Anniversary: Reprise and Remembering

 

(This is long and I apologize ahead of time but when I sat down to think about commemorating this year a flood of emotion was released and some of it, a lot of it, found its way into this post! The central message, if too long, is THANK YOU and Bless the Space Between Us)

Today marks one year of writing daily meditations which I called “liturgeemails” and posted (mostly) on a blog entitled Blessing Imagination. Liturgeemail came from the motivation and calling to connect us in the time of isolation and strange space, to continue to pray together and do the work of the people, albeit remote. I learned quickly how that space diminished with blessing. 

I remember the day and the moment clearly when I pressed send to a list of parishioners and family with a trembling hand. I thank my dear friend Dana for more than nudging me in this direction! And I thank the Holy Spirit for more inspiration than I ever thought possible (which is not to say that is always an articulate thing!). I thank my muses, many referenced, many simply known and loved. I thank my major muse, my mother, who died in December and  blessedly, remains in the stillness, in the laughter, in the problem solving and in my rising each day and in my lying down. 

The meditations began as an effort, as the first Sunday post indicated, to keep worshipping and loving anyway, in the time of COVID fear and isolation and uncertainty, and then in the time of the swelling pandemic of racial injustice and political turmoil. This has been a Hebrew Scriptures year in which the stories once so distant are now so close. Amazing grace came in many forms not the least of which is the growing circle of recipients which is now global. I feel so truly blessed!

And that leads to the blog title: blessingimagination.

I grew up with no confidence whatsoever in something called “imagination” and have always longed for it! Over time and with deepening formation I have begun to shred and shed the veil of self-consciousness and fear of judgement and learned to claim my voice and offer it to God. That anyone else might listen, much less like, is pure gift. Thank you!

But the really really important word in all this is “blessing”! The center, the hinge, the fulcrum of my ministry is blessing. Blessing God, each other, bread, wine and babies, the brokenhearted, the dying, the mourning, the morning, the night, well, it goes on and on. Blessing in all its gestures and words and orientations is that intentional pause which summons our fullest selves and God to a space and for that moment, all is love and compassion and mercy and forgiveness and grace. To riff on Mary Oliver blessing is the full attention which begins and ends devotion.

So, liturgy, the work of the people, the work of a great cloud of witnesses, to worship and build community, might continue in new ways in new spaces with new opportunities when blessing is the calling and purpose, and imagination is fully employed and deployed. 

Below is a reprise of my first post! I find it remarkable that such a hymn, precious Lord take my hand, began and is the thread which runs through our lives still today. Even as we emerge from wilderness may it be our song and our sustenance. May we be re-membered as we remember. May we know the blessing of this moment.

These Are Tough Times:  Precious Lord, Take My Hand

by The Reverend Dr. Martha Tucker on Tuesday, March 17, 2020

“Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me on, help me stand.”

Thomas Dorsey

Dear People of God:

It is about at this point in Lent, before the midpoint, that we begin to feel downcast. We have been in the wilderness and practiced some holy things: deprived ourselves of something, prayed more, taken on a new intentional practice. It is also about this time in life we realize we are feeling downcast a bit too often. Coronavirus, immigration, politics, oppression, gun violence...We are assaulted on a daily basis with anxiety, and things beyond our control. Perhaps our wilderness is not just a Lenten season but the way things are. Will we know light? Will we know resurrection? 

The Christian answer is always YES! 

And so it is about this time that I not only turn to consoling prayers and quiet walks in the about-to-be spring trails, but I also remember, re-member, a favorite hymn: Precious Lord Take My Hand. I sing it in the dark dawn of new time. I sing it before I lay my head down having prayed night prayer, what’s done is done, let it go...

Thomas Dorsey was a gifted musician whose pregnant wife had convinced him to play a gig in spite of her condition. She died giving birth to their son and the baby died hours later! Such sadness rendered Dorsey despondent. He found himself playing familiar tunes, often religious ones, on the piano over and over again. His music his prayer his consolation. 

He came to realize that he was repeating the phrase precious lord, precious lord, precious lord over and over and over again. From that realization he wrote the magnificent hymn.

Precious Lord, take my hand, lead me on, help me stand,I am tired, I am weak, I am worn.Through the storm, through the night, lead me on, to the light, take my hand Precious Lord, Lead me Home.

No matter what...no matter what, our home is in the God who loves us beyond measure. Our precious Lord will lead us home.