column notes on music and horizons

The North Alton business Association has sponsored a summer music series for some time now. It offers a varied program of musical styles. On Wednesday, the 16^th, a group of St Louis symphony musicians graced the stage at Alton High School to offer a program on woodwinds. It was a debate evening for the Republican contenders, and the Cardinals are in the midst of a race in the best division in baseball, so the crowd was a bit smaller than one would hope.

As I gazed on the crowd, I saw very few children. My more tyrannical side wondered why this was not required for entire classes, or students involved in music class in school or those taking private lessons. The obstacles we complain about the arts were not present. It was free and early enough for even young students. Let me repeat. A group of St Louis Symphony musicians, world class talents, were in town for free; they offered the gift of their artistry to the community, and it was met with indifference. It offered small selections of different music from more modern offerings of the 20^th century to the classical staples of Bach, Hayden, and Mozart. They even introduced their instruments and talked about the sound they sought to produce. Going over the heads of the uninitiated would not be an issue in this performance. At least, no one yelled for them to play “Free Bird.”

One of educations benefits is the expanding of horizons. No generations in history are so aware of the global realities of human life. No generations in history have access to the triumphs and tragedies of human life.  Our response has been to hunch over a tiny phone screen and type with our thumbs in a burst of mental phlegm. We seem to choose a small world in reaction to the vast array of choices and competing events at our beck and call. I do understand the enormous financial stress of the public schools, but part of their noble promise is to provide a gateway for everyone to see a broader world. President Clinton knew of deprivation, and that is why he responded so fulsomely to the potential leveling effect of the internet for all children.

We fail our children, and we fail ourselves, not to get exposure to some of the wonders of our world. Who knows? Such exposure could be the vehicle to vocation. Stephen Jay Gould, the eminent scientist, found his calling in a visit to a museum when he was five years old. Back where I grew up, our high school in Uniontown, Pa, in the old coal, coke, steel region, has a Hall of Fame. They inducted a woman Margaret Emelson, along wit the expected coterie of athletes. . “Mrs. E” was determined to offer classes in speech, drama, and the humanities in the tough working class area. I can think of no place where the gospel of utility was stronger, a place where hard work was the ultimate virtue, so the arts were considered useless as they did not contribute to something practical. Along with so many other teachers, she used her vocation to help students see a world beyond or beneath the merely practical. Now in retirement, she continues to demonstrate a set of broad interests in the arts and more importantly a generosity of thought and sprit that is nurtured by explorations of deep appreciation of the things that make us human.

“We need to broaden our sympathies both in space and time - and perceive ourselves as part of a long heritage, and stewards for an immense future.” Martin Rees

Week of 9/20 devotional points

Sunday September 20-Ps.1 may be an introduction to the entire volume of prayers, so it may deserve a closer look than we may often give it. At v. 3, we have the famous image of trees planted by streams. How does faith and practice contribute to your solid rooting in the Christian life? In what ways do you prosper?

Monday-'Pastor, let's remember that every Sunday is Easter. I need it.' An older saint once gave me those words of wisdom and I've tried hard to remember.Even in the midst of tears, there's a longing for Him. Even in the midst of darkness, there's a glimmer of what might be. Even in the midst of suffocating sadness, there's Someone holding out a hand. All of that and more is Easter whispering.Today, Easter comes to me in the form of music. Music is the best we can do when life happens to such an extreme that words are shallow.  That's the More, the life eternal that Jesus promises. May our trust in His promise push us forward to love our neighbor and sing our hearts out, here, now, and forever. David Mattson

Tuesday-Greenness became not just a physical reality, but a spiritual one as well. Hildegard believed that viriditas was something to be cultivated in both body and soul. Her language is filled with metaphors for seeking out the moistness and fruitfulness of the soul. The sign of our aliveness is this participation in the life force of the Creator. Anything that blocks this flow through us contributes both to physical disease as well as spiritual unrest.For Hildegard, viriditas was always experienced in tension with ariditas, which is the opposite experience of dryness, barrenness, shriveling up. She would keep asking how to bring the flow of greening life energy back in fullness to a person.

