communion

ok, next in the continuing adventure of discovering protestantism (as opposed to anglicanism, even low-church anglicanism), is... communion! there are many formal and liturgical differences (which i won't list here).

but the essence remains, and that greatly moved me. i at times had tears in the corners of my eyes, as i felt i haven't felt in perhaps a quarter century.

notes: i did locate the baptismal font, today, in behind the drum kit. the music was really good today, and i wondered: if i joined them and they would have me, would i (have to) wear a goatee ;) ?

the new testament exegesis (? -- as i've said before, it's not really a sermon) tells me how little i've read and understood the epistles. we came to the famous section where paul says that wives should obey their husbands, and i thought to myself, now, how's jim gonna handle this? with humour, first of all ("i wanted this in our wedding vows, but melissa wouldn't go for it"); and then with context ("women were property"); and finally with revelation ("it was a radical idea that husbands should love their wives as their own bodies"). jim's modern take on impure love is love that objectifies the other.

here are today's two synchronicities. when i got home i put on some music for my brunch guests. i chose a mix tape i had made a few years before. the mix tape itself had no theme when it was made; it was just the songs we were listening to that summer. these two songs were back-to-back on the tape; in the first song, hawksley workman expresses how i felt during communion, and in the second, sarah harmer sings of consecrated love.

Sweet Hallelujah
by Hawksley Workman
from For Him and the Girls

This is just a prayer for those who need one
There's a little church I know in the dale
Where they sing a song so sweet, to my saviour who is calling me
Sweet, sweet, I just have to breathe hallelujah, sweet hallelujah.

I'll meet you before the dew has left the fern leaves
We'll listen together as the bell rings from the dale
and it summons me with a sound so sweet, like my saviour who is calling me
Sweet, sweet, I just have to sing hallelujah, sweet hallelujah

And there is none so fine a place to greet him
To dance before the morning sun is to please him
To dance a dance so gracefully, to praise the man so clumsily
Sweet, sweet, I just have to dance hallelujah, sweet hallelujah


Open Window
by Sarah Harmer
from You Were Here

Love, I see you there
Adrift on the air
Floating by the open window

Ah, the sentiment of love
Reflections that speak of
What can enter when our hearts are open

Here, witnesses appear
And recognize how sacred love can be when stated
Shared, shown for all to see
The beauty that can be when love is cultivated

Well our love is a sacred thing
Like the mysteries of the night
In the darkness unwavering
And still so strong come the light

Well our love is an infinite thing
Like the sun's last ray on the sea
As it sets low in the west
And the moon rises