MYLE Theme
Theological narratives on the MYLE theme: “God is Key: Open Your Hearts and Step to God’s Beat”
Introduction
God truly is key to who we are. The covenant God made with us in baptism gives us new life over and over. We live in a rhythm of being called back to this beat of being in community. The following reflections shared in preparation for each time of worship together are theological narratives. They tell a story (a narrative) of our chaplains’ experiences God made real (theology). They express the reality of the divine in flesh -- Christ’s, ours and one another’s, known as incarnation. They tell of the intention for us to live in community and be led by a communal discernment of each one’s gifts. They lay bare the realities of sin and brokenness and how God forgives and heals in order to restore communities of justice. Our belief is that relationships are deepened through the sharing of our stories. God is inherently relational and we invite you into a dynamic dance through musical metaphors to enhance our worship experiences. As we worship God, listen for God’s response through the call, or vocation, God gives us to journey together as God’s people into justice.
The Rev. Sue Gaeta
Day 1 BEAT / RHYTHM / PULSE
Opening Worship: God is the Source of our Rhythm and Beat
“But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.” Jeremiah 31:33-34
When my mother used to tell me to turn down my music, she’d say that she didn’t want to feel the floor shaking beneath her feet. She didn’t want to listen to my loud music, but she always described it as an irritation to her feet, not her ears. I often thought my mom was exaggerating, but she was right about one thing- we don’t just listen to music; we feel it.
My mom felt it in her feet, and she wanted to stomp it out. My friends and I would feel it in our feet, and we’d want to step it up. Music can cause us to feel all sorts of things. It can pick us up or knock us to our knees. It can make us want to shout out loud or sit silently. It can make us want to lift our hands or grip our hair. We can feel music in our hands and in our feet. And sometimes there are those beats, those rhythms, that we feel moving through our entire selves. We can feel them as closely as our own heartbeats magnified through a stethoscope.
I don’t normally pay attention to the everyday beats of my own heart. I don’t always notice the rhythm of the pulse that gives me life. However, every breath I take testifies to the beat that is always at work within me. That beat may physically come from my heart, but its origin is the heart of God.
We live and breathe and have our being because God is at the heart of humanity and all of creation. In Christ Jesus, God’s pulse has become ours. Jesus dwelt among us and secured for us the way of everlasting life. He dwells among us still by the power of the Holy Spirit. He invites us to share in God’s work of healing, justice and celebration. Therefore, we don’t just listen to the stories of faith and obey the commandments. Rather, we experience God. We know God and live abundantly by the covenantal love that is written on our hearts.
God is the beat, the pulse that gives us life. God is the music and the rhythm. And when that beat, that pulse, that rhythm comes alive in us, that is the moment of worship. Our worship may take the form of singing or shouting, clapping or dancing, serving or praying. In all circumstances, it is because God has placed the music within us that we have an everlasting song in our hearts to share. We can make beautiful music. Feel the pulse coming on. Move to the rhythm of God. Open your heart and step to God’s beat. Ba. Ba. Ba. BaDaDa. Dum. Dum. Dum. Dum. May the beat go on…
The Rev. Linda Norman
Day 2 HARMONY and MELODY
Morning Worship: God Creates Individuals in a Context of Diversity
My high school class chose “Ebony and Ivory”as our graduation song. (This song was a single by Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder from the album, “Tug of War” released March 29, 1982.) This song opens up with a rhetorical question before God: “If the ebony and the ivory on the piano keyboard live together in harmony, why can’t people do the same?” The song became a call to the class to put aside our differences and live in peace with each other. I thought at that time, “This is a great song. Who doesn’t want to get along instead of bickering and fighting all the time?” There were fights in the school every other day.
Raised as a child in New York in the 1980’s, I was mostly sheltered from overt racism -- the type where people are dehumanized through derogatory remarks and acts of violence. I attended a predominantly Spanish-speaking Lutheran congregation and public schools with predominantly Latino and African American students.
In college, my eyes were open to the notion that racism can occur through the disparate treatment of one group from another. I realized that my predominantly white neighbors had decided to send their children to private schools when the high school began to integrate children from other neighborhoods. I also realized that my high school officials had segregated the non English-speaking students from the general population by assigning all of their classes to the last floor of our building and denying them equal access to services and opportunities. At graduation I sang the words and melody to “Ebony and Ivory,” but the harmony was missing, because the voices and the plight of our classmates were being ignored.
The Holy Scriptures point out that through Christ and our baptism we have become one people, one body -- one holy universal Church (see 1 Corinthians 12:12-13).Whenever we gather as the Church on Sunday, at the Multicultural Youth Leadership Event, or as the ELCA Youth Gathering, we are reminded that we cannot treat each other disparately, ignoring each other’s pain and suffering, or each other’s joy and celebration. We can’t ignore these experiences because we bear both the marks of the cross and of the resurrection.
