Sermon: I Can't Do Everything, But…
Scripture: Mark 4:30-32

Your Gift Matters

Dr. Brown's sermon title for this week has implanted on my heart the African-American spiritual, There Is a Balm in Gilead. Why? Because of the second verse: "If you cannot sing like angels, if you cannot preach like Paul, you can tell the love of Jesus and say He died for all." As a friend recently phrased it, we spend much time in "compare and despair" mode. We obsess over the things we cannot do, focusing on gifts and means others have that we may not share to the same extent. And yet the old spiritual reminds us of something we all can do, which is to let our lips and our lives declare God's redeeming love for us and for the world.

Just like the congregation, a choir is made up of people from all different backgrounds, levels of training and experience, musical preferences and singing styles. It would be tough to argue that there aren't some singers who are clearly more advanced than others. However, every single choir member has a unique and crucial contribution to make to the sound, and there is a profound sense of unity when widely diverse individuals come together as equals to create one perfectly blended choral harmony. When each singer brings all that they are, and all they are capable of, there is a synergistic effect; the whole becomes far greater than the sum of the parts.

I believe the same holds true for our church, or any band of believers who are joined in this pilgrimage of life. For some to decide that their gifts are not needed because they may be dwarfed by those of more substantial means would be like a choir member deciding only to mouth the words because they don't have the strongest voice. It would be antithetical to the very definition of what a choir is – people uniting their voices as one.

Whether singing or giving, let us never delude ourselves into thinking our contribution is insignificant or overshadowed by others. As I say to the choir, it's "all hands on deck." Designated drivers and designated hitters are good for party goers and baseball fans, but designated givers are not good for the church. We may not sing like Johan Botha, preach like Michael Brown, or give like Bill Gates, but we can all tell the love of Jesus by sharing and giving of what God has so mercifully given us.

From Across the Pond

Prelude: Vesper Voluntaries, opus. 14, by Sir Edward Elgar(1857-1934) Our service this week begins with one of only two works Elgar wrote specifically for solo organ, the Vesper Voluntaries. Elgar's father was an organist, and young Edward would listen to his father play at St. George's Church in Worcester. Although violin was his primary passion, Elgar also studied and performed as an organist in his early years. The eleven Voluntaries were all composed in 1889, in the year of his marriage to Alice Roberts, a published author and daughter of a Major-General.

Postlude: Pomp and Circumstance No. 4 by Elgar By contrast, the five Pomp and Circumstance marches were created over a span of thirty years. Already considered the preeminent British composer, in 1905 Elgar was persuaded to journey to the United States where he was presented with an Honorary Doctorate Degree by Yale University. Naturally, Elgar's music featured prominently in the graduation ceremony and was conducted by none other than Horatio Parker (organist of St. Nicholas Collegiate Church – see blog for October 25 worship music). This was the first American graduation to include the famous Pomp and Circumstance march, which had received its American Premiere by the Chicago Symphony in 1902. Because of its instant popularity its use quickly spread to graduation ceremonies at Princeton (1907), Columbia (1913), and Vassar (1916), and since the mid 20's it has been used at colleges and high schools across the country.

Pomp and Circumstance No. 4 in G Major [LISTEN] is the next most popular of the five marches, and it is an organ arrangement by George Robertson Sinclair, the organist of Hereford Cathedral to whom Elgar dedicated the work, that will serve as our postlude. Each Pomp and Circumstance contains a middle ‘trio' section, in which a noble, lyric melody stands in contrast to the march tune. Because of the extreme patriotic flair of these so-called "Military Marches" Elgar was sometimes accused of jingoism, a charge he vehemently denied, saying, "I know that there are a lot of people who like to celebrate events with music. To those people I have given tunes. Is that wrong?"

More American Folk Treasures

Hymn: Come, You People, Rise and Sing – Union Harmony (1830) [LISTEN] Our service begins with a joyful American folk tune entitled Boundless Mercy, which first appeared in the Union Harmony, one of several collections of shape-note hymns which were published in the early 19th century. Shape-note notation was conceived in an effort to make music more accessible to the untrained singer. It also provided a means by which the oral heritage of Celtic folk tunes were published and spread among congregations and singing communities throughout southern and rural areas of the country. Remarkably, Come, You People consists of only four notes, and yet it serves as a cheerful, rousing testament to God's goodness. This music is meant to be proclaimed, not just merely sung!

Introit: Awake, Awake to Love and Work, arr. Kenneth Dake This poem of Geoffrey Anketel Studdert-Kennedy first appeared in a 1921 collection under the title "At a Harvest Festival." In the original there are three additional verses which precede those that will be sung on Sunday, and they are included in some denominational hymnals: "Not here for high and holy things we render thanks to Thee, but for the common things of earth, the purple pageantry of dawning and of dying days, the splendor of the sea." The minor key tune, which first appeared in the Kentucky Harmony in 1806, gives the music a grounded earthiness. [LISTEN]

One phrase in particular, "To give and give and give again what God hath given thee," is a message with particular resonance during this stewardship season. I saw a nice quote outside a Presbyterian church in Brooklyn yesterday: "Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth." Although the signboard credited Muhammad Ali as the author, I've also seen it attributed to Shirley Chisholm (b. 1924), who was the first African-American woman elected to Congress. Nevertheless, its truth transcends its claiming rights: The more we come to recognize God as the true source of our earthly treasure the easier it is to freely share it with His other beloved children.

Whom Shall I Send?

Hymn: Here I Am, Lord [LISTEN] As you listen to the inspired singing of the Marble congregation from January, 2008, and as we close our worship service by singing this hymn on Sunday, let us again ask ourselves what it is that we can do, what it is that God is specifically calling us to do in support of the ministry of Marble. If we are each willing to respond in faith as Isaiah did, saying both in word and deed, "Here I am; send me," then the days ahead for this great church will surely be bright. We can trust that God will undertake to guide the future as He has the past.