The Lovely Trees

Last weekend, I drove from my home in Williamsport, Pennsylvania to visit my mom in Ellwood City. Williamsport is in the middle of the state…. toward the north. Ellwood City is about an hour from the Ohio border so the trip involves driving across a big chunk of Pennsylvania on Interstate 80.

Interstate 80 is bordered by mountains almost the whole length of the drive. The trip is scenic in any season, sometimes breathtakingly so. Usually  my attention is honed in on  driving defensively….checking my mirrors, keeping an eye on the trucks and the hot shots trying to drive 20 or 30 mph over the speed limit. But on this trip, my eyes were repeatedly drawn to the hillsides.

They were varying, blended shades of a dark, rusty, tannish, blackish brown. They reminded me of the color of sienna, umber and burnt umber crayons; drab colors that made a  perfect background for the few trees whose leaves are still almost shockingly vivid and aglow. Bright, bright yellows; the crayon  you might pick to draw the yolk of an egg. Almost illuminated. Glowing...shimmery.  And the RED ones.  Capital letter red. Just the most breathtaking shades of red. I shook my head and exclaimed  “wow”a time or two, amazed at the splendor. And really….the colors could only be described with words like splendor.

It was raining a lot of the way but even the dark mistiness served as a contrast to those iridescent trees.  

There is a message there someone. Some spiritual implication.  Keith has always been fond of saying that things in the natural are reflections of profound spiritual truths. As above, so below. I can’t quite put my finger on it...but something is there hiding. It’s nagging at me like a name I can’t remember, the words to a song, a memory that is almost, but not quite clear.

Some things that come to mind….

The quote from Ann Voskamp, a blogger/author I've been reading lately. In one post she said she told her husband, the Farmer

…..that it was brave, the way the trees made dying look glorious.

And the controversy in the news and Christian circles recently about the young woman with incurable, terminal, late stage brain cancer. She chose to take her own life before the ravages of the disease plunged her into a real living hell. Some folks say she is brave. Other folks say she is a coward.

I’m inclined to say that it’s easy to take the high road when it’s not your path to walk.

And then another thought that is a game changer, a different perspective on this process we witness every fall as we sigh and lament that “winter is just around the corner.” Leaves do not just fall from the trees. The trees actively shed them.

Apparently, when the days start getting shorter and colder, trees start to seal off the place where leaf stem meets tree branch with a row of cells called "abscission" cells. The tree could not survive the winter with leaves attached because of moisture loss and such so the leaves have to go.

So really, it is the leaf that dies….not the tree. Come spring, the tree is good to go and sprouts new leaves. The leaf that fell in the fall is gone. Hmmmmmm….

If the natural hints at the spiritual, what do the trees and their colorful, dying leaves tell us?

We have one of those trees with tenacious leaves that hang on and on (and on) in our front yard. It is an ornamental pear tree that we planted when it was about the same height as I am now.  They are slow growers but  it is probably 20 feet tall….and a lovely, sturdy (yet elegant) tree. Our neighbor has a much bigger one in her front yard. They seem to be in sync and their leaves are still there late into the fall.

Our pear trees are still all green with only the tips of a few leaves showing some reddish tinges at the edges. Keith grumbled the other day that he will be raking leaves in mid November.  

The world is tired, the year is old,The faded leaves are glad to die...~Sara Teasdale, "November"

Not the leaves on our pear trees..... 

More about Prayer....

I was going through the list of prayer quotes I have stashed away in Evernote. I came upon a quote that I wanted to include in this series of posts. I hadn’t saved the source of the quote. A quick copy and paste into Google provided the answer right away. The source was Richard Rohr. He said:

The traditional and most universal word to describe a different access to truth was simply “to pray about something.” But that lovely word “prayer” has been so deadened by pious use and misuse that we now have to describe this different mental attitude with new words. I am going to introduce a different word here, so you can perceive in a fresh way, and perhaps appreciate what we mean by contemplation. The word is “resonance.”
Prayer is actually setting out a tuning fork. All you can really do in the spiritual life is get tuned to receive the always-present message. Once you are tuned, you will receive, and it has nothing to do with worthiness or the group you belong to, but only inner resonance and a capacity for mutuality (Matthew 7:7-11). The Sender is absolutely and always present and broadcasting; the only change is with the receiver station.

Or as Anne Lamott wrote in her book, “Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith

....when you pray, you are not starting the conversation from scratch, just remembering to plug back into a conversation that's always in progress.

One of the sites that popped up in the Google search results led to a blog called “Progressive Redneck Preacher.” He published a post about a week ago entitled “Tuning into the Sacred Song: Our Week in the Living Word.” He included the tuning fork quote in that post.

He mainly wrote about a type of prayer called Breath Prayer. (and his experience with it over the course of a week) A breath prayer is a short phrase uttered soundlessly to the rhythm of our breathing….inhaling and exhaling. Examples that I particularly like…..

