I, like most everyone else, was shocked last week to hear of Michael Jackson’s sudden and untimely death. Immediately, many memories started to come to mind like dancing to Off the Wall at my earliest junior high dances and teaching Jazz (dance) classes to every cut on the Thriller album. But the piercing moment that my heart broke a little and I entered the fellowship of the mourning masses was when I saw one of the videos of an eleven years young Michael Jackson singing and dancing with his brothers in the Jackson Five.

That beautiful little boy inspired the most momentous crush that I have ever had. Somewhere in early elementary school I got the ABC album and it changed my heart forever. From that album, I definitively learned the power of rhythm and blues, the power of charm and charisma and the power of LOVE! My love for Michael Jackson! My room was plastered with posters of Michael. My record player often played that record. I was completely hooked on that beautiful singing and dancing little boy. My dear friend Margaret Ann and I were part of thousands of little girls who screamed through an entire concert of the Jackson Five in Richmond, VA. In my little girl fantasy life, I planned to marry Michael Jackson and have two children named Michael, Jr. and Michaelena.

A Celebration of American Music

I’m excited about the music this Sunday—even more than usual! The music of this country is as diverse as its inhabitants, and it reflects the cultures of many nations. When I think of music that emanated directly from the American experience I think of spirituals, shape-note music, Shaker hymns, folk songs, jazz and the blues, country and bluegrass, to name a few.

Classical or Jazz? Blurred Lines

Prelude: Graceful Ghost Rag by William Bolcom (b. 1938) Our superb guest musicians, Jorge Ávila (violin) and Minju Choi (piano) will open the service with a nod to one of the earliest forms of jazz: Ragtime—or “Ragged Time,” so called because of its notorious syncopated rhythm. This form of dance music flourished for two decades (1897-1918) in the hands of well-known virtuosi such as Scott Joplin and Jelly Roll Morton. The compositions of contemporary composer William Bolcom run the gamut from popular songs, opera and symphonies, to his epic oratorio setting of William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Of Experience. With Graceful Ghost, a sophisticated and sweetly melancholy rag, Bolcom pays homage to the legacy of Joplin. (For liturgical purposes we can think of it as Graceful Holy Ghost!)

Prelude: Three Preludes by George Gershwin (1898-1937) Another who blurred the lines between jazz and classical music was Brooklyn-born pianist and composer, George Gershwin. Ragtime was still in its heyday when the teenage Gershwin’s career was launched on Tin Pan Alley, and his first of many hits was Swanee, composed in 1919. His first classical composition, a concerto for piano and orchestra, Rhapsody in Blue, followed in 1924. Collaborating with lyricist and elder brother Ira, the name Gershwin became synonymous with hit songs and Broadway shows, but all the while George wished to be taken seriously as a classical composer. His Three Preludes for solo piano, composed in 1926, are a groundbreaking synthesis of ragtime, blues, and classical styles, and they also demonstrate his formidable skill as a pianist. They were premiered by the composer in 1926 at New York’s Roosevelt Hotel.

Last week’s reflection is a foundation for this week’s since the story of Abraham and Lot in Genesis 13-14 is an enlargement upon the way tribal responsibility was actually practiced.

Lot, Abraham’s nephew, has shared in the growth of their common flocks to the point where their herdsmen have quarreled over the grazing space. So Abraham generously proposes that they separate. He gave Lot first choice of the land available. Lot chose the fertile Jordan plain and Abraham moved his livestock to the west. It certainly seemed as if Lot had the best of the deal until his new territory was overrun by enemy raiders. Lot and his entire family were kidnapped. When the news came to Uncle Abraham, he needed to reflect. He rounded up his men and set out in pursuit. He was successful.

I like to think of summer as a time when warmth (eventually, this year!), long days, and a languid moment or two shift our busy brains into another space—deeper, quieter, and yes, maybe more confused.

Sometimes what was tight and certain in winter... loosens and maybe even falls away in summer.

