"The Work of the People"

I love liturgy. Liturgy, in Latin, means “the work of the people” and I love the work of the people. The liturgy is the work that we do to worship our God. Personally, I love traditional liturgy. I especially love the Kyrie. ‘Kyrie Eleison’ means “Lord have mercy”. I love the Kyrie because it helps me to start worship accordingly. To start worship asking for God’s mercy upon me, my community, my world – it just seems to be right. Then I found out a little bit about the history of the Kyrie. While the words ‘Lord have mercy’ are ancient, even pre-Christian, the long complicated melodies (of the middle ages) were basically begun to add length to the start of the service so that the priests could have plenty of pomp and circumstance as they entered the long center aisles of the old European churches.

Suddenly, I didn’t like the Kyrie anymore. It wasn’t about God. It was about men wanting attention. So, I’ve had to rethink the Kyrie. I decided that after all, I still love it. I especially love Setting 8’s Kyrie. It has a great Latin beat. I still like beginning worship by reminding myself how much I NEED God’s mercy. No matter how hard I try to do “the work of the people”, I will never do enough for the supreme being. I need God’s love and mercy, and I need the Kyrie.

“Kyrie Eleison, on our world and on our way, Kyrie Eleison, every day.
For peace in the world, for the health of the church, for the unity of all;
For this holy house, for all who worship and praise,
Let us pray to the Lord, let us pray to the Lord.”

Book Club Discussion!

Dear friends,

Summer is for reading. It is for reading fun books and mysteries, love books and your Bible, and books that accompany your Bible.

I just finished reading a book. I cried! It was thought provoking and beautiful, well written, and there were only a few things that I theologically disagreed with. One reason I cried is out of the sadness that no one at seminary knew how to put it like this! I too believe that faith is all about our relationship with God in the persons of the Creator, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. It’s a hard book to read because it faces some of the hard parts of life. It is an easy book to read because it is full of “aha!” moments! “Aha!” I knew what I thought could be right!
So, I’ve found all these other people who have also read – The Shack, by William Young, and we want to have a book discussion!

Mary Fetter and I will host a book club discussion on Wed, Sept. 10, 7:00 P.M. in the classroom in Worship Center.

You have a whole month and a half to read it – and it’s a quick read. Some of you may want to read it again, this time for the ‘thought’ of it instead of the ‘joy’ of it!

Also: see msnbc.com - go to ‘books- and click on “Shack” to see an interview of the author.

Love Pastor Lynnae