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In the Cry of a Tiny Babe

Scripture:  The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has chosen me to bring good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed and announce that the time has come when the Lord will save his people.  (Luke 4:18-19)

Meditation:  One of my favorite Christmas songs is by Canadian singer-songwriter Bruce Cockburn.  It is far from a traditional Christmas song, but, as you can see in the verses below, it reminds us of the incredible gift of Jesus’ birth and life on earth.

Like a stone on the surface of a still river

 driving the ripples on forever,

Redemption rips through the surface of time

 in the cry of a tiny babe.

There are others who know about this miracle birth.

The humblest of people catch a glimpse of their worth.

For it isn’t to the palace that the Christ child comes,

 but to shepherds and street people, hookers, and bums.

And the message is clear if you’ve got ears to hear,

 that forgiveness is given for your guilt and fear.

It’s a Christmas gift you don’t have to buy.

There’s a future shining in a baby’s eyes.

Sadly, today on our city streets there are scores of people who have not caught that glimpse of their worth.  They struggle each day to find any meaning in life, often making it hard for us to reach out to them.  Ma Curtis was like that.  She was a homeless woman for whom you had to work very hard to find sympathy.  She was dirty, crude and almost always drunk.  She had been through every social service program in the city of Portland and was now mostly “persona non grata” at every one of them.

After 30 years of drinking and riding the trains, no one could see a future for Ma, except a sad and miserable death on the streets…no one, that is, but Michael and the staff at Baloney Joe’s shelter.  Somewhere in this coarse and disheveled alcoholic they saw the image of God.  For years Michael invited Ma into his shelter, kicked her out when she broke the rules, and invited her back, saying, “Ma, you are always welcome here when you want to work on your problems.  We care about you.”  

Not even Ma knows why one day, when she was nearly 60 years old, she woke up and made an incredible change in her life.  She says she remembers only that in her early morning daze she said to herself, “What am I doing?  There are people who care about me and I am acting like this.  What is wrong with me?  I’ve got to change.” Then she literally crawled to a place where she could detox from decades of alcohol abuse, and she never drank another drop.

For the next six years until her death, if you met Ma Curtis, you never forgot her.  She was, as they say, “a piece of work.”   She had an infectious but crusty laugh, the product of those decades of drinking and smoking. And she could regale you for hours with stories about riding the rails and her colorful past. But more importantly she traveled across this land telling everyone she saw never to give up hope on anyone. She would say, “No one deserves to be homeless.”  She became one of this nation’s most eloquent speakers on homelessness. She challenged everyone she saw not to forget that every sleeping form on our city streets is made in the image of God.  To meet Ma was to know that, and to know she had “caught a glimpse of her worth” and found hope in a hopeless life.

Prayer:    Lord, help us to see Your image in our lives and grant us the patience and wisdom to see Your image in all who journey with us.  Amen.

For additional information about our Advent devotions and their authors, click here.

Click here to listen to Bruce Cockburn’s “The Cry of A Tiny Babe”

tbc Media, Worship & Fellowship

The Gift of the Stranger

Scripture Reading:  She gave birth to her first Son, wrapped him in cloths and laid him in a manger – there was no room for them to stay in the inn. (Luke 2:7)

Meditation:   It was my first night as a volunteer at the new Salvation Army shelter, opened to address the growing needs of homeless men in downtown Phoenix.  I had never worked with homeless people before, so I sat nervously at the registration table asking each man a few questions as he signed in.  As I got more and more into the flow of the job, I became more mechanical in my duties, soon failing to look up before asking the next man in line his name. As I crouched over my clipboard, I called out for the name of the next person in line.  A voice quietly said, “My name is Joseph.”   Continuing to stare at my clipboard, I asked, “And your occupation?”  Joseph quietly answered, “I am a carpenter,” and then he disappeared into the crowd heading through the shelter door.   