Inhale – “Peace”

Exhale – “Be still”

Or how about this one….that fits well with this type of prayer

Inhale – “Closer is He than breathing”

Exhale – “Nearer than hands and feet”

You get the idea. There were several links in the post that led to some websites that went into this prayer (and others) in more detail. I looked around a bit online and couldn’t find any sites better than two of the ones he listed;

Ten Ways to Pray

and

Soul Shepherding

The effectiveness of this prayer (in quieting our body and mind and in honing our listening to God skills) seems to be a blending of the physical and the spiritual. We all know that deep, slow rhythmic breathing calms the body. Take a deep breath. Calm down. Take ten deep breaths. Calm down even more. Sometimes when I am very, very stressed I realize I am barely breathing at all. Short, shallow, hardly there intakes of air. No wonder I feel anxious. I’m suffocating.

I have a thing about the dentist. Not a good thing either. It isn't really about the pain. It is more about the claustrophobic feeling that comes with tubes that suck and spray, grinding drills and all those hands in my face. Keith reminded me once to take deep, calming breaths. It was one of the methods he used to help his scared silly skydiving students stay calm enough to focus as they jumped out of the airplane.

The slow, steady breathing involved with this kind of prayer coupled with a calming phrase from or about scripture seems a perfect combination. On the site that talked about various ways to pray, they recommended using your ten fingers to count…yep…ten deep prayer breaths and then pausing to offer a praise or a petition or even just a moment of silent contemplation. 

And in one of the articles I read, they used Anne Lamott’s simple prayer from Traveling Mercies as an example of a Breath Prayer.

Here are the two best prayers I know:“Help me, help me, help me” and "Thank you, thank you, thank you."

Turn that into a Breath Prayer....

Inhale – Help me, help me, help me

Exhale – Thank you, thank you thank you

More coming about different ways to help us pray....

At the Butler Hospital – You Are Awesome In This Place…

Written ‘now”
The following post was written during my mom’s hospitalization and surgery to have a faulty, leaky valve replaced.  She has been plagued with complication after complication requiring more and more invasive, painful, frightening procedures.  I was there for the surgery (6 days prior to and 6 days after) but she has gone through the past week alone. Yesterday she had to endure another surgery…with full anesthesia.. to drain fluid and blood from her lungs. It was hard being here while she is there, alone.  They didn’t know the extent…if they would be able to do it through 2 small incisions or if they would have to do the open heart thing again.  Fortunately the least invasive procedure seems to have worked and she is doing well.  Thank goodness. I am weary for this to end.  And she probably feels like she is lost in some macabre nightmare.
I still believe what I wrote in the following post.  That God is there…that he is in fact…everywhere.  The other day my daughter Emily posted the following “verse” on her FB wall….
‎"You were made with a purpose. The God of this universe will hold your hand through everyday of your life, for every laugh and every moment that takes your breath away. For the moments, the phone calls, and the news that make your heart drop and turn your world upside down. Yeah, my God is big enough for those moments as well."
I googled it…thinking it must be scripture from The Message Bible or lyrics to a song…but I couldn’t find it.  When I asked her about it later she said it was from one of her old journals. She wrote it.  She is indeed one of the living epistles the Bible speaks of. 
My post follows…but really…how can I improve on the sentiments expressed by my 17 year old daughter? 
Written “then”
I feel God all over the place in this hospital. Perhaps because I am not in patient care areas in the hospital where I work, I don’t notice it as much.  Perhaps it is because I am out of my normal, usual surroundings here (and very, very homesick) Maybe I am more attuned/ receptive to spiritual things here than at home… figuring out when to go to the grocery store....and the timing of other mundane tasks. Time has lost its meaning this past week.  Almost like it has been suspended.  I'm in a time warp.  A bubble...
Perhaps that is why I notice that the air here is heavy with His presence.  Almost tangible. 
Here in this hospital, the family of heart surgery patients wait in the ICU Waiting Room.  On the day of my mom’s surgery, I was there early...long before regular visiting hours began.  The solitude in the room was interrupted when, one by one, members of a big family started to arrive.  They were distraught.  Some of them were crying. Some of them were hugging.  One woman started to sob.  Let's face it....the waiting room in ICU is often not a very happy place. 
A woman who was part of the group struck up a conversation with me by the coffee pots.  She was here from Florida.  Her best friend was the ICU patient.  She came to say goodbye to her friend.  That morning they were removing life support.  She told me her friend and her family were all believers.  Strong believers.  Later, I heard them say that one by one they went in and said their goodbyes.  Then they all gathered in the room to be with her when she died.  Very sad.  Yet, I felt Him there with that family. 
I feel Him now...sitting in the lobby waiting for ICU visiting hours.  He permeates this place.
A song has stuck in my head for the past few weeks.  I listened to it a couple of times this morning....sitting here typing on my mini dell.  And it occurs to me that it is true.  No matter what place we find ourselves in....He is there.  And He is Awesome.  And He is “big enough.” Video follows....

Fun and Faith...in the same sentence.....

