What's for Worship, Sunday December 13 > Marble Collegiate Church

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Thursday, December 10, 2009

What's for Worship, Sunday December 13
By webmaster @ 12:03 PM :: 415 Views :: 0 Comments :: Kenneth Dake

Dawn of Redeeming Grace Redux

During last week's Advent concert there were beautiful readings of the season, powerful rendered by our narrators Dwight Rangeler and Billy Flood. For this week's blog I thought I would revisit them, and give a little background. As a musical backdrop to your reading I invite you to listen to the Sanctuary Choir sing What Sweeter Music by John Rutter, which we will be presenting as the offertory this Sunday. [LISTEN]

Our first two readings were from a collection of poetic meditations by Ann Weems called Kneeling In Bethlehem. This book makes an excellent Christmas present for any friends who are on a spiritual path, and a copy of it is available for review in our CYF Library on the second floor at Marble!

Mary, Nazareth Girl, served as our first reading, and it invites us to ponder what qualified Mary to bare the Son of God. What did she know of ethereal beings, what did she know of men, of babies, even of God, Weems asks.

God-chosen girl:
What did you know of God
     That brought you to this stable
     Blessed among women?
Could it be that you had been
Ready
     Waiting
          Listening for the footsteps of an angel?
Could it be there are messages for us
If we have the faith to listen?

It would seem that Mary's best qualifications were that she was ready, waiting, and listening. And when through faith we do the same, using Advent as a special time to
be on the lookout for God's messengers and messages, then we too can answer with Mary, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord."

Another poem from Ann Weems' book, In Search of Our Kneeling Places served as our second reading. It begins with this provocative statement:

In each heart lies a Bethlehem,
     An inn where we must ultimately answer
     Whether there is room or not.

Her verses remind me of the 17th century Robert Herrick poem, The Best of Rooms, a setting of which the Sanctuary Choir sang last year – which is also one of my favorite choral works by Randall Thompson:

Christ, He requires still, wheresoe'er He comes,
To feed, or lodge, to have the best of rooms:
Give Him the choice; grant Him the nobler part
Of all the house: the best of all's the heart.

There is a sense in which our lives must become the birthplace of Jesus, our hearts become the manger, the gift of our very own self presented beside shepherds' lambs and royals' jewels. This is what keeps the Christmas story alive and allows us to "experience our own advent in His," according to Weems. "This Advent, let's go to Bethlehem and find our kneeling places."

I leave you with the words of Presbyterian minister, theologian and author Fredrick Buechner (b. 1936). Our concert on Sunday concluded with one of the most beautiful pieces I have come across in recent years, All My Heart This Night Rejoices by Z. Randall Stroope, sung here by the Iowa State Singers. [LISTEN] On Sunday it was preceded by this reading. Somehow this profound music and Buechner's important words fit perfectly together.

Prince of Peace, be born again into our world.
Wherever there is war,
Wherever there is pain,
Wherever there is loneliness,
Wherever there is no hope:
Come, Thou long-expected One,
With healing in Thy wings.

Holy Child, whom the shepherds and the kings and the dumb beasts adored,
be born again.
Wherever there is boredom,
Wherever there is fear of failure,
Wherever there is temptation too strong to resist,
Wherever there is bitterness of heart:
Come, Thou blessed one, with healing in Thy wings.

Savior, be born in each of us who longs for Thee.

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