Monday Morning Music Ministry

7-24-23

Last week’s metaphorical garden walk evoked great response. Among the characteristics of pretty and seemingly fragile flowers are, frequently, a tenacity that can inspire us to persevere against life’s onslaughts.

Perhaps the most opposite of objects to a fragile flower that we can think of in nature is a mountain. A giant rock, a monolith, an “immovable object.” Oh, yeah?

When I was a young teenager I visited Italy. I was interested, who isn’t, in Renaissance art, and I was grateful to be able to visit the legendary marble quarries of Carrara. It is an area where primeval formations during the creation of the world caused a wide swath of mountains to be composed of marble. Marble has unique properties – it is a rock (metamorphic carbonate), to be sure, hard and heavy, but at the same time malleable and in some conditions, a virginal pure white.

Michelangelo coveted the marble from Carrara and Seravezza for his planned façade of San Lorenzo in Florence. Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici and Pope Leo X indulged him, but Michelangelo knew his marble, having sculpted the supernal “David” and “Pieta” several years earlier. He was so intent on moving that marble of Carrara to that city of Florence – hundreds of miles down the Mediterranean coast, thence east into the boot, through Pisa to Florence – that he put aside painting and sculpting and architecture to oversee the “quarrying” of marble and moving gargantuan slabs down the sea and across lands. He became like Leonardo during those many months, inventing rigs and carts and boats and bridges.

Allora. Yes, to get to my point. I was fascinated, as a teenaged tourist, to learn how giant pieces of marble were secured – separated from the mountains that held them. Dynamite existed at the time, and primitive explosions might have been tried… but were not. Many workers with sledgehammers? No. Beasts of burden strapped with great ropes affixed to peaks and outcroppings? Not at all.

The giant chunks of marble were instead separated from the mountains by mere modest slivers of wood.

Wedges. It is a property of some stone, especially marble, that it can crack under pressure (hmmm… like many people do, but that is not my message!). Small cracks were found, or made, in the great marble monoliths, and Michelangelo, studying and planning properly, had narrow wooden wedges tapped into those cracks. Then water was applied to the wood, which expanded slightly from the moisture.

On the next day, after the engorged wood had, unlikely as it seems, pushed the marble monolith apart ever so slightly, other wedges were tapped in – a little larger in size, and soaked again.

This process was repeated, day after day, until (again with forethought and examination for the planned “capture” of the marble that was figured to break free) eventually the marble broke free. Making sure the chunks of rock were “caught,” not to crash down, they were lowered, then to make their serpentine way to Florence. No easy tricks themselves… but compared to the separating and securing of tons of precious marble from a massive mountain?

Now, I made reference to people cracking under pressure. Surely that is a simile if not a metaphor. But the real lesson – a valuable and quite appropriate lesson to learn – is similar to that provided by tenacious little flowers! Can you picture what I described in the quarry-process? “Moving mountains”… The power of planning, patience, and persistence… Being content with slow but steady results… Accomplishing a seemingly impossible task… and using seemingly absurd ideas and tools in order to succeed greatly.

May I suggest further: as beautiful as those snow-white chucks of a mountain were, they still were only pieces of rock. But in a master’s hand (and in the Master’s Hand) they became stunning façades of cathedrals; and lifelike statues of Moses and David; and of Mary holding her crucified Son. Living, breathing, miracles can emerge from cold stone. “The rocks cry out!”

Finally, before we forget the mountain itself: We think of Sisyphus, his impossible task being to push an impossible rock up an impossible mountain. We recall Moses smiting the rock. We remember God’s promise that with prayer and in faith we can move the metaphorical mountains that stand in our way. We remember hymns like A Mighty Fortress and Rock of Ages – that God is our refuge and strength.

But we remember too the fissures in mighty rocks and mountains. Remember how Michelangelo utilized the cracks – the “clefts” – that certainly play their own roles.

When we need it, as God assured us in His Word, those rocks can provide refuges too. He provides safe havens when we need protection from the world, even for a spell. Mountainous rocks can provide hiding places from the world’s attacks and storms, where we may regain strength and courage.

What promises! Move those mountains… and, when needed, find those safe places where God invites you to pray “Hide Thou Me.”

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Since we shared much here about Michelangelo, I would like to close with lines he wrote toward the end of his life:

Neither painting nor sculpture will be able any longer to calm my soul, now turned toward that Divine love that opened His arms on the cross to take us in.

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Click: Hide Thou Me

12-7-20

I watched a documentary on TV this morning. It was about Black Holes, and Worm Holes, and the Age of the Universe, and the Big Bang. I chuckled often, and I learned a lot. It was not, however, a comedy show; and despite what I learned I would probably fail the exam prepared by the three experts.

For an hour the experts on Zoom guessed as often as they asserted, and confessed to the ifs and what ifs. There were many shrugged shoulders, and a lot of confused giggles. So I giggled too. They spoke of “changed hypotheses,” even some of Einstein’s. Of course, black holes and the Big bang theory were not even in textbooks a century ago… and might not be, a century from now. These things, I learned.

