Covid 19: Music Heals the Soul and Body

Covid 19 Advice?

In devotions and sermons plenty of advice is dispensed, as proclamation of the Gospel: that we are equipped to be God-made saints (though simultaneously remaining sinners), so why not do what is good and right, and healthy; and if not now, When!

Today I offer a simple observation about Covid 19 that certainly is advice:

Get good music, and listen to it often.

…

There are of course hammers and blows, rage and chaos, yelling and ranting, or all sorts of dystopia expressions that are viewed as music.

If that is what turns your crank, don’t let me separate you from what keeps you going.

This is not the time, though, to sink obliviously into dystopia. This is time to find a connection to the music of the spheres.

One of the forefronts of physics today is String Theory, which is, in a superbly simplistic peak into it: the universe is made up of teeny strings that vibrate, like strings on a guitar, at different frequencies etc. to make up the differences of energy-matter-time of which the universe is composed.

So, the ancient idea of the music of the spheres re-emerges. And a basic truth of the human psyche-body comes into play: music touches the soul, and if it is music that reflects the marvels of creation, it can heal mind and body.

Dystopia music, music of rage and rant, and music of chaos, on the other hand, actually works against the healing of both body and mind.

What does this mean for us during the quarantine experience of Covid 19? (Okay, I got it: only in the Quarante province of France is it quarantine, for the rest of us it’s sparkling isolation, but the name is not that important, is it? Yes, even the music of words make a small difference in our health!)

This all means that one part, and it can be a large part, of our staying healthy, is to create, or at least listen to, music that heals.

I played Euphonium in college with a professional level band at Concordia College, Moorhead MN. Thanks to Russel Pesola! and all the music classes I took I learned to appreciate the intricacies of brass music.

So these moved my heart and soul once again. They are about bringing health, to the players and to the audiences:

Precisely during Covid 19, a piece for us all:

A Hope for the Future at

and

Cancer Blows 2015 at

Which Ryan Anthony, professional soloist and former member of the beloved Canadian Brass, organized, first as a lark when he was diagnosed with cancer in 2012. Then it solidified into a series of concerts and a foundation, The Ryan Anthony Foundation.

And yes, he is the soloist that closes out A Hope for the Future from his isolation bed in hospital.

The Light of Hope for the Future is There! Play it!

Facing Covid 19: Daily Words of Grace – Apr 17

Friday, April 17, 2020

When They Attack …

Psalms 71:3

Be to me a rock of refuge, a strong fortress, to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.

2 Timothy 4:18

The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and save me for his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Words of Grace For Today

You, O Lord, are our rock and salvation!

Whatever enemy attacks us, a minute virus, a devilish temptation beyond our resisting, or a deceitful person bent on destroying us by whatever means, God is our refuge. God is a fortress that protects us.

We may be infected, become ill, every ill, suffer and even die.

We may not be able to resist a temptation that rebounds on us, ruining everything about our lives, leaving us with nothing, living on the street, bereft of family, friends and hope.

We may be attacked by a person we trusted with our life, who betrays us, who spreads rumours about us in the church and our community, who lies before the Courts, who stops at nothing to run us out of this life. And the church, the community, and the Courts may not only receive the lies as if truth, but create more lies of their own in order to condemn us and bring us within a thin thread of disappearing into a grave. And the accumulated gaslighting and it’s profound costs may indeed bring us to an early grave.

Still God is our refuge, our rock and salvation. God saves us for God’s own kingdom. Timothy wrote ‘heavenly’ kingdom, but the heavenly and earthly kingdom of God is not two separate things. It is all the same.

Even today, God is with us, and the Kingdom of God is at hand!

For this Kingdom, God saves us, even if our devilish enemies steal everything from us, even the breath that we use to sing God’s praise.

For even in death, God’s glory is made known in the lives of all us God-made saints still sinners.

While we still have breath, let us not waste any opportunity we have to live as ‘little Christs’ for each other, for those in need, for the strangers we meet, and especially for our enemies.

We can live courageously, for God is our rock, our refuge, and our salvation! Nothing can separate us from the love of God that gives us life in Christ.

Facing Covid 19: Daily Words of Grace – Apr 16

Thursday, April 16, 2020

God Gives Us Great Gifts.

Isaiah 5:21

Ah, you who are wise in your own eyes, and shrewd in your own sight!

1 Corinthians 2:12

Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts bestowed on us by God.

