The Revs. Smiths’ Message for June 14, 2020

According to the first book of Samuel, chapter 16, when King Saul was feeling down, he would call on David to play the harp for him. Saul found that this relieved his pain and helped him feel better.

King David Playing the Harp – modello (detail); by Peter Paul Rubens, from the collection of the Barnes Foundation, courtesy the Wikimedia Commons.

The 17th century poet, William Congreve, wrote that music has charms to soothe a savage breast.

Music has great power to move us. Were we not excited when Rachelle offered the Widor piece on Easter Sunday in the worship resources (available on our YouTube channel)? And she has continued to minister to us through music posted each week on the website.

Three months plus into the pandemic, is there a particular piece of music that has helped you cope? One that lifts your spirits or gives you peace? Or makes you smile? There is Diana Ross & the Supremes with “Someday We’ll be Together”. Perhaps it is Sonny & Cher’s, “I Got You Babe”, that song that woke up Bill Murray same day after same day after same day after same day in the movie Groundhog Day. In our house as we work on the worship resources we often think of that chap in “Eleanor Rigby”, “Father Mackenzie, writing the words of a sermon that no one will hear. No one comes near.”

On a more serious note, we have recently discovered Canadian Gordon Lightfoot’s “My Love Colours Outside The Lines”, about doing things differently.

So can we come up with a GCPC Pandemic Playlist? Let us know what you would put on the list, and we will publish the list in a couple of weeks on Tidbits. Maybe someday we can have a Pandemic Playlist concert. Just send an email to the Tidbits editor using the email address tidbits AT guildwoodchurch.ca to give your suggestion.

Revs. Bob and Helen Smith

This message first appeared in the June 13, 2020, edition of Tidbits.