Recording of the Bruckner

by Martin Gaskell

       Psalm 84, a psalm of the sons of Korah, is about longing to be in God's temple, a special place where God was worshipped in Bible times.   With COVID-19 we've been longing for our modern special places where people worship together.  Different places are special for different Christians, so this week, to illustrate our choir piece, I alternated between some pictures of St. Mary's cathedral in Linz, the largest church in Austria -- specifically, the east end chapel where the Bruckner motet was first performed -- and  our Bonny Doon Church (the largest church in Bonny Doon!)   

       A parallel I've made in the first few images is that the first picture of the chapel in Linz cathedral zooms up to a stained glass window depicting the Holy Spirit descending in the form of a dove.  I made this image transition into a photo of the stained glass depicting the same thing in Boon Doon Church.

       Verse 3 of the psalm has the beautiful imagery of sparrows and swallows nesting in the temple.  God allowed even the birds into His temple.  The swallow family in the second bird picture was nesting in our garage in Nebraska.

       Some weeks we've included pictures or video of us singing or playing the choir music.  This week I've included a couple of pictures of the composer instead, Anton Bruckner, the most famously devout of 19th century composers.  The first one is a painting showing Bruckner as a model for one of the 12 disciples at the Last Supper in a painting by the famous German artist, Fritz von Uhde.  Von Uhde was a Christian who was famous for depicting Jesus as a real person with ordinary people, especially poor and humble people.  When von Uhde met Bruckner at a concert, he asked the composer if he could paint him into the Last Supper.  Bruckner was horrified at the thought and declined because he felt he was not worthy to be used as a model.  Von Uhde went ahead anyhow from memory and painted a disciple looking like Bruckner, the one at the head of the table on the left.  The other picture of Bruckner I have included is from a stained glass window in Linz Cathedral.

      One thing I notice every time I put together one of our virtual choir recordings is how much the different voices contribute.   I think there is a mini-sermon in this.  Sometimes, as I'm putting tracks together I've listened to parts with someone missing.  When I add the missing person into the mix it always sounds better.  What is interesting is that it's not just a matter of numbers; it's a matter of diversity.  Occasionally we are a bit thin in some section and if I add in multiple recordings of the same person it's just not as good as having multiple people singing the part.  The difference is quite striking.  It would be easy for me to prepare some demonstrations of this.  I could say, "here is the whole choir; now here is the choir without X."  Interestingly, the inevitable small mistakes we make in singing our parts end up being a plus.  The obvious parallel here is the Christian life.  God gives believers different spiritual gifts.  If one person is missing then his or her exercise of that spiritual gift is missing.  Having another person do twice as much in a church just isn't as effective.  Also, while we try to go out best, we don't need to be perfect.

Quilts from Alaska for our Kids

Patty King reached out to our church to see if she could distribute these children's quilts on March 13th between 9am to noon. We of course said YES!!! Here is what Patty posted on Facebook about the quilts.

"It's a quilt Iditarod!!!!!!! When we were evacuated and the inferno was rendering so many of our children and youth homeless, I contacted my Alaskan quilt-queen sister to ask for quilts for our kids. My quilt-queen sister asked her Alaskan quilting and sewing group buddies for quilts for our kids. This delightful bunch of people, living on the Kenai Peninsula,, Alaska, met that challenge in a big way - they donated 66 quilts. My family in Alaska crated them and shipped them to Seattle, where my daughter retrieved them. With the help of Barbara Lockwood, Tim Hoff picked them up from my daughter in Seattle and brought them to my husband's office in Santa Cruz. I now have the quilts here in Bonny Doon!!!!

My next job will be to create a system for distributing them to your kids.

Your job, if you would like to have a quilt for your children, is to contact me through Facebook Messenger or by email (pking964@hotmail.com) to request them. Tell me their name(s), age and the best way to contact you.

If we get more than 66 requests, we'll draw names from a hat and the first 66 children/youth will get to choose their favorite.

If we get fewer than 66 requests, I'll open the requests to the SLV area.

Please - if you have already received a quilt from the CZU Lightning Quilt group, please leave these for others.

I'll be working on a place to spread them out and show them, and I'll figure out days for distributing.

I'll post good-quality photos of all of them as soon as I can.

I'm so grateful to my quilt-queen sister, her quilting buddies, and my family members for getting these quilts from Soldotna-Kenai, Alaska to us."

- Patty King

 

The Family of God, Blended, extended and never upended

Sermon by Pastor Larry Vilardo 

Several years ago Feherty, the golf channel host, interviewed Bill Russel, the Boston Celtics Basketball icon. Mr. Russell said this when asked about his life’s philosophy. “There are no other people’s children, that’s it”.  Luke holds that same view in Acts.

In Peter’s Pentecost Sermon he wraps it up by saying “The promises are to you and your children who are far off.”

