Mother Claire's Sermons

I’ve played the piano for most of my life. My mother, a nationally certified teacher of music with a master’s degree in piano performance and pedagogy, was my piano teacher all through high school. One teaching tool she would use she called “finger rides”. When she was trying to describe what the motion of your hand or fingers should be, and words just couldn’t communicate what that motion should feel like, she would sit down on the bench next to me, put her hand up on the keyboard, and say, “hop on”. And I’d put my hand on top of hers and feel the motion. And I’d get what she wanted me to do in a way that no amount of explaining would have accomplished. I thought this was just a fun trick that my mom did - kids often don’t recognize their parents have actual expertise or notoriety. I love the stories about big-name celebrities’ kids being thoroughly unimpressed with them. And then I was in college and my piano professor was helping me with a jump and trying to explain how to roll my h...

When I was in high school, the show Futurama was becoming popular. In it, pizza delivery guy Philip J. Fry is accidentally cryogenically frozen in 1999 and is revived in 2999, where he picks up where he left off and works for interplanetary delivery service Planet Express . The owner of Planet Express , Professor Farnsworth, founded the company to fund his work as a mad scientist. Episodes of Futurama frequently involve Farnsworth entering the room to find the rest of the staff of Planet Express and declaring, “Good News, everyone!” But then his news is never actually good, like “Today you’ll be delivering a crate of subpoenas to Sicily 8 , the Mob Planet”. The Futurama wiki lists 35 examples of the use of the catchphrase and notes, “his good news usually means a suicidal mission for the Planet Express crew.” I’ve been reflecting, this week, on the complicated nature of good news. Last Sunday, my husband and I went to see Wicked - a show that my high school choir saw on Broadway in...

Soli Deo gloria is a Latin term which translates to Glory to God alone. As a doctrine, it means that everything is done for God's glory to the exclusion of mankind's self-glorification and pride. We are to be motivated and inspired by God's glory and not our own. Where we continue to see this phrase used is in the arts. Johann Sebastian Bach wrote the initials “SDG” at the end of all of his church compositions and of many of his secular works. The practice was also kept by George Frederich Handel who, while not as prolific as Bach - it’s not really fair to compare anyone to Bach - wrote perhaps the most well-known Oratorio - the Messiah - Soli Deo gloria . Handel composed the Messiah over the course of 18 days during the summer of 1741. Performing the entire work takes over 2 hours, so oftentimes groups perform an abbreviated version - that still runs almost 2 hours with intermission.  Every year, apart from formal performances, you can find Messiah sing-alongs during the...

“‘Thank you’ is a theological statement. For those of us who profess to follow Jesus, those two seemingly simple words represent a public acknowledgement that all that we are and all that we have…are gifts. Each time we give thanks, we loosen our grasp, however slightly, on both the consuming need to be in control and the lingering anxiety that we are not.” So began the August 2021 special edition of the Anglican Theological Review , centered on gratitude. The first scripture referenced in that introduction is, fittingly from Paul’s first letter to the church in Thessalonica where, as part of his closing he urges the church to “rejoice always”, “pray without ceasing”, and to “give thanks in all circumstances.” First Thessalonians is the oldest book in the New Testament. It is also Paul’s most positive message throughout the entire book. Paul usually begins and ends his letters with grace, giving thanks for the church to whom he is writing, and with hope, building them up to give them s...