Wednesday-Abba says to a seeker, “Do not feed your heart what does not nourish it.” This can be easier said than done, since we are inclined to so many “comforts” which only serve to numb and distract us from life.  How often do we try to satisfy ourselves with that which depletes us?

Thursday-“Our job is to polish our hearts so more of the divine attributes can shine through us.”Christine Valters Paintner

Friday-Old Testament laments.We want to model forgiveness. Words of God repaying our "enemies for their evil" and "[putting] an end to them" (v. 5) unsettle us; this is not how we want God to be.  But this is sugar-coating reality enemies are around us: personal enemies, national enemies, and non-entity enemies that we may personify (like cancer, or death). Yet, ultimately the lament psalms (and Psalm 54 specifically) do not focus on the battle, but on calling out to God and seeking God's sustaining presence.

Saturday-"The challenge inherent in the Book of Hosea is to spend some time contemplating when we’ve been the villain in the life stories of others."--- John Valters Paintner,

sermon notes on power Sept 27

Sept. 20 James 3-4  Mk. 9:30-7, Prov. 31

One of the mental cliches we have adopted as a culture is that women were not valued in ancient times. certainly their public or  legal position was often  second-class, but our text today shows it to be  a terrible oversimplification. Prov. 31,the valiant, valorous woman woman warrior fights for her family unarmed-she is an avatar, the physical embodiment of woman wisdom of the first nine chapters of the book, its reason for being.we have made great strides in our lifetime on the role of women in public life. We do well to honor that achievement, even as we know that full equality is  on the horizon.We use the word agency now to indicate that someone can act on their own in the public realm.

James 3 and 4, integrity, conflict (see presentation for elders) ambition,nearness to god-power plays are based on a distant unengaged god.“This commitment to the truth will oblige disciples to make themselves inconvenient to the wealthy players of power games; in this, James echoes the characterization of "the righteous one" in the Book of Wisdom (2:12-20), who "is inconvenient to us and opposes our actions" (and possibly alludes to Jesus as the Righteous One in 5:6). If (as Martin Luther King Jr. taught) the arc of the moral universe is long, James reminds us that we should patiently follow, anticipate, and bear witness to its curve, rather than forcing it to bend according to our specifications.AKM Adam

Mark and power relations in the church-MK 9:30- Oden The good news is that Jesus welcomes us even when we do not understand or do not know. This pericope closes with Jesus embracing a child, the ultimate symbol of not knowing, not understanding, immature and undeveloped.... One may not be rich, or important in the world's eyes, but everyone has the capacity to adhere to truthfulness, peaceableness, and mercy. Our refusal to stoop to the violence that characterizes our oppressors, though, aligns us with God's own power; and our willingness to endure hardship rather than shed blood or pass judgment aligns us with "prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord."

Much of the jostling around is a search for status and  approval-chruch is the last place to look for it-I wonder if we made a mistake in reclaiming the phrase ruling elder when we resurrected the old term, teaching elder for a minister of word and sacrament, as we cannot hear ruling without hearing it as power over another. The church has fallen into step with business models, without stopping to wonder how it is we are different and similar. As Wallace Sayre said about public administration, the church and business are alike in all uninteresting respects.We resist seeing that the work of the church is spiritual. Of course spiritual life has an impact on secular life.Quite simply the church should be better at how we speak to one another. Our meetings should reflect the kind of virtues james wishes to see, so that means not aping other community boards unless their behavior models the best we can do in trying to work together.Humility is about being genuine and not finding you have the need to establish your sense of worth by making others smaller than yourself."Loader-Sometimes power is sought to bolster an uncertain or diminished sense of self, a depleted self. Instead of commitment to the church, we rush to exit our relationships. The guidelines of our church is a good start toward speaking civilly, not only as adults, but as Christians.

