Sweet Spots

Bach’s liturgical compositions comprise the vast majority of his output, as the relentless pace of weekly worship required an equally relentless development of musical resources. Bach was a Lutheran—the state church was his employer and the beneficiary of his beautiful choral writing. Luther apparently called music the handmaiden of theology, but in Bach’s music, theology found its intellectual and creative equal. Bach’s liturgical music adds a kaleidoscope of nuance and illumination to Luther’s theology.

Luther was also a composer: his hymns and chorales were sung both in worship and in community settings. Choral singing in worship developed in the Lutheran liturgy, and parishes became responsible for teaching and promoting singing within the congregation. By the time Bach was writing for weekly worship, the liturgy and congregational singing were both at a very high level. read more…

We are now in the twenty-fifth week after Pentecost, the final month of Ordinary Time. The days are getting shorter, the evenings darker, and, frankly, I am weary. There are many reasons for my fatigue, but from a liturgical perspective (one of my favorite perspectives! J), the truth is that the season after Pentecost seems extraordinarily long and drawn out this year.

The big seasons have a sense of drama, along with the excitement of the liturgical activities, and the creativity that often accompanies them. Ordinary Time rarely receives this kind of attention, or intention, from pastors and worship planners. It is difficult to sustain the connections in a phase of the liturgical calendar that spans half of the year, and sometimes it feels like we’re simply going through the motions, rather than fueling people’s imaginations. The Ordinary Time lectionary invites us to dive into the narraphores (a mash-up of stories and metaphors) of Jesus’ life; tales full of mystery and questions and wonder. But often our focus is elsewhere. read more…