I came across an interesting book today...in my web travels.  I've been all over the place this morning and have happened upon dozens of interesting web sites, books, snippets, ideas and thoughts. What differentiates what actually makes it to the front page of this blog and what ends up on a list of Blog Post Ideas...I'm not sure.  Something just piques my interest enough to digress from whatever the series du jour is (which is probably a digression from a digression from a digression from a by-gone "current series")  This book..."Yeah Dave's Guide to Livin" in the Moment...contained a quote in the introduction that piqued my interest enough to postpone my nap long enough to write a short post about it.  The quote follows....

Imagine a man meditating on a secluded mountaintop.  Imagine another man with juggling manboobs dancing at a rock concert.  Now imagine something in between, and you have me and my approach to life. 

Wow..that conjures up quite the mental image....

I tell you this not because I want you to envision me chesty and hairy while showing up to meet you for lunch.  rather, I want you to think about fun and faith in the same sentence.  Because there is a place where the party and the prayer can coexist peacefully. There is a place where the chocolate tastes sweeter, the music sounds better, the inspiration feels richer and the visions look clearer. That place is The Moment. 

Hmmmm....The Moment.  Another way of saying "Living in the Now?"  Another way of describing mindfulness? 

It occurs to me that Jesus had it down pat when it came to combining faith and fun....and it got him into trouble with the religious police of the day. 

'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax
collectors and "sinners." (Luke 7:33-34)

He was known as a wine bibber and a glutton...aka a party boy...spending way too much time with "those people."  You know...the tax collectors...the whores....the unclean... ewwwwwwwww.....sinners.  Perhaps, in part, Jesus came to teach us how to live a life where the party and prayer co-exist peacefully....how to enjoy the moment....and enjoy the people sharing the moment with us.  A valuable lesson to learn. 

 

                                  

God On Trial...

Another digression from the current series...a digression that was initially birthed as a digression from a series I was writing several months ago.  I started this post about "God on Trial" after watching the movie with Keith...but never got around to finishing it.

Imagine that.

I feel compelled to post it now because otherwise, it could get lost among the topics I want to post about someday....and also because it goes along with the posts I've written lately about Bonhoeffer.

  Like Bonhoeffer, the characters in God on Trial are in a Nazi prison camp.  They also have lots of unanswered questions.  True, the characters are fictitious but their questions are not.  They are as old as time.  Almost everyone has asked these same questions at some point or another. They have been whispered in imploring prayers.  They have been shouted angrily to the heavens. They have been used as proof by skeptics.

This movie is for anyone who has ever questioned the God of the Old Testament, the book of Job, the God who allows suffering and evil to exist in the world.  It tackles free will, and atheism, humanism, the covenant with the Jews.  This is all set against the bleak backdrop of a Nazi prison camp.

There is an interesting cast of characters.  Some are believers.  Some not.  Some are Jews.  Some not.  Some are honorable men. Some not. Among them are rabbis, fathers, sons, thieves, businessmen, craftsman, con men. 

During a morbid kind of lottery...where the group is separated into two smaller groups, half of them chosen for the gas chambers the next day.  The prisoners can only guess which group will live and which will die when morning comes.  It is the last night for some of them. 

How do they spend the night?  They put put God on trial.  They seek to decide for themselves, once and for all.... If God is good and all powerful, why is there evil?  If he can stop evil and does not is he good?  If he wants to stop the evil but cannot, is he all powerful? It is riveting

Following is a YouTube video...an eloquent 10 minute summation, given by Akiba, an old-fashioned Rabbi from the countryside. He is a Melamed, or religious teacher, and a healer who has committed holy writings to memory. Although quiet for most of the trial, when Akiba eventually speaks, everyone is drawn to him.

And does he ever say a mouthfull. He recites a a laundry list of many of the atrocities and unfair, cruel doings attributed to the God of the OT.  One does not have to look too hard to find many, many atrocities. 

Particularly poignant, is his comparison of their plight to the plights of some of the people Adonia's wrath was vented against in the OT.

He muses:

For the Egyptians, the Amalekites...what was it like for them when Adonai turned against them?  It was like this.

He asks (knowing full well the answer)

Today there was a selection, yes?  When David defeated the Moabites, what did he do?

Schmidt a well-educated Rabbi appointed the Father of the Court, replies:

He made them lie on the ground in lines and he chose one to live and two to die. 

Akiba continues:

We have become the Moabites.  We are learning how it was for the Amalekites.  They faced extinction at the hand of Adonai.  They died for his purpose.  They fell as we are falling.  They were afraid as we are afraid.  And what did they learn?  They learned that Adonai, the Lord our God, OUR God, is not good.  He is not good.  He was not ever good.  He was only on our side.

He goes on to talk about the Flood, God's demand of Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac.  He repeats the sad conviction he has come to about God...

He is not good...he has simply been strong.  He has simply been on our side. 

And he's not finished....

When we were brought here we were brought by train.  A guard slapped my face.  On their belts they had written  "God is with us."  Now who is to say he is not?  Perhaps he is.  Is there any other explanation?  What do we see here?  His power, his majesty, his might.  All these things...but turned against us.  He is still God...but not our God.  He has become our enemy....

