All posts by Jennifer Sanders

Reflection, Social justice

Southside Faith Communities Public Statement of Support for our Neighbors and Friends

Southside Faith Communities
Public Statement of Support for our Neighbors and Friends
October 12, 2023

As we write this, we know that both Israelis and Palestinians are living in a state of terror, as war rains down on civilians on both sides. We also know that the horrific violence in Israel and Gaza is exacerbating the fear of Jews, Muslims, and Palestinians living around the world, including here in Birmingham. As an interfaith organization, we focus our energies on what unites us, because unity is how we bring about transformational change in Birmingham and beyond.

With one voice, we condemn all acts of terror. The actions of Hamas this past week were indefensible, targeting Israeli young people, families, and children, and endangering the lives of the Palestinian people by calling down war upon them.

While we do not all agree on the political issues involved, these things we agree on:

● Children should never be considered allowable collateral damage.

● The elderly and disabled and unarmed civilians should be off limits.

● Celebrating the death of enemies is antithetical to our faithful calls to peace.

● Human rights abuses should not be tolerated; kidnapping, rape, depriving citizens of basic survival needs, including freedom of movement.

● Our Jewish, Muslim, and Christian neighbors in Birmingham are suffering, and many are afraid. They are afraid for their families still abroad, and they are afraid for their safety in Birmingham.

We condemn all acts of terrorism on our Jewish, Muslim, and Christian neighbors, including threats to our houses of worship, like the recent threat to Temple Emanu-El. We condemn anti-Semitism and hate in all its forms.

Each of us, in our own traditions, is challenged to love our neighbor and honor our common humanity. Each life lost is a tragedy and each day that war threatens and disintegrates is a stain on our collective soul. We pray for all of those who have lost loved ones. We pray for justice as described by the prophet Zechariah: God’s command to administer true justice, showing mercy and compassion to one another.

It’s times like these that we need to consciously choose love. Love will be our strength and our uniting force. We choose empathy and we choose justice over hatred and perpetual retaliation.

We believe in Birmingham. We believe we can rally one another and support one another even as we watch the devastation abroad. We can be a model of peace, as we pray and work for peace in the most troubled parts of this world.

Beloved Community is proud to be a member of the Southside Interfaith Communities and to endorse these words.

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Sunday e-bulletin

Advent Evening Worship e-Bulletin- Sunday, December 22, 2024 5 pm CT onsite and on Zoom

New and need to know how to log in to attend online? Stop by our Visitor Connect before the service

COMMUNITY NEWS

OPENING PRAYER

CHIMING OF THE HOUR

PRELUDE

LIGHTING OF ADVENT CANDLE
O God, we light the fourth candle of Advent. We hear your angel Gabriel and witness the faith of Mary, whose song was a prayer that would uplift those who were downtrodden. Her lyrics shattered the proud and called the world to change. She would bear within her the promised child, Jesus, the Light of the World. This Advent, we respond to God’s beckoning to us as well. Amen

OPENING HYMN Hark the Herald Angels Sing – 214
Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King:
peace on earth, and mercy mild,
God and sinners reconciled!”
Joyful, all ye nations, rise,
join the triumph of the skies;
with the angelic hosts proclaim,
“Christ is born in Bethlehem!”
Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King”

Christ, by highest heaven adored,
Christ, the everlasting Lord,
late in time behold him come,
offspring of the Virgin’s womb:
veiled in flesh the Godhead see;
hail the incarnate Deity,
pleased with us in flesh to dwell,
Jesus, our Immanuel.
Hark! the herald angels sing,
“Glory to the newborn King”

PEACE and GREETINGS

OFFERING   Your offerings sustain the work of the church, especially in this time. If you are able, please make a contribution online here on the website. You can also mail a check to the church.

ANTHEM Chennault Stevenson

READING Luke 1:39-45
In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leapt for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.’
May we be blessed by the reading of this Word. Amen

MESSAGE – Rev Jennifer Sanders, Beloved Community Coordinating Pastor

PRAYERS OF THE PEOPLE
Let us pray together! We share our prayers of joy and thanksgiving; prayers of concern or sorrow; and prayers for the world and its people.