Words of Grace For Today

There are so many who think they are powerful, wealthy, wise, and/or famous.

God puts them down as nothing more than mere wisps of grass that fade in the heat and the cold. God instead raises up those who appear weak, poverty stricken, foolish and/or infamous, by the power of the Spirit, to share the gifts God provides to us, and through us to the all people.

Psalm 1 teaches us clearly, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom. Self important people (even those not so remarkably daft as one president proves over and over, assume great wisdom) are as dangerous as the power they wield. Without the foundation of wisdom that is humility before God, there is no real wisdom.

Who are we, these days of Easter, as we celebrate each day the miracle of Christ risen, death defeated, God victorious through sacrificial love, instead of through force or wealth or power that controls others?

More so, what do we rely on, when push comes to shove, when ‘the rock’ squeezes us against ‘the hard place’, when the walls start to close in on us as cabin fever strikes is many and various ways?

Do we rely on the gifts of the Spirit, or the things of this world? Do we rely on God’s Word made palpable in the Body of Christ, and its various sinner-saint members? Do we allow the Spirit to guide us how to be those sinner-saints who bring real help and hope to those in need?

Let the gifts of life flow, from God, through us, to others. We will survive only as we trust God in all things.

Facing Covid 19: Daily Words of Grace – Apr 15

Wednesday, April 15, 2020

Small Normal Things are Blessings Most Obvious.

Blessings are sure!

Deuteronomy 2:7

Surely the Lord your God has blessed you in all your undertakings; he knows your going through this great wilderness. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you; you have lacked nothing.’

2 Corinthians 6:410

As servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities… , yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

Words of Grace For Today

The Covid 19 emergency measures in place in nearly every corner of the world, some tighter than elsewhere, wear on us. We are hardwired to connect with others.

My niece went to the beach in Costa Rica where she lives. The authorities arrived and ordered her to return home. She did. Another beach goer received the same ordered and dallied, to be arrested and placed in their ‘police wagon.’

In Canada we are emptying the jails for there is no real protection there should Covid 19 reach inside those walls. Cleaning solutions are most often water and toilet paper, or a rag from an old towel, if you are lucky. The regular issue of cleaning solution is controlled by the inmates and is little more than water in its effectiveness. Instead of jail, heavy fines are in place for breaching emergency orders.

Through this wilderness of working diligently to avoid a deadly microscopic enemy, how can we trust that God is with us? Our success in avoiding the deadly enemy depends less on what we ourselves do and more on what a whole host of others do! We are in this together, dependent on what the most reckless person among us does!

The real enemy though is not this tiny one that can kill us, nor the sloppy ignorance and apathy of others. The real enemy is our own fear. For fear will make us sloppy, reckless and contagious hosts carrying the tiny enemy about for days before we show signs of being infected.

Fear also knocks the life right out of us, so that even if we never come close to, or even if we survive being infected, and nearly drowning in our own body fluids filling our lungs fighting against this tiny enemy …. Fear reduces life now and after Covid 19 to something so much less than life as God intended and made us able to live.

Fear, panic, and especially irrational terror cut off our thought processes so that we no longer can carefully assess what is happening. Our responses are quick, but often more destructive than the focus of our fear or panic. Irrational terror does not wait for an object of fear to come along our paths. It creates imaginary objects of fear. The wilderness we jump down into is a dark hole which can consume us, or transform us into a devil’s dervish of destruction to others around us.

Paul’s words need to be ours: we have commended ourselves to Christ, no matter our circumstances: no matter the cause for real fear, we remain courageously faithful and loving for others. No matter our riches or our poverty, we remain thankful and generous. No matter the enemies we face, we remain joyous, for Christ gives us life that is not diminished by outward or inward events. Our lives as God-made saints remain intact, even if the universe collapses in on itself.

Surely, then, we have solid reason to be Christ’s voice, hands and feet in these times!

Facing Covid 19: Daily Words of Grace – Apr 14

Tuesday, April 14, 2020

Born, we have a clean slate. Reborn it is forever cleaned.

Isaiah 51:5

I will bring near my deliverance swiftly, my salvation has gone out and my arms will rule the peoples; the coastlands wait for me, and for my arm they hope.