Sermon notes on expression Sept 13 James 3, Ps. 19, Mark 8

Sept. 13 James 3 Ps. 19, Mark 8

“That's what careless words do. They make people love you a little less.” ― Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things-Healthy communications are direct. Healthy communications are respectful, not bearing contempt (gottman).Somewhere we have accepted the notion that criticism is being honest but not a compliment. In other words authentic emotional content is negative. Attacking someone’s motives requires deep insight that few of us possess.Contempt shows up in jokes.

Today I was asked to speak to elders at the church records review , including how we speak.James 3, unbridled tongue is an unwise one. He does not see authentic, sincere speech as the aspiration but careful speech as words fo do have consequences.The stain of fire would seem to be its scorching or the ghastly ghostly imprint after a volcanic eruption. In other words, giving pause before we speak is wise. We have gotten to the point in national politics where we seek gotcha moments of the slip of the tongue, or some inadvertent statement and ignore carefully constructed policy positions and  careful speeches.After all the mouth is used in prayer. Contempt in Gottman’s view. Little things can pile up. Little things can be seeming little things.Gottman suggestions on speech-Why does it seem so difficult to  give five positive comments for every one negative one. why do we suspect a compliment as flattery? (see healthy communication notes._ Facebook  is a hub for rude comments-.to use the rudder analogy, so many words shift the direction into criticism and then its resutl deffensiveness. Labels as prejudice..peak in order to further understanding the other, less than trying to win or score points.Speak for oneself-not others.

Ps 19 proclaims a different voice, the voice of the natural world, one that we cannot hear often. Greeks spoke of the music of the spheres. Sound of silence of Simon.still, it is a partial word.No humn beings have ever seen as deeply into sapce as we have. just recently we saw photos of the dwarf planet Pluto.We only knew Saturn has rings for a few hundred years, and we have seen them in detail. For me the breathtaking  picture sare ones that reach to the dawn of time, and recall that light travel at around 186,000 miles per second.What is transmitted in the face of such grandeur, grand design, dare we say?

{Peter’s voice after all answers the question of Jesus. Look at what emerged as a consequence of the teaching of Jesus.. Mark 8 who do you say Jesus hears the words as inspired with Peter as the instrument.Who do you say that I am. The answers are all religious answers, but not the one Jesus is seeking.Of course we say it with words but also actions that signal what we take it to mean to live as a Christian./Jesus immediately changes the definition    of Messiah (Pannenberg)

“Occasionally in life there are those moments of unutterable fulfillment which cannot be completely explained by those symbols called words. Their meanings can only be articulated by the inaudible language of the heart.” ― Martin Luther King Jr.Words do matter. Yes, we can shield ourselves from their harm, just as we try to shield ourselves from physical assault. So often we try to make amends after the harm has been done-repair the relationship after a hurt has occurred Just a little prudence, a little forbearance can lessen the necessity for those needs. we deserve respect;.

September 6 sermon notes-Prov. 22, Mark 7

Sept. 6 Prov. 22, mark 7, James 2

When I was in seminary, Proverbs were given short shrift. Maybe we have moved back into a time of appreciation for them, as we have grown more distrustful of large answers to the big questions and are used to getting small bytes of information. . Look before you leap-one who hesitates is lost-absence makes the heart grow fonder-out of sight out of mind- A friend had a bumper sticker: question authority. I planned to make one: accept complexity.The entire SC view of campaign finance can be summed up in the phrase, money talks.This is a bit inside baseball. One of the reasons Proverbs fell in attention was its seeming assumption that it projected a simple good is rewarded and bad is punished model. We read here of a more nuanced understanding of the human condition. Sometimes poverty is the result of poor choices. sometimes it is the result of poor conditions. Sometimes it is unpredictable and so is wealth. the poor should not be ill-treated by those better off. Wisdom literature in the bible tries to look at human experience and make some sense of it, an early form of social science, seemingly unconcerned with prophetic oracles and grand schemes. Proverbs was also unpopular, as it does not have a clear linear progression, point to point. it skips around a lot, as if someone with ADD was composing quickly. We live in a perfect time w to reclaim Proverbs in the age of tweets, 140 character brief blurbs on everything under the sun. In trivia contests, they sometimes have advertising slogans and it is incredible how they leap to mind. Proverbs have some punch as they ask us to consider if we see the hand of God in everyday life. do we perceive patterns in our lives that can give us some guidance instead of constantly making it up as we go along, or re-inventing the wheel.Proverbs speaks of the good person as having a good eye as opposed to the evil eye-it speaks of sharing not being generous per se

