submitted by Michael Morgan, organist, Central Presbyterian Church, Atlanta, Georgia; seminary musician, Columbia Theological Seminary; and author of the Psalter for Christian Worship
Sunday’s Coming: working toward January 15
Here we are, beginning Ordinary Time all over again, but the stories are anything but ordinary. Or maybe they’re so ordinary they’re extraordinary. After all, it’s not uncommon to not understand what’s happening when we hear the voice of God…or what’s happening when someone else hears God’s voice but we don’t. And the affirmation of the psalmist that God surrounds us all the time is one that brings great comfort to many people (though I’ve met one or two who find it a little creepy!). And how often do we really recognize Jesus in the everyday things, like walking through town, enjoying a picnic under a tree, or talking with friends? Luckily, some of us have friends who will be persistent with their “come and see!” Or maybe this week you’re going with Paul’s very full text, reminding us that all things are lawful, but not all things are beneficial, and our bodies are temples of the Holy, so maybe we should treat them as such.
Personally, I wish I’d not procrastinated on an idea I had months ago, for a skit in which people hear many things but haven’t cultivated the relationship to know what to listen to. It seems it would make a perfect introduction to a sermon on Samuel–if you’ve never talked with God before, how would you know God’s voice? It’s fodder for a drama…but I didn’t get around to it in time. Maybe in three years!
SO: what are you thinking? What are you writing? What are you humming? Let’s write some liturgy together!
call to worship – Baptism of the Lord, based on Psalm 29
submitted by Michael Morgan, organist, Central Presbyterian Church, Atlanta, Georgia; seminary musician, Columbia Theological Seminary; and author of the Psalter for Christian Worship
Looking Ahead: Transfiguration
Now that T-Fig is a mere 10 days away, it’s time to get serious. What are you thinking for transfiguration this year? What phrases do you want to start working with? What seeds are you hoping will bud into new liturgy? What fig-ments (hahaha) do you want to build on?
I know, I know, it’s still only the 11th day of Christmas, but some of us have to work really far ahead. Whether it’s because we have a lot of volunteers involved and they need more time to create, or we’re trying hard to do new creative things that always somehow seem to require more work, or our brains just need the lead time to let things simmer, it’s time to look forward in faith…toward everyone’s favorite holy day, Transfiguration. Every year, the same story of the shiny Jesus and the whole Moses-Elijah-crazy-Peter-dwellings-falling-on-our-faces-overshadowed-by-clouds-voice-from-the-sky thing. So…what are you thinking about for T-Fig? How can we experience the holy in this story this year? What creative ways–music, liturgy, movement, art, etc–can help us encounter God on this Sunday before Lent?
prayer of illumination for Christmastide
submitted by Rev. Andy James, First Presbyterian Church, Whitestone, New York
God of light,
you have revealed your very self to us in your son Jesus Christ,
your one Word made flesh, who lived among us, full of grace and truth.
Open us to your revelation once again,
that in the words of your holy scripture
we might know your presence and follow in your light always.
Amen.
recent comments