1 Peter 1:3

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By his great mercy he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

Words of Grace For Today

At our births our mothers bring us into the world. Each year our family and friends can celebrate with us that we exist! How special it is to have balloons all about, Happy Birthday posters on the walls, candles and figures of thanks and hope ring our breakfast table setting, family singing for us, and at a party of friends we eat cake (ice cream of course!) and blow out the candles with wishes for the future. In these times birthday parties include friends only virtually, and the wishes likely include that we could once again gather with friends in person, to share life together.

Birthdays are important. They help us communicate to each other that we are precious to one another.

More important is the celebration of our second births, our baptisms into Christ’s death and resurrection. Given the gifts of the Holy Spirit we become (while yet always remaining sinners) God-made saints, the people the Light of Christ shines for all the world to see and experience.

As God-made saints we become the arm of Christ: the voice, hands, and feet of Christ that God uses to reach out to bring with real deeds the Grace of God, which saved us, and through us, can save all people.

We are not equipped with the weapons of the Devil: lies, force, deceit, greed, and avarice. The Holy Spirit equips us with the same sacrificial love that Jesus exercised for us in order to save us; courage, healing compassion, patience, creative wisdom, persistent faith, endurance, and undying hope.

With these, we reach out by all means left available to us, to transform other’s lives from Good Friday mourning or Black Saturday despair, to Easter morning astounding and confusing amazement and celebration: Jesus, the Christ, is Risen.

God is victorious. Christ offers opportunities to live fully, giving to others, and the Holy Spirit guides us to surprising, courageous, sacrificial and loving deeds that bring vibrant hope to all … even in these times, especially in these times.

Facing Covid 19: Daily Words of Grace – Apr 13

Monday, April 13, 2020

God’s Camp, Our Home

Genesis 32:2

When Jacob saw them he said, ‘This is God’s camp!’ So he called that place Mahanaim

Matthew 28:5.7

But the angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, “He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.” This is my message for you.’

Words of Grace For Today

Jacob saw the angels (on his way to meet his brother Esau, whom he had cheated out of both his birthright and his blessing). He calls it Mahanaim, meaning two camps, or two hosts. One host is the earthly gathering of a few, the other is the accompanying host of great multitudes of heavenly beings.

Most people today live quite well without meeting any angels. Yet again and again they play a key role in the biblical stories. On Easter the angel is the one who shares with Mary what we treasure as God’s victory over death and all evil: Jesus no longer lays dead in the tomb. He is alive and will meet them back home.

Whether we believe in angels or not, we seem to tell our stories as if …

… as if we could get away from God, and be separate from our creator.

… as if we need despair when we are alone, as if God had deserted us.

… as if God was not always accompanying us.

Everywhere is God’s camp. Everywhere is where Jesus meets us, not just at home. Though now with the Covid 19 restrictions and advice in place we stay home as much as possible, so it is a good thing Jesus is there, too!

When we feel like climbing the walls, remember there are multitudes upon multitudes of angels just on the other side of … well everything.

And even if you doubt angels exist, trust that God is with you always, holding you up when you have no more to give, or patience to take being couped up for all our safeties’ sake.

Where we each live is Mahanaim, God’s camp, God’s home, our home.

2020.04Apr12 Easter – – – – Just Because

Sometimes a photo turns out just so unexpectedly more than I wanted it to, and the marvel of the light plays even deeper than my imagination,

So I want to see it, more often, and posting it to share seems a small bit of Grace.

Easter in isolation is something for us all, though I’ve been at it for a few years now.

And then, the light shines just right and plays off the moisture in the clouds and off the rolling snow.

What have you had to leave behind?

What is wrenched so out of your life by the health orders in place, so that you are left living outside the normal routines and security of things being tomorrow like they were yesterday?

How are you re-ordering your life in a manner that makes good, wonderful, life-giving sense for you and those around you?

Know that many others could use a word of encouragement, of thanks and gratitude, and of their worth in the ever changing footing we find ourselves standing on these days.

We should be able to empathize more for those who lived during the time of the plagues, for example when the Black Death, which hit Europe in 1347, claimed an astonishing 75-200 million lives in just four years, or 30% to 60% of the population. And it came back 800 years later.

See https://www.mphonline.org/worst-pandemics-in-history/ for more details of pandemics in history.

The Light of Christ does not end, die with us, or need to return. It is always here, even in the darkest night, and through all our darkest times.

Be courageous. Find Beauty each day. Know Truth always. Be grateful, gracious and generous, with yourself and with the other sinners God put in your life. God forgives them, after-all. Why can you not also?

