[Oe List ...] Earthrise Reflection

[John Epps via OE]

To continue our Earthrise contributions around one's birthday, I offer the
following:

I’ve never heard anything like it.


The ordinary mode of beginning the Sunday worship service at Montview
Presbyterian Church is the sound of chimes after which the congregation is
invited to quietly make the transition from getting there to being there.
This Sunday, being Easter, the sanctuary was overflowing with people
enthusiastically greeting each other with churchy cordiality and requests
from the front to move closer together in the pews to accommodate more
people.


 I was sitting quietly waiting for the chimes, hoping to be able to hear
them over the din, and looking forward to a few moments of silence to
absorb the beauty of the surroundings.


Suddenly from the choir loft came a deafening crash of cymbals followed by
a brass and organ fanfare that filled the gothic architecture with
ear-splitting wonder that lasted a full 5 minutes. After the final grand
chord, the congregation was speechless. The impact was powerful and
profound, setting the tone for something grand about to happen. For me, if
nothing else occurred during the service, the Easter wonder had happened.


The piece was Grand Choeur Dialogue by Eugene Gigout; you can find it at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rufxt80iVA0


But that was only the first musical treat. The brass and organ and choir
continued their gift of awe-producing sounds during the hymns, anthem, and
offertory anthem. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZtIRp3Vglw was the
anthem.


By the time we left, I was done in, having experienced something of a
resurrection myself..


Since then, I’ve been wrestling with the thought that such grandeur was not
at all like the lifestyle portrayed in the New Testament. Though it clearly
portrays the significance of the Easter event for Christians, the music and
setting seemed more appropriate to royalty than to us. Recent Public TV
shows featuring Henry VIII depict a setting in which this type of music
would have been right at home.


Maybe the point is that awe happens when you least expect it, when
surprises break through that are not of our doing. If, as I have contended
elsewhere, surprises are where we are confronted by Mystery, that certainly
happened at the Denver Montview Presbyterian Church on Easter Sunday, 2017.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.wedgeblade.net/pipermail/oe-wedgeblade.net/attachments/20170627/6f51caa7/attachment.htm>