Two Truths

First, take a listen to Doxology Creed by the Wood Drake Sessions and Mission House. Then I’ll tell you about two things that are true at the same time.

1. The church is full of rich traditions.

2. That richness is often hidden behind memories.

For the last five years, I’ve been doing a lot of video creation. It’s been a beautiful and meaningful opportunity for ministry, and I thank God for putting people like my friend and videographer Jay Helms in my life to help make it happen.

That work has also inspired me to create videos of my family’s adventures—something we can look back on years from now.

I remember talking with Jay about one I was working on and telling him, “Jay, I just can’t get everything in the video because it’s 30 minutes long!”

I loved every little clip. Every moment felt important.

Jay gave me this advice:

“You can’t relive those moments. You can only remember them.”

That stuck with me.

Truth be told, I can remember just as much from a three-minute video as I can from a thirty-minute one. As much as I loved every small detail of the trip, rewatching every second wasn’t going to recreate the experience. The goal wasn’t to relive it. The goal was to remember it—and let that memory mean something now.

I think that’s an important word for us heading into this Sunday.

Beginning October 4, we’re going to lean more on our choir to lead us in worship, while also calling back to some other rich traditions of the church.

But the point isn’t to try to relive what we remember from years ago. Not because the past is old or boring. Quite the opposite. These traditions carry the faith, prayers, creativity, and witness of generations before us. But we can’t reenact those moments and expect them to have the same power and importance they had then.

We can remember them. We can receive what they have to teach us. And then we can let them live again.

Because being part of a living church, serving a living God, means we are constantly listening for God’s call into new life—today, tomorrow, and ten years from now.

“The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
Lamentations 3:22-23

So come Sunday with an openness to hearing a new hymn, or hearing the choir sing alongside a guitar instead of a piano. Come Sunday to sing words from the doxology written 100’s of years ago in a tune written last year. Come Sunday with eyes and ears open to the new experience God is ushering in to your life.

From my heart,

Rev. Steph Margeson