That's what's happened to the covenant.  He has made a new covenant with someone else.

 

 

Plot spoiler...God does not fare well in the final verdict. 

I rewatched parts of the movie tonight.  It is available in its entirety in four parts HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE. 

Akiba's number is among those called to go to the gas chamber.  When another prisoner, one who has declared he does not believe in God, is also called, he panics and implores of Akiba, "What do we do now." And Akiba's answer?

Now, we pray...

And they covered their heads with their hands and prayed....and they continued to pray as they were led into the gas chambers to die...

Without quoting the chapter and verse, they demonstrated by their actions....as Job did....

Though he slay me, yet will I trust him.....

'Twas the Season....

Well, yesterday morning when I got up and looked at FUBAR (our very, very crooked Christmas tree)  like Jim Carrey in The Cable Guy I declared: "You're Going Down, Red Knight...Down, down, down"  Well...okay I called the tree FUBAR not Red Knight...but it did indeed go down...and out the back door by the trash cans...to await trash pick up on Friday.  I did get a twang of remorse as Keith dragged it out the back door...and thanked it for being our tree this year. I will remember it as the crookedest tree I have ever..ever had.    

The living room is back to normal now.  The trimmings are all packed away... and I've got most of the pine needles vacuumed up.  So kind of...at least here at the McAndrew household...the Season is truly over. 

I know some people celebrate Christmas into January and there are the Greek Orthodox who celebrate the holiday later on....but for most of us, the Christmas season begins the day after Thanksgiving (although I lag way behind there) and it ends on New Year's Day.  For most colleges, winter break lasts longer than that...and there will probably be drastically reduced Christmas merchandise on the shelf across from the Valentine stuff for a while to come...but Christmas 2009 is pretty much over. 

Our celebration was quiet...and on New Year's Eve...while all my offspring were out running around, Keith and I toasted in the New Year here in our living room (no place I'd rather be) with a glass (or two) of wine and a movie.  Silent Night.  Another movie based on a true story.

The story takes place in war torn Germany, at a hunting cabin where a German woman (Elizabeth Vincken) sought refuge from the fighting for her son, Fritz, on Christmas.  First three American soldiers, one severely injured, ended up in their home...followed not too long after by three German soldiers.  Elizabeth was a spunky one...hated war...and insisted that if they were going to seek refuge in her home on Christmas, they would all have to agree to a truce and their guns had to remain outside.  Surprisingly they all agreed. 

It was a heartwarming holiday story...demonstrating that even though people may be very different in many ways, in the end, perhaps we are all more alike than different.  

 

   

 

An account of the real, true story can be found here.

And just now as I was going through snippets of info and disjointed thoughts that I have saved for future posts, I came upon a quote that annie posted to EU the other day...a quote by Nouwen:

Being Safe Places for Others

When we are free from the need to judge or condemn, we can become safe places for people to meet in vulnerability and take down the walls that separate them. Being deeply rooted in the love of God, we cannot help but invite people to love one another. When people realize that we have no hidden agendas or unspoken intentions, that we are not trying to gain any profit for ourselves, and that our only desire is for peace and reconciliation, they may find the inner freedom and courage to leave their guns at the door
and enter into conversation with their enemies.

Many times this happens even without our planning. Our ministry of reconciliation most often takes place when we ourselves are least aware of it. Our simple, nonjudgmental presence does it.

Which is exactly what happened in the movie...they left their guns at the door and entered into conversation with their enemies...at the urging..insistence... of Elizabeth.  She did not condemn or judge the soldiers and her home became a safe place for them to take down the walls that separated them.  Great quote...great movie...great (true) story.....

Amen Revisited

The following quote from Mother Teresa came from the World Prayers website I mentioned in my last post on prayer. 

Prayer is not asking.
Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God,
at his disposition,
and listening to his voice in the depths of our hearts.

mother teresa - in her own words

Yeah...I like that.  I'm not there yet, of course, because my prayers are often made up of "please help me" and "please do...or do not (depending on the situation)...allow this or that happen." But "thank you" peppers my prayer life as often as "please" so I am getting there.  This quote also reminds me of a tidbit definition I found while looking around the world wide web for commentary on the word "Amen."

From Questions and Answers on the Liturgy of the Church of England

Q. What is the meaning of Amen at the end of this and other prayers?
A. It means, so let it be, or, my heart agrees with my tongue.

Hmmmm....something to think about.  How many times does the heart disagree with the tongue?! And not just in prayer...but in our everyday interactions with others...our family, our friends, our peers? How many times are our words insincere...simply "lip service" meant to appease, convince, placate, manipulate?  And what about the opposite end of the spectrum?  Those who, without hesitation, "speak their minds" with little thought of who might be hurt?  Sometimes in our human interactions "telling it like it is" might not always be the best policy?

But when we pray...especially when we pray....shouldn't our hearts agree with our tongues? It's not as if he is unaware of what dwells within each and every heart. Eloquent, pious, high sounding words offered up in the best "king james english" are not going to fool him one bit. When we pray I think it is best to "call a spade a spade" and bare our hearts to God.  Another snippet from a book called Religious Instruction For Young Children by Elizabeth Mayo touches on that thought...