Facing Covid 19: Daily Words of Grace – Apr 12 Easter

Easter Sunday, April 12, 2020

The Light of the World! The Light for All!

Isaiah 60:2

For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you.

Mark 16:2-4

And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. They had been saying to one another, ‘Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?’ When they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled back.

Words of Grace For Today

Christ is Risen! [Do you know the response?]

The dark hours of Jesus’ crucifixion and our continual sacrifice of others is passed. The void of yesterday is passed. The tomb is discovered empty by Mary and/or Peter.

God is not dead. God does not end Jesus’ story with his death, nor ours. Our stories continue in the stories of all the saints.

The Holy Spirit equips us to be ‘little Christs’ to one another, and sinners though we remain we can find our way to do the work of Christ as the saints God transforms us to be.

Jesus rescues us.

Jesus rescues us from our sins.

Jesus rescues us from our sins and the dark fog that lays over our future days.

Jesus rescues us.

We live in the Kingdom of God.

Every day we can learn and teach others to see the Light of Christ.

Every day we can give thanks. Death no longer has dominion over us, nor the Devil and all his works in and around us!

Every day we can respond, sharing all God has given us with those who need it so much.

Every day.

Christ is Risen! He is risen indeed!

Christ is Risen! He is risen in deed!

Christ is Risen! He is risen in our deeds for others!

The Light for Each Person!

Facing Covid 19: Daily Words of Grace – Apr 11

Holy Saturday, April 11, 2020

Dark. Just Dark? Hang on to the Word! Our Stories are not Finished!

Jeremiah 14:7

Although our iniquities testify against us, act, O Lord, for your name’s sake; our apostasies indeed are many, and we have sinned against you.

1 Peter 2:24

He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.

Words of Grace For Today

Of all the days of the year this Saturday following Good Friday has always been the day most filled with nothing, or rather void of everything. Jesus lays dead in the tomb. To repeat a buzz word repeated in history at many times: God is dead.

What can we do, except wait for God to prove by wondrous acts that God is not dead! And that God is and always has been, and always will be standing right beside us, no matter how blinding bright or deep dark our days are?

This day always is a day to remember our sins, from our blatant and intentional turnings from God, to the subtle ways we deny Christ’s work to free us as we try to play ‘god’ in our own lives and in others’ lives. When all is lost, this is the day to remember …

in anticipation that God is not done,

not with Jesus’ story! It does not end with Jesus decaying in the tomb of the dead.

We can remember with anticipation that God is not done,

not with our stories! Ours do not end in weeping, grieving, suffering, loss, or death.

God has much more in mind for us.

God is not done with us yet.

Facing Covid 19: Daily Words of Grace – Apr 10

Good Friday, April 10, 2020

Dark Days, Foggy Days and Minds: These are not the End!

Psalms 112:1

Praise the Lord! Happy are those who fear the Lord, who greatly delight in his commandments.

1 Peter 2:24-25

He himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that, free from sins, we might live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls.

Words of Grace For Today

Happiness is elusive. It can be superficially faked or a product of will-ful ignorance. Set out to gain true happiness and it cannot be found, nor held onto. Even in the worst of times, true happiness can overwhelm us. Most often it sits on one side or the other of the border between reality and wish. It has taken me most of my many decades of life to realize that we can choose to embrace happiness as it sits on or so close to that border. We can at least be ready to invite it to accompany us through our days.

Jesus commands us to love one another. Doing so can only give us great delight and happiness, for we then fulfill the very purpose for which God created us.

Our sins darken our days, casting long shadows endlessly across our futures. Our sins cover our single steps forward in a soup of dense fog, so that we lose our way, and ourselves. We are lost like stupid sheep.

God does not abandon us even on our darkest days. On the torture instrument of a cross, Jesus hung, crucified in agony and died; so that the price for our sins would be paid, and we could see again, so the fog of our sins would be lifted, so that we could choose also this day to do what God created us to do!

It is a dark day, Good Friday is. Out of sheer darkness God makes the light of Christ bright to all of us; the darker our sins, the more obvious Jesus’ light, love and forgiveness that gives us life free of sin. In this darkness, see the shadow of the cross. Orient your life by precisely that with all the hope of happiness afforded you these days. Share then the slightest glimmer of happiness, the light of Christ that gives us life free of sin. People thirst for exactly this, especially now.