Soul - Full
© The Reverend Dr. Byron E. Shafer
(Rutgers, November 14, 1999;
33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A;
Holy Communion; Pledge Sunday)
Matthew 25:14–28 (NT, p. 29);
Psalms 42:1–2a, 63:1–8 (OT, pp. 568, 582)
What
soul-full psalms ours are today!
And did you note, on this communion Sunday, that they express
our human need for full and intimate communion
with the One who is our Creator through
metaphors
of our souls' thirsting and hungering for God?
"As a deer longs for flowing streams,
so my soul longs for you, O God." (Psalm
42:1 NRSV)
"O
God, you are my God, I seek you,
my soul thirsts for you.
So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast,
and my mouth praises you with joyful lips
for you have been my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy."
(Psalm
63:1a, 2, 5, 7 NRSV)
Soul-full
psalms expressing our utter dependence for life + well-being
on God, our Creator, the Source of Our Joy.
These
psalms, and, as a matter of fact, all the psalms
were created as songs, as hymns, as music.
And it's one of our great losses that we have no clue at all as to
the nature of the original musical settings of the psalms.
But we do know that psalms of praise and thanksgiving
were created to be sung and played in joy,
to be sung and played with fullness of soul.
And
as I was reflecting on this, I found myself asking:
which artists of sacred music in my collection of CDs
do I think play or sing with the same fullness of soul
that I attribute to the psalmists?
And the first two who came to my mind,
and for whose albums I immediately went racing, were:
the well-known gospel singer Mahalia Jackson,
and the not-so-well-known jazz pianist
Cyrus Chestnut.
Well,
having tantalized you in this way, I won't disappoint you.
I'll share with you an example of each artist's soul-full songmaking,
an example that expresses in music the spirit of the psalmist:
In the shadow of Your wings, O God, my soul sings for joy.
I
begin with a 1996 recording by the pianist Cyrus Chestnut.
The first thing that struck me about this CD was the album liner.
Right there on this commecial Atlantic Jazz recording (82948-2),
Cyrus writes, "I would like to give sincere thanks to God,
the driving force behind my life and music. My first
introduction to music was in church as a very young child
raised in a Baptist family. Ever
since then,
spirituals, hymns and gospel music have been
an integral part of my musical landscape."
[Play
cut 2 of the Cyrus Chestnut CD, volume as preset]
The
selection I'll play for you is Jesus Loves Me, a jazz improvisation
on a song from his childhood + ours—a hymn we sang 4 weeks ago:
"Jesus loves me! This I know,
for the Bible tells me so;
Little ones to Him belong; they are weak, but he is strong.
Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes, Jesus
loves me!
Yes, Jesus loves me! For the Bible
tells me so."
Now,
listen to how Cyrus is going to take that simple affirmation of Jesus's
love
for me and is going to begin working with it so as to
suggest thru music that it is trust
in this truth that has the power to help me walk life's road, not
downcast,
but uplifted by joy!
[Play
to the end of the cut, 3:51. At the
end, turn off the CD and cue the
next album, Mahalia Jackson, cut 3.]
Soul-full
music, communicating what it is that's able to help us walk
life's road uplifted by joy—simply trusting that Jesus loves me.
Well,
on to the incomparable Mahalia—born in 1911, died in 1972—
considered by most to be the greatest gospel singer ever.
It was in church choirs, as a child, that she learned to sing,
+ it was with church choirs that she always liked best to sing,
that she felt most able to make genuinely soul-full music.
On concert tours and recordings alike, she steadfastly
refused to sing the blues, favoring instead
her more hope-filled devotional songs.
Deeply committed to the civil rights movement,
she was closely associated with Dr. M. L. King, Jr.,
+ she frequently sang at services he conducted.
Mahalia believed soul-full music should lead
people to action, to doing Christ's work.
The
song of hers that I'll share with you today has great beat and joy.
It represents for me a living embodiment of the psalmist's spirit:
In the shadow of Your wings, O God, my soul sings for joy!
The
name of the song—[play
Mahalia Jackson, cut 3 straight through to the end [Columbia/Legacy
48924]. Turn off at the end,
2:18. Then cue up
Cyrus Chesnut, cut 2 at reduced volume.]
"I
can tell the world about this. I
can tell the nations how blessed,
tell 'em what Jesus has done,
tell 'em that comin' to the world has come.
And it brought joy, great joy, to my soul!"
I
pray that you have come to know that Jesus loves you
and that it is Jesus's love that enables you to walk the walk of life
uplifted by joy.
I
pray that you have come to know what Jesus has done
and what Jesus has called us to continue doing in his name,
and that that has brought joy, great joy to your soul.
I pray that in the shadow of God's wings
your soul is indeed singing for joy.
And
I pray that such soul-full music will lead each of us, like Mahalia,
to tell the world about Jesus, and that
such soul-full music will also lead each of us, like Mahalia,
to do what Jesus has done,
to establish justice and love in the world
and to bring joy, great joy to many souls.
One
of the ways available to us today to express our joy
and our fullness of soul is to make our pledge of support
for the work of Christ through the Rutgers Presbyterian Church.
This is a time when we are able to make a soul-full response of
gratitude and thanksgiving to God, who is the driving force
behind our life, the source of our joy, the ground of our being.
This is a time when we can acknowledge in a soul-full way
that all that we are and all that we have comes from God.
[Here,
begin playing cut 2 of the Cyrus Chestnut CD,
at reduced volume behind my continued speaking]
Together,
we will observe a brief period for meditation and reflection.
Let us use this time to experience anew our soul's longing for God,
to consider afresh what this church, its sacraments, and
its ministries mean to our life and to our community.
Let us use this time to renew our choice of Christ as Lord of our life,
to choose the joy of giving,
to choose the joy of sharing justice and kindness with others,
to choose the joy of keeping bright in our city + neighborhood
the light of witness and action that comes from this church.
I
invite you to use this time to figure your income,
whether that be $200 a week, or $500, or $1,000, or $1,500, and
then to pledge
a percentage of that amount to the work of Christ for the year 2000 through the
Rutgers Presbyterian Church, whether that be $10 a week, or $100 a week.
I invite you to consider pledging 3% of your income,
or perhaps 4%, or 5%, or a full tithe of 10%.
Think about what you gave last year
and consider increasing your pledge
by at least 1% of your total income.
Then fill in your pledge card with joy.
At
the end of our time for reflection, I will offer a prayer.
And after that, as the choir sings our joy-filled offertory anthem,
let us all come forward to the communion table
to place in the plates provided there
both our pledge cards for the year 2000
and our regular offerings for this morning.
Let
us now reflect on the goodness of God with fullness of soul.
[At
the end of the cut, 3:50, turn off the CD.]
Let us pray:
O God, because of Jesus's love "my soul
is satisfied as with a rich feast, and I would
praise You."
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