At 6 AM, before I went to bed, music and my memories floated in my mind
My headphones rendered Joe Zawinul’s “A Remark You Made” in amazing
Ecstasy—the live, orchestral version was all clashing, brassy harmonies, sax
And Jaco’s bass didn’t exactly play a soundtrack to memories in my mind’s
Slow wandering and resting—modulating between Joe’s so right harmonies,
And an afternoon at Almont Church Camp transport of tonal modes, moving
Me to holy moods lively, living memories, placing me playing Moses, as if
He had just descended from Mount Sinai and I held aloft two ceramic Tablets
Fabricated by Eric, fired in his own kiln with real Hebrew writing on them
And he wouldn’t let me smash them like the real Moses did and in a loud voice
I proclaimed the Commandments one by one as best I could remember them
On the sandy shore straggled with grass next the pond at Almont Church Camp
Man! Those harmonies hit it! Just guiding the tonal flow into the changes
Of Jaco’s heart-rending solo with the brass and sax of “A Remark You Made”
Ending a good night, musing, music, memories, me as Moses with the Tablets
Eric made and five or so children stood in a half-circle staring at who was it
Behind the white cotton beard, robe, standing there holding up two Tablets
Out of words and one of the five or so children guessed me to be that guy
Who sits on the porch afternoons listening to his Walkman, smoking cigars
Usually joined by a teen who didn’t quite fit in and later aspired to be a poet
And I dragged my attention away from the memory, sad that I’d abandoned
The stunning harmonies in “A Remark You Made” the sax, brass, Jaco’s bass
Fading in memories, back, half aware of the pleasant 6 AM before I fell asleep
MOSES, JOE ZAWINUL, ME AND MY MEMORIES
23 Feb 2021 Leave a comment
in Blog Tags: children, church camp, Commandments, memories, Moses, music, poem, poetry, Tablets, words, Zawinul
Religious Post
07 Aug 2019 Leave a comment
in Blog Tags: Baal, eternal, Israel, Jesus, law, Moses, parents, present, religion, scam
It Was I Who Taught Ephraim to Walk
Rev. David J. Fekete, Ph.D.
August 4, 2019
Hosea 11:1-11 Luke 12:13-21 Psalm 107
Hosea prophesies in a time when Israel is under threat of attack. Assyria is about to sweep down over Israel and destroy the Kingdom. Hosea prophesies about this, and blames the imminent destruction of Israel on their worship of Baal and other gods of Canaan. Yahweh was the God who delivered them from slavery in Egypt. And Yahweh was the God who held their whole society together.
Our passage from Hosea 11 is interesting. It shows a very loving, caring God. Some passages, maybe many passages in the Hebrew Scriptures depict God as vengeful and punishing. This reading from Hosea is different. It depicts God as a nurturing parent.
God tells the Israelites, “To them I was like one who lifts/a little child to the cheek” (Hosea 11:4). This is a tender, nurturing image of God. Every parent knows what Hosea is talking about. Every parent has lifted up a baby and kissed him or her on the cheek. Or maybe held the baby up over their head. This is a God who cuddled the Israelites as a parent cuddles their children.
God tells the Israelites that it was God who taught them to walk. I remember when my brother was learning to walk. How we held his little arms to steady him while he staggered in his infant steps. This is what God did for the Israelites, “It was I who taught Ephraim to walk,/taking them by the arms” (Hosea 11:3).
In a very real way, God taught the Israelites to walk. Worshipping Yahweh meant following all Yahweh’s laws. The Israelites didn’t just believe in Yahweh as they would any other God. Believing in Yahweh meant accepting Yahweh’s ways, following Yahweh’s laws, obeying Yahweh’s commands.
When the Israelites escaped from slavery in Egypt, they were essentially a mob. There were Israelites and other races all fleeing slavery. But they were not in a city. They had no king. They had no social structure. They were simply a mob fleeing slavery. So the challenge of Moses, of God, was to organize this mob, wandering in the desert, into a society. So we think of Moses as the Lawgiver. Moses ascended Mount Sinai and heard God speak. God told Moses the laws that would become the basis of Israelite society.
Turning away from God meant turning away from God’s laws. As Israelite society became wealthy and as corruption set in, they found it more convenient to worship the gods of the neighboring tribes. So Hosea accuses the Israelites of worshipping Baal, the storm god of the Canaanites, and other Canaanite gods and goddesses. The Israelites thought that if they sacrificed to these gods, they would be protected by the god or goddess’ powers. Then they wouldn’t have to follow Yahweh’s laws of justice, love, and compassion. The Israelites could enjoy their wealth, exploit the poor and weak, and sin if Yahweh wasn’t their God any more.
And that’s what Hosea accuses them of doing.
Hear the word of the Lord, you Israelites,
because the Lord has a charge to bring
against you who live in the land:
“There is no faithfulness, no love,
no acknowledgment of God in the land.
2 There is only cursing, lying and murder,
stealing and adultery;
they break all bounds,
and bloodshed follows bloodshed (Hosea 4:1-2).
Notice how Hosea’s accusation follows the 10 Commandments. False witness, murder, stealing, adultery, and although Hosea doesn’t say it here, making graven images and having other gods before Yahweh. Hosea points out that worshipping Baal is tied up with breaking God’s laws.
The same is true for us. Believing in God isn’t the end of religion. It’s just the start. If there is a God, then all God’s laws matter in our lives. We can’t just believe in God and then do whatever we want. Jesus says, “Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” What does Jesus say for us to do? Hosea, the Hebrew prophet tells us in words that Jesus echoes in the New Testament. In our Hosea reading, we are told to be faithful, to love, to acknowledge God. Then he points us to the 10 Commandments: No other Gods, truth telling, no murder, no stealing, faithfulness to our partners. That is what Jesus tells us to do,
Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” . . . If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.” “Which ones?” he inquired. Jesus replied, “‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, 19 honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matthew 19:16-19).