At that moment, just a few days before Christmas, I was jolted out of the complacency of my “official” role.  I realized I could not ignore these men. I could not fail to give them the simple dignity of looking them in the eye. If Joseph were there, could Jesus be there also?   And what if I missed the opportunity to grasp God’s outstretched hand and His invitation to journey with Him in service to the world? 

The Bible does not tell us why the innkeeper felt compelled to find a place for Joseph and Mary to sleep that night.  Perhaps it was the fact that it was clear that Mary was close to giving birth that moved him to compassion, but why had none of the other innkeepers felt so moved?  Maybe it was because the innkeeper had access to the cave where Jesus was born and no one else did, or perhaps it was simply a chance to make a little more money from the travelers visiting Bethlehem to pay their taxes. Or, just maybe, it was because by looking into the eyes of Mary and Joseph the innkeeper caught a glimpse of God’s love and chose to be a part of His plan for revealing that love to mankind.

We will have to wait until we get to heaven to get the answer to that question, but what we do know is that the birthplace of Jesus is an important part of the revelation of God’s story.  Through His humble birth, Jesus was connected to the world of the broken, and through that was able to teach us about compassion and grace and hope.  As Thomas Merton reminds us:

Into this world, this demented inn, in which there is absolutely no room for Him at all, Christ has come uninvited.  But because He cannot be at home in it, because He is out of place in it, His place is with those others for whom there is no room.  His place is with those who do not belong, who are rejected by power because they are regarded as weak, those who are discredited, who are denied the status of person, who are tortured, bombed, and exterminated.  With those for whom there is no room, Christ is present in the world. He is mysteriously present in those for whom there seems to be nothing but the world at its worst… It is in these that He hides Himself, for whom there is no room.

Prayer:   Lord, thank You for the innkeeper who chose to be a part of God’s plan for the world.  Help us to be aware of those around us who need to find room in the inn – be it a place of physical rest or spiritual hope.  Amen.

For additional information about our Advent devotions and their authors, click here.

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Music and Worship Report: January 2019

MUSIC AND WORSHIP REPORT: Dr. Judy Fiske
The first quarter of 2018 had a lot of activity packed into it. Epiphany began with a beautiful installation that included many origami stars as well as the wonderful Moravian stars that always hang in the Sanctuary. Jay Hartman added to our collection a group of stained-glass stars that he had rescued from a building renovation. They cleaned up beautifully and looked like someone had made them to hang in the sanctuary. For the first time in many years we added the celebration of Black History month to the music program in worship. We used a spiritual for the call to worship each Sunday in February. We used a Howard Thurman poem, “Listen to the Stillness”, as our theme for the Epiphany season. Susan Braden composed a lovely SATB setting of the text that the choir sang on February 11, Transfiguration Sunday. Unfortunately, I did not get to hear this anthem as I fell down steps on February 7 and broke my right wrist in three places!! This began a long period of recovery that included two surgeries and many people covering the work that I usually do. Brenda Brown substituted at the organ, Ron Simmons did a large amount of the conducting for the sanctuary choir, Susan Braden covered several of the Younger Children’s Choir rehearsals and performances, and Eric Fiske did a lot of driving and heavy lifting. Somewhere in there I also managed to do a little work! I cannot adequately express my gratitude for the work of all the people who helped —and continue to help cover my work responsibilities. My right hand is mostly working now.

Our Lenten installation included beautiful pictures of people in the congregation overlaid with the words of our Lenten theme song, “What Could You Do with Me,” by Josh Wright. This song was presented each week in Lent by a different soloist or group. We also used a shadowbox in a doorframe in which we drew a symbol that was drawn from the week’s scripture passage. This gave us six large drawings, which were used on Good Friday to remember what we had learned throughout the season. The service that evening used music and narrations written by Susan Braden that took us through the final hours of Jesus’ life as a human. Each of the drawings was torn to remind us of how shallow our understandings of Jesus’ message continue to be. The Sanctuary Choir conducted by Ron Simmons led us through the music.

