I've been watching a Peter, Paul, and Mary retrospective. It is part of the song-tapestry of my life, and I'm enjoying listening to them sing together again. Mary Travers died a few years ago, so their singing together is now impossible. Music affects us in ways nothing else does. When I hear a song, a hymn, or a piece of music that I know, I am instantly transported to another time and place, and am surrounded by people I haven't seen in many years. I think this is one of the reasons that Pastors are often criticized for not picking the hymns that people know. They want to be transported. They want mom or dad or grandma standing beside them again. They want to be in a time and place in which their lives were simpler, and they felt safe and protected. They want to feel what they felt the first time they sang this or that hymn. Never mind that every song was once new, they want to feel the old feels.
Jesus told his followers that he didn't come to make them feel good, but he came to bring dissension and division. He came to shake things up. He came to challenge the powers that be. He came to upset the status quo. He came not to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them. To fulfill means to bring a thing to its conclusion. Once it has concluded it is time to move on to something different. Different is hard. Different is scary. Different sometimes makes people angry. Different doesn't feel as good as same feels. Whether it is our hymnody, our theology, or any others of the multitude of changes that occur in our lives, sometimes we just must step out in faith and go where the Spirit calls.
Loving God, we often experience you as a loving parent, pulling us onto your lap and holding us close when life becomes too difficult for us. In our hymns we talk about a rock of ages that clefts for us that we may hide, a mighty fortress that protects us from our enemies, or an eagle lifting us up and carrying us when we are unable to fly on our own. Life is hard sometimes. Change is hard sometimes. Different is hard sometimes. Wrap your loving arms around us and give us grace to face the days ahead, no matter what they may bring.....Amen.
Jesus told his followers that he didn't come to make them feel good, but he came to bring dissension and division. He came to shake things up. He came to challenge the powers that be. He came to upset the status quo. He came not to abolish the law and the prophets, but to fulfill them. To fulfill means to bring a thing to its conclusion. Once it has concluded it is time to move on to something different. Different is hard. Different is scary. Different sometimes makes people angry. Different doesn't feel as good as same feels. Whether it is our hymnody, our theology, or any others of the multitude of changes that occur in our lives, sometimes we just must step out in faith and go where the Spirit calls.
Loving God, we often experience you as a loving parent, pulling us onto your lap and holding us close when life becomes too difficult for us. In our hymns we talk about a rock of ages that clefts for us that we may hide, a mighty fortress that protects us from our enemies, or an eagle lifting us up and carrying us when we are unable to fly on our own. Life is hard sometimes. Change is hard sometimes. Different is hard sometimes. Wrap your loving arms around us and give us grace to face the days ahead, no matter what they may bring.....Amen.
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