Revelations and epiphanies in a deer stand

 

The hunt is over but the power of the moment remains. I know I am not alone in feeling overwhelmed by the awesomeness

The M nnesot
of the Creator when

I spend time observing and experiencing the amazing natural environment that surrounds us in Cook County. To spend that kind of quality time in the woods for me is part of my religious experience We are so blessed.

Display

our new

I’d like to suggest that a

as ag eed to Christian can affirm a sacramental

universe To say that tici te in the

God is the only creator of

D sp y Ad N tw

the world and that the world

p ogram by runn

reflects God’s own goodness

e ds in the

and intelligence means that

t the entire universe is in some

w a ( sense sacramental. By a sacrament

cl s ifi d sec io I mean the presentation

y ur new paper) or appearance of the higher

tim s adverti through the lower, the divine in

the earthly.

ction How the decision is up to new paper Ads need to e decre s ghtly i size t your lum ize I saw another example of this when I attended the rehearsal of this year’s Christmas concert at Bethlehem. By the way, this concert featuring a wonderful selection from Handel’s Messiah
and other works will definitely be worth your time

this weekend Sunday and

Plae onotbil Monday at 7:30 p.m. You will

th s ads be blessed, but I digress.

q p MNA t 800/ 9 9 Th k As I was telling you, I went to the rehearsal and in front of the sanctuary there were some people with horsehair and catgut and pipes and tubes and reeds and a whole variety of odd things made of metal ific

U.SSiverW ANWANUDime,Qua rt1964befor*Ha—195 -9Hales
Wa nted1889 andwood. Behind h mwere er, close to one hundred people.

In front of them all was some timately

paper with five lines here and ch

five lines there with little black

y

dots and wiggly lines and some ed

Italian words in the margin fit That is all it is, some paper

and some tubes and pipes and strings and voices.

But then they began to play

and sing, and suddenly Handel

l was there. Handel was conveyed

9

Wma Hou

and tubes and skins and paper and voices. It was not Handel— the things that were there were the orchestra, choir and the conductor and the score. But

somehow Handel came to us through all that.

I think we find something

ads to run ONE TIME
ollars like that when we say that the grace of God comes in, with, and through bread, wine and water. The sacramental element is present in all of life— the higher comes to us through the lower, the invisible through the visible. In the Messiah
by Handel something of the divine is conveyed in the words from the Word and the human harmonies. God has always been present, but what do we observe?

In that sense the entire world is a visible reality through which the presence of the invisible God is apprehended, and through it we

become aware of what is ultimate.

We can see this in Psalm

i R
Want ed to Buy 104, with it tes imonies about Gods care or w ld cattle goat lions, storks and fish. We find it

Buyin ConCllStr l in the story of Noah’s ark where c
Noah is told to save some room