No one likes to wait. The often frustrating experience of inconvenient stasis and failed expectations of arrival can easily darken one's mood. But what if those seemingly idle moments can be a gift of the spirit in our lives? Through the prayerful discipline of the liturgical calendar year, we are called to be patient for the birth of Christ during Advent, the season of waiting. By doing so, we immerse ourselves further into the story of Jesus year to year. But perhaps a more appropriate word for waiting is preparing – to be more receptive to the love of God in this season and every one thereafter.

I am always reminded of the choral anthem "Lord, Before This Fleeting Season" by Libby Larsen at this time of year. The text by poet Mary Ann Jindra beautifully expresses the message of this fleeting mysterious season. May it make your waiting all the more worthwhile.

Lord, before this fleeting season is upon us,
Let me remember to walk slowly.
Lord, bless my heart with Love and with quiet.
Give my heart a leaning to hear carols.
Grace our family with contentment,
And the peace that comes only from You.
Lord, help us to do less this busy season;
Go less; stay closer to home; kneel more.
May our hearts be Your heart.
May we simply, peacefully, celebrate You.*

Mark

*“Simply Celebrate You — an Advent poem” by Mary Ann Jindra
Permission to print is through Christian Copyright Solutions #11133

It was great to be back with you in worship on Sunday. I am so grateful to you all for granting sabbaticals for your clergy for a time of rest, regeneration, and learning. (And also home-improvement projects: we now have solar panels on our rooftop at home.) I had a wonderful time, but I missed you who form this incredible community. Even though I watched online services from other churches and worshiped in a few cathedrals in Italy, nothing touched my heart like our service last Sunday. I also want to thank our staff for keeping things going in my absence, and especially to my friend and colleague, Ron Patterson, for another interim gig at Plymouth.

My sabbatical journey led me on a path of healing from my knee replacement, and a week at Ring Lake Ranch in August put it to the test, and it passed with flying colors. Diana Butler Bass was the presenter that week, and it was great. (It was Diana who strongly recommended Brian McLaren’s Do I Stay Christian? to me, and when the Ring Lake Silent Auction offered an online session with Brian, Jane Anne and I made the winning bid for Plymouth. I heard it was a great adult ed. offering!) You can go to Ring Lake Ranch next summer to get some R&R and hear great speakers like Jim Wallis and Otis Moss III.

I spent six amazing weeks in Italy searching for insights from the earliest Christian communities in that country, which was home to both Peter and Paul. Looking at art and architecture as indicators of community, I saw some incredible paleo-Christian sites, spanning from Aquileia at the northernmost part of the Adriatic Sea to Cimitile in the shadow of Mt. Vesuvius.

We will be having a free Italian dinner and slide talk about the sabbatical (good for all ages!) at Plymouth on Tuesday, December 6 at 6:00 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall. RSVP here by 12.4. (Many thanks to an anonymous member of our congregation who offered to subsidize this evening!) In the meantime, you can look at my blog at halsabbatical.com to see more. I’ll continue to add to the blog, and you can subscribe and get update notifications.

Sabbatical also allowed me to spend time with family, which is so important in the life of clergy serving in the parish. My son, Cameron, spent almost two weeks with me in northern Italy, which was a blast for both of us. (He didn’t even complain about being dragged into many churches.) He is a great traveler, having lived in Ireland and Japan, and his best friend (who lives in London), joined us for a weekend in Venice. And of course, Jane Anne joined me for two weeks at the end of my time in Italy. We visited more churches (surprise!) and paleo-Christian sites, including amazing catacombs in Rome. And we caught up with an Italian friend, took a wonderful cooking class in Tuscany, and experienced the culture we love.