We end each prayer by saying “This is my prayer” and then together we will affirm that “This is our prayer.” If you are online, you may also write a prayer in the chat section – or send it before or after worship here.

CLOSING HYMN O Come All Ye Faithful – 199
O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant,
O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem!
Come, and behold Him, born the King of angels!
Refrain: O come, let us adore Him;
O come, let us adore Him;
O come, let us adore Him, Christ, the Lord!

Sing, choirs of angels; sing in exultation;
sing, all ye citizens of heav’n above!
Glory to God, all glory in the highest!
Refrain

Yea, Lord, we greet Thee, born this happy morning;
Jesus, to Thee be all glory giv’n!
Word of the Father, now in flesh appearing!
Refrain

BENEDICTION

POSTLUDE

Scripture translation from the New Revised Standard Version. Hymns from the African American Heritage Hymnal. Liturgy adapted from UCC Worship Ways




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Reflection

You’ve Got Stuff to Do! [part 2]: A Reflection from Rev. Dollie Howell Pankey

In Part 1, I mentioned one gift I received amid the difficulties of 2020, the pandemic year. That gift was greater clarity about how to bring my diverse gifts and passions together into something beautiful. I left that encounter energized because I realized, “I’ve got stuff to do!” That realization began to awaken me from the lethargy that had hung over my life. Additionally, it underscored for me the importance of how I attend to life each day. I offered these words at the end of Part 1, “We must SHOW UP and SHORE UP so we can SHOW OUT!” Let me explain what I mean by that.

Recognizing that we’ve got stuff to do, first, is to SHOW UP. To show up is to be Present. In Matthew 6:34 from The Message version of the Bible, Eugene Peterson offers this rendering of Jesus’ words: “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. God will help you deal with whatever hard things come up when the time comes.” Being present, in ways large and small, means being where we are supposed to be and do what we are supposed to do in the moment!

Yes, that means doing the simple routine tasks of taking care of our bodies, minds, and soul. It means paying those bills, getting to and through work, family commitments, classes, and other commitments. It has become figuring out how to navigate virtual spaces, keeping track of endless days, navigating the safety and the care of our families during the pandemic, and trying to maintain connection in an isolating world. However, it is more than that; getting to where God needs us to be tomorrow begins with being where we are supposed to be and doing what we are supposed to do today.

Nancy Sales sent a note of appreciation for the message of Part 1. She noted that she is focusing on answering the question of what the right stuff is to do in this season. That is at the core of being present. To what are we to be present? To what do we give our heart, times, and energies? I’ll borrow this powerful quote from Frederick Buechner, “The place where God calls you is where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” 

To me, this means that God has already placed an awareness in us of that work to which we are called. It is work that brings us joy while speaking to needs around us. Answering this call, recognizing the “stuff” we’ve got to do, however, requires that we show up and respond to that call, that we respond to that work, on an ongoing basis. This major matter is that of being present to God and God’s direction and of being in place so that we are in position to take hold of opportunities when they land in our laps. We cannot do the “stuff” God calls us to do if we are not first present.

 Secondly, recognizing that we’ve got stuff to do is to SHORE UP. Shoring up is a matter of PREPARATION. While I was Chaplain at Miles College, I frequently shared these words with my students in College Forum assemblies to communicate my expectations: “New habits for new places!” Where we are now is not where we will be later in life. There are new places into which God calls us, new “stuff” God calls us to do (or to do in a deeper or expanded way). 