The meaning of "Amen" is, "So be it," or "So it shall be;" and when we use it, we declare that we believe what has been said to be true.  We give our assent to it.  By this word, we mark, that we have joined in spirit in the prayer or praises offered up by another.  What mockery and impiety to use this solemn word at the end of prayer, when our thoughts and wishes have been wandering after other things. 

And in another snippet from The Companion to the Book of Common Worship by Peter C. Bower

......"Amen," a Hebrew word meaning "So be it!" or "I agree!"  "Amen" does not mean, "I'm finished now, so you can open your eyes."  Rather, "Amen" means "I am with you" or "I concur," and, therefore, belongs by definition, to the assembled congregation.  "Amen" is a word to be spoken or sung by the people, not the leader. 

So perhaps we should not mutter "Amen" during corporate worship if what we've been contemplating is nothing more spiritual than what entree we will order when we hit Denny's for lunch after the service.

More on Amen in my next post....

Amen...

I came upon a web site a while back...World Prayers.  Self described below:

The objective of this website is to gather the great prayers written by the spiritual visionaries of our planet into an online database representing all life affirming traditions. Many of these prayers have been used for hundreds if not thousands of years. Others are from spiritual contemporaries in today's intricate global fabric. Though these sacred verses arise from divergent paths, voices, languages, cultures and heritages, they all carry within them the same burning flame - the same impassioned love for life and the divine mysteries.

There are hundreds of prayers on this site "representative of all life affirming faiths and spiritual practices." They are divided into the following categories:

 ADORATIONS
Prayers of devotion, surrender, love, praise and offering.
CELEBRATIONS
Prayers of thanksgiving, initiation, affirmation and blessing.
INVOCATIONS
Prayers of petition, supplication, calling forth and healing.
MEDITATIONS
Prayers of reflection, contemplation, being and teaching.

The site is searchable by author, tradition, source, type, keyword and quote.  There are more than a dozen traditions listed...

• African Traditional
• Asatru
• Baha'i Faith
• Buddhism
• Celtic
• Children
• Christianity
• Confucianism
• Gaian
• Hinduism
• Islam
• Jainism
• Judaism
• Native American
• Sikhism
• Sufism
• Taoism
• Zoroastrian

Many of the prayers were more poemlike than prayerlike. Many (most) expressed my own thoughts and beliefs, worded a bit different than I might put it...but still expressing a viewpoint, an understanding of God that I share.  Prayers that I can wrap up in my own heart and mind with "Amen."

I've heard Keith say many times that Amen is the equivalent of "Those are my words."  Meaning that the prayer so reflects the  heart and beliefs of the listener that to add anything would be redundant. 

I like that.  I've experienced that many times with prayers...and with quotes, which are snippets of encapsulated truths...broken down to their lowest integer.  My favorite quotes are those which take profound truths and express them in a bare bones fashion...not all dressed up and wordy.

Tomorrow I am going to look a little more closely at the word "Amen" and pepper the post with some quotes (a few a bit wordy) and interesting facts that I found in the "virtually" unending resource library available on...the World Wide Web. 

Praise Him With a Dance - 3

Psalm 30:11

You have turned my mourning into joyful dancing. You have taken away my clothes of mourning and clothed me with joy

More from the article about the Dancing Saints....

The Dancing Saint whose life, in Dukes's (the artist)opinion, most poignantly embodies the message of the work is Malcolm X.

"The justification for having him here is very powerful," Dukes says. "Here is someone who was a gangster. A racist. So he went from that, and he grew. And I think that's holy, to be on that spiritual quest. No one starts out perfect, and very many people don't end up perfect either. It's the quest. He had a revelation of seeing all men as being brothers. No more, ‘if you're black you're my brother, and if you're white you're a devil.'"

Which is kind of what Roy talked about in his email...that the orchestra is not only mankind as a whole...but mankind individually...and perfecting the harmony is something that happens in everyone...just like the change that occurred in Malcolm X.  Just like the change that is occurring right now in you and me. 

"Let them praise His name with the dance"

Psalm 149:3

And one more closing thought...something Keith reminded me of this morning.  He remembered something in one of Preston Eby's writings about an orchestra.  He found it for me online, so I am copying and pasting it below. 

A brother related the following experience. “When I first went to Nashville, Tennessee, some friends, thinking they were doing me a favor, called me and said, ‘We have tickets for the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra that’s coming to town, and we want to take you as our guest.’ Well, I love music, but I know nothing about it, and I can’t sing it — I always help congregational singing by keeping quiet. Frankly, I couldn’t think of anything more boring than a whole evening of symphony! But I had to go because they were so kind and I wanted to be polite, so I accepted graciously and went along.

