I've been at St. George's for four years now, and I am reviving this blog with a renewed purpose. Each week, I will write a few thoughts or meditations about one (or more) of the upcoming hymns. I hope this enriches your worship experience.
The sequence hymn this week, July 30th, is "Make Me a Channel of Your Peace," a setting of the famous prayer of St. Francis.
You can hear a pretty straight-forward version of it here.
I like to watch the Tony Awards when I can. I don't always keep abreast of what's new and interesting on Broadway, so the Tony's are a good chance to get a quick introduction to new shows. This year was no different as it introduced me to an inspiring show called "Come From Away." It tells the story of the days following the September 11th attacks. The skies over the United States were closed for the first time in history and incoming international flights were diverted to Canada and Mexico. 38 planes and some 6,600 people landed in Gander, Newfoundland, nearly doubling the population of the small town. The people of Gander put their own lives on hold for five days to take care of "the plane people." Schools, churches, and community centers were converted into shelters, people showed up in droves to help cook meals, and many offered their own homes for anyone wanting a shower or to use the phone. At every turn, the people of Gander went out of their way not just to meet the needs of the visitors physically, but also their emotional needs. The mayor of Gander said, "We started off with 7,000 strangers but we finished with 7,000 family members."
"Come From Away" appealed to me immediately because of the heavy use of folk music styles, but it was the stories of the people that really touched me. One of my favorite moments in the musical comes when several of the strandees ask to go to a church to pray. One man, Kevin, had woken up that morning with a song he couldn't place stuck in his head. At the church, he realizes that it's "Make Me a Channel of Your Peace." After a verse of this hymn is sung, two Jewish characters begin to sing a Hebrew prayer for peace: "Oseh shalom bimromav, Hu ya'aseh shalom aleynu" ("He who makes peace in his high places, he shall make peace upon us.") The song builds until "Make Me a Channel of Your Peace" is interlaced with the Jewish prayer, a Hindi prayer (rough translation: "lead me from falsehood to truth, lead me from darkness to light, lead me from death to immortality"), and a spoken Muslim prayer. The voices intertwine and the music swells. Four languages, four religions, all praying for peace together.
It's so easy to focus on what makes one religion different from another. It's easier still to focus on what makes one person different from another. But when you really get down to it, I think we all want basically the same thing: to be an instrument of peace, sowing love instead of hate and faith instead of doubt. What if, instead of focusing on our differences, we all took the time to join hands across the lines that divide us and pray for peace?
I think that's what the Kingdom of Heaven looks like.
Here is "Prayer" from the musical "Come From Away"
