[Propertalk] Proper 18 a

[robertpmorrison at charter.net]

I wrote this last week and don't think I posted it. If it's a repeat 
posting- my apologies!

Bob

THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY              THE TWELFTH 
SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST – A
EXODUS 12:1-14					           		            PROPER 18 A
ROMANS 13:8-14					                                  4th SEPTEMBER, 2011
MATTHEW 18:15-20					     		            PSALM 149	

	The other week I listened to a broadcast of Brahms’ violin concerto. 
Only it wasn’t – it wasn’t the violin concerto any more. It was a piano 
concerto. Everything – or practically everything – was the same, note 
wise. The orchestral parts were identical. In the new piano part only a 
few notes had been transferred here and there to a different octave, and 
the harmony had been taken straight from what Brahms had written.

	The arranger, or recomposer, argues that Brahms was, primarily, a 
pianist and that letters he’d written to various people at the time of 
composition weren’t totally conclusive that he was sure that it might be 
suited best for the violin. 1

	It WAS intriguing to listen to it. It revealed different aspects, chord 
sequences, melodic twists and so on that I’d forgotten or never noticed 
before. Yet, to my ears at any rate, it doesn’t quite work as a piano 
concerto. Oh, I’d listen to it again, but it DOES seem to work best with 
the solo part on the violin.

	No matter what Brahms may have written to his friends, his first 
thought of giving that part to the violin seems spot on.

	Sometimes that’s like life, and how we perceive our relationship with 
God and with one another. We may have all sorts of questions – should I 
do this? Should I cultivate this friendship? Should I go out on a limb 
for this? But more often than not I’m convinced that we should allow our 
first thoughts to guide us, or at least give them great consideration. 
And if others come along, suggesting we might want to hold back a little 
– well there HAVE been times when things have been derailed or at least 
stalled by not going with my first impression and with my own best 
judgement.

	I know that this can be dangerous. Sometimes we’re misled by our own 
perceptions. I know that often someone else, particularly someone who’s 
slightly removed from the immediate circumstances, can have a clearer 
view of the picture. Still, the person who’s in touch with what’s going 
on, or knows who all the players are, more often than not has a gut 
feeling that serves either as encouragement or a warning.

	I know that I’ve met people and sensed almost instantly that she or he 
is someone who’ll become a close friend and important to my life and 
sense of vocation.

	This isn’t to say that good friendships can’t develop over time – it’s 
just a comment about how first impressions, first thoughts can be so 
important.

	Think about the Hebrew people, gathered in their homes that night, 
packed as well as could be expected, trying to concentrate on eating a 
good solid meal before they took off, as Moses had told them.

	He’d even given specific instructions about what to eat, and how to 
cook it, and what to do with leftovers.

	It must have seemed so strange. I wonder how many second thoughts THEY 
had. They must have been complaining for so long about their work 
conditions, about their lack of autonomy, about the price of this and 
that, that you’d think they’d have wanted to have left Egypt like a 
shot. Yet I bet there were some pretty knotted stomachs that night as 
they crouched down to eat.

	At least some – who knows, probably quite a number – may have been 
griping and moaning about not being ready. About taking one more survey, 
of checking the weather forecast to see what it would be like the next 
day.

	But Moses told them that they had to go with their first thought, their 
gut reaction, and make a clean break with their past. They’d kept 
faithful to their God and they’d talked to God about the problem, so 
they should just sit down to that meal and try to get some sleep before 
they set out the next day.

	In an article about a week ago, New York-based religion writer and 
Episcopal priest, Tom Ehrich, wrote “Evolution is a relentless force. 
Now that the Internet has enabled mobile computing via smartphones, 
tablets and cloud-based apps, the desk-bound PC seems like a ponderous 
dinosaur.” 2

	Just when you thought you were getting the hang of it, when you finally 
are beginning to feel comfortable with the separate computer floor unit, 
and keyboard and screen, along come so many people – and NOT just ad 
executives or salespeople – but normal people, who’re saying that we 
really ought to think about doing all of our communication via 
cell-phone-sized electronic packages. Instead of trying to lug around 
even a seven pound laptop, you and I can manage with something only a 
few ounces in weight and almost as small as that proverbial pack of 
cigarettes.

	But HOW we resist change – most of us, anyway. I know a few folk who 
rush out the moment they hear of the latest gadget, probably seventeen 
billion terabytes in capacity, that can send you a crystal clear photo 
of the Chinese Premier’s car licence plate as he checks out the latest 
U.S. Stock Market figures.

	What’s wrong with my seven-pound laptop? It works fine. I’m pretty 
comfortable with it and I know how I can bring in radio stations from 
Britain while checking my e-mail and even trying to write a sermon.

	Actually there’s probably not too much that’s wrong with my laptop. 
It’s just that I can slip a more powerful, much smaller electronic 
mechanism into my shirt pocket and sneak a peek at the ball game while 
the preacher drones on, and no one will be any the wiser.

	Sometimes, though, there are things that need to evolve, as difficult 
as it may seem. Sometimes, our first excited thought about getting a new 
something or other – be it a car or  toaster – MAY be a prompt from God, 
one of those signs mentioned last week, to encourage us to rethink how 
we can go about our vocation to be faithful apostles of Jesus Christ. 
Maybe – just maybe – Dejan Lazić  the Croatian pianist who arranged 
Brahms’ violin concerto for piano, maybe he DOES have the idea, at 
least, of getting us to rethink what the composer may have been trying 
to convey through the melodies he wrote. Maybe it’s a case of Brahms 
writing the best he possibly could, in that blinding moment of 
inspiration, and then someone else in a completely different setting, 
almost in another world, coming along to say that if we turn things this 
way and that we can be blessed by the first thoughts while benefitting 
from reconsideration.
	
