Good on ya, Bill!

John Cock

From: OE <oe-bounces@lists.wedgeblade.net> on behalf of Bill Schlesinger via OE <oe@lists.wedgeblade.net>
Reply-To: Bill Schlesinger <w.schlesinger@pvida.net>, Order Ecumenical Community <oe@lists.wedgeblade.net>
Date: Tuesday, June 27, 2017 at 7:33 PM
To: 'John Epps' <jlepps39@gmail.com>, 'Order Ecumenical Community' <oe@lists.wedgeblade.net>
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] Earthrise Reflection

Ah, those cerebral Presbyterians!

From: OE [mailto:oe-bounces@lists.wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of John Epps via OE
Sent: Tuesday, June 27, 2017 4:49 PM
To: Tracy Longacre via OE
Subject: [Oe List ...] Earthrise Reflection

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.