Some of the things I learned from our early Christian forebears and the way they practiced their faith (and which might inspire us in the 21st century) are

1. Keep it simple! Focus on what we do: worship, pray, and eat together, be generous with one another, show up for one another when needed. Community was essential because it sustained the members of a suspect and later-illegal sect of Judaism. There were neither priests nor highly defined doctrine or dogma — that came later. It was the people themselves who ministered to one another. (I’m not trying to talk myself and our staff out of our jobs, but they lived the priesthood of all believers.)
2. Make faith central to your life. You may have been a senator or a laborer or even a slave, but you were part of a vibrant community that kept worship of God and following Jesus at the very forefront of the way you lived your life.
3. Women were integral in the life of the church. The role of women was excised by the misogyny of the later church.
4. The wealthy underwrote the community. The earliest followers met in homes, often of those with significant assets. The wealthiest members devoted much or sometimes all of their resources to the community, which continued for centuries. A fine example is St. Paulinus of Nola, a senatorial nobleman with estates in Aquitaine, Spain, and southern Italy. He was a “one-percenter” who sold it all to build churches, pilgrimage hostels, and hospitals, adopting Christlike poverty. 

It was a great time away, and I am eager to share more. I’ll be doing that in my sermon this coming Sunday, as we begin Advent together.
As we give thanks to God this coming Thursday, I offer gratitude for this congregation and its critical witness and work as an outpost of God’s kingdom in this time and place.
 
Deep peace,

From Hal’s Desk, where Ron has been sitting until today……

As you know, I am literally on my way out the door. We are in town through Thanksgiving to be with the family, but the next few days will involve several things.

I have resolved to finish our Christmas letter. It is crazy and perhaps we will fail, but we decided to do it anyway because we know that our Advent season will be very short when we return home. It seems daunting, but I intend to make the time. It is so important to let loved ones and friends know that you are thinking of them and to share a memory and express a hope that there are things worth living for and dreams worth having. It is a sort of benediction (good words) on the past year and a blessing on the year to come, that we are planning to send out into the world by snail mail. I know it’s only a letter, but I believe that any chance to make the Word flesh is worth taking!

I also plan to complete one last weaving project. It has been a great Ft. Collins visit on that score—I have managed to weave 25 yards of fabric which includes 14 place mats, six table runners, and 7 hand towels. These were completed with the support of the staff at Lambspun, my favorite yarn store in Fort Collins, aided by the fact that I have only worked with this amazing congregation and its staff part-time. One real plus of my weaving time was the presence of a few Plymouth folk, who knit and weave there too.

Next Sunday, I will be sharing in the Baptism of my two Fort Collins grandchildren during the second service. Let’s be clear, I will be doing the traditional motions and asking the questions, but you, dear congregation, will be doing the Baptism. In our tradition, the Sacrament of Baptism belongs to the gathered congregation representing the Spirit of the Loving God. As I explained to the grandchildren, there is nothing magical about Baptism or their "Opa,” other than a biological family and a church family agreeing that they need one another and that they affirm one another as care givers for children in the presence of a loving God. The tradition can wax all theological about it, but Baptism is the church welcoming God’s children in a visible way!

Then the following week, just before we leave, we will share Thanksgiving with our family here. This is a holiday with more than a little freight. We could discuss that at another time, but it does have potential. It might raise a justice question or two in our minds concerning food, or the genocide of indigenous people, or the American fixation on the violent sport of football and the sacrifice of young lives destined to suffer the consequences of traumatic brain injury. Thanksgiving can be much more than well-stuffed relatives sharing a meal. I do love that part of it, of course!

Once again, thank you for the joy of sitting at Hal’s desk!

With love,
Ron

Friends,

It was good to be back at Plymouth this past weekend for our Mission Marketplace and for worship after three weeks away! Great to reconnect with so many of you! We had a two meaningful and profound Totenfest/All Saints worship services. I am still musing about the great cloud of witnesses that surround us. In our travels in Italy, Hal took me to a small town outside of Naples called Nola. There we spent a morning visiting the 3rd century paleo-Christian church of St. Felix, a north African bishop who inspired the 4th century saint, Paulinus. Paulinus was a one percenter in his day who converted to Christianity and literally sold his entire portion of his family’s fortune to rebuild the church of St. Felix, a hospital, and a hostel for the poor in Nola. The story of a rich man who was not deterred by Jesus’ exhortation to the rich young ruler to sell all he had and give it to the poor. Paulinus and his wife took up the challenge and their legacy can still inspire us today.