mark 7 healing and prejudice-Jesus and the woman have a bit of a contest of proverbs, and the woman wins.Note that Jesus almost always bests his religious opponents in a word battle. not only does prejudice pre-judge but it inhibits our field of vision-James uses a biblical passage as more than a proverb but a rule, a royal decree: love your neighbor as yourself.

“No one wants to look into the true mirror and see a scarred face which hardship has scribed with the seams and wrinkles graven by years of endurance. Yet James insists that this face of one who has known sorrows, who is acquainted with grief, is our birthright...: the royal law obliges us to love our neighbor as ourself, and the destitute have been chosen to inherit God’s kingdom. James sees in the faces of beggars the resplendent visages of celestial queens and kings;”(AKM Adam) -”One might wonder, "Where is the good news in a passage like this one?"... He wonders, "Where is the good news for your neighbor?" James wants the good news to be experienced--by each believer and through each believer to the many others who need a tangible expression of grace.” Craig Koester

Class bias is an issue entangled in racial stereotypes. We have permitted it as acceptable where blacks equate whites with privilege and a whole set of assumptions that whites make of blacks. Class cuts across racial lines and exacerbates some of the tensions and discrimination felt by people of any race. This Includes what President Bush memorably called the soft bigotry of reduced or low  expectations.”

Wisdom material often gives human scaled answers to normal encounters. It’s a humble approach that builds on experiences, step by step.God watches over us in ways large and small.

Week of Sept 13 devotional

Sunday-Ps.19 is a fine creation psalm i would urge you to rewrite a version of it to include the scientific discoveries in our lifetime. Still, Christians do not worship nature itself, but the God  who created the natural order. Why do you think it could be a problem to identify God with nature?

Monday-"We all have places in our lives where we feel uninspired, where we are going through the motions…. Imagine the Spirit blowing new life into those places where you have fallen asleep or become deadened. Spend time asking for renewed vigor and energy or notice if you are being invited to let those uninspired places go to make room for new possibilities."--- Christine Valters Paintner

Tuesday-"Listen for the pace of life your own body longs for. Listen for the rhythms which support and sustain you."--- Christine Valters Paintner,How is the darkness of night similar to your own experiences of resting in unknowing? How is the breaking open of morning like your own moments of awakening to renewed purpose?

Wednesday-Ira Groff-"If had longer to prepare this, I could have said it in fewer words." (That's my take on wisdom from the likes of Pascal and Thoreau). "Omit needless words. Vigorous writing is concise."+ Spiritual practices speak of pruning and stripping down to the core Self. Ask: How can cultivating spare, vivid speaking and writing at the same time tend your soul's need for simplicity and vitality?+William Strunk and E.B. White, The Elements of Style

Thursday-Every breath is a resurrection.---Gregory Orr (excerpt from poem “Concerning the Book that is the Body of the Beloved”)In the Benedictine tradition there is a monastic practice called statio, which is the practice of stopping one thing before beginning another.  Imagine, instead of rushing from one appointment to the next, that between each one you pause, you breathe just five long slow breaths. Pause on the threshold between spaces. God lives inside our breath and so every breath can become a resurrection (Abbey of the Arts)