These new places and this new “stuff” call for something new in us. They may call for new habits, new ways of being, new skills, or new attitudes. In other words, it means always being willing to wonder and dream, “What’s next?” because life in God calls us to live with a sense of, “What’s next?” It’s the sentiment I hear echoed in “I Hope You Dance,” recorded by Lee Ann Womack:

I hope ou never lose your sense of wonder
You get your fill to eat, but always keep that hunger . . .
Promise me that you’ll give faith a fighting chance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance,
I hope you dance [i]

Regardless of our age or stage in life, each stage of life requires preparation; so, it becomes important to learn the lessons that today offers, that each moment brings. Focusing on a past we cannot change or a future we have yet to see is a distraction; instead, let us focus on what we need to know and learn and see today. As Matthew 6:34 says, “Today has enough troubles of its own.” That verse in The Message reads, “Give your entire attention to what God is doing right now, and don’t get worked up about what may or may not happen tomorrow. …” We do well to attend to this day so that we are prepared for whatever is next in this amazing journey with God.

Finally, recognizing that we’ve got stuff to do is to SHOW OUT. Showing out is a matter of PURPOSE. To SHOW OUT is not to be egotistical or boastful. To SHOW OUT is to find the ‘why’ behind our excitement; it is to know God’s purpose and how we fit into it. Many of us are familiar with the King James Version of Matthew 6:33, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God.” The Message says it this way, “Steep your life in God-reality, God-initiative….” 

Why? Because our purpose is all about what God is doing, about the reality God seeks to bring into being, about how God sees humanity and the world. As we center ourselves in the purpose of God, our purpose will SHOW OUT in our daily living. God’s purpose will shine in us. I do believe that when God’s opportune time (kairos) has come, the “stuff” we’re supposed to do will SHOW OUT in our lives if we SHOW UP and SHORE ourselves UP today. I close with these lyrics from the Disney musical Hercules to encourage each of us who realizes, “I’ve got stuff to do!”

And I won’t look back, I can go the distance
And I’ll stay on track, no, I won’t accept defeat
It’s an uphill slope, but I won’t lose hope
Till I go the distance, and my journey is complete[ii]

Lyricist: David Zippel [iii]

So, “DON’T WORRY about tomorrow!” Attend to today so that you are present with the preparation to meet your purpose. SHOW UP and SHORE UP so you can SHOW OUT!

Reverend Dollie Howell Pankey
Beloved Theomusicologist-in-Residence
April 2021 Musical Notes Reflection

[i] https://genius.com/Lee-ann-womack-i-hope-you-dance-lyrics
[ii] http://www.songlyrics.com/disney/go-the-distance-lyrics/
[iii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Go_the_Distance

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Reflection

You’ve Got Stuff to Do! [part 1]: A Reflection from Rev. Dollie Howell Pankey

On January 5, 2021, I pulled up this mediation that I gave for a chapel service a few months ago, intending to offer it as a message as we started a new year; then the insurrection at the United States Capitol occurred. This piece fell by the wayside amid the upheaval of that event and the clear messages it communicated about the state of our nation.

All of this was on top of the year that 2020 had been for us. Today, as I have returned to this meditation, we are already 1/2 of the way through the third month of 2021. We have now even marked the one-year anniversary of mandated shutdowns across the United States as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold of this country. None of us could have imagined a year ago what this year would bring for us or the multiplied losses we would face in navigating the pandemic journey. The year 2020 was a surprising year with many difficulties.

However, even the year 2020, as difficult as it was for us, brought with it some gifts. A major gift I experienced in 2020 was the opportunity to participate in a series of “thought exchanges” led by a clergy friend who is a coach for women who desire to become spiritual entrepreneurs. In working through her process, I experienced a new level of clarity about how my various gifts and passions could come together into something beautiful. Some of that has been reflected in my work here at Beloved.

As the focus of the work I am now entering became clearer, that realization stirred an excitement in me that said, “I want to be around to live out my gifts more fully!” Realizing that helped me understand that I need to do more, especially in the age of COVID-19, to preserve my well-being so I CAN be around and so I CAN function well to live out the dreams God has planted in me. The words that leapt in my heart were simply, “I’ve got stuff to do!”