“I had never been to a thing like that before, and I was impressed by what I saw. We went in, took our seats, and in a few minutes there began to drift out from the sides the musicians. They were in shirt sleeves for the most part, and each man went up to his instrument and started tuning it. The fellows with the fiddles too big to put under their chins sawed back and forth — oh, it sounded terrible. The fellows with the little ones they put under their chins squeaked up and down with those. The ones with the horns — oh my, nothing was in harmony. It was a medley of discordant, confused noise. Then after they got through with that kind of a disturbance, they all disappeared again, went out through the wings.

“Another five minutes went by when all of a sudden the lights in the auditorium went off, the lights on the platform came on, and the musicians walked out. This time they had on their coats. My, they looked so nice. Each one came out and stood or sat at his instrument. Then there was a hush in the auditorium, a spotlight was focused on the wings, and the conductor stepped out. When he did there was thunderous applause for him. He bowed. Then he came to the podium and picked up a thin little stick. He turned around again to the audience and bowed, then turned his back to the audience, lifted that little stick — total silence came over the auditorium, you could have heard a pin drop — then he brought that little stick down. And, my friend, there were goose pimples all over me. I never heard such music in all my life. Oh, what harmony, what wonderful harmony there was!” — end quote.

The above excerpt is part of an article entitled:

KINGDOM BIBLE STUDIES: THE UNIVERSAL SONG by J. Preston Eby

Praise Him With a Dance - 2

In yesterday's post, Roy talked about the different instruments mentioned in Psalm 150. And he mused whether all mankind is the orchestra...the different instruments representing the many, varied aspects of mankind? The trumpet, the lyre, the harp, the organs, the crash of the cymbals...

The NIV renders Psalm 150

Praise the LORD . Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens.
² Praise him for his acts of power;
praise him for his surpassing greatness.
³ Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise him with the harp and lyre,
⁴ praise him with tambourine and dancing,
praise him with the strings and flute,
⁵ praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals.
⁶ Let everything that has breath praise the LORD .
Praise the LORD .

In the Young's Literal Translation, verse 6 is translated

 All that doth breathe doth praise Jah! Praise ye Jah!

When annie posted a link to an article about The Dancing Saints mural at St. Gregory's  Episcopal Church in San Francisco, it fit so well with the back and forth musings between Keith and Roy.

Psalm 150 also talks of praising the Lord with dancing...and the mural is an awe inspiring work depicting the saints...both likely and unlikely...as they praise the Lord with dance.  Yes...that is Jesus...larger than the other Saints...dancing in the center of the mural.

The artist, Mark Dukes

....recently completed a ten-year commission to create a giant, neo-Byzantine, iconographic mural titled The Dancing Saints, which covers the entire modernist rotunda of St. Gregory of Nyssa Church, home to a progressive Episcopalian community in the Potrero Hill neighborhood of San Francisco.

There are other pictures of this amazing work or art that can be viewed HERE and HERE. 

More tomorrow....

 

Praise Him With a Dance....

This post is another example of several things...from different areas/aspects of my life...no doubt stored in different "folders" in my brain suddenly coming together...with an almost  magnetic like force to form an idea for a blog post.  I think I mentioned this a few days ago. 

A week or so ago, Keith emailed me to tell me his views on the last verse in Psalm 150...what is usually translated "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord."  He thought perhaps the word "let" might not actually belong in the text if one was faithful to what the original language conveyed.  Sure enough...after checking in a literal translation (Young's) and a Hebrew Lexicon (Interlinear Analyzer 2 at Scripture 4 All) we discovered that the verse should actually read more along the lines of,

Everything that has breath praises the Lord.  

In an email he wrote to our friend Roy, he said:

In addition much can be added about the act of breathing in Scripture. God breathed into man and he became a living soul. It has been said that when God exhales we must inhale. I also think that the Hebrew word Ruach means spirit as well as wind and breath and air. And in saying that, if I am not mistaken it is the same word that is translated as "cool" as God walked with Adam in the "cool" of the day.

To which our friend Roy replied:

I wonder also if it is not a prophetic picture? We have the example of an entire orchestra here.....those that play all forms of instruments each instructed to praise the Lord. It would seem ALL instruments are instructed to praise. So. if all mankind is the orchestra is there a day ahead when all will praise Him in benevolence, mercy and all other wonderful aspects of kindness, love and goodness? We know all man's works praise the Lord now though hard to understand those that cause such misery at the present time. But, does this Psalm, on one level, point to that day when all will turn their own "music" (that higher life that is within them by His power) toward Him openly and freely, unhindered?

     So many depths and variances of meaning!
     Again then, if we apply the Psalm's meaning inwardly on an individual basis is it not necessary that the orchestra within each of us be subdued and coordinated to give off a harmonic music toward the Lord? My stringed instruments are not in unison with my wind instruments and such.....But, He is orchestrating the music within so that on a certain day and in brief blasts now the music harmonizes and comes together in Him. There shall be a day within when the last trumpet shall sound, that is, the last trumpet/ instrument shall come into harmony within me in Him. Then, He shall set me free to descend upon mankind with a shout, that is, He in me. And, even at that moment that beautiful music brought together in my heavens shall descend within me to the lowest parts of my earth gathering me together as it enables me to be a vessel to gather all around me together this last trump setting free the orchestra of His life within raising me to the heavens and gathering all around me in Him and by His excellent grace! We are blessed to see and experience those glimpses now......

