Our adult choir, the Celebration Singers, sang this song at the Talent Show at Christ UMC on Saturday, April 28, 2012.

Roy Blount, Jr., was asked if he believed in infant baptism. His response: “Believe in it? I’ve seen it happen!” What does that have to do with our children, youth, Charles Wesley, gifts, fruits of the spirit, the teachings of Jesus, and General Conference?

Our children led us in worship on Sunday. The children’s choirs presented a musical on the fruit of the Spirit. They reminded us that our relationship with God through Jesus and the Holy Spirit is evident in the fruit we bear – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, and they shared it with all of the enthusiasm that only children can convey. It was a holy worship experience, and I thank all of the adults and youth who helped them to lead us – Heather O’Dell, Jo High, Lindy Thompson, Meg Manning, Elizabeth Wanczak, Mary Anne Beshears, Tom Beadles, Nick Wanczak, Jon Calvin, Cade Beadles, Jacob Thompson, and of course, Nancy Speas Hill.

Saturday evening, our youth choir presented our first annual talent show to raise money for choir tour. Our youth, as well as some children and adults, showcased their many gifts – including singing, playing the piano, sax, guitar, ukulele, flute, and drum; also, baking, painting, emceeing, organizing and promoting (thank you, Gary Minor and Stacey Hagewood!) We raised enough to help pay for our trip to North Carolina, where we will sing for (and sometimes with) at-risk children, youth in recovery, and gifted people with developmental disabilities. (If you missed the event, you can still help by sending a donation to the church, with “youth choir tour” in the memo line).

At the end of the evening, the Celebration Singers and Joyful Noise Youth Choir joined forces to sing one of our favorites, Mark Miller’s setting of Charles Wesley’s hymn “O For A Thousand Tongues to Sing.” Even if you haven’t heard the name Mark Miller, you’ve certainly heard his music. Mark led us in worship the weekend we dedicated our sanctuary organ and composed an anthem to celebrate that event. The dedication on “Creation of Peace” reads: “to the Choirs of Christ United Methodist Church, and their director and my friend, Anne Hook.” (The original dedication said my “good” friend – I made the choirs pencil that in for the sake of accuracy). I am not exaggerating when I say that Mark singlehandedly saved youth choir for me and many other church musicians.

A little more about Mark: he is the son of a United Methodist bishop. He is a husband and a father. He is creative and funny and humble and cute and so Spirit-filled that you know you’ve been in the presence of God when you hear him sing or lead. He is a lay delegate to the General Conference from New Jersey. And he’s gay.

Once again our General Conference is poised to discuss our stance on human sexuality, in particular, whether those who are not heterosexual may be ordained. Last quadrennium the conference discussed adding a statement that people of good faith disagree on this issue, but ended up maintaining our past position. I have an opinion about this issue, as I’m sure many of you do. However, I am not a delegate to General Conference and I cannot vote to change or retain the current policy. What you and I can do is:

• Pray – for our church, especially the delegates at General Conference, that we might focus on Christ’s call love God and neighbor and discuss divisive issues with grace and humility
• Thank God – for the Holy Spirit, who continues to work within us and our church through and sometimes in spite of our brokenness
• Celebrate – the gifts made evident in our children and youth, in patient and tireless workers with children and choirs, in courageous people like Mark who continue to proclaim God’s message of love through music even when wounded by the system
• Worship – our God who is bigger and stronger and more powerful than anything that ever threatens to separate us.

I believe that the Spirit of God will ultimately prevail. I believe, because I’ve seen it happen.

Thank you to the new member who recently left a note on my stand in the choir room. It requested that the hymn #707, “Hymn of Promise” be sung in worship sometime soon. I’m so glad this person left me the note, and I promise that we will sing it when it fits the worship service. It is a favorite of mine as well.

