Lenten Playlist

Unlike my soft-hearted husband who tears up easily, especially during the human-interest stories at the conclusion of the evening news, I am not one who comes to tears often. If you see me crying, you know that either my pain is great, or something is deeply touching my soul.

There are a few things that stir my emotions easily. One of those things is music.

You would think that being a musician means that I am always surrounded by music – in the car, in my home, in my office, and all the places in between, but that’s simply not true.

Recently, I have come to prefer silence over casual music listening. After teaching music classes all day, silence is what I desire most of the time.

However, driving home from church on the evening of Ash Wednesday, I decided to pull up my playlist titled, “Spiritual.” It was dusk as I was driving, which is my favorite time of day. The sun had left the sky with an indescribable color, the stars were popping out, and the moon was beginning to show off its glow.

There I was with ashes fresh on my forehead, and that’s when the tears started. At first, it was only a stinging sensation in my eyes, but then they began to roll down my cheeks. I wasn’t feeling lonely or sad. It had been a good day. I knew then that it was the music. It’s always been the music. It seems to touch me in the deepest part of my being.

I don’t know if it was the lyrics, the melody, or the harmonies but this gift of rhythm and sound felt so God-like to me.

A return to my “Spiritual” playlist reminded me of the reason that certain songs have made their way to my list. Some are old favorites like an old friend sitting next to me. Other songs have become new companions that have encouraged me on my journey.

During this season of Lent, I want to share some of the songs from my “Spiritual” playlist with you. I hope you will receive these songs as a gift. Maybe you will sit with them during these days of Lent and make a new friend, or maybe you will allow them to touch a part of your spirit that needs to be reawakened.

Gabriel’s Oboe

Lenten Playlist song number one is “Gabriel’s Oboe.”

To me, “Gabriel’s Oboe” is one of the purest and simplest melodies. I think that if I had to choose only one song to listen to for the rest of my life, this would be the one.

Composer Ennio Morricone wrote “Gabriel’s Oboe” for the movie, The Mission. In the movie, this simple melody is played by Father Gabriel on his oboe. The song was meant to be a bridge between cultures of vastly different languages and customs. Morricone delivered a most beautiful and sublime melody for this purpose. It is a song that needs no words because its melody is pure and full of the mercy and love of God.

You can listen to Gabriel’s Oboe and enjoy some beautiful scenery here.

What Does the Lord Require?

What does the Lord require of you? Those words haunt me.

I have often claimed that Micah 6:8 is my favorite Bible verse. It’s the one I will recite if someone asks, “what’s your favorite scripture?” It was the verse I used at my ordination service and the one I recite when I lay hands on another who is being ordained.

This verse contains a serious charge - to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly. According to Micah, it is a requirement. Micah says, “God has told you this.” It feels like Micah is delivering a bit of a reprimand, that God has told us this, but we are refusing to live in this way. The requirement is justice. The requirement is the love of mercy. The requirement is to walk humbly. And all of this is to be done with God.

With God. Can living justly, mercifully, and humbly be done without God? Can we live in this way without daily turning to God for guidance? Can we live in this way if we despise our brothers and sisters, and live with jealousy, anger, and hate? Can we be ministers and prophets of God’s way if we are dishonest with our words and unkind in our actions?

If we back up to verse 6, in Micah chapter 8, we read that God’s words came to Micah in the form of a question. “With what shall I come before the Lord, and bow myself before God on high?”

It seems that we seek to please God in ways that don’t really get to the heart of the matter. “The presents are nice,” God says, “but what I really want from you is this – I want you to be fair and honest with each other. I want you to be kind to each other, to offer understanding, and to be gracious. I want you to walk with a humbleness that resembles a child of God.”

We can all remember times when people have disappointed us – treated us unfairly and unjustly. I am guilty too. There have been many times when I have failed in this call to love as I should, and times when I have let my ego trump my spirit.

God’s instructions in Micah 6:8 are for each of us. No one is an exception – minister and layperson, CEO and support staff, teacher and student, politician and voter – each of us is called to the same requirement.

The question of discipleship is: How do we live and love in this world? The answer is: We are called to journey with God, and we are called to act with compassion toward those we encounter along the path.

We are to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly – with our God.

Advent Chuckles

The sights of Advent sometimes delight me and sometimes make me chuckle. The lights, the liturgy, and the music remind me that this is a spiritual season.

The inflatable yard displays, silly holiday movies, and frantic shopping malls remind me that we intermingle this season with our longings to connect and have fun. We are human after all.

I had to chuckle out loud when I drove through my neighborhood and spotted a yard display that boasted an inflatable nativity scene next to a cast of merry minions.

I had to smile quietly to myself as my family held hands in our favorite Mexican restaurant and offered prayers of gratitude over our enchiladas and margaritas.

Merriment is on display all around. Holy and fun moments exist side by side in this season and offer us a glimpse at the Word made flesh.

In this season, we are permitted to embrace the human side of Christmas. Christ comes to us in physical form and becomes for us God’s active power in the world. “And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)

We are permitted to learn from the things that hold our attention, bring us joy, or make us cry. We dwell in these places, and they have lessons to teach us. Maybe the lesson is that God’s incarnation is ultimate love coming to dwell with us in everything. Perhaps it is to learn that God’s love is limitless. Maybe it is to learn that it is okay to intermingle our humanness with our holiness.

Christ came to show us what it means to be made in the image of God. The true coming of Christ is the coming of Christ into our lives as the universal Christ who has existed with God from the beginning. It is the coming of Christ not to construct a religion with limitations but to build a life of love in all of its fullness.

If merry minions next to an inflatable nativity make you chuckle, then chuckle in love. If offering a blessing with family and friends over enchiladas and margaritas makes you grateful, then offer the prayer every time.

Christ comes to us wholly human and wholly divine, and gives us permission to live, to laugh, and to love.