Following those laws will lead to eternal life. And they will also lead to a good life here on earth.
This brings in the New Testament story we heard this morning. A man exerts a lot of energy building big barns to store his abundant crops. He plans to store his produce so he can live a life of ease in retirement, eat drink and be merry. However, when the barns are done, he dies and never gets a chance to live his retirement dream.
We look forward to eternal happiness in heaven. We can think sometimes that because we belong to this church, we are among the chosen. Yet these ideas can work against us. Looking forward to eternal life and priding ourselves on our religion takes our minds off the present. The man in the New Testament story was expending all his energy building barns with his mind on the future. But his future never came.
That story tells us to attend to our present. Our eternity isn’t in the future. It’s the way we are living now. Are we living a live of peace? Are we living a caring life? Are we loving toward others?
If we are, we will be living a present life that is holy and blessed. We will be in our eternal peace and joy. We can be distracted by worries, by anxieties, by trivial pastimes. That line in T. S. Eliot, “Distracted from distraction by distraction.” Rather than anticipating our eternal joy, I suggest we attend to our present. How are we filling time? Is it blessed? Is it peaceful? Is it joyful? If not, we need to ask ourselves if we are getting in the way of our own peace of mind. It is true that in the next life, our feelings of spiritual joy will be more manifest than they are now. But our life here and now can still approach the peace and tranquility of eternity. How are we living in the present is the question that Luke asks us to consider.
At Paulhaven, a teen asked me, “What if religion is a scam?” She was asking, not asserting that it was. And she hadn’t thought it through very thoroughly. But she didn’t want to be duped and wondered if this was all just a scam. I replied that even if religion is a scam, what better way is there to live. Isn’t a life of love, being true, honest, caring, humble, and peaceful—isn’t that a good way to go through life?
We will feel the results of our spirituality. If we remove our blocks, our sins, and seek peace we will find it. That will be a good way to live, even if religion is a scam. But religion isn’t a scam. There is a God. And if we love God and follow God’s laws we will be blessed now, and forever.
Other Things that Take Effort
11 Dec 2017 Leave a comment
in Blog Tags: Bach, Beethoven, Erik Erikson, Hume, Moses, Shakespeare. Jesus, the soul
When you work hard, you’re tired. Sometimes all you can do is vege in front of the tube, maybe pass out, and go to bed. But you’re not always that worn out. Often, we stay up for a while and wile away the time. How we wile away time matters.
One day-off I was sitting in an easy chair, feeling lazy. I hadn’t worked that day and had, basically, the whole day ahead of me. I felt too lazy to listen to Beethoven on my iPod, or jazz, and settled for classic rock. I don’t mean to disparage classic rock at all. It’s good. But it doesn’t require much effort to listen to. It doesn’t sound right, but Beethoven or Bach seem to require listener effort. At least concentration, which takes effort. Even Beethoven’s 6th required more effort than I had in me that day.
But I criticize myself for my laziness. Vegeing in front of TV, or letting classic rock pass time is a cheat of the soul. Now we can’t and shouldn’t only listen to Beethoven or read Shakespeare or David Hume. But I need to rise to Beethoven’s intonation in some moments. My life is blessed when I do listen to him. Or when I am able to read Shakespeare. Hume isn’t hard, he just requires a lot of time. And the point is, I need to make time for them all.
Erik Erikson writes about a late stage of development called “Generativity versus Stagnation.” It’s a stage in life when we are concerned with passing on wisdom to the next generation. It seems to be hitting me. Symphony halls can’t make a go of classics, so they are playing “pops” and other light music to keep their doors open. In my hometown, it’s hard to find concerts that I want to go to, meaning Bach, Beethoven, Ravel, Copeland, et. al. I talked with a biology student who was forced to read Shakespeare. She complained to me why they wouldn’t let her read something more contemporary. Jazz venues are closing. Two undergraduate girls at a prestigious university couldn’t tell me who came first, Moses or Jesus. While my personal problem is getting my lazy butt up to giving Beethoven the listening he deserves, my fear for society is that all these things are being sloughed off by indifference, apathy, ignorance.
I’m not just complaining about passing on my generation’s likes to the next. I believe that the individuals I mention, and others of a like kind, have a precious gift to humanity. Losing them is like losing a part of the human soul. But then again, contemporary philosophy teaches that there isn’t a soul, never was one. I’m not at the point of despair yet. Maybe closer to alarm. And that includes alarm at myself, too. I hate to think I’m sinking into a laziness that doesn’t have the energy to put on a Beethoven symphony. Even the death march in his his 3rd.
Perpetual Spring
26 May 2017 Leave a comment
in Blog Tags: aging, blues, Jazz, Jesus, love, Moses, Mozart, peace, poetry, seasons, symphony, Zoroaster
As I age, the world ages with me
As it always has
Things I treasure go out of style
Live music, blues, jazz, the symphony
Peace and love
Mozart went out of style
And nobody knows where he is buried
Who performed for princes, kings, queens
High art, technique, form fail
Churches dwindle, consolidate, close
Zoroaster, Moses, Jesus shrugged off
They follow Zeus, Apollo, Heracles
There is no perpetual spring
There follows summer, autumn, winter, and spring again
As I autumn, I can’t see spring again
No, I don’t see spring
I will be leaving this world
And I look toward another
And as my world dies, perhaps it is well that I also with it
I think less of my legacy than I do my potential
In my autumn I see perpetual springtime
David Fekete 