What's For Worship, Sunday December 20 > Marble Collegiate Church

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Thursday, December 17, 2009

What's For Worship, Sunday December 20
By webmaster @ 3:00 PM :: 1516 Views :: 0 Comments :: Kenneth Dake

An Inconvenient Incarnation

God is not in the habit of waiting until we are ready before stepping intrusively, inconveniently, and wondrously into our lives.

“First let me bury my father,” one person says. “You must go with me now and announce the kingdom of God,” Jesus replies.

“I’ll join you as soon as I say goodbye to my friends,” says another. Jesus, impatient one, responds, “You can’t look back and be fit for the kingdom of God.”

“Let me finish preparing dinner, and by the way it wouldn’t kill my sister Mary to get in here and help me,” Martha steams. “Stop fretting and fussing and just come be with me,” Jesus implores.

To Zachaeus, the tax collector perched in a sycamore tree, Jesus commands, “Come down now and be quick – I’m coming to your house today.”

God does not wait until we’ve pulled ourselves together, righted that which is askew, ironed out our wrinkles or rounded our rough edges. And as Madeleine L’Engle so eloquently writes, God did not wait until the world was ready before sending Jesus.

God did not wait till the world was ready,
Till nations were at peace.
God came when the Heavens were unsteady,
And prisoners cried out for release.

God did not wait for the perfect time.
God came when the need was deep and great.
God dined with sinners in all their grime,
Turned water into wine. God did not wait

till hearts were pure. In joy God came
To a tarnished world of sin and doubt.
To a world like ours, of anguished shame
God came, and God’s Light would not go out.

God came to a world which did not mesh,
To heal its tangles, shield its scorn.
In the mystery of the Word made flesh
The Maker of the stars was born.

And we cannot wait till the world is sane
To raise our songs with joyful
For to share our grief, to touch our pain,
God came with Love: Rejoice! Rejoice!

One of the last people I see before beginning the prelude each Sunday is Junior, our jovial 2nd floor security guard. We have a little ritual. He says, “So Ken, are you all ready for today?” I have a variety of grumbly responses such as “No!” or “There’s never enough time.” Last week I simply scolded him for asking such a silly question. He sees me at my worst – I’m nervous, breathless and running late, wishing I had another day to prepare. I’ve always said if you think I sound good on Sundays, just think how much better I’d sound if worship were held on Monday!

Luckily, God does not wait until I have met my arbitrary, narcissistic notion of musical perfection before He speaks, ministers, and moves through my music. As Dr. Brown noted in one of his blogs, it is a humbling weekly reminder that God uses us in spite of ourselves.

This Jesus of midnight manger birth does not hesitate to burst in on our lives with one of His divine disruptions. Neither should we wait until we’re “ready” before running into God’s loving embrace. One of my favorite American folk hymns says: “Come, ye sinners, poor and needy, sick and sore, lost and ruined by the fall. If you tarry till you’re better you will never come at all.” How easily ‘wait’ can become ‘never.’

Thankfully the old hymn, cherished by so many, does not say, “Just as I eventually hope to be, I will likely some day come to Thee.” On the contrary, the real words beckon us not to postpone our encounter with God until it’s convenient and we’re ready. There’s no better time than now, for “Just as I AM thou wilt receive, welcome, pardon, cleanse, relieve; because Thy promise I believe, O Lamb of God, I come, I come.”

Final in Advent Prelude Series

Our service this Sunday will begin at 10:45 with an outstanding woodwind quintet playing a prelude of familiar carols of the season. Marble congregant and French horn player extraordinaire, Sharon Moe, brings the best of New York’s instrumentalists to share with us in worship. As part of their repertoire they will play an elaborate medley I arranged which I call Rhapsody on French Carols. [LISTEN] In this audio sample I play three of the carols from the medley, and although they are not in our hymnal they are among my very favorites: 1) Il est né le divin Enfant (He is born, the divine Christ-child), 2) Quelle est cette odeur agréable? (Whence is that goodly fragrance flowing?), and 3) Un flambeau, Jeanette Isabella (Bring a Torch, Jeanette Isabella).

Another French Carol

This week we will have the combined Sanctuary Choir and Festival of Voices filling the choir loft to overflowing with sound and spirit. For our introit we sing another delightful French carol, Noël Nouvelet, but in an exciting English arrangement, Sing We Now of Christmas. [LISTEN] This sample is sung by the incomparable Dale Warland Singers, who have many great Christmas CD’s, one more fabulous than the next – great stocking stuffers! This sparkling arrangement begins pianissimo with only the first sopranos, and builds in a steady crescendo to its brilliant conclusion with full choir in 8-part harmony. Sung properly it should raise the rafters!

Away in a Manger

There are two tunes in our hymnal to this beloved Christmas carol, and there is also a beautiful tune in the minor key from Normandy that is sometimes sung by the choir. [LISTEN] In this audio sample I play all three tunes, ending with the most familiar, which is the one we will sing in worship on Sunday. The origin of the text is somewhat obscure. It first appeared in 1885 in a Philadelphia collection entitled Little Children’s Book: For Schools and Families.

A couple of years later an enterprising publisher included it in a Cincinnati collection entitled Dainty Songs for Little Lads and Lasses. (Those were the days!) In that collection it was erroneously claimed that the song was “Composed by Martin Luther for his children, and still sung by German mothers to their little ones.” As a result, for a time it became known as Luther’s Cradle Hymn. The irony is that, of all the Christmas carols we sing, Away in a Manger is actually one of the only thoroughly American ones. It is also one of the simplest and most profound – funny how often those two qualities go together!

What Child Is This

The combined choirs conclude this very special service by singing Paul Lohman’s lovely original music to this very familiar carol, What Child, [LISTEN] which was also sung on our recent Advent Concert. This is another great example of how new music invites us to dive deeper into an old familiar text, uncovering new truth that had been obscured by rote repetition.

Incarnation in Liturgy

Please join Dr. Kimberleigh Jordan and myself as we discuss our upcoming worship service for Christmas Eve, previewing the music I’ve chosen and exploring it’s historical context in Christian worship. We will listen to audio samples and be in dialogue about what goes into such a sacred service, what makes it truly a “Holy Night.” This Sunday, December 20th, in Bay Hall at 1:30 – all are welcome!

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