In the ancient church is the fresco you see above. A palimpsest of the faces of our Christian ancestors in Nola painted over the centuries. A great cloud of witnesses. This picture and JT’s sermon on Sunday invites me more deeply into the image of this great cloud in Hebrews 11 and 12. A cloud of witnesses keeping the faith for centuries before the writer of Hebrews extolled them. And then more and more witnesses of faith from the time of the first century writing of Hebrews till now. We can lean into their faith, even if we express ours in 21st century ways that could be very different from their expressions. We can lean into and rest upon the knowledge that so many generations have run the race of faith with endurance, thrown off the baggage of mistakes and falsehoods weighing them down and kept their focus on the compassionate, inclusive, joyful love of God revealed in Jesus. They have lived out the joy that comes even in extreme adversity and kept the faith alive!

This gives me hope on this crucial election day. Times are tough in our country. It is hard to have hope as extreme partisanship raises its divisive head falsely in the name of the faith we love. Action for climate change must be taken NOW. Inflation must be curbed to keep people fed and housed. I get weighed down at times. And yet, today I am finding courage to keep on keeping on through the faces of the ancestors and the ancient words of the sermon in the book of Hebrews.

No matter the political outcomes of today, we will hold fast to faith in Jesus, pioneer and perfecter of God’s justice and love. It is blessed to be in a community like Plymouth where we lean into our faith, our relationships, our ministries, and our care for one another.

Take hope, dear friends!
With you on the journey,

It’s All Saints Day today which is also known as All Hallows' Day, hence, October 31st is Hallows' Eve aka Halloween. While some churches weirdly react to Halloween as some devilish cultural attack on Christianity, Halloween and the adjacent days are a part of Christian history, and mostly a healthy part.

As my Episcopal clergy colleague Rev. Hunt Priest notes, “The three “holy days” of autumn--All Hallows' Eve, All Saints’ (Hallows’) Day and All Souls’ Day (also called “Day of the Dead”)--are invitations to spiritual practice around death, fear, and remembering those we love but no longer see. These three days offer an invitation for us to come face to face with death (Oct 31), to remember the giants of the faith (Nov 1), and to re-collect the great cloud of witnesses in our own lives (Nov 2).”

While I’m usually not a big Halloween guy, I do recognize the importance of directing our attention where our culture and often our faith do not: dealing with death and loss as well as fear, and honoring the lineage of life. This annual “thinning of the veil” where death and the presence of those who have gone before is an opportune time to honor our ancestors and our ancestors of faith.

And it can be an enriching and healing time for the soul.

My mentors and teachers have helped me to understand the deep power of lineage and our relationship to it. In my journey and in helping others over the years, I have seen frequently a loss of life energy and liberation because of unhealed wounds, judgments, and blocks in the lineage of people. A healthy relationship of acceptance and sovereignty in relation to one’s lineage can offer a liberation and an empowerment in one’s life.

I will preach on Lineage and Soul this Sunday, but in the meantime, you can do your own imaginative experiment. I encourage you to stand up for this (or, if need be, imagine yourself standing). Imagine your parents standing behind you, mother on the left and father on the right. (If you’ve been adopted, place your birth parents there as well as those who raised you.) See how that feels. Imagine leaning back into them. Any resistance? Any negative blocks? Note what you feel. Now imagine the next generation standing similarly behind your parents. And so on and so on until there is a massive pyramid of people.

How each one of us relates to this image says a lot about our soul’s journey. We can bring the resources of faith to engage with our lineage. I’ll talk more about that on Sunday.

