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October 13, 2019
10:00 am
Join us in the Sanctuary
How can we speak of love without poetry?
This question applies to God’s love, too. Where is the poetry of the church? Really, there is a lot of it, but much where it can’t be enjoyed fully. In the hymns, plenty of poetry is embedded there, but the lyrics can be overshadowed by the music. Wouldn’t it be an interesting exercise to read the verses out loud as well as sing them? In scripture too, but the little snippets of the Sunday morning lessons do not afford what poetry there is to unfold. What if we devoted a bigger chunk of the worship service to a performance of the texts? Of course, in our country we have to read the Bible in translation where the poetry is lost. The King James Version is revered because it was composed in Renaissance England (think Shakespeare). Since then, the inaccuracies and archaisms and the discovery of new Biblical manuscripts necessitated new translations that mostly lost the poetry of the KJV, although many worked at it (e.g., the New English Bible). We might try our hand at restoring poetry to the texts (not unthinkable). How about the sermon? Oooops, not much poetry there! Preachers need to be put on notice. We won’t remedy all this in one Sunday. But we intend at least to raise the issue and hopefully raise our spiritual sights! Join in the fun this Sunday! Rev. Rick Chrisman Mothers’ Helpers are here from 9:30 to 11:30. |
Our church is entertaining a new spiritual practice: shouting from the rooftops!
Well, not literally. But we are trying to understand how we can be faithful to Christ’s injunction in Matthew 10:26 to “shout from the rooftops what we hear whispered in our ear.” That is, how can we make public what we are going through spiritually in our lives, how to make public the process going on in us privately of personally applying the gospel to this crazy world.
We don’t have the answer. Not yet. But we will be exploring and experimenting this year with how to articulate in public what is churning inside our guts in 2019 America. We are doing this through a program called “Soundings,” as in taking depth measurements, not in the ocean but in a public forum.
To create public forums for ourselves this way, we will come to know each other better through these “soundings.” Creating public space like that could be, in itself, a valuable church mission and “public service” to the community. We don’t know yet, we have just started. But the goal is to supply a scarce commodity in our country—common space where strangers become friends.
Becoming known for who we are is a spiritual practice anybody can learn, who recognizes that it is one of our most basic human needs.
Stay tuned for public events of this nature at Eliot Church in November.
--Rev. Rick
Well, not literally. But we are trying to understand how we can be faithful to Christ’s injunction in Matthew 10:26 to “shout from the rooftops what we hear whispered in our ear.” That is, how can we make public what we are going through spiritually in our lives, how to make public the process going on in us privately of personally applying the gospel to this crazy world.
We don’t have the answer. Not yet. But we will be exploring and experimenting this year with how to articulate in public what is churning inside our guts in 2019 America. We are doing this through a program called “Soundings,” as in taking depth measurements, not in the ocean but in a public forum.
To create public forums for ourselves this way, we will come to know each other better through these “soundings.” Creating public space like that could be, in itself, a valuable church mission and “public service” to the community. We don’t know yet, we have just started. But the goal is to supply a scarce commodity in our country—common space where strangers become friends.
Becoming known for who we are is a spiritual practice anybody can learn, who recognizes that it is one of our most basic human needs.
Stay tuned for public events of this nature at Eliot Church in November.
--Rev. Rick
Find us!
474 Centre Street
Newton, MA 02458
617-244-3639
Office hours:
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday 7:30am - 2:30pm
Wednesday 7:00-5:00pm
Closed Fridays
Newton, MA 02458
617-244-3639
Office hours:
Monday, Tuesday, Thursday 7:30am - 2:30pm
Wednesday 7:00-5:00pm
Closed Fridays