You Spin me right round like a record, baby

The choir at Waverly Road just completed a two week Concert Tour. While that may not seem illustrious or overly rock-star like (how many rock stars are accompanied by organ?) the time, effort, and passion put into these appearances made many of our members feel, for a moment, like they were Diana Ross - or at the very least the Supremes. Music is a very recognizable talent in the life and ministry of the church. Every week some form of musical expression appears in worship, and in fact a service without music is very awkward indeed.

The Apostle Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians. is concerned about the new worship craze that is sweeping the Roman empire, the Corinthian precinct anyway. Speaking in Tongues. Now, most good Presbyterians would look resonabily and appropriately askance were someone to stand up in worship and proclaim in a loud yet completely foreign voice, the prophecy of God. We just don't do that sort of thing.

But in many ways, Music is a form of prophesying in tongues. None of us fully understand why and how music has such power to express the unspoken words of our hearts, but somehow we all recognize that music does such a thing - even when the words are foreign to us as in a Latin Requiem mass. We don't understand the impact of music, but we always feel it. And in the church's progression towards "contemporary worship" services with their worship leaders and praise bands, we seem to be closer and closer to emphasizing the singularity of one person's musical gift, much as the people of Corinth glorified the one or two people capable of speaking in tongues.

Paul reminds us that these gifts, the gifts of music and speaking in tongues, are uniquely situated to encourage personal glorification. It is absolutely right to share with someone when their gift ahs touched us personally. However, we in the church must be careful to ensure that when spiritual gifts - like music, like art, like speaking in tongues - are in employed, it should always be to the glory of God who provides all blessings. It's an easy trap and a beautiful snare. I think we should ask ourselves, as Paul does, "Is this for God or for me?"

The Daily Lectionary Readings
1 Corinthians 14:1-19

New Beginnings

I sit here, in my living room, staring out at a very different mountain view then the one I grew up enjoying. It makes sense because now I'm in Tennessee.

It's true. I'm a Tennessean. Or Tennessonian. Or Tennessite. I'm not sure which. People here seem to go with "Volunteer", and I like that idea.

Every once in awhile, when the days seem most normal, when a simple human need strikes - like mailing a letter or buying gas - it hits me. I don't live in West Virginia anymore. This is Tennessee.

Though the surroundings are certainly unfamiliar and the language quite strange, I can't help but remember the the many people God has called to far more exotic places than Kingsport. Sure, I don't have the requisite accent (though I might pick it up - the sound is so charming), but the people here don't seem to care.

All of which makes me want to Volunteer.

So, God, what can I do today?