Until then, let yourself be enriched by the image and presence of all those ancestors and saints who have gone before and helped bring life to this moment.

What saints are standing behind you and behind Plymouth Church?

Blessings,
Pastor JT

This weekend, Mike and I are taking a handful of Plymouth students to the Fall Youth Retreat at La Foret. Our theme for the weekend will be Folklore and Wisdom, where we will explore big truths within all different kinds of stories. I was tasked with developing a discussion workshop, specifically around our faith stories. The Bible contains several different kinds of stories, and I wonder how some of these may be compared to “folklore.” I wonder how some of these stories have changed over time and been misinterpreted, misunderstood, or misused. I want to look at one story in particular, Jacob Wrestles God (from Genesis 32, CEB):

22 Jacob got up during the night, took his two wives, his two women servants, and his eleven sons, and crossed the Jabbok River’s shallow water. 23 He took them and everything that belonged to him, and he helped them cross the river. 24 But Jacob stayed apart by himself, and a man wrestled with him until dawn broke. 25 When the man saw that he couldn’t defeat Jacob, he grabbed Jacob’s thigh and tore a muscle in Jacob’s thigh as he wrestled with him. 26 The man said, “Let me go because the dawn is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I won’t let you go until you bless me.” 27 He said to Jacob, “What’s your name?” and he said, “Jacob.” 28 Then he said, “Your name won’t be Jacob any longer, but Israel, because you struggled with God and with men and won.” 29 Jacob also asked and said, “Tell me your name.” But he said, “Why do you ask for my name?” and he blessed Jacob there. 30 Jacob named the place Peniel, “because I’ve seen God face-to-face, and my life has been saved.” 31 The sun rose as Jacob passed Penuel, limping because of his thigh.

In Godly Play, we are encouraged to approach the stories of our faith with wondering questions. This story stirs up several wondering questions for me. I wonder if these events literally happened exactly as written here? I wonder if that matters? I wonder why it mattered that Jacob’s thigh was injured and that he limps now? I wonder what this story means? I wonder what this story means for you? What wondering questions do you have?

For the last few weeks, we have been talking about what we mean when we say, “We are Plymouth.” I believe Plymouth is a place where people can wrestle with God. I believe Plymouth is a place where transformation can happen. We spent some time in youth group this weekend talking about our Plymouth community. The students agreed that our Plymouth community is deeply valuable, but they also expressed that its value is in the intangible. We may not always be able to articulate who we are or why that matters. But within loving community – like Plymouth, or La Foret – we have a great place to be working that out.

Brooklyn

One of the blessings that arrived in my life long before I knew what it meant was the gift of generosity. I didn’t plan it, it just happened, and I find myself deeply grateful every day.

I grew up around generous people. My Mom and Dad were givers. She was an Avon salesperson and he worked in a factory and we lived close to the edge financially, but they found ways to give. There were always strangers at our table, she baked and cooked for others and showed up to volunteer. They supported the church and they shared with other organizations because they had heard Jesus say that the only thing we would ever have was what we were willing to give. We never had much, but we always had enough. To this day, I don’t know how they pulled it off, but because of their love, I grew to believe that being generous was the right way to live. 

Over the years with the love and support of my spouse, I have developed my own pattern of generosity. Several years ago, we made the decision to become tithers. We set aside a percentage of our income each year to support the work of organizations that reflect our personal beliefs. Our churches are at the top of the list. We belong to two congregations—full members of one and associate members of the other. We pledge to both. We also support the congregations where I have been honored to serve since retirement. Then we support the work of our UCC Conference and make annual gifts to several parts of the national United Church of Christ. We support the colleges we attended and the two seminaries I attended and a dozen or so organizations working to make this world a better place: like the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Carter Center and Habitat for Humanity. We have an estate plan which means that after we make our journey into the love of God, we will continue to support the things that have been so important to us in this life.

