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Home Page
The Rector's Welcome
Worship
Sermons
Music & the Organ
Newsletter
Schedule & Events
History
Programs & Ministries
Tour the Building
Links
Map & Directions
Monthly Calendar
Home Page
The Rector's Welcome
Worship
Sermons
Music & the Organ
Newsletter
Schedule & Events
History
Programs & Ministries
Tour the Building
Links
Map & Directions
Monthly Calendar
Fr. J. D. Ousley
21 May 2006Jn 15/Music Sunday“Great Expectations”
In the Name of God: Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier. Amen.
One of my favorite prayers is the one assigned to be read on this Sixth Sunday after Easter. The prayer says that God "has prepared for those who love him such good things as pass [our] understanding." These good things, the prayer claims, are "promises which exceed all that we can desire."
"Promises which exceed all we can desire." In our consumer culture — which seems ready to satisfy the most extravagant whims — this is quite a claim! The news recently featured the story of a man who had bought a Lamborghini sports car; they cost around $200,000. The man then removed the engine from car and placed the shell of this car on a wall in his houseBit became kind of trophy, to show how much money he had to waste!
According to the prayer though, God can top even the silliest human desires. God's promises surpass anything that we might possibly want.
The gifts of God for the people of God are greater than the mansions and the yachts of our most prodigal dreams. God's blessings will please us more than corner offices or business deals. No human fame or fortune could equal what the prayer calls, "such good things as pass our understanding."
Yet, if Christianity is true, this prayer must be true. As a matter of logic.
If God exists, and he loves us, and he has shown us a way to find him and discover his blessing, then this prayer must be true.
In the Gospel lesson, Jesus says, "You did not choose me, but I chose you." Because God chooses us, because he chooses us in our uniqueness, this prayer must be true.
And even if we accept the bold promise of this prayer, do we live as though we believed it?
Take, for example, the daily routine we follow when we get up in the morning. A pop psychology book I once read said that the first moments of each day are very important psychologically. They affect your mood for the rest of the day.
So if you've had a bad night's sleep, you'll be in danger of facing the day grumpy, and your foul mood will tend to linger with you, whatever happens during your day.
Now this advice will be, to many of us, painfully obvious. We've heard the old saying, "She must have gotten up on the wrong side of the bed!"
What we need to know is: how do we get the hopeful attitude that is expressed in the prayer? How do we find great expectations? And how do we stay hopeful?
Well, here's one answer that I have been thinking about. It's a proposal that challenges my own habitual way of looking at things.
Over the years, I have often said to people I work with that "I don't like surprises." I want to know if someone thought the church was too hot or too cold. I want to know if a meeting went on too long or if it was boring.
I want to know if the roof is leaking.
I don't want to find out about these problems long after they have occurred. This is the way I am.
But I'm realizing that while this attitude may help me to fulfill my duties as an administrator, it may also keep me from considering God's promises. In a spiritual way, I might be wiser to look forward to surprises. I might be wiser to expect the unexpected.
The Swiss theologian, Karl Barth, as he drew near to the end of his long life, used to remark that he wished that he could live another three centuries.
He had this wish, Barth said, not because he was afraid of dying, but he was so surprised by life. And he wanted to go on being surprised by life.
Even the oldest and cleverest people — Barth lived to be 82 himself, and he was renowned as the most brilliant theologian of his day — even the oldest and cleverest of us can't predict the future.
But Karl Barth was happy to be surprised. He recognized that in the course of a day, or a month, or a year, events would occur to challenge and delight him.
Here, too, as in the case of our mood when we get up in the morning, it's the attitude that makes the difference. For Karl Barth, the unexpected wasn't a threat to his ordered world. His faith in the infinite grace of God helped him to view the unexpected as a gift from God, a gift from God whose willingness to please us transcends our understanding.
Now one of God's gifts that is filled with surprises is music. (Karl Barth wrote a book on Mozart and he said he expected to hear Mozart's music in Heaven!)
For one of the joys of listening to music is marveling at its inventiveness. Whatever kind of music we like, we can't help being amazed at the way composers come up with new ideas.
In classical music, the composer may play with his audience — creating expectations as to what notes will come next (then at the last moment, substituting other notes instead).
When Dr. Lewis, our organist, and I were meeting to plan this service for Music Sunday, I commented on how music can give us the unexpected.
One composer whose work we are hearing today, Haydn, is often confused with Mozart. Dr. Lewis advised me that one way to tell the two apart is that Haydn is more likely to do the unusual. As Dr. Lewis put it, "a piece of music by Haydn is much more likely to be going along and then suddenly, something 'funky' happens."
Dr. Lewis trained at the Juilliard School and now teaches there, but, as you can see from that remark, he doesn't use technical language when he's explaining things to me!
In any case, Haydn's music often introduces new musical ideas when we don't expect them.
And there is a lesson here, too. If we believe we are "chosen" by God as Jesus says, and we believe that God wants to give us gifts beyond our dreams, then we can look forward to the unexpected. The Spirit of God will show us new ways to enjoy creation.
At Incarnation, we experience this in the creative selection of music that Dr. Lewis gives us. Not only do we hear new pieces performed by the choir but we are also given hymns to sing that we don't know. Granted, some of these hymns might seem on first acquaintance to be songs that we don't want to know!
Yet, by and large, we find that unfamiliar hymns Dr. Lewis gives us aren't so bad, they may even provide religious ideas we hadn't thought of.
And, most important, the challenge of Dr. Lewis' music is a challenge we in this parish are glad to have. A recent issue of the Church Times of London contained an article on the topic: "How music can help in understanding religion."
The article was deadly dull, but it was illustrated by an instructive cartoon. The cartoon shows an elderly male priest speaking to equally elderly female organist; the organist is playing and the congregation is singing in the background.
The priest says, "We have to thank Bach for giving us such spirit-soaring music, and we have to thank you, Mrs. Merrydew, for keeping us firmly anchored on the ground."
This cartoon reminds us that many congregations aren't as lucky as we are. Dr. Lewis's skill far surpasses that of any "Mrs. Merrydew!" His work and the work of our professional singers never fail to lift our spirits.
On this day, may we be we're particularly grateful for our music ministry — and may we give thanks for the surprises that God puts in our paths, and by the promises he has made to us "which exceed all that we can desire."
And now unto that same God Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be ascribed as is most justly due all might, majesty, power, dominion and praise, now and forever, Amen.