M. Scott Peck, in his book “Further Along the Road Less Traveled” argues for this way of being year-round. He has his own translation from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, and suggests that one way to say blessed are the “poor in spirit,” is to say blessed are the “confused.”  He goes on:

Sermon: Introducing Jesus (Sr. Carol Perry, preaching)
Scripture: John 1:43-46

What’s in a Song?

A thoughtful congregant forwarded me a wonderful article by one of Marble’s former associate ministers, Rev. Rob Williams. Under the heading “Let There Be Music” he talks about how music is the key to worship:

“...it unlocks and opens up not only my mind with its lyrics, but it unlocks and opens my heart with the beauty and power of the sounds.  Melody, harmony, dissonance, all work together to open the deeper recesses of my soul, my spirit.”

I love how Rob says even the dissonances speak to him in profound ways—this is such an important insight! The experience of dissonance or tension followed by resolution is not only a cornerstone of Western music, but a universal pattern of our lives. And as Jeremy Begbie discusses in his book Resounding Truth: Christian Wisdom in the World of Music, it is also scriptural. Begbie connects musical forms with the patterns of Creation—Fall—Redemption, Promised Land—Exile—Return, the Prodigal Son leaving home, squandering his inheritance in distant lands, and then returning to his father’s forgiving arms. In music, every resolution of a harmonic dissonance is like a homecoming in sound, a fresh experience of forgiveness, a deeper knowing of the peace that passes all understanding. So praise God for dissonance in our worship—it makes our harmony all the sweeter!

We have heard it from stage and screen, the accusation hurled by Cain towards his questioning God: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Gen. 4:9) The Lord does not answer him. He doesn’t have to because the answer is so obvious. He is. We are too.

This is a hard role to play, but the very human loneliness of Genesis 2 that resulted in the creation of a second human, which led to the family, comes to a head in this fraternal drama. Wherever two or more human beings work or play or pray together, their humanity sets off counter vibrations. We are so alike and we see with such different eyes. This makes for both the joy and the pain of being human.

Cain and Abel are presented to us as rivals, with occupations that so often engendered animosity in the ancient world, that of the shepherd whose flocks grazed wherever there was grass, and that of the farmer who saw his fields being intruded upon. That rivalry reaches and ugly climax  in this story in which brother kills brother. We see the Lord searching for the murdered Abel and confronting Cain with his crime.

My summer conference and retreat commitments will make topical blogging a bit of a problem, so I am going to do what I did last summer and use these summer weeks for some biblical reflections. Our 2009 summer topic will be Genesis Gems.

I am suggesting that we think about some of the forgotten moments in that great first book of the Bible, moments we might have lost in the sweep of the stories related there.

Our first point is one to be found in Genesis 2:15—"The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it."

What a place to begin! The first human has been made, the woman is yet to come, but this creature is already at work. He was not created to loll under a fruit tree in the garden of delights, resting while life moved on.

Vacation. It’s an interesting word. It means so many different things, depending on who uses it. The dictionary defines the word as meaning:  “freedom or release from duty, business, or activity.” Hmmmmm. Nice idea, but it does not seem to be my reality.

We are going on vacation for a while. It does not seem to be shaping up to be so much a “freedom or release from duty,” but rather a change of duties. For starters, Page has told me I am going to help her clean out the garage. That would send shivers up and down the spine of Hulk Hogan. It’s a three-care garage with “stuff” accumulated over our entire lifetimes. She wants it made orderly, if not pristine, during our vacation. Lord, help me!

Then there’s program and worship planning. Since church continues, and since we will be dreaming and visioning with a Ministries Council beginning in autumn, I need to do some serious reflecting about things like missions and ministry, age level concerns, stewardship and finance, programmatic emphases, etc. Those things don’t just happen. And, since there will be Sundays on a regular basis throughout the future, I have to (a) plan worship themes and sermon topics at least through Christmas and (b) get all that data into the hands of staff members who do music, publication, etc. If I don’t continue that part of my work, then Marble suffers. So, vacation or not, worship and programming remain realities. That being said, the responsibilities of those issues pale in comparison to cleaning out the garage.