As Romans 6:5, 8, 11indicates: “For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his… But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him… So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.”
When we gather we are brought into a holy space with different gifts to share, but especially love. When we respond with love towards one another, as God has called us to do, then our many voices combine to form precious melody, and the harmony that is reflective of our shared and distinct human experience.
The Rev. Giovanny Sanchez
Day 2 DISSONANCE
Evening Worship: God is Both the “Dum” and the “Tick”
Dum Tick, Tick Dum… that’s how my drumming teacher started my first lesson in the tabla, a Middle Eastern drum. My teacher wanted me to learn about the two sounds that a tabla can make: “dum” and “tick.” The dum, a very deep sound, comes from striking the middle of the disk; and the tick, a very high and sharp sound, comes from hitting the edge of the disk. The teacher instructed me to take my left hand, and, using the tips of my fingers, start tapping the edge of the tabla to make the tick sound. So I did what he asked me to do. Now keep in mind, I wanted to play the drum so badly, and I wanted to be good at it; but when I started tapping, thinking that I was going to hear a nice sound, instead I got a very loud sound with no rhythm. Next, the teacher said, “Take your right hand, and with your palm, start tapping the middle of the tabla. I did, and I was disappointed again to hear the flat, boring sound. I thought to myself, “I think I’m wasting my time.” But then, the teacher looked at me and smiled, and said, “Now try to use both of your hands and play the Dum and the Tick: play “Dum, Tick -- Tick, Dum.” And I was able to do it. As I played, I realized that when I used both hands together, I was finally playing a rhythm. When I played the sound of the Dum or the Tick alone they did not sound like they would go together. But when I did play both sounds together, the tension of the two together became something new. I felt the sounds were meant to go together, even though they were so different.
Most music doesn’t just involve one note or one beat acting alone: music is the combination of these elements, creating a whole that is more than the sum of its parts. And sometimes, it’s the unlikeliest combinations that create the best music. God can be like this too. Much of our Lutheran theology is about two realities that don’t seem to go together, but do. We understand Jesus Christ to be fully human and fully divine. How can this be? We proclaim the reign of God to be here already, but not yet. These two realities may not seem to go together. Human beings are both saint and sinner. This is our lived reality.
In Jesus Christ’s life, death and resurrection, we have learned that God’s love for us is most visible in the cross: the place where life and death intersect. The incarnation leads to resurrection: something that means more than life or death alone. God comes to us to meet our sin and the sins of our world not with judgment, the response we might expect, but with love and forgiveness. That may not seem like the right combination, but it is the truth we proclaim. It’s not condemnation but love that has the power to truly change evil into good. As in Jeremiah 31:12-13we are told: “I will turn their mourning into joy…” God’s word reminds us that as Christians we are called into living in the paradox: we are one, but many. Our lives are not complete with just one note or one beat, but many different tones and rhythms combined to make one sound. God invites us to trust that embracing both the “dum” and the “tick” together is what we are as the body of Christ.
The Rev. Gabi Aelabouni
Day 3 CONDUCTOR and MUSICIAN
Morning Worship: God Calls us into Leadership Through our Gifts
If the ear were to say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,”
That would not make it any less a part of the body...
As it is there are many members, yet one body...
Now you are the body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:16, 20, 27
If you were a musician with an instrument, what would you play?
A drum because you are steady, deep, consistent?
A guitar because of how you resonate with others?
A tuba because...?
If you were a vocalist, what part would you sing? Why?
What kind of music would you make? Which other instruments would be part of each song? Imagine the different kinds of music which can be played by each instrument. Where two or more are gathered... there is no limit to the sounds, the songs, the beauty and life which can be created. Do you hear it?
Now who can make that happen? Who can bring together the beats, rhythms, vibrations and sounds from many different, unique and special instruments and blend them into a harmonious tune? Can the violin tell the oboe how to blow? Will the conga drums tell the snare drum how to vibrate properly? Does the cymbal decide to go it alone? How are the many voices brought together into a choir?
The instruments and voices individually are beautiful, unique and of value. Put them together and they become something greater, something spectacular. But, they cannot make that happen by themselves. Not only is a musician needed to bring out the music, but a conductor is necessary to bring each one’s giftedness to light as a masterful interpretation of a message, in other words, to make music.
For there to be sounds combined to make music, the musicians must trust the conductor. She is aware of what sound is needed at a particular time. He knows how to lift up one part of the orchestra while hushing another. The conductor brings to one encouragement and to another a push when needed. The conductor can follow a set plan or wing it when necessary. The conductor keeps the beat going steady. The conductor even knows when people are not together and it is time to start over.