Each year we make a couple of gifts to organizations that we believe represent an attempt to address systemic racism and offer reparations for past injustices. These gifts have helped us support the historic Black Colleges related to the United Church of Christ and the Franklinton Center at Bricks, NC, a center in the struggle for Racial justice. We support the American Indian College Fund as well. 
Am I bragging about how generous we are? If you want to read it that way, go ahead, but then what do you do with the words of Jesus about not hiding your light under a bushel? 

What I want you to know is that proportional giving that makes a difference in your life and enables you to discover the joy of generosity, makes sense in my life and the life that I share with my beloved. Our lifetime of work has enabled us to have a better retirement than either of us thought possible. We both know that circumstances beyond our control could change that at any time and that no matter how we might fool ourselves, we can’t take any of what we have with us except what we have shared. That is a central part of our faith.

So dear Plymouth friends, please hear me when I say: God is good and God is calling us all to the simple joy of generosity! 

With love,  
Ron

P.S. I will be with you for about another month and would love to get together. Just give me a call. I work Sunday-Wednesday but am always available other times as needed. Let me know. 
 

In case you missed it -- or want to watch it again -- this video message from Rev. Hal (who is on sabbatical through Nov. 16) was played during worship on Sunday, October 9.

And remember, to keep up with Hal's sabbatical travels, visit his blog at halsabbatical.com.

As some of you know, Charnley and I lived in Manhattan during 9/11. The terror and the pain of that day caused immediate trauma for so many. We witnessed things which we will never forget. Twenty-one years have not dulled the memories of those first few hours. In the weeks that followed, the staff and members of the congregation I served spent hours in worship and conversation, seeking healing. Rumors abounded and anxiety and tension found a home in too many hearts.

Several weeks after the disaster, the Red Cross sponsored a workshop for care givers. They invited clergy, front-line medical personnel, and others in the helping professions to spend a day reflecting and learning together. One speaker shared a powerful insight into what we were seeing in the lives of those whom we sought to help and in our own lives. This person said: “No matter what ‘it’ is in a person’s life, whether it’s an addiction, a medical issue, a psychological issue, a relationship problem or just a stress point; whatever ‘it’ is, will be worse in the days to come…… Understanding that fact will help you help others and help yourself. Be patient, be forgiving, be understanding with everyone in your circle, including yourself.”

Let me suggest that these words of wisdom are relevant today. At one point, we experienced some serious tension and conflict in a small congregation where we were members. Objectively, the issues involved were minor, but several of our fellow members allowed those issues to snowball into conflict. All I could do was remember what that wise Red Cross teacher had said and remind myself that what was bothering these people had more to do with the anger and grief and pain of the pandemic than with the issue itself. It helped put it in perspective. It suggested ways to be loving and helpful.

Have you noticed any negative energy in your life or in our shared life as a congregation? After one month among you, I haven’t seen it, but……. Just in case, let me suggest that we need one another more than ever and we need safe space and faithful space and forgiving space and patient space. That’s why Plymouth exists as an outpost of sanity and occasional saintliness. That’s why we name Jesus as the one among us, helping us treat one another as God’s image bearers.

Now, If you find yourself having trouble doing that, cut yourself and the other person a little slack. Do your best to behave and believe in the power of good intentions. There is a biblical image of our belonging that suggests that we don’t belong to a church, but that we belong to one another and that together we belong to Jesus. That sort of thinking could save your life and one way or another make this a stronger congregation!

Thank you for the joy of being among you again.

With Love,
Ron

P.S. By the way, I am available if you need to talk. Call the church (970-482-9212) and you can be forwarded to me.

"The balcony is closed." These words would often end the weekly television program At the Movies by film critics Siskel and Ebert, who would review films in an empty theater balcony outside normal business hours for our benefit, presumably. Well, Plymouth took steps a little over a year ago to ensure our balcony is always open–albeit a virtual balcony!