It is a message that I want to offer to you as well. YOU’VE got stuff to do! As this thought echoed in my imagination, my mind was drawn to the message in Matthew 6:25-34 from the Sermon on the Mount, especially the final two verses. Here, Jesus is inviting us to not look at the future, that is, tomorrow, through the lens of worry.

o   Don’t worry about your life, about what to eat or drink or wear (Mt. 6:25).

o   Can you add to life by worrying? NO (Mt. 6:27)!

o   Why worry (Mt. 6:28)?

o   Don’t worry (Mt. 6:31).

Rather, Jesus invites us to look at tomorrow—that is, to look at the future—through the lens of hopefulness, through the lens of expectation. This is what began to surface in my soul during those experiences, a sense of expectation that made me want to get to tomorrow so I can live out all that’s in my heart to do. The question then becomes, “If worry has been taken off the table as a lens through which to look to the future, how then do we look to the future?”

When you have recognized that you’ve got stuff to do, you look to the future by attending to today because expectation (hope) for tomorrow brings with it a certain urgency about today! And so, how we attend to today matters because we’ve got stuff to do! My mantra for attending to today is this: We must SHOW UP and SHORE UP so we can SHOW OUT!

Part 2 is coming soon; so, be sure to come back to this page! While you’re waiting, remember that you’ve got stuff to do!

Reverend Dollie Howell Pankey
Beloved Theomusicologist-in-Residence
March 2021 Musical Notes Reflection


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Sermons

Ash Wednesday: A Reflection from Pastoral Care Intern Sara Brosnan

Ash Wednesday has always been one of my favorite moments in the liturgical year. Although my father found it morbid, I’ve always found the moment where ashes are applied to my head with the words “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return,” to be a beautiful and useful reminder of my own mortality and fallibility. But this year, Ash Wednesday is sitting a bit differently with me.  

In April of 2020, about a month into Covid 19 virus pandemic in the U.S., I received a call that my Dad, who had been battling stage 4 brain cancer, was not expected to last much longer. I quickly left work, and drove from Western MA to my parent’s home in Silver Spring, MD. The specter of death was everywhere on my drive. I arrived home and was able to spend time with my father before he died early the next morning. 

Given my own experience with death and the relentless death toll from Covid 19, likely to be over half a million by the time you read this, I don’t need a reminder of my own mortality this year, and I suspect none of you do either. I also suspect that there are many people who have never needed a reminder of the reality of death or of human fallibility. Whether it’s my LGBTQIA+ elders who lived through the early days of the HIV+/AIDS epidemic, or trans people, particularly trans women of color, who face horrific violence and even murder, or unarmed black men and women, from George Floyd to Sandra Bland, murdered by the police, there are many in our country and our world who are well aware of their own mortality and the ways in which societal injustice has hastened it.

What does Ash Wednesday mean in this context?  All three lectionary readings for today focus on the theme of repentance, or a returning to God. An alternative formulation when giving ashes is, “Repent and believe in the Gospel.” What does repentance entail?  In the reading from Joel we are told to “Return to the Lord with all our heart” and to “sanctify a fast.” And while this is all well and good, I find myself wishing Joel had been a little more specific. 

Part of the true repentance is a recognition of the ways we have failed in the past and a commitment to do better in the future. An alternative first reading for Ash Wednesday is Isaiah 58: 1-12.  “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin?“

 We return to the Gospel and to God through our actions on behalf of those marginalized. We return to the Gospel and to God when we work to lower disparities in death rates between people of color and white people, and between transgender people and cisgender people. And none of this is easy. We are human, profoundly fallible. But as artist, writer, and United Methodist Minister, Jan Richardson writes, “Do you not know what the Holy One can do with dust?” As we go forward into Lent, let us focus not only on our mortality and fallibility, but on allowing the transforming power of God in us and through us.

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Sermons

Epiphany and Politics: A Reflection from Rev. Jennifer Sanders

Today is Epiphany. 

Today is the day that Christians celebrate the Wise Ones, foreign women or men, scholars and astrologers, who made their way from afar to worship a poor child living at the margins of a colonized world. 