What interested me, but did not surprise me, was that during an entire hour without commercials not one of the three scientists / experts / metaphysicians (whose domains are reputedly first things and origins) once mentioned God. Or Creation, Or the Bible. Not even as “one of those crazy beliefs,” or even “what people used to think.”

Such lovers of self – that is, reliant on their own wisdom – are the ultimate Deniers in this age when “denial” of any form is a virtual criminal offense. To ignore even a passing nod to the belief system of swaths of humanity over millennia is not an upward step toward enlightenment, but a descent toward baser ignorance. (By the way, this Big Bang idea sounds suspiciously like the first chapter of Genesis, sanitized of the Creator’s Name, doesn’t it?)

The natural questions were not asked, and I think never answered: What was there the moment before the Big Bang? If there is an End or an Outer Limit to the Universe… what is one foot beyond it? If there is creation, there ought to be a creator; so who or what made the Big Bang go bang?

If I don’t have metaphysical answers to these questions, they would claim that citing “God” is crutch of convenience.

OK. I plead guilty. Supporting my belief – my faith in such things – is the Word of God. I believe in Jesus as God Incarnate, and He stated His firm belief in Genesis and all such biblical accounts. Good enough for me; better than good, in fact.

And so forth. In such discussions as on TV, God is not a last resort of the ignorant. He is the source of knowledge and wisdom about First Things.

If I knew the answer to such matters as discussed – and way before my head starts to hurt – I would be God. He is; He knows; and He disposes.

In the meantime, if pinheads who chatter about Black Holes and Worm Holes and Big Bangs can accuse us People of the Book of being superstitious and ignorant seekers of fairy tales… I invite them, every time they say, “my best guess is…” or “current theories suggest…” or “scientists now believe…” to put on dunce caps and sit in the corner until the next round of guessing games.

As I said, I am extremely and honestly interested in scientific discussions and speculation, and even archaeological discoveries. It is, for instance, astonishing to see how many figures and cities and events in biblical history so recently dismissed as “legends” have been confirmed by artifacts and even entire buried cities!

Another “first thing” should be an attitude of humility when it comes to… well, when it comes to the things of God. We might get though life a little better if we trust Him in all ways and in all things, from everyday setbacks to election defeats, to choose two matters at random.

Even if doing so can make our heads hurt a little, we must remember that God does not require of us that we understand everything, but that we trust Him and obey everything.

And as Matthew Harrison Brady said, “I might not know about the ages of rocks, but I do know the Rock of Ages!”

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Double click the video to make full screen after your start it!

8-26-19

Oh, yes; God plays games. Not to deceive us, of course. But He is a play-ful God, never think otherwise. Despite the moon-faced Jesus of some movies and Sunday-school calendars, I believe He smiled as much as He rebuked; He wept but He laughed. He was tender with His mother; He gathered children around Him; He welcomed crowds.

“Jesus loves me; this I know.” He doesn’t get there by being stern or vacant. When God created the earth, He paused and “saw that it was good.” Smile!

God has used – and still uses – uncountable ways to instruct us. He shares His will for our lives through inspiration of the Holy Spirit; by Biblical passages; via circumstances. Balaam’s ass, you know the story. Sometimes even people who themselves are… well, you know, unexpected sources. Hard lessons. “Coincidences,” that some of us recognize afterwards as “God-incidences.” Sermons. Books. Radio and TV preachers. Song lyrics.

When God doesn’t whisper, sometimes He shouts.

Thinking on these things, I wondered whether we can find Godly messages even in games. Games, that is, that we might re-purpose, to see His purpose.

Here are some suggestions:

Ready Or Not, Here I Come! Can you picture Jesus calling that out? In a very real way, that’s what He said as He emerged from the tomb on Easter Sunday. His mother, and the disciples, hoped for the Resurrection, and vaguely remembered His promise… yet they were surprised. Were they ready? Are we ready? Because the Resurrection was an event at which to marvel, but – “ready or not” – then there is the life-long obligation to remain joyful, and to follow His commands. Here He Comes!

Tag, You’re It! In that game, the rules are strict. As much as you might wiggle or hide or evade, when the leader tags you… you are it. You know that Jesus seeks you, and soon enough will “tag” you. You’re it!

Leapfrog. Do kids play this any more? And maybe it’s a stretch, but let’s compare the jumpers to the challenges in life we have to get over. Isn’t it funny (or not) how every time we overcome the challenge before us, something or someone jumps over us and gets in the way all over again. Gotta keep jumping, running the race, and leaping!

Truth or Dare. This is easy. Can you keep secrets from God? Can you avoid His call? Can you avert His gaze? He already knows the Truth about your situation better than you do… do you dare break the rules?

Rock, Paper, Scissors. Um… whatever configuration, no matter how many do-overs, God always wins. He made the rocks, paper, and scissors!

Simon Says. Another old-timer. In the new version, Simon is God, giving the requests. Or, Simon is Jesus, who showed us how to obey. Or Simon is the Holy Spirit, who will help us play.

And win.

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Click: Hide Thou Me