More on this in my next post....

The American Patriots Bible- My Thoughts From Borders....

I am at Border's again.  This  time typing as I read....
I am leafing through the American Patriots Bible. I wanted a first hand look without having to pay 39.99. Besides, I have a couple of hours "to kill" before it is time to pick up Beth from work. Borders is a great place to do just that. 

The first article that catches my attention is a 5 page section in the front of the Bible called The Seven Principles of the Judeo-Christian Ethic.  I want to talk about this later in the post...or perhaps in another post...but for now, I want to touch on another article that I found very moving.  It is on page 3.  The scripture verse is Genesis 1:1.

In the beginning, God created.....

It goes on to say:

Apollo 8, the first manned mission to circle the moon, entered lunar orbit on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1968.  That evening, the three astronauts--Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders--did a live television broadcast during the ninth lunar orbit, in which they showed picture of the Earth and the moon seen from Apollo 8.  At the time, the broadcast was the most watched TV program event ever. 

About 6 weeks before launch, a NASA official had called Borman and said, " We figure more people will be listening to your voice than that of any man in history.  So we want you to say something appropriate."  Appropriately, the Apollo 8 team ended the broadcast taking turns reading from the Book of Genesis. 

William Anders began by saying,

"We are now approaching lunar sunrise and for all the people back on earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message we would like to send to you. 

He then began to read Genesis 1:1.
Jim Lovell continued reading from the first chapter without commentary. 

Frank Borman finished the chapter...

And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. 

He concluded by saying:

"And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, and a Merry Christmas--and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth. 

I was alive when this was going on.  I was 12 years old but I really can't remember any of it.  I find this story so moving because of the perspective those three astronauts had looking out the windows of Apollo 8.  Even though it was merely a "microscopic" glimpse of the universe that God presides over, it was a bigger glimpse than I am ever going to see. And no, even if there is some kind of commercial space flight available for the general public before I die it is a view I will never see. You would never (and I do mean never) get me on any ship orbitting the Earth (other than, perhaps, at gunpoint) 

 

 

But those three astronauts were there...and they saw the Earth and the Moon from that perspective...as they read the Creation account on Christmas Eve.  Amazing.....

 

 

 

About those nine principles of Judeo-Christian ethics?  More on that tomorrow....

I Say Thank You....

I came across the following writing on Gil Bailie's blog. 

He found it on a website called the Rhode Island Catholic 

I posted it on EU and several people were very touched so I thought I would post it here in its entirety.  I have a few comments that follow the writing.....

 

The boy who changed my life forever

Posted Nov 27, 2008

BY SR. PATRICIA MCCARTHY, CND

I was 19; Douglas was 13. Far more than six years seemed to separate us. I had just taken my first vows as a religious sister and was attending a small college in New York City.

I grew up in a large, happy family, had a good education, many friends and seemingly endless opportunities for choices in life. Douglas was in a large state institution, also in New York City, abandoned at birth, severely physically disabled, paralyzed from the neck down, and had spent his entire life in the same institution with little hope that anything would change in the future.

We met and my life was changed forever.

One day while walking to college with a few other equally young sisters, a car pulled over. A priest opened his window and asked, “How many of you are there?” I answered, “27,” knowing exactly what he meant by his question. There was a string of black-and-white garbed nuns walking to the same college. “I need religion teachers for people in the state institution,” he said hopefully.

A few days later the deal was set. Any who wanted could teach on Sunday morning at the largest state institution in New York. Two buses and an hour of travel got us to the site where 6,000 patients lived, many of them Catholic. I volunteered for the boys who couldn’t walk. A consequence of that fact was that while everyone else taught for 20 minutes and then took their class to Mass, I was left in Building 21 with 12 children in 12 wheelchairs for an hour and a half.

It didn’t take me long to arrange for the old men on walkers to leave their walkers and push a chair over to Building 3 for Mass. Life was good and God was better! I never had to teach, since it took me 20 minutes to get the boys to Mass and another 20 to get them back. We went all year, no matter the weather, until a brutal fall rainstorm hit one Sunday. The boys were sad; I was desperate. What could I possibly teach them?

I started, “God is not only in Building 3; God is right here in our Building 21 and in our hearts.” Douglas perked up and in his very halting, slow, measured voice said, “I already know that. I talk to God every day.”

I stopped mid-sentence and looked at this child, who was abandoned at birth, whose only home had been this institution, whose earthly possessions consisted of a few trinkets in a bag hanging on the back of his wheelchair, who needed help for every action in his life, who had neither family nor friends to visit him, who never had a birthday party or a trip outside Building 21 except for the hospital and Mass. I looked at this child and wondered. Hesitatingly, I asked Douglas, “When do you talk to God?”

Again the halting, struggling attempt to speak, “I talk to God every night before I go to sleep.”

