The Gospel of John Meets Gilbert and Sullivan
The Gospel of John is the gospel of mixed metaphors. Here’s a little song to help you enjoy them…
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Already and Always Enough
Forgive me, Father, for I have multitasked…
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P.S. — Here’s the text of that poem.
Already and Always Enough The hardest commandment you ever gave me, dear Spirit-Friend, was this: to enjoy being alive, and to speak for the joy of being alive. And I need your help now, because I’m screwing it up. Yes, still. I am guilty of impossible yes-ing: yes to one project on top of another, yes to writing, composing, and singing, yes speaking, preaching, recording, and posting, yes to everyone who calls, emails, or walks into my office, yes, yes, yes. I am guilty of egregious multitasking. This past week, I worked on writing while not enjoying a movie at home with my family. I worked on a speech while not enjoying a hot shower. I worried about my church while not enjoying lying in my warm bed. In short, I was a fraud. I posed as a speaker for the joy of being alive while not enjoying being alive. And I was ungrateful, another great sin. I was like a child who counts up his birthday presents and then complains that there are not enough of them. I wished for more hours in every day, and more productivity, and more money. I said, in the silence of my heart, I need more power. And, forgive me, but that was a prayer. It was to you that I spoke, dear Spirit-Friend, when I said it. To you I said, Help me, and I need more, but what I really meant was: You’re not helping me enough. What you’ve given me is not enough. What I am is not enough. So please, may I ask for your help again? This time, I’ll stipulate that when I say, Help me, What I really mean is, Help me to see how your help is already and always enough. O Spirit-Friend, please help me: to enjoy your abundance, and to enjoy being abundant, and to know how it is enough, and I am enough, already and always. Amen.
Easter on One Foot
Ever seen the Easter sermon delivered this way?
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Best Easter blessings! May your life be energetically balanced, and all your sermons mercifully brief.
Tune Her to Thee
I wrote a prayer for the healing of a sick girl. It goes to a well-known Welsh folk melody: Ar Hyd y Nos (All Through the Night). With a little adjustment, it can also be a prayer for a sick world.
You can find the words for both versions in our Free Stuff area.
Often, Often, Often
In this edition of The Merry Mystic, I sing a song about two things God really seems to love: surprise and hospitality. And, hey, it turns out that they’re not unrelated. You can’t really welcome strangers without being open to learning something surprising from them.
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One Great Hour
Next Sunday, my church will receive a special offering we call the One Great Hour of Sharing. My denomination, the United Church of Christ, participates with seven other denominations in this ecumenical relief effort that helps with water projects, food, disaster relief, and building healthy communities in a hundred different countries around the world. It’s a nice way for a little church like mine to do some good in a bigger way. We get to feel like we’re part of a worldwide movement, coming together to work together to heal the world in the name of Jesus.
Last week I wrote this little song, to help teach my congregation about the One Great Hour of Sharing.
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You can find sheet music for “One Great Hour” in our Free Stuff area.
I Remember
This week, I’m sharing a new song for Lent. It’s a remembrance of Jesus.
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You can find sheet music for “I Remember” in our Free Stuff area.
I hope you enjoyed the song. Now, read on if you’re interested in why I wrote it.
I wrote this song to use in church last week, because I just couldn’t find a Lenten hymn that spoke to me. And the reason I couldn’t find one is because so many of the Lenten hymns in my hymnal include little bits of atonement theory that I’m just not in the mood for.
There’s “Down at the Cross” —
Down at the cross where my Savior died Down where for cleansing from sin I cried There to my heart was the blood applied...
And there’s “Beneath the Cross of Jesus” —
Content to let the world go by, to know no gain or loss My sinful self my only shame, my glory all the cross.
And there’s “The Old Rugged Cross” —
For upon that old cross Jesus suffered and died To pardon and sanctify me.
And there’s “Lift High the Cross” —
O Christ, once lifted on the glorious tree Your death has brought us life eternally.
And there’s “Alas! and Did My Savior Bleed” —
Was it for crimes that I have done, Christ groaned upon the tree? Amazing pity! Grace unknown! and love beyond degree!
And there’s “God Loved the World” —
And justified by Jesus' blood Your baptism grants the highest good.
And there’s “O Love, How Vast, How Flowing Free” —
For us was beaten, whipped, and tried, And taken to be crucified, So Love all this for us endured, And dying, life for us procured.
Anybody sensing a pattern here?
Deep in our Christian heritage, going back at least to the Apostle Paul and to the author of the letter to the Hebrews, is this understanding of how Jesus made a difference: that his death accomplished our atonement, somehow paying the price for our sins. I’ve never been a fan of that theory, and last week, I was in no mood to give it yet another airing in church.
Jesus makes a difference for me by his life, by his teaching, by his example, by his continuing presence, and, yes, by his death — by the example of his non-violent acceptance of an unjust and painful death.
And that’s what I tried to put into my song.
The Bible and the HAL 9000
So, I had another one of those weeks: another week where, in my work as a pastor, I was called on to try to help someone with a Bible-induced problem. It just makes me so mad—the way so many churches, including mine, burden so many people with these problems. We’re cursing where we should be blessing.
Today I have four simple suggestions about how we can do better.
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Every Two Seconds
I have just a short poem to share today.
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P.S. Hey, if you’re moved to help, here’s one of my favorite ways: Action Against Hunger.
Letter to Washington
I’m usually more interested in spiritual things than in worldly things. But today, I just can’t separate the two, because I can’t ignore the stark contrast between the teachings of my faith tradition, and the statements and actions now coming out of the White House. I’ve written a letter to my senators and my representative, and I’d like to share it with you.
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