From the UCC Network - Devotion 10/25 "Spring"

Spring 

Excerpt from Psalm 87 

“Singers and dancers alike say, ‘All my springs are in you.’”  

Reflection by Donna Schaper 

What makes a song a good song? Or a dance a good dance?  Doesn’t it have some spring in it?   Air.  Buoyancy.  Lift.  Rise.  The kind of thing people tell us they want from Sunday morning.  Surely you have heard the urgency: “I came here this morning to be lifted up….”

This phrase is usually followed by a BUT.  You know the But.  I am a leader in this congregation and I don’t feel like I get to go to church any more.  I come here to work.  I had a big thing happen in my life and nobody knows. I feel flatter than when I came in.  My pain has been condensed, not released.  I live in a great city but I never get to see it because I go to a meeting every night.  Flattened.  Twisted.  Tied up.  Contorted.  Living in the land of rock and hard place.  I could be lifted up BUT. I could rise BUT.  I could be buoyant BUT. 

Perhaps it is time to take a hint from the psalms and the singers and the dancers.  I rise because all my springs are in you.  And we are not talking here about either pastor or parish.  We are talking about you: the spring of the spring.  Sometimes it is important to get church out of the way of Spirit. Other times it is time to transform Church so it is spirit.  Most of the time it is time for both. 

Prayer 

Oh, you who sprung into action for us, lift us up.  Let us sing and dance, even if we “aren’t very good at it.”  Amen. 

About the Author Donna Schaper is the Senior Minister of Judson Memorial Church in New York City.  Her most recent book is Sacred Chow: a Guide to Holy Eating.