Friday-Speaking words of appreciation to the grocery checker, the landscape worker, the police officer, the crossing guard, our child's teacher, or the teller at the bank, by the power of the Holy Spirit can change the trajectory of a person's life. We can speak informal benedictions to all people because we believe that God is working on every life. Our calling is to give voice to that grace: "God has blessed you," "I'll pray for you"; "God is good"; "Thank you for your kindness." Every time we speak a benediction, we're working with the Spirit to open a life up to the Word, Jesus Christ. May our words be benedictions Lord, causing people to pause, give thanks, and consider again Your presence in their lives; through Christ our Lord. Amen.David Mattson

Saturday-From Weavings-Trappist novice master, when asked about a life lived in Christian authenticity, responded that to be a Christian was not to know the answers but to begin to live in the part of the self where the question is born. He was, of course, not speaking about doubt concerning particular articles of faith but about a state of being. He was speaking of an attitude of listening, of awareness of presence, of an openness to mystery. ...

separation of church and state piece

The embarrassing debacle in the Kentucky County Clerk’s office brings up once again the issue of separation of government and the church and a collision with free exercise of religion of under the First Amendment.. Dr. Ben Carson recently announced his belief that the United States is a Judeo-Christian nation, and that separation of church and state is a form of schizophrenia.. Mormons believe that the Constitution was divinely inspired, and this notion seems to have filtered into a widespread view. It grew in opposing “godless Communism” and found more favor when forced prayer in public schools was invalidated by the Supreme Court in the early sixties.

We used to assume that the voluntary free exercise of religion was buttressed by not having the state coerce religious beliefs and actions.When Madison and Jefferson pushed against an established religion in Virginia, arguments were made for general establishments of state aid to all Christian faiths, or a specific establishment of one state church.From its inception, around the same time as the Constitution,  the Presbyterian Church USA has been an advocate of  separation of church and state. Baptists traditionally were expositors of the doctrine as they paid heed to Roger Williams of Rhode Island.After the First Amendment was ratified for the national government, I do wonder why other state constitutions did not establish a state religion? Even Utah’s state constitution reflects separation of church and state. Our own Illinois constitution is careful to add that  religious freedom does not contravene an oath of office (.Art. 1, Sec. 3).Potential theocrats like to scour the Founders for positive quotes about religious exercise, but they tend to ignore statements about separation of church and state. Here’s James Madison: “subservience to political views is a scandal to religion as well as the increase of party animosities. Candid or incautious politicians will not always disown such views.” See Garry Wills, Head and Heart).

To  bend over backwards to support free exercise of religion, the Supreme Court allowed “released time” for Bible Study during school hours, permitted unemployment compensation for someone who would not work on the Sabbath, permitted the Amish to avoid  high school, and the Jehovah’s Witnesses  were not required to salute the flag.We have  conscientious objector status in times of war.  As early as 1878, the Court refused to let free exercise of religion as a trump card against the law-”the professed doctrines of religious belief superior to the law of the land, and in effect to permit every citizen to become a law unto himself”. The 1990 Smith case argued that laws neutrally applied should be a standard for questioning a religious objection to a law. In response, RFRA (Religious Freedom Restoration Act) was passed at the national level and i at many state levels to provide religious exemptions for certain mandates.

Failure to issue a marriage license, as an agent of the government, is an attempt to enshrine a protest into the law. it is an attempt to have others adhere to her religious beliefs according to her position as a state official. She is seeking state sanctioned invidious discrimination.Civil disobedience is refusal to follow a law one believes to be wrong, but its respect for the law means being sanctioned by the state, in hopes that the law will be changed out of a moral revulsion against a policy. Her religious exercise does not obviate her oath of office, nor to de clare what laws she believes deserve to be administered. As Thoreau said, it pits an individual conscience against the conscience of the government.We continue to see the trajectory of trying to establish religious  actions with the strong arm of the government. Let a thousand flowers bloom as it pertains to religions, but Jesus said to follow him, not coerce the nation.