed the poor, and as Jesus explained to Judas, the poor is one reality, Jesus is another reality, there are many realities out there and in here, and you gotta attend to the real right-at-hand reality. That sounds like a version of carpe diem! Right now my reality is feeling lost, shattered and powerless.
Probably many or most of you remember Steve Winwood's Higher Love (in Back in the High Life, 1986)? From his 1980 Arc of a Diver, I love this Steve Winwood song, and sometimes recall frequently anticipating its opening French horn (I think that's the instrument) riff on the car radio.
While You See a Chance | Winwood and Jennings
Steve Winwood dot com
Stand up in a clear blue morning until you see what can be
Alone in a cold day dawning, are you still free? Can you be?
When some cold tomorrow finds you, when some sad old dream reminds you
How the endless road unwinds you
While you see a chance take it, find romance fake it
Because it's all on you
Don't you know by now no one gives you anything
Don't you wonder how you keep on moving one more day your way
When there's no one left to leave you, even you don't quite believe you
That's when nothing can deceive you
Stand up in a clear blue morning until you see what can be
Alone in a cold day dawning, are you still free? Can you be?
And that old gray wind is blowing and there's nothing left worth knowing
And it's time you should be going
© 1980 F.S. Music Ltd., Irving Music, Inc. & Blue Sky Rider Songs
Saturday, May 28, 2005
Call and Response: Waiting for Dawn
Derived from the revival meetings of the Second Great Awakening, in African-American homiletics and hymnody there’s a common practice of call and response: the preacher, choir or soloist issues the call and waits...to give the response space and time to happen. Right now I’m finding myself unglued by the almost unforeseen realization of my tremendous un-wholeness regarding the church music scene and – not exactly peripherally – music in general. I am so hauntingly aware of the fact I wasn’t able to say in obedience, "God, the strength and purpose in your call far outweigh my reluctance, so I’ll go there and I’ll do that!" The title of this reflection is Call and Response; the call is God’s and some would insist we’re supposed to respond in obedience, whatever our misgivings or reservations, but in this case I believe God called me and then – in characteristic call-and-response fashion – waited for my response of seeing and acknowledging my own brokenness in an area of endeavor in which I’ve become exceptionally accomplished. Rather than to incessant dissection and analysis, God calls us to obedient action and service and I keep remembering my identity as a member of the excessively-self-interested Me Generation and then later on of the achievement- (and $$$)-driven Yuppie Generation; although I spent those particular years doing ministry in a local church setting and not chasing worldly riches at all, how I used to recognize myself in the media descriptions, nonetheless! Membership? Of course, my baptism defines and describes my primary identity as a member of the Body of Christ...
(However, as a literal parenthesis regarding critical thinking and analysis, I suspect my propensity for trying to keep figuring out what’s going on has expressed itself more productively and to a greater extent for the community in my gifts and passion for doing theology, so maybe it’s okay, after all!)
As Christians we live in the sway of Resurrection life, and a couple Sundays ago on the Day of Pentecost again we celebrated the revelatory visions, fire, wind and words of the Spirit’s sovereignty, yet still we spend much of our lives between the earthbound incarnational vulnerability of Christmas and Good Friday’s deathbound brokenness. And we need to keep recalling and retelling that throughout the witness of Scripture and throughout the reality of our lives, it’s not about signs and wonders but about unexpected, unmediated Presence and paradoxical Sacrament...
Looking way back, it was close to bizarre that I was getting a degree in musical performance yet too ashamed to admit the fact to anyone outside the musical community in the university’s School for the Arts. During subsequent years I’d continued hiding--only a couple months ago as a Faith, Order and Witness colleague and I were talking before the meeting formally began, I told him I hoped to be able to attend an annual ecumenical event in Europe during summer 2006 and in passing mentioned I’d like to return to the International SummerAcademy for Organists at Haarlem. Knowing my story about not finishing seminary plus my currently not having a formal call to serve a parish, he expressed surprise I (clearly) was an accomplished organist and then asked why I wasn’t playing somewhere, especially with the current shortage of organists!? Instead of replying directly, I said I’d hoped to get far more guest organist gigs than had been forthcoming--once again, not disclosing that on some level I could not serve formally or officially as a church musician (though playing an occasional service or performing any music anywhere in public always has been and remains sheer joy for me)! Despite ecumenism and ecclesiology being unusual interests, they count as normal ones, and since my behavior and participation in Faith, Order, Witness does seem to be well within the norm, I decided to hide in order to save my image. Again.
Recently I read somewhere:
When I surrendered to the crush of the waves and allowed it to naturally bring me back to the surface and ultimately back to the safety of the shore line I was able to survive it. I went with the flow and the flow delivered me. Simply divine.
(However, as a literal parenthesis regarding critical thinking and analysis, I suspect my propensity for trying to keep figuring out what’s going on has expressed itself more productively and to a greater extent for the community in my gifts and passion for doing theology, so maybe it’s okay, after all!)
As Christians we live in the sway of Resurrection life, and a couple Sundays ago on the Day of Pentecost again we celebrated the revelatory visions, fire, wind and words of the Spirit’s sovereignty, yet still we spend much of our lives between the earthbound incarnational vulnerability of Christmas and Good Friday’s deathbound brokenness. And we need to keep recalling and retelling that throughout the witness of Scripture and throughout the reality of our lives, it’s not about signs and wonders but about unexpected, unmediated Presence and paradoxical Sacrament...
Looking way back, it was close to bizarre that I was getting a degree in musical performance yet too ashamed to admit the fact to anyone outside the musical community in the university’s School for the Arts. During subsequent years I’d continued hiding--only a couple months ago as a Faith, Order and Witness colleague and I were talking before the meeting formally began, I told him I hoped to be able to attend an annual ecumenical event in Europe during summer 2006 and in passing mentioned I’d like to return to the International SummerAcademy for Organists at Haarlem. Knowing my story about not finishing seminary plus my currently not having a formal call to serve a parish, he expressed surprise I (clearly) was an accomplished organist and then asked why I wasn’t playing somewhere, especially with the current shortage of organists!? Instead of replying directly, I said I’d hoped to get far more guest organist gigs than had been forthcoming--once again, not disclosing that on some level I could not serve formally or officially as a church musician (though playing an occasional service or performing any music anywhere in public always has been and remains sheer joy for me)! Despite ecumenism and ecclesiology being unusual interests, they count as normal ones, and since my behavior and participation in Faith, Order, Witness does seem to be well within the norm, I decided to hide in order to save my image. Again.
Recently I read somewhere:
When I surrendered to the crush of the waves and allowed it to naturally bring me back to the surface and ultimately back to the safety of the shore line I was able to survive it. I went with the flow and the flow delivered me. Simply divine.
- Psalm 22:3--God still is enthroned upon the praises of His people!
- Extravagant thanks to and trust in the God of Heaven and Earth Who, in the Spirit’s freedom, mystery and power, always answers with resurrection, and so I wait for another dawn in the wake of darkness.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)