When Pastor JT Smiedendorf referred to the online viewers last Sunday as being in the "virtual balcony," that struck me as rather profound. Pandemic aside, the 21st century church has been redefined by technology allowing for meaningful outreach to corners of the world we never thought possible. People are being inspired–transformed –by the Spirit and message of love and inclusion transmitted globally from our worship services now. You will hear testimonies from viewers about how this has impacted their faith and worldview in coming weeks. It is beautiful that we can now share the Good News from our sanctuary to others searching for spiritual sustenance.

Our Audio Visual Team is an amazing group of people who run the sanctuary audio and livestream broadcasts each week. Co-chaired by Stuart Yoshida and Nic Redavid, their leadership and technical expertise has allowed our dedicated volunteers to learn the ropes of the new installation and bring quality broadcasts to you and our "virtual balcony" each week. C. Habit Blunk is contracted primarily to operate the video and livestream applications of the system, and we thank them for their enthusiastic and consistent service to Plymouth this past year. As a Deacons Board liaison to the AV Team, I know the challenges they meet and the gung ho spirit of this group and thank them for all their work. By all means, stop by the sound booth and say "Thank you" as well. They deserve it!

We are always looking for new volunteers to assist with audio and if you are interested please let myself or a member of the team know. All this is to ensure that at Plymouth we lean into the new virtual church realities of this digital age. While nothing can replace the sense of community of personal interaction in a live sanctuary worship setting, worshipers online are being reached and filled with the Spirit through our digital efforts. And that is no less the mission of God's church as well.

Let's keep the balcony WIDE open.

Mark

In case you missed last Sunday's Organ Encounter (or want to see it again):

Travel is nearly always an enriching experience, even though it comes with moments of frustration when things don’t go as smoothly as planned. (Travel writer Cameron Hewitt’s apt phrase is “Jams are fun!”) Back in my undergraduate years, while studying at the University of St. Andrews, I spent some time on European railways to see as much as I could. (One memorable “jam” was spending a cold winter’s night on the floor of the Florence train station.) But there were, of course, enlightening moments as well.

One of the great epiphanies of that trip was being in a train compartment with my young, American traveling companions, a compartment we shared with a middle-aged German man who spoke no English. At that point, I’d had a few years of high school German, and so I piped up and offered him an orange. “Möchten Sie ein Apfelsine?” I asked. And I was absolutely gobsmacked when he understood and accepted the orange.

I think one of the things Europeans may not understand about Americans is that it isn’t that we don’t want to speak their language, but that we have so little chance to use it. Simply asking a traveler if he’d like an orange in another language and being stunned by the fact that my German worked was a watershed moment for me. It connected me with someone from another nation, and it did so on their terms. (The possible exception to this is studying Spanish and using it both at home and in nearby nations. )

I know that it is a privilege to travel. I’m even more aware of that because I’m sitting in a business class seat. Hurrah for MileagePlus! I’m also aware of the rare privilege of having sabbatical time to decompress, study, travel, and explore. I am grateful to have this opportunity, and I hope to share some interesting insights.

I’ve also thought that history is somewhat like foreign translation: one has to try and speak another’s language in order to understand. (Certainly, historical figures, art, architecture, and archaeology are not going to speak our language!)
One of the paradigms I’m going to try on Christian art and architecture is one that I learned many years ago from a wise and wonderful professor, Ed Everding. In studying the New Testament, Ed proposed that we use a simple approach in examining a text: read rest of post

"Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good." - I Cor. 12:7 (NIV)

The Apostle Paul’s image of the body is one of the best metaphors of community that I have ever heard. It integrates unity and diversity. As a body of Christ, we at Plymouth Church have a common mission to bring more fully and to make more visible the Realm of God on earth. Yet, like the parts of the body, all the people of Plymouth are different and will contribute to that common mission in different ways.

