email: whitpresby@charterinternet.com
Spiritual readings "Greetings from Whittier Presbyterian Church"
November 2004 Election 2004: Leonard
Bernstein’s “Take Care of This House” Alice Sebold, Motherhood is a calling. Contemplative versus Evangelical Christianity “Friendly Persuasion” morning moment Reinhold Niebuhr, Faith, Hope & Love Bumper sticker truth Anne Hills’ Thanksgiving song, “Light of Love” Advent reflection of Dean Alan Jones Rowan Williams icon reflections for Advent Concluding the series of emails leading up to the election
on Nov. 2, 2004, today we hear from Leonard Bernstein, one of the last
century’s premier American composers. One
of his works is “1600 Pennsylvania Avenue,” and it includes this song,
“Take Care of This House.” It
is a prayer put on the lips of Abigail Adams, the wife of John Adams, who was
elected president of the USA after George Washington. I heard it on a CD entitled “Prayers,” by the Korean
soprano, Sumi Jo. As I always do
when I’m using music, in encourage you to find a recording of this song/work
and listen to it. Take care of this house. Keep it from harm. If bandits break in, Sound the alarm. Care for this house. Shine it by hand. And keep it so clean The glow can be seen all over the land. Be careful at night. Check all the doors If someone makes off with a dream, The Dream will be yours. Take care of this house. Be always on call. For this house is the hope of us all. The original work was set in the early days of our
nation, but I think the words of this prayer can apply to any time a president
is elected. Let us pray it in
regards to whomever wins today’s election.
Let us never cease praying for our nation and its leaders. Grace & peace Geoff My wife and I recently read the novel “The Lovely
Bones” by Alice Sebold, Back Bay Books, Little, Brown and Company, New, York,
2002. It’s a fascinating story of
a young girls view of her family and world from heaven after her murder.
In it is this sentence. “She now knew that being a mother was a calling,
something plenty of young girls dreamed of being.” I have felt for some time that all the serious
relationships of our life are callings, places where God calls us to act in
certain ways with certain responsibilities.
Sebold captures this sense for the mother character in her novel.
Historically the idea of calling has been reserved for certain
professions, ministry in particular. But
I believe that a serious life of faith can sense the call of God in all the
relationships we are in. How does God call you to be a spouse, parent, grand-parent,
child? These various relationships
can be expanded into the larger world as we consider how God calls us to be a
friend, worker, supervisor, teacher, neighbor.
A wide-angle-lens spirituality sees God everywhere and God’s call to us
in every contact with creation. How are you answering God’s call to you this day? Grace & peace Geoff Email archive is now up to date on the web page (http://www.whitpresby.org)
including a new index (“Big List” http://www.whitpresby.org/full_email_sched.htm)
of all the years. I heard something on a post-election newscast about the
supposed fact that if you attended a Christian Church, you were probably
Republican. Aside from the
prophetic truth of this statement, pointing out the lack of unified voice from
any but right-wing of the Christian Church in America, I took exception to the
comment. It got me to thinking
about what kind of label I would apply to myself.
I came up with the word “contemplative”, an old word I have been
meditating on for the last few years. (See the email from Oct. 29, 2004, found
on the website Big List, www.whitpresby.org/full_email_sched.htm
) This is very different from the
right-wing style of Christianity that gets so much press these days.
It is also different from left-wing Christianity, which often sees Jesus
as simply providing a convenient grounding for a social agenda. Here is my comparison of contemplative Christianity versus
evangelical Christianity. This is
an oversimplification of these terms, I realize.
Contemplative Christianity sees God as trying to attract us, woo us, to
God’s self. Evangelical
Christianity works more on fear and intimidation to get us to turn to God.
The way I see it, God tells this beautiful story in the Bible, a story
that attracts the best qualities in us. If
you are not attracted to that story, or don’t want to find out more about how
it speaks to your life, my telling you that you will burn in hell forever if you
don’t believe in Jesus will probably not mean much to you either.
My trying to scare you into heaven may indeed drive you further away from
God’s beautiful story. Enough of my post-election ranting.
May you find God’s beautiful story touching you in some deep way this
day. Grace & peace to you, Geoff Last Spring, our church did one of our Wednesday at the
Movies classes with the film “Friendly Persuasion.” (See email of June 4, 2004 for an email based on the film).
The book which the film was based upon “The Friendly Persuasion” by
Jessamyn West, was chosen by the Whittier Public Library for 2004 in its “One
Book, One Whittier” program, so many copies were floating around town.
It’s a wonderful book with a keen spiritual sensitivity throughout, as
one might expect from a Quaker writer and setting.
Here is an excerpt from it. “Jess stood fully dressed but not descending.
It was his morning’s pleasure to stand thus at the day’s rim as over
a pool of water before plunging in. There
was no telling what the day might hold—what vexations seize him belowstairs.
Or what joys. He stood now,
uncommitted to either, his own man, as silent and at peace as the clapper in a
ropeless bell. Silent—silent. Here now at six o’clock in the morning with the pink light
on the gray carpet, and the bed not yet made up, shutting out the night, he,
Jess Birdwell, sixty-two years old, stood committed as yet to nothing but the
unraveling of his own soul." What a nice description of the peace and promise of a
morning. If you take a few moments
each morning to begin your day in prayer, you no doubt have had such mornings as
described here. Ms West’s writing
has several such deep and insightful passages, but this was one I wanted to pass
along. May you find a moment of silence and peace somewhere in
your day. Grace & peace Geoff I recently ran across this quote by Reinhold Niebuhr, one
of the great American Theologians from the last century. He is also the author of the Serenity Prayer that has had
such widespread circulation. This
quote is molded around I Corinthians 13:13. “Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our
lifetime; therefore we must be saved by hope.
Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any
immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith.
Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we
must be saved by love.” The sense of humility contained in this statement is
powerful, though perhaps heavy handed. It
reminds us of the importance of being rooted and grounded in God, the origin of
deep things, like faith, hope and love. May you find that rooting and grounding in your life today. Grace & peace Geoff I’ve had a fascination with bumper stickers, the messages
they convey, and the meaning or ideas/images behind them.
My congregation has heard them used in sermons for years.
I recently made a personal pilgrimage to Berkeley, California, a place
that figured large in my younger imagination.
There I found some street vendor with a table full of bumper stickers. I’ve carried them around for weeks trying to come up with
something to say about them, but have decided just to share them with you and
let them speak for themselves. “Terrorism is a symptom, not the disease.” “If you are against abortion, get a vasectomy.” “No one can make you feel inferior without your
consent.” (Eleanor Roosevelt) Bumper stickers are popular because they can say much in a
small statement or space. These are
not very theological or “spiritual” for sure, but they get at some deeper
thinking about popular or controversial issues.
Deeper thinking is always needed about life and part of our spirituality
is to bring God into that deeper thinking.
One of my favorite bumper stickers said “On the seventh day, God went
surfing.” What a Sabbath! Grace & peace, Geoff One of the most powerful folk songs related to Thanksgiving
I know is by Ann Hills (www.annehills.com)
called “Light of Love” from her 1987 CD, “Woman of a Calm Heart,” Flying
Fish CD 464. It is perfect for our
Thanksgiving holiday. Indeed it
seems to be set around the Thanksgiving table.
It is a most complete Thanksgiving prayer, even though it only makes
veiled references to God. Here are
the lyrics. As we come around to take our places at the table, a moment
to remember and reflect upon our wealth. Here’s to loving friends and family here’s to being
able to gather here together in good company and health. May we be released from all those feelings that would harm
us, may we have the will to give them up and get them gone. For heavy are the satchels full of anger and false promise,
may we have the strength to put them down. May the light of love shine deep within your spirit, may
the torch of mercy clear the path and show the way May the horn of plenty sound so that everyone can hear it,
may the light of love be with you every day. May we wish the best for everyone that we encounter, may we
swallow pride and may we do away with fear, For it is only what we do not know that we have grown
afraid of, and only what we do not choose to hear. May the light of love shine deep within your spirit, may
the torch of mercy clear the path and show the way May the horn of plenty sound so that everyone can hear it,
may the light of love be with you every day. And as we bless our daily bread and drink our day’s
libation, may we be reminded of the lost and wayward soul. The hungry and the homeless that we have in every nation,
may we full each empty cup and bowl. May nothing every come between or threaten to divide us,
may we never take for granted all the gifts that we receive, Being ever mindful of the unseen hands that guide us and
the miracles that cause us to believe. May the light of love shine deep within your spirit, may
the torch of mercy clear the path and show the way May the horn of plenty sound so that everyone can hear it,
may the light of love be with you every day. May you pray this prayer with those with whom you share the
Thanksgiving meal this year. Grace & peace Geoff The Christian season of Advent begins this Sunday.
Here is a reflection on Advent by Alan Jones, dean of Grace Cathedral.
Its taken from the liner notes of a CD entitled “Music for Advent” by
the Choir of Men & Boys of Grace Cathedral, John Fenstermaker, Director,
Gothic CD G49119. The French philosopher Simone Weil wrote: “At the bottom
of every human being, from earliest infancy until the tomb, there is something
that goes on indomitably expecting, in the teeth of all experience of crimes
committed, suffered, and witnessed, that good and not evil will be done to him.
It is that above all which is the sacred in every human being…”
The music of Advent beautifully expresses the depths of the human heart
in all its aching and hopeful expectancy: From
the haunting music of Aspiciens (watching) to the forceful Veni Emmanuel(Come,
God among us), Advent speaks to all that is unfinished and unresolved and does
so without sentimentality. We are
more than we know—our own wondrous being is partly hidden from us.
The sacred in us is given voice as we await the One who is already with
us. My theme for Advent this year is “Listening for
Advent” and music is one way we hear the story of Advent and Christmas.
May you hear the spirit of Christ in your life during this Advent season,
2004. Grace & peace Geoff One of my Advent reading sources this year is “Ponder
These Things; Praying with Icons of the Virgin” by Rowan Williams, current
Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Anglican/Episcopal Church. Williams is a powerful writer whom I’ve quoted before.
See my emails of May 30, June 3 & 17 of 2003 and June 1, 2004.
This book is published by Sheed & Ward, 2002.
The book comes from material Williams used while leading an Anglican
pilgrimage. “(The book…) …invites pilgrims to think about
some of the different ways in which Mary is regularly portrayed in the art of
Eastern Christianity, so as to think in turn about what it is in a pilgrimage to
come to a new frontier in your relation with God.
People go on pilgrimages….because of the sense that there they are
approaching, perhaps even crossing, a boundary.” Advent gives us an opportunity to approach the
boundary between our world and the Kingdom of Heaven.
It is a boundary that we are not always aware of, yet God is on the other
side always inviting us to cross over. However
you observe Advent, may you heed the invitation to cross the boundary, at least
for an occasional moment. May you
find the sense of peace and blessing that God holds for you. Grace & peace Geoff
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