Singer Songwriter
good morning church
it is late in the summer
yet still in the quiet
a Sunday morning
days slightly shorter and cooler
back to school
back to welcoming fall and changing seasons
colors changing
you are my church
my people
gods people
We are loved
A pastoral setting
A place we go for pastoral care
Comfort renewal revival creativity and Sabbath rest
we together
united as god’s people set aside time and moments on reflection
on lessons learned
Our theme has been Songs of our Souls
As one of our homework assignments
We have been asked to be reminded of the music that has stirred
our souls
our hearts
made us think
Sometimes it is the OLD songs
melodies we heard as children
what is the first music you remembered
who sang to you
were you comforted
Inspired
Soothed you
Emboldened you
Even the people who say they can’t sing or hold a note
Hear music in the air
And it evokes a memory
a moment in time and …
when we hear the song
the chords
it resonates on every cell
Today I want to talk to you
about being a Singer
Songwriter
Can you close your eyes for a moment and recall and listen for the first time you hummed a tune
Wrote, or played or created your own song
Singer songwriters
Rhythm, drums, heartbeat
Melody even without words
You are caught up in a place, a time, where you are open and transformed
Spiritual instruction
A message from angels
Often begins with the tone
the sound
in the beginning was the word
and it was made flesh
but even before that was the sound
Chimes
bells
Birdsongs
Harmonic resonance
Chanting
Horns flutes drums
Cymbals
When did you first create your own song
When did you hear the song of another and the melody
Song
rhythm and you found yourself repeating it
And repeating it
And repeating it and ultimately it became yours
Your song
Your tune
Your own rhythm
Your cadence
Your tone
Inflection
Singer songwriters
My people
Have a place here where they write their own songs
If you for a moment
Can believe that a song (any song is a prayer)
A conversation elevated
express mail
and longing to unite and communicate with the DIVINE
Can you imagine we as a priesthood of believers
are invited and encouraged
To sing and
Write our own songs each day
And where we may wonder where did that song come from
We may not in that moment know
A song I may have heard before
Becomes mine when I remember it and so boldy mine
when I actually sing it authentically in my own voice
In my church
Where we listen to the Songs of our Souls
We indeed come
hear to listen to one another
And indeed, know we are being heard
Do you have a favorite Singer
Song writer
Can you recognize a song that is not your own when you hear it
No matter how often it is repeated
The recitations do not make it yours
It is as if they don’t ring true
However carefully crafted
Designed to draw you in
Even singing … you feel less close
More alone ill at ease
The ritual excludes you
It may even be the first time if given some time
you may write your own sing or sing the ones that make you feel so so so so
Exactly how you feel at that very moment
While I am still learning how to preach and teach and heal
And do the ritual work of making
Myself and others feel better and closer
To their own god self holy place
I wondered and recalled that the message
Offered often began with either the disclaimer or fervent hope of the yet to be revealed righteous one
With what I recently learned
Was a scriptural reference to a psalm
Prayers and poems sung and played as music to their God
and while others other than David certainly wrote songs/ and shepherded sheep
and praised
and yelled and cried out to God
it is often David I think of playing the harp
writing the lyrics
and crafting the poetry
as the preacher rises up to the pulpit
they ask for the blessing
cleared for both take off and landing that their song be acceptable and in alignment with what God wants as it is phrased by our own Pastor
Psalm 19: 14
I am sure you all have memorized these few lines as the introduction to the sermon which may or may not include you!
“may the words coming out of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be ACCEPTABLE to you o god my redeemer…”
Recently I have been asked more frequently
to order my steps more affirmatively
step into my role as an elder
a grandmother
a healer and teacher
I am at times reluctant when fatigue or grief
or just plain “I don’t even know where to begin or what to do sets in”
But this past very weekend as I assumed a place of leadership
in place that I’ve been a member for a long time but more over lacked a sense of true belonging
I learned that in becoming a true singer- songwriter
I found my own song and my rightful place
I had an exercise and bit of uninterrupted time to practice
hearing the old songs that I used to listen to long ago
sung to me
others and I get to hear them differently now
and better
yet I get to sing them now for myself
and have the courage and blessing and grace to write my own songs
to play and listen to my own music
Be not conformed… be ye transformed…
At noon prayer
we often break into spontaneous song…
familiar songs
with new words
a deep resonance but a fresh anointing as they spring forth in our own words
we are singer-songwriters
There is nothing like a 70 year old singing Jesus loves me this I know with her own words and melody a …
a song sung to her at first memory at three
We listen to each other, and we sing together
Even when we sing an old song it has new meaning now
as we sing in our own voice wiser
Minister Daniel taught us that when we sang the songs written 50 and 60 years ago of the civil rights movement
that we can sing old songs
heard and listened to when we were younger
and in the thick of things that resonate
when we sing the songs of our youth
in current weathered seasoned voices
If you have time indulge me with a listen to one of my favorite singer
songwriters: Joni Mitchell
Listen with your eyes closed as she sings a song she wrote and sang in the sixties in her own voice today
We can look at life from both sides now… what a gift!
Sing along, you know the words… the angels chorus…
Amen, so it is!
Ashe!
GO IN PEACE!
GO IN LOVE!
SING YOUR SONG.
Singer Songwriters!
