My brother texted me yesterday afternoon sharing that in our home church, the organist and his daughter, who directed the choir, played “He Shall Feed His Flock” as duet. That organist sat with his family on the pew behind our family in our growing up years, and I taught his daughter in Sunday School in her growing up years. That dear church is declining in numbers and no longer has a choir, but is blessed with these wonderful musicians sharing from Sunday to Sunday.
My brother recalled the many years our mother was in the choir, sometimes as director and sometimes holding down the alto section, but always a part of it for sixty some years. While we didn’t do much “recording” years back, in my heart of hearts I could hear her beautiful contralto voice singing Handel’s lovely tune.
“He Shall Feed His Flock” was a solo she sang each Advent, usually on the Second Sunday of Advent, when the Old Testament reading comes from Isaiah 40, with these familiar words in verse 11:
“He tends his flock like a shepherd:
He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;
he gently leads those that have young.”
My brother’s text started me “remembering” and I recalled a part of the message I shared at the Service of Resurrection for our mother. “In every season of life, she found a song to sing.”
I remember her singing “Would You Like to Swing on a Star” as she combed out my long and tangled hair after Saturday night washings – before all the cream rinses that make this job so much easier! I remember “K-K-Katy” sung as she rocked my youngest daughter in the same chair that rocked her generation.; “In My Heart I Ponder,” sung in the Harlan Presbyterian Christmas Program as a ten-year old Mary rocked baby Jesus, my older daughter; and “Jesus, tender shepherd hear me, bless thy little lamb tonight…” sung to their older brother as his “night-night” song whenever they were together at bedtime.
I even recalled Mother singing “Flaming Mamie” and “Annie Get Your Gun” in a Lons Club Minstrel show one year. Truly she found a song to sing in every season of life, using the beautiful gift God gave her.
While videos and pictures and recordings capture memories and help us to remember, our hearts can do much the same if we quiet ourselves and let our memories come to the surface and our hearts speak.
Elizabeth
Each First Sunday of Advent for the last ten years, it’s been a blessing to be a part of the annual Hanging of the Greens service at Jackson Springs Presbyterian Church.
The question “How do we prepare this house of worship for the coming of God’s Son?” is posed, and the worship space answers as it is called to life in the same special ways each year:
“… with branches of cedar, the tree of royalty;
with four-candled wreath, circle of God’s unending
love to mark our journey;
with garlands of pine and fir, whose leaves are
ever-living, ever-green;
with wreaths of holly and ivy, telling of his passion,
death and resurrection;
with candles and lights and a brightly burning star;
with Mary and Joseph and the babe in the manger;
with poinsettias of deepest red, flowers of the Holy Night;
with bells and chimes and songs of praise and welcome;
with the reading of words of Scripture foretelling and
telling the saving work of God…”
Chimes and Christmas Bells ring out and “there’s a song in the air!” Words from the prophets and the Gospels are read and we sing carols. Our children gather around the manger and give their gifts to the Holy Child. “The Little Drummer Boy” walks the aisle playing his drum; the Chrismon Tree is decorated with ornaments telling of Jesus’ life: the manger, the star, the dove, the lamb, the cross, the crown …
This proclamation is read:
The candles are lit! The greens are hung!
The words have been read. The songs have been sung;
Emmanuel, God with us, we speak of your birth tonight,
bringing love and comfort, showing us your light.
We’re called to do the same, as we leave this holy place,
our lives true reflections of your love and grace.
The service concludes in a circle of candlelight, singing “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” and lifting our candles to “Rejoice, rejoice!”
How I will miss this special service in this special place! Another memory tucked in my heart to carry on.
Elizabeth
Yesterday was the last Sunday of the “church” year, and we celebrated Christ the King Sunday. Christ the King draws our attention to see the big picture. We may be lost in our circumstances of the moment, but God is still at work. God is always working His purpose out in our lives and in all of life. All of God’s purposes will be accomplished. and God will complete the good work begun in each of our lives.
In a time of upheaval and change in my life, these truths are comforting and encouraging. As I step into the final weeks of ministry in this wonderful church, and this very special community, I trust that God will complete all that needs to be completed in us and among us, blessing us and helping us find our way to the “something new” that is planned for us.
The words of Ecclesiastes 3 are helpful, and this morning these words spoke to my heart: “There’s a time for everything … a time to keep and a time to throw away …” The Message translation puts it this way, “There is a right time for everything ... a right time to hold on and another to let go.” This particular translation encourages and comforts me in this season of my life. So much “stuff” accumulates in a lifetime, and it’s a challenging, bittersweet task sorting through it all! “Letting go” is something I can do, even as I struggle with “throwing away.”
Somewhere along the way, I heard the phrase “letting go with love” and looking back I can see the many ways I have done that: letting go of churches in move after move in ministry; letting go of children as they step out on their own life’s journey; letting go of living spaces that have been home through the years; letting go of furniture and books and items that won’t fit into the smaller space I’ll soon be calling home; letting go of hopes and dream, etc. All that “letting go” is making room for something new – a truth I’ve learned in my lifetime of soon to be 75 years. It’s helpful to remember this in the bittersweet experience of sorting through, remembering and leaving.
I came across a wonderful song that is helping me along the way- “The Time for Turning.” I believe our choir sang it at Homecoming one year.
“To everything a season, to everything a time; a moment to move forward and leave the past behind. As summer turns to autumn and bids farewell to spring, there comes a time for turning to everything living thing. The breezes change direction, the geese turn homeward bound; The leaf turns from its clinging and falls up on the ground. The flower turns from blooming to slumber in the snow, and so to all a season, a time for letting go. Now is the time for turning and this the place to start, for yielding to the yearning , for changing of the heart; a moment to surrender the things we should release, forgive and find forgiveness, and in forgiveness peace."
In such a “time for turning” it’s helpful to celebrate “Christ the King” and to be drawn from my circumstances of the moment to the “big picture” of my life. God is at work in my life and in all of life, even now, and all of God’s purposes will be accomplished, as God completes the good work begun in my life and in all of life.
Giving thanks for those streams of mercy, never ceasing, carrying us from season to season on our journeys of life and faith.
Elizabeth