The Older and Younger Children’s Choir participated actively in worship throughout the quarter by singing, reading and candle lighting. The Youth in the Worship Arts Ensemble also were active worship participants. These groups are led by Jessica Corbitt, Terry Witt, Susan Braden, Kathy McGraw, Ron Simmons, Marty Watkin and me. The children and youth are learning a great deal about worship leadership.

This was an interesting quarter for me. It was difficult to be one handed for much of the time. I cannot thank all of the people who covered work for me and made the music in this quarter amazing.

April 1st was Easter in 2018 so we started the second quarter off with a bang. Easter is always an exciting conclusion to a busy and meaningful Lent and Holy Week. Following Easter, the Sanctuary Choir began preparations for Pentecost and for summer. The Children’s Choirs also began preparations for a final performance. This year the final program was held on the last Wednesday evening in May and consisted of a concert of all types of music from Sacred to Broadway. Everyone had a great time and the music was beautiful. Many thanks are due to Jessica Corbitt, Terry Witt, Kathy McGraw and Susan
Braden for their wonderful leadership with the school-aged choirs. Helen Davidson and Larry Allen provide amazing leadership for our Preschool Choir.

Our summer music program included a month of sharing favorite hymns and their stories, both the hymn story and their stories in our lives. This was a great deal of fun and helped people to get to know one another as we sang and shared songs we love. In late June seven of us attended Animate Worship Arts Camp at Samford University in Birmingham, Alabama. This camp is a favorite and we love attending. Meg Lacy was one of the preachers again this year. Each of the youth learned so much about designing and participating in worship services. Later in July, twenty-eight people attended Music and
Worship Arts Camp at Eagle Eyrie. This camp is open to children over the age of 10. We sang a lot, learned about worship, played in the amazing EE pool, and figured out how to go to bed without a parent to tell us what to do. This camp experience is very valuable to both the spiritual, musical and physical development of the children. They learn a lot about independence at camp.

August always brings renewed interest in liturgical installations. This year our theme was “Stitched Together.” We displayed quilts and told their stories as we were listening, worshiping and waiting for God’s guidance in our lives. The quilts provided a wonderful visual for the use of every scrap to make something beautiful in our lives. A group of adults and youth spent a couple of afternoons at the church dyeing fabric and stiffening it with glue after it had been cut into large squares. These were hung in the sanctuary ceiling to form a “quilt” over our heads.

The music ministry moved back into regular programing in September. The Sanctuary Choir and three children’s choirs meet on Wednesday evenings and Youth Worship Arts meets on Sunday afternoon. In September the Narrative Lectionary guides the structure of church thinking. The structure for much of our study and worship follows the structure of this Lectionary. This year we are in Year 1 of the program. The worship installation that was envisioned in August came into being. Advent and Christmas music was rehearsed. The final quarter of the year is the culmination of much work while being the beginning of the Church year.

In October the Sanctuary Choir led a Vesper Service at Lakewood Manor Retirement Center. In November the Sanctuary Choir once again traveled to South Hill to participate in the anniversary concert for New Beginnings, a Gospel Trio. We are always honored to participate in this concert and it is great musical fun! In December the Sanctuary Choir and the Lisu Ladies Ensemble led the Star Lighting Ceremony and Concert at Westminster Canterbury. It was a beautiful program and we were honored to participate. In addition to providing the music for many of the 11:00 am worship services, the Sanctuary Choir also sang a concert at Bruton Parish Church on December 22 and as a part of Christmas in the Fan with Richmond Concert Band. The children and youth worship arts groups kept up a solid educational level as well as sharing in worship leadership at least once a month. People of all ages also shared in the musical leadership of our Christmas Eve service.

The Music and Worship Arts program of at Tabernacle is indebted to the multitalented music staff and many volunteers who gladly share their talents and ideas. There is always space for more voices in all areas of the music and art ministry. Come pray, think, sing and play with us as we work hard together to keep following Jesus in our lives.

Judy Fiske
Minister of Music/Worship/Organist