A child who would grow up to model for us how to live – teaching, feeding, healing, and speaking truth to the power of empire. 

A child who would help us to understand that we would be known by our fruits – and that those fruits would be love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, even and especially in the face of a harsh and dehumanizing world. 

A human Incarnation of the Divine who embodied both the prophetic and the pastoral- and called upon us all to do the same. 

And yet today was a day when human hubris spectacularly centered itself for its own vainglorious ends – narcissistic, corrupt human power stirred up and applied for nothing more than its own self-promotion and self-enrichment.

And in its midst we witnessed those who would mistake something rotting for something divine. “Jesus Saves” – indeed, but to invoke Jesus alongside the current president is an act of substantive idolatry. 

Instead, today, we as Christians are reminded that we are called to keep following the Star and the radical Christ who rested beneath it.  

It’s a path that demands we reject all exploitation, all ways of using people or the planet for the abuse of self-gratification.

It is not wrapped in any flag. It owes allegiance to no political party, no national boundary, and no measure of money or profit. 

It’s composed of radical commitment, radical compassion, radical wisdom, and radical justice so that we might together participate in the creation of a world where all life flourishes.   

We’re called to recognize and exult the sacred made manifest in the world today, all around us. 

We ought not seek that in the corridors of power, for the mighty will be cast down.

We find it instead in solidarity with the poor child living at the margins of a colonized world, who has come to transform the world and to teach us what heaven really means. 

Amen

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News

Merry Christmas: a reading from the Gospel of Luke & Rev. Dollie’s beautiful ‘O Holy Night’

Merry Christmas!

We rejoice today in Word and in song. 

Luke 2: 1-20 
In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration and was taken while Quirinius was governor of Syria. All went to their own towns to be registered. Joseph also went from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was descended from the house and family of David. He went to be registered with Mary, to whom he was engaged and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,

‘Glory to God in the highest heaven,  and on earth peace among those whom he favours!’

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.’ So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them. 

May we be blessed by the reading of this word. Amen.

Rev. Dollie recorded a stunning version of ‘O Holy Night.’ It can be found here on her YouTube channel (which also has other wonderful music!).


(and if you didn’t get a chance to watch the UCC Christmas Pageant for Christmas Eve, it remains a treat today too) 

Wherever and however this day finds you, together we give thanks for the presence of love Incarnate! Merry Christmas and the peace and love of Christ to you today!

Amen

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News

Christmas Eve Greetings and Worship Video

Hello friends and Happy Christmas Eve!

In a year characterized by isolation, it’s a gift to know that we are a part of a big, diverse, loving family. We give thanks for our United Church of Christ family around the country and for this soul-nourishing Christmas service, which captures the moods of the season. 

In words and in song, it acknowledges the joys, challenges, humor, and love of this moment –  and it immerses us in the spirit of God among us. 

In observance of this rather different Christmas Eve, we invite you to watch this lovely service all the way through at a time today (or tomorrow!) that works for you – or, if you wish, pause after the singing of Silent Night, and watch the last few minutes closer to Epiphany.

Also, I mentioned in church last Sunday but neglected to put in the after-church check-in: White Birminghamians for Black LIves will hold their monthly vigil tomorrow – Christmas Day – from 11:30 am – 1 pm at Avondale Park. COVID precautions in place. All are welcome. This is holy work indeed. 

Happy Christmas Eve and Merry Christmas to all! God loves you and your church loves you – on this and every day!

Amen

Rev. Jennifer 

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Music, Social justice

The Morning After: A Reflection from Rev. Dollie Howell Pankey

Perhaps you, like many in the United States and the world, paid close attention to the election process and, particularly, the presidential election—one that has reflected the state of cultural and ethical crisis that faces our nation. As I watched the process, I often wondered what the climate of our nation would be on “the morning after,” that is, when all was said and done.

