Monday, September 27, 2021

September 26, 2021 - Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost| A Cello Élégie Gabriel Fauré, Élégie Op. 24 |A.J. McQuarters, cello

Our hearts soared at today's service with an Élégie and, at the same time, a sorrow simultaneously plumbed to those hearts to new depths. 

A. J. McQuarters was our guest soloist. He is connected with the Portland Southeast Youth. I was unfamiliar with the Fauré piece. However, for seven minutes I was taught something about today's Second Reading from James 5:13-20 as A.J played.

Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. 

The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. 

The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective. Elijah was a human being like us, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain and the earth yielded its harvest. 

My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you wanders from the truth and is brought back by another, you should know that whoever brings back a sinner from wandering will save the sinner’s soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins.

A.J.'s solo and this text explored my humanity and what I didn't even suspect I was feeling as I listened. This composition and performance was partly about suffering, and the feelings that have been so hard to process since this pandemic began caught up with me. At the same time it was a song of praise and a prayer that was powerful and effective. 

The Fauré specialist Jean-Michel Nectoux wrote that the Élégie was one of the last works in which the composer allowed himself "such a direct expression of pathos." And there is something else in what he wrote as well, and A.J captured it all in Creator's sanctuary today.

I encourage you to listen to today's service starting at the 42:00 minute mark at A.J.'s gifted performance.  Read the words that come to us from James and ponder them while the music invites your thoughts and feelings to follow new avenues about this moment in time.

Just about seven minutes of holiness.

No comments:

Post a Comment

November 22, 2023 - Thanksgiving Eve Worship - Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving Address - 40th Anniversary of Restoration of Tribal Recognition

Yesterday we primarily read the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) address during our worship service. We also acknowledged the Confederated Tribes of...