Worship Music

It is Lent and we have been having some new to us music. We have also been using the piano for the Wednesday Lenten services. The change is nice. I am not a change just to have change but let's face it, it is hard not to go into auto-pilot when it is the same old thing every week. Having different instruments and arranged differently does help. There are some things that don't work but that is when intelligent choices are needed. Worship is important and should not be done haphazardly. The big trick is knowing the reasons behind things and when and when not to listen to personnel taste. It is also not about being traditional, contemporary, liturgical or non liturgical. There is a time and place for going in all the above dimensions and yet it transcends all the dimension mentioned. I wish it were a simple easy position but there it is.

Fat Tuesday

I think the evolution of Fat Tuesday is funny and so typically human. Lent is a time of giving something up and Fat Tuesday is a celebration of one last gorging before I give it up. How many things we should give up are not just because we are just not ready to give it up. We need just one more hurrah, one more jolly before we give up our vice. I do think we have concentrated too much on giving things up for Lent and not enough on taking up good habits. It is not only the giving up of doing vices but also the doing of good. I hope I am not sounding too law oriented and a pietist. AS Christian, our salvation is dependent on Christ and not on our our good works. However, that does not give a free pass to sit on our comfortable little behinds and do nothing. The Christian walk is full of struggle and strife and our failings. God picks us up to continue. Everything we do for God is due to God's power and might. May we keep our eyes on him, the Keeper and Perfecter 0f 0ur faith.