I looked beyond Douglas and the other boys and stared out at the dormitory where bed after bed was lined up, all with identical white sheets and bedspreads, about 40 of them in rows. This was where Douglas slept; this was where Douglas talked to God.

“Douglas, if you want, will you tell us what you say to God every night?” The boys and I waited.

Douglas gave me his most radiant smile, tried to hold straight his unsteady head, and then spoke in a clear, steady voice for the first time I had ever heard. Douglas simply said, “I say, ‘Thank you.’”

Wow.  Really makes one stop and think.  And I am thinking that Douglas has found his oneness with God.  A distinct, clear, unmistakable revelation of the christ within, the hope of glory, his true essence.  The confines, the prisons, the disability and pain vanished in the light of his communion with God...and what was left to say but....thank you?

As a disclaimer, I should add that I am not nearly there yet.  Although my mind can barely...just barely....grasp what might have been so deep and so profound as to swallow up the bleakness of Douglas' life with the joy of the Lord, I am not ready to give up what I might have to give up to experience that.  The egoic mind clings tightly to what it perceives as its reality and its illusion of control. 

The scripture from 1 Peter comes to mind....

Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time; casting all your anxiety upon him, because he careth for you.

Douglas must have had that all figured out....

With a Song in My Heart

While "researching" this post on google, I came across the lyrics to a song by Frank Sinatra that comes very close to describing the reaction Christian music has on my heart. The name of the song is With A Song In My Heart. I thought that it was rather interesting that this is a secular song, yet it describes the experience of praise and worship so well. I have no idea what the tune or the tempo might be. I tried to find it on Project Playlist (to no avail). I know it is an old song. The lyrics to the first verse and chorus are:

With a song in my heart
I behold your adorable face.
Just a song at the start
But it soon is a hymn to your grace.
When the music swells
I'm touching your hand
It tells that you're standing near, and ..
At the sound of your voice
Heaven opens his portals to me.
Can I help but rejoice
That a song such as ours came to be?
But I always knewI would live life through
With a song in my heart for you.

Nothing can make me more aware of the real and tangible presence of the Lord than hearing a praise and worship song or an old time hymn. I am transported to the throne room in an instant. Just like that. 0 to 60 in 1.5 seconds. A song at the start...soon becomes a hymn to his grace. Heaven opens its portals to me. I behold his adorable face. He's standing near. My eyes fill with tears, an invisible force pulling my hands upward like a magnet. . I'm touching his hand. Can I help but rejoice??

Granted, my “rejoicing” is somewhat low key. I go to a United Methodist Church afterall. Charismatic they are not. But I go to the 11:00 “contemporary” worship service which is a bit more charismatic than the other services. I swear that I feel the presence of the Lord there as much, if not more, than at the most boisterous, charismatic, slain in the spirit services I have attended. Mere volume and fever pitch excitement is not always an indicator of his presence. I credit the praise team there for exposing me to Christian music that I might never have listened to otherwise. Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin, Hillsong, Mercy Me….and others. I truly had never heard them before I started attending church there regularly.

A few months ago, I bought an MP3 player. After some initial software glitches and frustrations, I managed to get most of my online music and CD collection saved on the player. That is a post in itself. Computer savvy I am...gadget savvy I am not. The "Not Savvy" list includes digital cameras, cell phones, MP3 players, I Pods, DVD players and recorders...even VCR's...and the list goes on. If someone put a gun to my head and threatened to pull the trigger, I doubt if I could figure out how to program Keith's DVD recorder. But I digress. Anyway, I just recently figured out how to sync Windows Media Player and my Sansa MP3 player. This opened up a whole new world of musical possibilities and portability. It amazes me that I can carry all those songs around in my pocket. Technology. You gotta' love it!!! I don't understand how most of it works but the fact that it does is downright amazing!!!

Since this blog is a menagerie of loosely related posts, (which means that nothing is really disqualified as the topic dujour) I thought I might start a series on songs...new and old...which evoke strong feelings. Please feel free to chime in and comment on any favorite songs you might have. I do appreciate comments, so do not hesitate if you have anything to add or ask or dispute. This applies to any post you find on this blog. I’ve tried to make it easy to comment by not requiring registration. I, also, clicked off the option that forces you to decipher a row of letters and numbers….some on their sides, in different fonts, and colors, upside down (is that a capital letter???) and then type them into a little rectangular box above or below. I guess this is to prove that the comment is not from an automated spammer since only a human eyeball can read the letter/number combo. So again....comments WELCOME!!!

Oh…and one more thing….and my family can attest to this; God put a song in my heart, but he did not put a melody on my lips. I couldn’t carry a tune in a five gallon bucket!! But that does not stop me from praising him. In the words of the Psalmist, I will sing of steadfast love and justice; to you, O Lord, I will make music.

Praise Him, Praise Him, Jesus Our Blessed Redeemer

This song came to mind this morning....

And I do so praise him this morning for giving us a glimpse of the invisible God....the exact representation of the invisible God. We see the face of God in the face of Jesus. Let us gaze into that face and let what we see so permeate our being that we cannot help but be changed.