God makes each person unique with gifts to share among our human communities. God has placed us together in a song called life. God has also placed a conductor in our midst who can bring each person’s spiritual gifts to shine and create a glorious harmony among humankind:
“For God so loved the world …” (
John 3:16)
The Rev. Mark Thompson
Day 3 TEMPO and REST
Evening Worship: Slowing Down, God Gives us Rest
A beautifully played musical piece includes an element so vital -- the rest, a silence in music equivalent in duration to a note of the same value; a repose.
The young Ojibway flutist, eager to play a melody on his Native flute -- bibigwan -- a courting song, rushed through it. Nervously, he hurried, desiring to impress his intended. When she did not respond to the call of his song, he was confused; all of the notes were in perfect key. An observing elder spoke quietly, “remember the pace of turtle -- slow, with a rest now and then.”
The young man thought long about the grandfather’s words. He decided to pay attention to the pace and flow of the song. He slowed it, used the rest as an accent. He offered his tobacco prayers, tried several versions, and practiced for days, focusing on the ebb and flow. Paying careful attention to the pace of turtle, and the intermittent rest, he created a new song out of the old one. Some time later, he played the same love song with the same perfect notes. Oh, such beautiful expression! The song was melodious and spirited; his courting flute became alive and spoke the language of the heart to the same maiden. She responded immediately with love. In taking the advice of the elder, the young man learned the lesson from turtle, miskwaadesi; a slow pace, bejaa; with a rest now and then, anwebi, and they loved each other, zaagi’idiwad.
The loudly spoken demand by a musical director, “once more, with feeling!” -- is perhaps a cue to heed this same lesson taught by turtle; this slow moving four-legged being, created by Great Spirit -- Gitchi Manido -- has certain characteristics to share with us. Lessons of turtle came through the translator -- the grandfather -- muishoomis. These gifts are given to us in scripture:
“There is still a belief in the regenerative power of nature,” writes Jane B. Katz in her book, I am the Fire of Time: the Voices of Native American Women.Katz continues by quoting the contemporary Native poet Gladys Cardiff:
“I sing a little song; someone else’s worn little song
but I sing it as if it were my own, my own dear little song.
In this way, I play with a second-hand song, and give it life again.”
Jennie Lightfoot
Day 4 SOUNDTRACK OF OUR LIVES
Sending Worship: God Sends Us Out Equipped
Recently I was going through that old case of CD’s sitting on the shelf, figuring out what was worth putting on my computer and what should be tossed. In my journey with CDs of times gone past, I came across an old mix CD from college. This particular mix was a gift from my buddy Adam who led a Bible study during my junior year.
Our Bible study group had spent nine months together, wrestling with God along the river and supporting each other in good and bad times. At the end of the year, Adam went through his music collection and picked out twelve tracks for the mix. In some ways the music didn’t go together at all. There were even a few bands on there I had never heard of. But this was the beauty of it: it was meant to be a soundtrack of our time together. Each song had a memory attached to it, a special meaning behind it. And while the songs may have been pulled from a variety of genres and styles, they all had a place on this CD. The music on a soundtrack can seem random and even chaotic. It is only when you pull back to see the larger narrative and how each piece of music connects to a moment that the significance of the soundtrack begins to take shape. A slow, haunting piece may remind you of the tension and the pain. Then that song ends, the track changes, and so does the mood. Now there is a crescendo, and we find the warmth and joy of the happy ending.
We all have diverse stories to share. We identify with a variety of racial, ethnic and cultural groups. We find ourselves in different family situations. We have come from congregations and communities that are scattered across this nation and our world. We all belong to different groups, even when we don’t fully recognize it.
As distinct and unique as we are, our diversity has been brought together. We have come to this place to share our lives and our stories, and in so doing we have opened ourselves up to the stories others bring. We have heard some stories that were hard to hear; difficult songs from the valley. We have also heard stories filled with hope, faith and love. But, more important than this, we have been invited to see in, with, and under our distinct stories the one story that binds us together: that of God’s love for us in Jesus Christ. Through our diversity is unity, and we are called to see this and to testify to this.
“Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.” Colossians 3:14
We are sent out as witnesses to what God has done in this place -- what God has done to us, through others, for the sake of the world. We may not know yet how God will use our witness, but we can trust that God is up to something! We don’t have all the liner notes, but God has told us enough about the direction. We know that God will use us, that God has a place for us on the soundtrack, and that our story is important to the story of life and salvation for all.
The Rev. Anthony Bateza