In the church, we use the term “call” to express the discernment of and the energetic pull to engage both our shared common call of ministry and our particular call in expressing that larger ministry. My particular call (from the early 90’s) was to serve the Realm of God through ordained ministry; leading, teaching, counseling, and preaching in the local church. For some people, being a pastor is a good match for their best ministry.

Yet, ministry is for everybody in the church, not just pastors. We are all called to serve God’s mission in some way. Everybody can do something. At Plymouth, we have nearly a hundred different expressions of ministry that call for different gifts and graces. Some are quiet and behind the scenes and some are right up front in greeting and engaging others. Some are one-time projects and some are ongoing efforts that take time. Matching people to their best ministry is the goal.

That’s why I want you to bring your phone to church this Sunday, September 18th (or have your smartphone or computer handy at home). God may call you on it! Here’s how: We are launching Plymouth Ministry Match, an online survey that identifies your likely best matches for ministry through Plymouth Church. In 5 minutes, you can complete that survey and receive results almost instantly including links to click on to find out more about those suggested ministries. Taking the survey doesn’t commit you to anything. It only suggests where your best service might be. It also helps leaders of ministries to know who in our community of hundreds might be suited for a given ministry. Ministry Match is set up to generate more focused and useful conversations in finding the right ministry match for you through Plymouth Church.

Whether it’s fighting for a cause, welcoming people in, organizing a project, helping with creating quality worship, caring for others in need, or even maintaining the ministry of our building, there’s a ministry match for you at Plymouth Church!

Join us for Ministry Match at church or online Sunday during both worship services!

Blessings,
JT

What is the power of a song? It is huge! A song can bring memories, laughter, sorrow, conviction, inspiration to keep on keeping on in the worst and best of times. This morning I have songs that are new to me, but tell a very ancient story, drifting through my mind and heart.

This past Sunday evening, the eve of Labor Day, Hal and I went to the theater – the Buell Theater at the DCPA in Denver. We had been given tickets to the play, the musical, really the contemporary opera, Hadestown. We had very little idea about what we were to see as we left Fort Collins that afternoon listening to the music on Spotify. I left the theater later that night full to the brim with thoughts, feelings, new insights, and new questions about being human at this time human history.

Hadestown is a contemporary retelling of the classic Greek myth of the poet/singer-songwriter, Orpheus and his pure, but ill-fated love with the beautiful, Eurydice. In Hadestown, their story is set within the context of the Persephone/Hades myth. In the classic tale, Persephone is the daughter of the goddess of fertility, harvest and the earth, Demeter. Hades, the god of the underworld, sees her walking in her mother’s fields of flowers and falls in love with her, captures her and brings her to live in the underworld. As Demeter pines for her daughter, the world grows cold and barren – dying. Persephone strikes a deal with her husband, Hades. In a cycle of six-month intervals, she will return to her mother in the upper world. The earth will bloom. There is abundance and harvest for all. Thus, we have the seasons.

Yet in the Hadestown contemporary retelling of the ancient stories and their archetypes, the world is suffering because Persephone’s cycle of movement between the underworld and the upper world is out of sync. Seasons are getting too hot and too cold. Sound familiar? Into this contemporary setting, comes Orpheus, the son of the muse, Calliope, a brilliant young artiste, who wants to heal the world with his songs. He falls in love with the poor, and very practical, street savvy Eurydice, woos her with his songs, with promises of the safety of eternal love and they are wed. But caught up in his composing, Orpheus, fails to see the immediacy of the destruction of climate change and its effects upon Eurydice as she tries to scramble together a living for them. She leaves to seek food and firewood and ends up beguiled by the promises of Hades, king of the underworld. She makes a fatal contract with him so that she will have food and shelter and is ushered into the out-of-control capitalist society of Hades’ kingdom, Hadestown. All the workers there have no memory of their lives above ground in the sun. They toil interminably, singing, “Keep your head down to keep your head!” in the mines and the oil fields of the underworld. They build a wall to keep out the enemy, Poverty, that threatens Hades’ control of his riches. Sound familiar again? When Orpheus finally finishes his song to heal the world of the ravages of turmoil, famine, flood, and poverty, he looks around for Eurydice and finds her gone. His search begins and he is led to the underworld to bring her home.