Personally, I felt a profound sense of relief and joy as the official projections came on the morning of November 7, 2020, announcing the election of Joseph Biden as President-elect and Kamala Devi Harris as Vice President-elect. However, this joy is tempered by concern of how the current president and segments of his base might respond to this loss. I am greatly concerned about the threat posed by segments of the population who—seeing themselves as well-meaning, righteous, and patriotic—will lash out at people of color, ethnic minorities, the LGBTQIA community, immigrants, and other marginalized groups within society.

When we awoke on Sunday, November 8, 2020, we literally awoke to “the morning after.” We are in “the morning after,” because now the suspense has been lifted and we have some resolution, but I believe that we are, metaphorically, in “the Morning after,” and will remain so for some time. The song “The Morning After” is from The Poseidon Adventure, a 1970s movie that focused on a group of passengers who leave the larger group trying to survive on a capsized cruise ship. When first sung by the ship’s lounge singer, it is just a benign song. However, the song takes on new meaning when it is played in the final scene, where those who remain of the small group—having gone against conventional wisdom—are discovered and rescued. The first verse says:

There’s got to be a morning after

If we can hold on through the night

We have a chance to find the sunshine

Let’s keep on looking for the light

(by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn)

We are, metaphorically, in “The Morning After.”  We are in a struggle for survival for ourselves, for our communities, and for the soul of our nation. What does that mean for us?

To be in “the morning after” requires that we not deny the gravity of the struggle for survival. We can’t fully move towards a “morning after” unless we acknowledge the danger that presently faces us. Rev. Amina S. McIntyre, Connectional Young Adult Ministry President of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church shared this Facebook post the day after the election in response to how close the race for the presidency was at that time:

None of this is surprising. This country has not changed. What we’re experiencing is actually only the dashing of hope. We had the audacity to [hope] but forgot that hope doesn’t fix. And holding onto “swing states” is actually prolonging our ability to start the grieving process. Let’s face it, this cancer in this country has metastasized. Patient is terminal, prognosis is low and there is literally nothing that can be done. Palliative has suggested comfort measures but we’re the family, fighting by the bedside yet praying for a miracle. No matter what happens, this has shown the truth of our family. The real decisions we must make are around how to handle the information our revelations bring.

That’s the stark reality of our nation. This awareness calls for prayerful action on our part. I am reminded of a Hebrew Bible story in which a leper colony was camped outside of the closed walls of Jerusalem in a time of famine while the city was under siege. They said to themselves, “If we stay here, we die. If we go to the city, we die. If we go to the enemy’s camp, at least there’s a chance that we live.” I see this pragmatic resolve in heroes of the faith such as Harriet Tubman and Nat Turner, Fannie Lou Hamer and Congressman John Lewis, who decided not to accept the inhumane conditions of enslavement and Jim Crow. Rather, they prayerfully acted to change their condition (and their communities’) knowing that it could cost them their lives. 

To be in “the morning after” requires us to be rooted and grounded in hope. For this small group of people that came together in crisis to survive, they had to believe in the possibility of “the morning after;” they had to believe that they could get to safety. As believers in God, we may find ourselves praying as the psalmist did, “Be pleased, O God, to deliver me. O Lord, make haste to help me” (Psalm 70:1) because we hope in God’s power and desire to help us. As a descendent of formerly enslaved Black people, I am conscious that this thread of hope running through the stories of enslaved people sustained them and kept hope alive.

Although deliverance was often a fleeting and far-off vision, they had brought a knowledge of the God who would come to their aid from the shores of Africa. Although deliverance was filled with great risk and danger, their encounters with Christian scriptures led them to put their hope in the delivering God, which echoed their understanding of God. It was hope that caused them to look for doors to open “that no man can shut” to lead them out of danger. It is hope that causes us to look for God’s open door to freedom that no one can shut. 

To be in “the morning after” requires knowing that we need each other to survive! As this movie theme song reminds us, we can only survive together. Therefore, we ought to not just try to get our own freedom; rather we ought to go back and help somebody else get free. That is why it I draw our attention as the church to God’s words through Amos, “I hate, I despise your festivals, and I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. . .. But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream” (Amos 5:21-24). To sing pretty songs and bring pretty offerings without seeking justice for those who struggle is to offer God empty worship.

