God has created a new day
07/07/13 05:31
The neighborhood where we live has streets that are named for birds that frequent our part of the world. Many of those birds, like the Tanagers, who give their name to one of the main streets, are not year-round residents. The Tanagers head for Central America in the winter. Our house is on Waxwing Lane. Male and female waxwings look more alike than some species of birds, making it hard for an amateur like me to tell the difference. Sometimes, when there is a couple, they will pass a pine nut back and forth between their beaks in a courting ritual. We also have streets named for Pinion Jays, Ravens, Crossbills, Kingbirds, and Meadowlarks. We’ve seen each of those types of birds in our neighborhood over the years. Our neighborhood doesn’t have streets named for other birds that are common in our part of the world like robins and grackles and sparrows and buntings. And we have no streets named for raptors like eagles, hawks, or kestrels.
Still, it is a good place to have things named for birds. We wake in the morning to a chorus of birdsong. This time of the year they start at first light, which is a little after 4 a.m. While the official sunrise isn’t until 5:18 today, there is enough light to see across the street by 4:30 and the birds raise enough racket to remind light sleepers of the joys of rising early. Today is a bit cloudy and the forecast promises rain showers throughout the day and into tomorrow. While we don’t need any more lightning in the hills, the showers are helping keep things green and keeping the fire risk at moderate, which allows the community to lend some of its firefighters to the big fires in Colorado, Arizona and California.
The weather cooperated beautifully with last night’s wedding. There was a shower that passed through before the ceremony began, but the evening was pleasant and the reception under the tents in the backyard was a great success. They had music and dancing under the shade structure and there were festive lights to add to the mood of celebration. After so much work in preparation it was fun to have things work out so well. I’m sure that the couple and their families are pleased.
There will be a few tired folks in church this morning. The kitchen crew worked hard, hauling all of the plates and silverware and other items out, setting every thing up, serving, cleaning up and doing a mountain of dishes. There has been no small amount of moving furniture, and today promises more work returning everything and taking down the tents. Our plan is to use the celebration space for an ice cream social after church, so we’ll get a little more use out of it if the weather cooperates one more time.
One of the tensions with which we live is that we are given an abundance of beautiful spaces. Because we have such a beautiful church with its magnificent musical instruments and refreshing space, we love to worship indoors. The indoor space provides shelter from the weather and is comfortable on all but the hottest days of the year. And there is much talk of adding air conditioning to cool the building when the heat becomes oppressive. Our indoor space is welcoming for our elders and those living with disabilities and so we tend to us that space for most of our times of community worship.
But there is a real joy to worshiping outdoors. Many of us have very fond memories of meaningful worship at camp and in other outdoor settings. Most of us appreciate the outdoors as one of the great gifts of living in the hills. No human architect or builder has ever matched the natural beauty and glory with which we re surrounded. In some ways our buildings distract us from the glory the Creator.
When our shade structure was under construction, I anticipated that we would use it for outdoor worship more than we have. It seems that each week there is some reason for us to put off outdoor worship. The musicians who provide leadership for our worship need the organ or piano that cannot be moved outdoors. Those with hearing difficulties need the sound system in order to hear clearly. There are too many insects. The sun is too bright. There is no end to the reasons that are given to keep our congregation indoors on Sunday morning. Each makes a little bit of sense.
And yet, as I write this morning and the low clouds project the yellow, orange and gold of the predawn light into a 360-degree sunrise, and the birds raise a song that seems to me to be a true song of joy, I long for the entire congregation to experience the wideness of God’s presence.
As sacred as is our sanctuary, we must never think that we might be able to contain God in a single place. As powerful as is our worship when we gather, we must never think that we re the only ones who draw close to God. God is greater than the greatest memory we hold. God is more than the music and liturgy we lead. God surrounds us with beauty and blessing.
Sometimes, on a morning like today, I think of what the hills must have been like before there were houses and cars and roads and all of the trappings of human habitation. For many centuries the hills were not a place of year-round human living, but rather a place visited for hunting and spiritual nurture by people whose primary homes were portable structures and whose lives were tied to the buffalo on the plains. In those days there were no dams or reservoirs and the creeks would turn into dangerous raging torrents with the sudden rainfall of summer showers.
There has always been great power and beauty in the hills, even when there were no human eyes to witness it. There is more to this world than we are able to take in, more beauty than we are able to see, great sounds that we do not hear.
A new day is dawning in the hills, and a song of gratitude raises from deep within me.
God is good
All the time.
All the time
God is good!