	This applies as much to us as individuals and as a congregation as it 
does to large corporate entities or historic documents. Way back when, 
someone had the terrific idea to establish a congregation of 
Episcopalians here in Albany, and to work on getting folk interested in 
what they could accomplish together – not just to satisfy their own 
spiritual longings, but to help others see how to nourish themselves in 
soul as well as body and mind.

	You don’t need me to tell you what the history of our ancestors here 
entailed. There were different buildings – probably not always acquired 
under the smoothest of circumstances. There were different clergy – same 
goes for them – not everyone may have been thrilled by good old Mr. 
Smith from back east. There were – gasp! – different prayer books and 
hymnals! Yet most folk survived these changes. Many folk, although they 
may have been reluctant to admit it, many folk may even have grown and 
learned to appreciate these changes.

	But there was a constant running through all of this; more than one, 
actually. The interest of God in what was happening; the Presence of God 
in times of stress, a Presence that perhaps remained indescribable yet 
was there nevertheless through signs and wonders; in all of the 
interactions among human beings, in all the changes and moves that have 
been made down through history, God has been discovered and rediscovered 
as Love.

	No matter what our situation – one of content or one of disturbance at 
what’s going on in individual and congregational lives – no matter 
what’s happening, God remains present and, as The United Church of 
Christ puts it in their marvellous slogan, “God is Still Speaking”.

	We have a marvelous slogan too. “The Episcopal Church Welcomes You”. 
“But that is not enough.” That’s what a friend from Atlanta wrote. “It's 
no different than saying ‘everyone is welcome at our church.’ To the 
stranger, particularly one who might not fit the ‘traditional’ look of 
an Episcopalian, that really means ‘you are only welcome if ____.’” YOU 
fill in the blank here.

“Saying we welcome all who worship Jesus Christ, etc. etc. is not 
enough. Some of those we want to reach are not sure about worshiping 
anything or anyone.” 3

What did those Hebrew folk look like as they sat on their haunches, 
eating roasted lamb and pita bread? They’d probably had first, and 
second, and third thoughts about how they related to God and one 
another. We know they thought Moses was nuts. We can guess they were 
pretty uneasy about riling up the Pharaoh again. Yet they gathered that 
night to celebrate their certainty that God would speak to them and help 
them in their insecurities and their tiredness.

What they established, through their understanding of God’s Love, was a 
wonderful feast of evolution and change in the midst of all the things 
that remained the same. They were about to leave for a new phase in the 
history of the Hebrew nation, and every single one of them would have a 
part in it. No matter who didn’t make it all the way from Egypt to 
Canaan, every single person would have a role to play and a remembrance 
to leave in the history of God’s interaction with human beings.

Just so with us – we are ALL important. We ALL have stories to tell and 
songs to sing. Someone may come along later to reharmonise, or rearrange 
bits and pieces of these narratives that we offer to others so that they 
can learn about God’s love for us. No matter what is altered, however, 
the melody will remain apparent to those willing to listen, to be quiet 
for a little.

Tom Ehrich, the author of the piece about computers and evolution, 
wrote, “In both PCs and religion, the future belongs to those who sense 
the shifting needs and who are motivated to keep pace. In the PC world, 
only Apple has managed to do this.” It’ll be interesting to see what 
happens in the months and years ahead now that Steve Jobs has retired as 
CEO of Apple. But then, Moses didn’t get to finish the tour in Jerusalem 
either.

Maybe part of the ability to sense where this congregation may be being 
called to serve can come from not sitting too comfortably, but in being 
ready to get out of the pew at a moment’s notice, because we too 
celebrate as those early Hebrews did. We say, practically every week, 
“Christ OUR Passover is sacrificed for us.”

I find Eucharist a marvellous constant in my life. It’s what keeps me 
going when everything else seems so transitional. Knowing that I’m 
invited to the Altar to receive Christ in the Bread and the Wine is SO 
stabilizing.

However, it, just like Passover, is a Feast of Change. It’s a feast of 
evolution as we grow into greater and greater seekers and lovers of God.

Maybe I ought to get a CD of that re-arrangement of Brahms’ concerto. 
Maybe I ought to listen to it again and again until I have it memorized, 
and it doesn’t sound quite so unfamiliar or less than natural. But then, 
just when I’ve become at home with it, someone else will probably 
re-arrange it again – and heaven knows that the solo instrument may be 
then.

Whatever it is, the change will, more than likely, be very rewarding and 
fulfilling.

NOTES:

1 	 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/proms/8698613/BBC-Proms-2011-Prom-37-BBC-Philharmonic-Orchestra-review.html

2	“COMMENTARY: Change or die: evolution is a fact of life.” By TOM 
EHRICH © 2011 Religion News Service 
http://www.religionnews.com/index.php?/rnspremiumtext/single/commentary_change_or_die_evolution_is_a_fact_of_life/

3	Bruce Garner, Atlanta. Member of The  Executive Council of The 
Episcopal Church bruce.garner at att.net

Robert P Morrison
Interim Vicar
The Episcopal Church of St Alban
PO Box 1556
Albany OR  97321   541-921-1076 (cell)