As this song written by David Frazier and recorded by Hezekiah Walker reminds us:

I need you, you need me; We’re all a part of God’s body.

Stand with me, agree with me;

We’re all a part of God’s body.

It is God’s will that every need be supplied.

You are important to me, I need you to survive.

Our survival, our deliverance, our freedom is bound together with each other’s survival, deliverance, freedom. As it has been said, “None of us is free until all of us are free.”

To be in “The Morning After” means that we must stay in the fight. Author and scholar Ibram X. Kendi noted his anxiety in this message on Facebook the morning of the election, “The last time I felt this way was the morning of my cancer surgery. It could go either way: the new beginning of life or death. All I remember telling myself was no matter what, I’m going to fight because no matter what there will be a fight. This steeled me then. This steels me now.”

There is an African proverb says it this way, “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together!” Perhaps in our focus in individual success and progress, we have been too focused on GOING FAST! I challenge us today, as we have seen coalitions of people come together to create needed change and restore hope in our nation, let’s focus on GOING FAR! That means that we must learn how to GO TOGETHER! I believe in ultimate hope, but while I wait for that great day, I know that I’ve got to keep on fighting; I know that we’ve got to keep on fighting. And that fight requires what Harry Emerson Fosdick prayed for in his famous hymn:

___“God of Grace and God of Glory” ___

Harry Emerson Fosdick

1.  God of grace and God of glory,

On your people pour your pow’r;

Crown your ancient church’s story,

Bring its bud to glorious flow’r.

Grant us wisdom, grant us courage

For the facing of this hour.

2.  Lo! the hosts of evil round us

Scorn the Christ, assail his ways!

From our fears that long have bound us

Free our hearts to faith and praise.

Grant us wisdom, grant us courage

For the living of these days.

3.  Cure your children’s warring madness;

Bend our pride to your control;

Shame our wanton, selfish gladness,

Rich in things and poor in soul.

Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,

Lest we miss your kingdom’s goal.

4.  Save us from weak resignation

To the evils we deplore;

Let the gift of your salvation

Be our glory evermore.

Grant us wisdom, grant us courage,

Serving you whom we adore.

***************************************************

Reverend Dollie Howell Pankey
Theomusicologist-in-Residence
November 2020 Musical Notes Reflection

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Ministry

“How Can I Keep from Singing?”: A Reflection from Rev. Dollie Howell Pankey

There is an older American hymn whose first few stanzas offer these words:

My life goes on in endless song
Above earth’s lamentations,
I hear the real, though far-off hymn
That hails a new creation.

Through all the tumult and the strife
I hear its music ringing,
It sounds an echo in my soul.
How can I keep from singing?

While though the tempest loudly roars,
I hear the truth, it liveth.
And though depths of night ’round me close,
Songs in the night it giveth.

This is a question we have found ourselves asking during this pandemic, “How can I keep from singing?” Pastors, Ministers of Music, Choir members, and even those who lead on the Conference and General Synod levels have had to make painful and unprecedented decisions that keep us from singing because of the increased danger posed by singing in our congregational spaces. Many of us feel the absence of singing together, of making music together, very deeply. What do we do with this deep loss?

There are three thoughts I offer to you in this season:

First, I encourage us to take the legitimacy of this loss seriously. The majority of Christian traditions value congregational singing as a central aspect of communal worship. That means that we understand worship to include singing, and more importantly, to include singing together. Here at Beloved, we have all witnessed ways in which singing as a community enhances our worship. Our inability to gather as the people of God and sing together leaves us with a profound sense of loss in three major ways.

This loss affects our engagement of the Subject of our praise. Our sense of praise often feels diminished when we cannot find a song or lift a song in times of struggle or of breakthrough. To be told that we cannot sing together as we worship together may cause us to feel that we can’t fully connect with God in worship. Most of us want to outwardly express our praise and our prayers. Even when we cannot do so in the prayers we formulate or by shouting or lifting our hands and dancing about, we have been able to sing or enter into song.