In the two of Lukes’ conversion stories, one with the unnamed Philippian Jailor and one with Lydia the seller of purple their whole households are baptized. This would indicate every generation in the household, including children. There are also two places: Acts 2 and in Acts 4 where it mentions that folks had everything in common and no one was in need. Families and their children were provided for.  And here in Acts six it talks about the daily distribution for widows. Many widows were elderly but some were younger with young children. So whole families, Jew and Greek were baptized and taken in and cared for.  Luke paints a picture of the early church as a blended, extended, family, that by God’s grace is never upended. But there is a hiccup, a little bit of a conflict like there can be in any  blended families. The Hellenists complain that their widows are getting neglected in the daily distribution.

So the disciples address this. They call the whole community of disciples together, which would have been a very large group by this time, probably between five and ten thousand people. They propose a solution. Select men from among you who have are full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, and let them take this task on.

Now because of the names of the folks they chose, which have a Greek or Hellenistic shade to them, many commentators thought they were pulled only from the Greek side of the church. But the Cambridge commentary writer thinks that there were three Greek speakers, three Hebrew speakers and one convert, (the proselyte) who did not grow up in the Jewish faith as either a Greek or Jew. So there was a perfect balance with a tie breaker. They then laid hands on them and trusted them with real leadership. Waiting on tables can also refer to money management, like the “tables” where money was exchanged in theTemple. One of the seven, Stephen, does great signs and wonders, and another, Philip, became an evangelist preaching and baptizing the Ethiopian Eunuch. This group shared pastoral leadership along with the early Jerusalem disciples.  The early church is a blended family, an extended family but never an upended family. At the end of this chapter Steven begins his long speech. At the end of it he is murdered for his faith. The disciples who had been centered in and around the  Temple in Jerusalem now spread everywhere, showing the next step in extending the early church family even farther. Chapter six, like almost all of Acts, shared all these elements, a familial group blended and extended but never upended when faced with some controversy or challenge from within or from without. That in a nutshell is the story of acts. It is also our story. 

This pattern is very true here at Bonny Doon both in the town and in this church. When I first came up to Higher Grounds, I was impressed with how many different types of folks interacted, and how many social, economic and national locations were represented. It was a family blended and extended. Since I have been attending Zoom church, I have been struck with how strong the family of God is here.  There are folks from all walks of life and from many nations and nationalities, all working together. I was really impressed when I first got involved in Higher Grounds that this church began that wonderful ministry in one of the toughest economic times in the history of the US, the 2008 economic crisis. You can read about those early days in “Faith on the Mountain”. 

For a while I lost touch with the folks here as I served as a fill in pastor at Trinity Presbyterian Church. When I returned I learned of the incredible, heroic and faithful efforts of this community after the truly devastating fires. Higher grounds was open six days a week, and food, clothing, and spiritual care was provided. The church worked with other churches, the Presbytery and the denomination. Clearly everyone here felt, like Bill Russel, “that there are no other people’s children”. I could hardly believe how resilient everyone was here, even in the face of their own losses, and I am sure I don’t know even a small percentage of the  story.  I know this, that at the end of every sermon Edd pronounces a blessing on this community of faith. I have to end by saying how much I have been blessed by the family of God at this place which is like the one in the book of Acts, blended, extended and never upended.God bless you and thank you, for being such faithful Christians, and welcoming Lorraine and me. 

Beauty for Ashes

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, lasting forty days.  Ash Wednesday has special significance this year for Bonny Doon following the recent wildfires in our community.  

and provide for those who grieve ... 

 a crown of beauty instead of ashes,

the oil of joy instead of mourning,

and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.

They will be called oaks of righteousness,

    a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. 

- Isaiah 61:3

Ashes are a symbol of turning away from regrets from mistakes, a time to ask for forgiveness and let go of regrets.  It is an opportunity to embrace our human frailty as we turn away from habits and behaviors that aren't working and realign our life with God's perfect will.

During this time, you may consider walking through and circling the area around our church, tuning into what you see and experience.  Notice the feeling of the soles of your feet as you walk, step by step. Experience your breath filling your lungs and the beating of your heart. Observe the impact of the fire, the early signs of Spring approaching, the dampness of the soil, the color of the sky, the stirring of the breeze, and the feeling of the sun. Listen for insights, write your thoughts in the form of a prayer, ask Jesus for help where you need help, consider placing your prayer in our prayer box by the Kirk house (the building adjacent to the church). 

World of Encouragement from Afar

This week for Valentines Day, we sent a letter to people we knew lost their homes with a link pointing them to this blog post with handwritten notes of encouragement from New Jersey.

Just before Christmas, a packaged arrived to our church from New Jersey with the notes.  The students of the Christian Drama School of New Jersey sent these handwritten notes 

  

Reopening Higher Grounds for Valentine's Day

Higher Grounds will be reopening February 13th based on the recent changes in the Santa Cruz County stay-at-home status.