SONG AND SPIRIT First Parish in Needham February 6, 2011 With Joanne Hammil and Molly Housh Gordon

Opening Music Dont Give Me a Label Joanne Hammil Welcome and Announcements Molly Housh Gordon - Youth Service Call to Worship from Psalm 98 Sing to the Lord a new song, Shout for joy, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music; make music to the Lord with the harp and the sound of singing, with trumpets and the blast of the rams horn shout for joy before the Lord Let the sea resound, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it. Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy. Come, let us sing a new song. Unison Chalice Lighting May our time together renew our hope. May the stories we share refresh our courage. May the words we speak invigorate us. May the songs we sing lift our spirits.

Congregational Song You are You led by Joanne Hammil Choral Anthem -- Break Em On Down Childrens Choir Story Giraffes Cant Dance by Giles Andreae Gerald was a tall giraffe / whose neck was long and slim. But his knees were awfully crooked / and his legs were very thin. He was very good at standing still / and munching shoots off trees. But when he tried to run around / he buckled at the knees. --Now every year in Africa / they hold a jungle dance Where every single animal / turns up to skip and prance And this year when the day arrived / poor Gerald felt so sad Because when it came to dancing / he was really very bad. --The warthogs started waltzing / and the rhinos rock and rolled The lions danced a tango / that was elegant and bold The chimps all did a Cha Cha / with a very Latin feel

And eight baboons then teamed up / for a splendid Scottish reel. --Gerald swallowed bravely / as he walked toward the floor But the lions saw him coming / and they soon began to roar. Hey, look at clumsy Gerald! / The animals all sneered. Giraffes cant dance, you silly fool! / Oh Gerald, youre so weird. --Gerald simply froze up. / He was rooted to the spot. Theyre right, he thought. / Im useless. Oh I fell like such a clot. So he crept off from the dance floor / and he started walking home. Hed never felt so sad before / So sad and so alone. --Then he found a little clearing / and he looked up at the sky. The moon can be so beautiful / he whispered with a sigh. Excuse me, coughed a cricket / whod seen Gerald earlier on. But sometimes when youre different / you just need a different song! ---

Listen to the swaying grass / and listen to the trees To me the sweetest music / is those branches in the breeze So imagine that the lovely moon / is playing just for you Everything makes music / if you really want it to! --With that the cricket smiled / and picked up his violin Then Gerald felt his body / do the most amazing thing. His hooves had started shuffling / making circles on the ground. His neck was gently swaying / and his tail was swishing round. He threw his legs out sideways / and he swung them everywhere. Then he did a backwards somersault / and leapt up in the air. Gerald felt so wonderful / his mouth was open wide. I am dancing, Yes Im dancing! / I am dancing, Gerald cried. Then one by one each animal / whod been there at the dance Arrived while Gerald boogied on / and watched him quite entranced.

They shouted Its a miracle! / We must be in a dream! Geralds the best dancer / that weve ever, ever seen! Whered you learn to dance like that? / Please Gerald tell us how! But Gerald simply twirled around and finished with a bow. Then he raised his head / and looked up at the moon and stars above. We all can dance, he said / When we find music that we love! Congregational Song Give Light led by Joanne Hammil Solo Anthem Courage Joanne Hammil Reading Listening For Our Song By Rev. David Blanchard On sabbatical in East Africa, I heard a story of a people who believe that we are each created with our own song. Their tradition as a community is to honor that song by singing it as welcome when a child is born, as comfort when the child is ill, in celebration when the child marries, and in affirmation and love when death comes. Most of us were not welcomed into the world in that way. Few of us seem to know our song. And it takes a while for many of us to figure out which is our song. Mine came to me slowly and from many sources. For every measure I heard in the silence of a retreat, I

heard another laughing with my girls. For every note I heard in the wind on the beach at Lamu, I gleaned more from spending time with a dying friend as her children sang her song back to her. What came to astound me was not that the song appeared, but that it was always there. [] Our songs sing back to us something of our essence, something of our truth, something of our uniqueness. When our songs are sung back to us, it is not about approval, but about recognizing our being and our belonging in the human family. It is good to know our songs by heart for those lonely times when the world is not singing them back to us. Thats usually a good time to start humming to yourself, that song that is most your own. They can be heard as songs of love or of longing, songs of encouragement or of comfort, songs of struggle or of security. But most of all, they are the songs of life, giving testimony to what has been, giving praise for all were given, giving hope for all we strive for, giving voice to the great mystery that carries each of us in and out of this world. Choral Anthem A Question of Tempo Adult Choir Prayer and Sung Prayer On the other side of music lies a silence deeper than words. And silence always opens again into the spirit-filled power of sound. In this moment of quiet, we pause to pray