Yet, we know how the ancient myth ends….in the tragedy of self-doubt when Orpheus cannot keep his rescue bargain with Hades and loses his love forever to the underworld. I sat in my seat, watching and almost trying to will, a different ending to the story! In this retelling, Orpheus does sing his healing song for Hades, Persephone and all those captured in the underworld. Those enslaved are inspired to freedom. They will follow Orpheus as he takes Eurydice home. Even Hades, glimpses a lost love and joy that he had long forgotten. But the musical’s telling ends just as the old myth. And Orpheus’ is felled by the three Fates who predict he does not the strength of identity to pull everyone, including Eurydice, out of hell. We are left crestfallen once again. But the narrator of the story, Hermes, sings to us in sadness and hope that we sing this sad song, over and over, because one day we might sing our way into a new ending. And at the curtain call the cast lifts their voices to the pursuit of Orpheus, the poet, who roams the world seeking to heal it with his songs.

So, what are the songs in my heart that I keep singing two days after this experience? My heart is singing a song of grief and mourning at the ways of humans who want to keep other humans down and out when there is truly enough for all in the world. This is an age-old song. My heart is singing a song of anger and frustration at the voices of “the Fates” who tell us it will always be this way….we cannot beat this cycle. My heart is singing a song of gratitude that as a culture we are still telling the old stories so we can learn from them! My heart is singing a song of hope as I ponder how the story of Jesus entered the Greco-Roman world of these old stories bringing the possibility of new endings. We sing together each Sunday in worship the songs of hope in Jesus the Christ who unlike dear and earnest, Orpheus, entered the underworld through the love of God, conquered death and released the captives.

We must learn from Orpheus, who tried to take on Hades, all alone and lost out to his self-doubt. We are not alone. We live in the promise of God’s beloved community. My heart is singing a song of poignant joy as I remember that the Spirit of Jesus is alive and roaming the world with all of us who labor together to bring about a better world where poverty is not the enemy of riches, but a place seeded with justice and revolution. My heart is singing as I remember to sing the songs of God’s healing love, compassion, forgiveness and justice!

Blessings and with you on this journey,

'Tis the season for starting up again. A general sense of renewal and coming back – with perhaps a clearer perspective – always permeates the air at the start of a new academic year. And I love it! While it's been some time since I attended college or any type of schooling, the anticipation of a brand new academic year of knowledge-seeking still echoes loudly for me. The cooling weather and low level hum of a healthy anxiety made opportunity and personal evolution visceral. That energy remains as I look to a new program year of music ministry at Plymouth.

With the blessing of effective vaccines we're granted the opportunity to now just get on with our lives. While Covid infections can still inflict great harm to a few and long Covid is certainly a concern for all, we are nevertheless left with no choice but to just live with this virus. I suggest we embrace the opportunity to "live with it" enthusiastically!

Music-making is preferably a contact sport in my view. Without community and close social contact, music would be relegated to solo performances. Those can be obviously wonderful and very satisfying as a musician but the shared experience of musical expression is uniquely uplifting. Whether it be the coordinated ringing of bells in the Plymouth Ringers, the joyful mission of preparing and singing choral anthems in the Chancel Choir, the shifting band of minstrels who provide an eclectic array of sounds for the 9:00 a.m. Sunday services, or congregational singing – the heartbeat of a church's musical worship life –  it is in community that the Spirit is stirred most profoundly.   

We have a chance to confidently enter yet another new beginning. We can safely infuse our valued traditions as a church, such as a vibrant choral program, with new life if we so choose. I choose to offer a robust response to this opportune moment and heartily invite you to participate in this blessed space as well.

'Tis truly the season to do so.   

Mark        .