Sermon: Creation's Response - Feedback

Professors Response:

Gina, thank you for this beautiful piece, and your reading of it (which was extraordinary). I've been struck, during these Easter Cycle services, by how difficult it is--and how critical it is!--for the homilies to relate to one another, work with one another, complement one another. They can't all be the same, or in the same tone. Yet they need to have some commonality of structure and purpose. Your group did such a good job of that: each of you took a portion of the passion story and spoke directly to it, closing with that haunting liturgical refrain (which on Good Friday, holds special significance): "Oh Lord, have mercy on us." We heard those words in a completely new way because of the care your group took to fashion these homilies and place them next to one another. 
Yours was the centerpiece, Gina, and rightfully so. The idea you had to make John 1 (in The Message translation) Jesus' eulogy was brilliant, and a great example of Lathrop's and Kwok's urging to consider juxtaposition and contrapuntal readings in worship: this familiar chapter, which many of us can recite by heart, took on new meaning and depth in a less-familiar (but highly accessible and poetic) translation, and when used for a completely different purpose: to eulogize the Word made flesh. I've never heard this done before, and immediately wondered why: it's absolutely right. Your interpretive reading skills were also key; in the hands and voice of another reader, this might not have been so powerful. But you read the chapter with great emotion and engagement without overpowering it or us (something that's easy to do, on Good Friday: just dissolve into weepy emotion, purely for effect). Your reading was an authentic moment of grieving. You invited us to join you in that. And the counterpoint with the other homilies -- which took different tones, points of view, and voices -- was striking. I'm so glad the class got to experience this, and I'm so grateful to you for having the idea in the first place!
My suggestions have to do with framing this, so the moment can stand clear and we, the audience, understand that you are interpreting someone else's text (Peterson's translation) as a performance piece -- or Spoken Word -- for us to engage. I like beginning with the Scripture reading; that seems important, for commonality and consistency with the other homilies (particularly since yours will now go in another direction). And while I appreciate your greeting of us, with warmth and affection, I'm wondering how we might have entered the piece differently (and perhaps more directly) if you'd not begun with a welcome, but with that simple statement, repeated and followed, perhaps, by a direct question: "Jesus is dead. (Pause.) Jesus is dead! (Pause.) My God, my God...what have we done?" (for example). You could then take a few beats and turn directly to the "eulogy" with an introductory statement to orient us: "Let us now praise famous men [that's a citation from the Wisdom of Sirach that I happen to love] and the Son of God with a eulogy. And there is no more fitting eulogy for the Word made flesh than the first chapter of John's gospel. Listen now to Eugene Peterson's translation, as we remember Jesus...." (for example). Then read the portion of the chapter you chose, but begin to change it to past tense as it progresses ("We all lived off his generous bounty, gift after gift after gift....this one-of-a-kind God-Expression, who existed at the very heart of the Father, made him plain as day. (Pause. Then speaking straight to us.) God made him plain as day. (Pause; still regarding us.) And they killed him. We killed him. And what will we do now? (Pause; head down.) Oh Lord, have mercy on us."
I'm writing out stage directions just to show how powerful this idea and this piece is, Gina -- and how much more powerful when the jewel is in the right setting! I often wish we did more proclamation straight from the biblical text. But it's important to state that up front, clearly, so we can experience that text in a new way. Or, you might say, so the Word can become flesh again, in us.
Thank you. I'm sending the worship service comments separately, since they're too lengthy to be included here!
ACF 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Watch Night Sermon: What Will You Shift?

Image
Welcome to Columbia’s 2019 Watch Night Service. Many of us wait in anticipation of the year 2020. Some are graduating, some getting married all of us are hoping and wishing for bigger and better, glad tidings and goodwill. We hope to see positive change in our lives, our community and our world. God desires that for us as well. Let Us Pray – Illumination For All The Preachers Heavenly Father! You are the King of Kings and Lord of Lords It is an honor to stand and declare your Word. May we deliver what thus saith the Lord unto your people this day. In Jesus Name, Amen The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 2:9 that …Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. As we enter into this new opportunity, this new season, that is 2020 be confident in knowing that God desires to bless you abundantly. I don’t know about you all, but I want my stuff. I want what God has prepared for me
Read more

Blue Note Preaching Assignment

Image
Blue Note preaching assignment completed a unit in Preaching During Crisis and Trauma Introduction Artists are doing more  self-portraits   during the pandemic. It makes sense: what else can you do when you're stuck at home with nothing to look at but yourself, day after day? COVID-19 restrictions have made it difficult to hire models to paint, or to wander neighborhoods in search of human inspiration--and then get close enough to those faces to photograph them. The self-portrait, like the  Ars Poetica,  is a classic art form that most artists experiment with eventually; now, self-portraits have become a way to document our life in this pandemic. Here are some examples that the  Washingtonian  collected, from a call for submissions:   https://www.washingtonian.com/2020/05/15/check-out-these-dramatic-quarantine-self-portraits-taken-by-professional-photographers/ Preachers don't do self-portraits so much as we do  portraits .  (We could debate that statement, but let's hear i
Read more