Yesterday Esther played Meditation from Thais by Massenet at her violin teacher’s recital. Ben accompanied her on the piano. Esther only started playing it a few weeks ago but her teacher was happy that she was ready to play yesterday.
Click image below to watch the video.
This is a copy of my latest post on the Communitas Collective blog
A couple of weeks ago, in the foyer of a chapel, I met Pete Rollins for the first time. “I’m here today because I really want to hear you speak” I said to him “but I’m not going into the service because I don’t do worship”.
“Neither do I, usually”, he replied with a friendly smile as he went into the service. Along with everyone else except me.
I loved his response. In effect I’d said “I’m an outsider here” and he’d replied “me too.” There’s nothing more reassuring an outsider can hear, especially if it’s from a ‘leader’ who surely is as ‘inside’ as it’s possible to be! In fact my picture of Jesus (perhaps imaginary) based on the Bible stories about him has him responding exactly like this to outsiders.
But would the leader of a faith community ‘bend the truth’ in order to be relational? That didn’t seem right even though it would be very kind. Perhaps he was simply being honest. Yet how could it be true that the leader of a faith community didn’t (usually) do worship?
I definitely don’t do worship. The main reason is that it feels like a ‘lie’ to say things implying I love God and believe in God when I’m far from sure God even exists. A few days before I met Pete I remembered another reason. Even when I did believe, my memory of worship is that it made me feel happy while I was participating in it and I believed I was doing something beneficial. Yet it didn’t actually change me. So I was deluding myself. I would rather spend that time doing something which demonstrably made the world a little bit better. (I’m sharing my own experience here. I’m not saying worship is that way for everyone)
Pete’s talk followed immediately after the chapel service. When I heard him I understood he really had meant what he said about worship. At least, worship as it is often engaged in in contemporary evangelical circles.
Pete began by quoting Marx’ comments about religion being the opium of the people. Approvingly! Then he explained, the problem with the way worship is often done is that it becomes an escape from the suffering in our lives, rather than helping us confront it and come to terms with it.
Pete talked about what he thought worship should be and do. It should express the full range of emotions (not just “Jesus is my boyfriend”) so people can confront the trauma in their lives in a safe, ritualized communal way. When the emotions are overwhelming the worship leaders can express the emotions for us. Ministers and priests need to be honest about their own crises and doubts otherwise they help us ‘run away’ from ours.
Pete validated doubt as part of the Christian experience. He also said if you believe, it will show because God will be transforming your reality, your material existence.
And he said people find God (and are helped in coming to terms with their own suffering) through sharing stories with each other.
The last thing I expected when I decided to go hear Pete was that he’d agree with some of my concerns about worship. That was awesome. I’m very glad I went!
Last night Ben and Darcy played the first movement of the Sinfonia Concertante by Mozart with the Oak Park River Forest High School Symphony Orchestra (their high school orchestra). Ben and Darcy played with them because they received an ‘honorable mention’ in this year’s High School Concerto Competition.
The cadenza begins at about 11 minutes. As soon as the cadenza ended the audience broke out into applause even though the orchestra was still playing.
Click image below to watch the video.
“Lord, if I thought you were listening, I’d pray for this above all: that any church set up in your name should remain poor, and powerless, and modest. That it should wield no authority except that of love. That it should never cast anyone out. That it should own no property and make no laws. That it should not condemn, but only forgive. That it should be not like a palace with marble walls and polished floors, and guards standing at the door, but like a tree with its roots deep in the soil that shelters every kind of bird and beast and gives blossom in the spring and shade in the hot sun and fruit in the season, and in time gives up its good sound wood for the carpenter; but that sheds many thousands of seeds so that new trees can grow in its place. Does the tree say to the sparrow “Get out, you don’t belong here?” Does the tree say to the hungry man “This fruit is not for you?” Does the tree test the loyalty of the beasts before it allows them into the shade?”
Part of Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before he was crucified, according to this new novel.
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