This loss also affects our sense of community when we praise. We are shaped not just by the texts we sing and by the melodies we sing; we are shaped by the act of coming together and singing itself. We are shaped by listening to each other and for each other. We are shaped by strengthening the weak among us and by lifting up a song for those whose hearts can’t lift up a song for themselves.

And this loss affects the impact, outcomes, and results of our praise. Many of us sing a song when we get a breakthrough or when our hearts are glad in spite of life’s circumstances. One of my dear friends has difficulty learning and following songs in church, but when her heart is happy, she is prone to start humming “Deck the halls with boughs of holly! Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la-la-la!” It has never mattered whether it was the Christmas season or not. It only matters that her heart is happy.  We sing a song because we can acknowledge—in our singing, our worshiping, and our gathering—our awareness that God has taken care of our need. We can acknowledge in song that God knows our names. We can acknowledge “God will take care of you” in song. We can acknowledge that “Jesus will fix it,” and knowing these things makes our hearts just want to sing. To not be able to sing together robs us of feeling the presence of God in different and profound ways. “How can I keep from singing?” How can we keep from singing?

Secondly, I encourage us to grieve what this loss means for you individually and for us as a singing community—for those who lead music in our congregation, for our congregation, and for the larger community. There is something about grief when it is not given voice or room for venting. That grief can linger past its time and cause us greater suffering, do greater damage. Grief can remain unresolved. Those of us who work in pastoral care and other helping professions often recognize the impact of unresolved grief in people’s lives. So this is a call to mourn what you have lost. Yet even as I call us and encourage us to mourn what we have lost by not being able to sing together, I am mindful of this wisdom in the book of Deuteronomy regarding the Israelites’ mourning following the death of Moses. That is, mourning comes to an end. It is important that we grieve, that we grieve deeply, and that we grieve fully; but our mourning, our grieving, needs to come to an end so as to not cripple us.Finally, I encourage us to not allow our sense of loss to keep us from missing the opportunities that not singing presents to us. Richard Foster, author of Celebration of Discipline, reminds us that taking up a spiritual discipline refers to something that we intentionally limit ourselves from doing or from having so that we can deepen and broaden our lives and spirituality in other ways. I suggest that this period in which we have lost the ability to sing when we come together as we once did can have positive impact that counters what we have lost.

In this time when we cannot gather and sing as we once did, we have an opportunity to seek God more fully both as we grieve and as we employ or discover new ways of offering our praises and our laments. We can use this time to worship God with more of our body and mind although our voices are stilled or subdued for now. We can take what we cannot sing and pour it out in our emotions, pour it out on paper, pour it out in cooking and gardening, pour it out in things we can create. We can let the words of the songs become our meditations more than they ever have before.

This time of not being able to gather and sing as we once did also offers us the opportunity to not just do the congregational or choral version of “hit it and quit it” or just coming to church to get our a fix for our need to sing. This is now an opportunity to deepen relationships within the congregations and ensembles in which we sing or make music. It is an opportunity to get to know people in a different way, to hear how they are hurting, and to be a support system for each other. If we do this now, then when we are able to sing together again, we will be able to hear each other differently and to feel each other’s pain differently so that we are able to sing and pray differently so we are able to heal differently in our communities.

This is a time to deepen the impact, outcomes, and results of our praise. I know that when I have been in a time of fasting, the first opportunity to break the fast is a joyous moment, not just because I get to eat but because I get to be with those who add joy and community to my eating. The same can be true for our singing. This is a singing fast for us in many ways, but consider how much more joyous our praise will be when we can be together and sing together once again! As I close this moment of reflection, I return to the refrain of the hymn, “How Can I Keep from Singing:”

No storm can shake my inmost calm,
While to that rock I’m clinging.
Since love is lord of heaven and earth
How can I keep from singing?

Amen.

https://hymnary.org/text/my_life_flows_on_in_endless_song




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