The note made me wonder how many in our congregation know our practice for planning worship, including hymns and other music. We sometimes get comments from people who act surprised (genuinely or tongue in cheek) that the parts of the service flow together and present a united theme. Believe me, we work at that!

Each week, most of the worship staff gathers for prayer and conversation about the upcoming worship service. Usually the preacher for the week takes the lead by naming the scriptures for the week and describing how God is leading in sermon preparation so far. Then we all participate, talking about our thoughts about the scripture as well as our own personal experiences. Almost everything we plan grows out of our conversation about the scripture passages for that day – the music and prayers and sometimes even the sermon itself. We choose hymns as a group, not just because they’re our favorites (although we do a fair amount of joking about certain staff members’ least favorite hymns), but because they express the message we hope to convey. Then we trust the Holy Spirit to take our plans and to do with them what we could never do alone – speak of the grace of the living Christ in the midst of our daily lives and how best we can respond to that grace.

We sometimes try new songs with the hope that they will speak to us in a fresh way. Often we sing old familiar hymns because they have an important place in our worship tradition. My prayer is that everyone who gathers for worship will experience God through all of the worship service, whether they always like the elements in worship or not.

So, thank you for the note. I’m happy to hear from anyone who would like to share a favorite hymn or song with me. I’ll do my best to keep those in mind as we plan.

Dave and I had the wonderful opportunity to visit the city of Chicago this last weekend. I had two workshops introducing the Worship & Song hymn supplement, and Dave came along so we could celebrate our anniversary and my birthday. On Sunday morning, just as people were gathering in this sanctuary to worship, we joined a group of people, most of whom we had never met, but who were sisters and brothers in Christ, to worship God, remember the saints, and receive Holy Communion.

It was completely comfortable and strangely unfamiliar at the same time. After an hour-long train ride. We walked the two blocks to a 100–year-old sanctuary. It had pews and a high, ornate dome, but the pews were arranged in a loose circle. The altar table, graced with fabric, candles, bread and chalice and pitcher, was set in the middle of the space. The worshippers were as diverse as a congregation could be; all nations, ages, and races, to mention a few differences, were represented.

And then the female lead pastor said, “This is the day that the Lord has made,” and we all responded, “let us rejoice and be glad in it.” Welcome to the community of God’s people gathered on a Sunday morning to praise and worship, to celebrate and mourn, to sing and pray and eat — all of the same things we do in our worship.

There were other similarities. We sang “For All the Saints,” “Taste and See,” and the same communion responses we sing. We used the same Great Thanksgiving that was in our bulletin this past Sunday. We honored those who had died in this congregation and in our own lives this past year. There were well-thumbed copies of The United Methodist Hymnal and The Faith We Sing in the pew racks. At one point, the pastor made an announcement about the upcoming yearly church meeting (Dave and I looked at each other and mouthed the words as she said it: “Charge Conference”.) I knew at once that I was welcome, that I was loved, that I was in God’s presence, even though my church family was 500 or so miles away.

There were differences, too. I learned a great new tune for “Take My Life and Let It Be,” (look for it at a worship service soon). I experienced a different tune for “Draw the Circle Wide” (NOT Mark Miller – oh, the sacrilege!) The preaching was fine, but not the quality to which I have become accustomed (read: spoiled). The choir had about 9 people in it, and they did a very nice job. The main difference: I had no responsibility other than to praise and worship.

Now, I love my job. I love our church. I love the choir, and the people, and the staff here. I am spoiled by the caliber of worship and preaching and Jon Calvin’s playing (maybe that most of all). And being away from our church for a Sunday to experience worship in a different setting is a positive experience for me, both personally and professionally. But, the message for me this past Sunday was this: no matter our differences, where two or three gather for worship, the living Christ is present. Sometimes because of our prayers, presence, gifts, service and witness, sometimes in spite of it. And somewhere, in an urban neighborhood in a huge city, our twin in ministry if not in actuality is offering the bread of life to all who come. I, for one, was a grateful recipient.

Anne