That the song in our hearts might be one of love, One of courage, One of hope, One of peace. As we sing together our prayer, may the silence between each sound be filled with the joys and longings of our hearts. Amen. St. Francis Prayer Sung Response Offertory Take Me Away Adult Choir Homily SONG AND SPIRIT By Molly Housh Gordon Im not sure what my song is. I dont think its the song of the moon like the giraffe. Or the song of branches in the wind like the cricket. No one sang it to me as I entered the world. But I do believe its there a song written into my core, a new sound that entered the world when I did. You know the Hindus believe that creation begins with sound. In the Hindu story, the nothingness before the world begins is like a string stretched tight, like the string of a violin. And then, as if its been plucked, it begins to vibrate, and the creation of the whole

universe begins with the sound OM. Indian philosophy says that the whole universe is made up of vibrating energy (and contemporary physics may end up proving the same thing). And since vibration makes sound, the Hindu say there is a sound at the center of everything. At the center of you and me and at the center of the whole world. And they say that sound is OM. Will you try it with me? Take a deep breath and make sure you end with your mouth closed tight on M sound. (all together) OM. Do you feel how it vibrates your face? It tickles a bit. OM is such a big, deep sound, that there are a lot of things to learn from it. But there are a couple of things I want to lift up. The first is that sound is about more than just hearing. We can feel it in our depths, in our bodies. Even people who are deaf can experience sound when close to its source, because they can feel the vibrations. The second is that we all share the possibility of this powerful sound. Every breath we take in has potential to become sound going out. It is inside all of us. But theres another thing inside of us that makes potential sound into potential song, and that is rhythm. You can feel the rhythm inside you if you put your hand over your heart, or find your pulse in your neck or wrist. And its with rhythm of the heartbeat that I get back to the song inside each of usand to my belief that, while our songs are each unique, they are best when woven together.

Think about the heartbeat, and how early on we experience rhythm intertwined. While were still inside our mothers, before were born, their heartbeats and ours are already singing together. And the duet continues in any intimate moment where heart meets head or hand. Our heartbeats are already singing together So maybe I do know a little something about what my song is after all I think it must be a hymn. Now, you may think thats because Im a church geek. (And that is an actual term, invented by my little brother, to describe me) And thats part of it for sure. But you know what I love about hymns? Singing them with all of you. I think of us singing Spirit of Life together, and the way this space feels charged with reverence. I think of us singing This Little Light of Mine together and filling the room up with energy and power. I think of us singing together may I be an instrument of peace and I believe that peace is possible. I think of us sitting with candlelight flickering on our faces as we sing Silent Night on Christmas Eve and I believe that love will win the day. The idea that each of us is created with our own song sounds like a pretty little metaphor until you think about moments like that. A song can change things. Singing together has changed me. How has it changed you?

 I will keep looking for my song, and listening, and feeling for it, in the sounds and rhythms and vibrations around me. In the meantime, I want to keep singing together with all of you. And I wonder, what is our song? What are the feelings, what is the transformation that we are singing into being in this congregation? Its a serious question, and I hope youll give it some thought. Know this, whatever our song is, it needs all of our heart-beating rhythms, all of the sound that we can muster from our center. We have many different voices, but together they are beautiful, they are powerful beyond belief. Let us keep singing together. Always. Singing together. *Congregational Song One Family Benediction -Let us sing the songs by which we know one another. Let us sing the songs by which we discover the world of our souls. Let us sing the power of our lives together. Go now with singing. Go and be blessed, and be a blessing. Closing Music Dreams of Harmony Childrens and Adult Choirs