Our Social Creed - The Book of Discipline 2016

We believe in God, Creator of the world; and in Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of creation.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, through whom we acknowledge God’s gifts, and we repent of our sin in misusing these gifts to idolatrous ends.

We affirm the natural world as God’s handiwork and dedicate ourselves to its preservation, enhancement, and faithful use by humankind.

We joyfully receive for ourselves and others the blessings of community, sexuality, marriage, and the family.

We commit ourselves to the rights of men, women, children, youth, young adults, the aging, and people with disabilities; to improvement of the quality of life; and to the rights and dignity of all persons.

We believe in the right and duty of persons to work for the glory of God and the good of themselves and others and in the protection of their welfare in so doing; in the rights to property as a trust from God, collective bargaining, and responsible consumption; and in the elimination of economic and social distress.

We dedicate ourselves to peace throughout the world, to the rule of justice and law among nations, and to individual freedom for all people of the world.

We believe in the present and final triumph of God’s Word in human affairs and gladly accept our commission to manifest the life of the gospel in the world. Amen.

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From The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church - 2016. Copyright 2016 by The United Methodist Publishing House. Used by permission.

Music Reflection: How Can I Keep from Singing

For this week, please enjoy the NYC Virtual Choir and Orchestra performing “How Can I Keep from Singing,” a beautiful arrangement and reminder of togetherness though socially apart. 

Lyrics: My life flows on in endless song above earth's lamentation. I hear the real, though far-off hymn that hails a new creation. No storm can shake my inmost calm, while to that rock, I’m clinging Since love prevails in heaven and earth, How can I keep from singing? While though the tempest round me roars, I know the truth, it liveth. And though the darkness round me close, songs in the night it giveth. No storm can shake my inmost calm, while to that rock, I’m clinging Since love prevails in heaven and earth, How can I keep from singing? I Lift my eyes. The cloud grows thin; I see the blue above it. And day by day, this pathway smooths, since first I learned to love it. No storm can shake my inmost calm, I hear the music ringing. It sounds an echo in my soul. How can I keep from singing? How Can I Keep from singing? Keep Singing.

O God, who would fold both heaven and earth in a single peace:

let the design of thy great love

lighten upon the waste of our wraths and sorrows:

and give peace to thy Church,

peace among nations,

peace in our dwellings,

and peace in our hearts:

through thy Son our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

With Metta and Peace,
Ryan Keebaugh
www.ryankeebaugh.com

Music Reflection: Down to the River to Pray

This week I would like to offer you a performance by the Schola Diffusa (dispersed choir) in a virtual performance of Down in the River to Pray. A beautiful piece reminding us of guidance, assurance, and stillness as we walk together with God and Christ through our daily living.

A Camino prayer

May I walk this day in the realm of grace, walking with You my feet firmly on your earth-path, my heart loving all as kindred, my words and deeds alive with justice.

May I walk as blessing, meeting blessing at every turn in every challenge, blessing, in all opposition, blessing, in harm’s way, blessing.

May I walk each step in this moment of grace, alert to hear You and awake enough to say a simple Yes.

-Robert Corin Morris

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Ryan Keebaugh

Music Reflection: Listen

 This morning, I would like to offer you another prayer by Thomas Merton.

Oh God, we are one with You. You have made us one with You. You have taught us that if we are open to one another, You will dwell in us. Help us to preserve this openness and to fight for it with all our hearts. Help us to realize that there can be no understanding where there is mutual rejection. Oh God, in accepting one another wholeheartedly, fully, completely, we accept You, and we thank You, and we adore You, and we love You with our whole being, because our being is Your being, our spirit is rooted in Your spirit. Fill us then with love, and let is be bound together with love as we go out diverse ways, united in this one spirit which makes You present in the world, and which makes You witness to the ultimate reality that is love. Love has overcome. Love is victorious, Amen.

Thomas Merton
The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton

The music, that I share will be slightly different. The piece “Listen” was composed as a soundscape for a new album I recently completed in collaboration with the contemplative poet, Andō. The piece/soundscape is used as a beginning point to accompany your prayer and meditation practice. I hope that it bring you peace and stillness. Click Here to play the recording in the background as you read scripture, sit quietly, or reflect. 

Ryan Keebaugh
www.ryankeebaugh.com

Music Reflection: This is My Song

I am in fear of watching or reading the news. I quake at the thought of listening to NPR, CNN, or opening the news app on my phone. What horrible things will I experience and learn – updates on the infected and death toll due to a world pandemic, political unrest, violence, senseless death, racism and hatred for fellow humans? I do not understand. How we can treat others this way and claim to be guided by God? How can we claim to be followers of Jesus and yet hold hatred in our hearts for others who have different colored skin, worship contrarily, or have a different sexual orientation? Would we still follow Jesus if he were with us, in person, today — a brown skinned man of Jewish background from the Middle East? I believe, given these difficult times, this is something many of us lose sight of.

As I’ve ruminated over these questions during the past months, today I thought I would share a recording of This is My Song by the vocal ensemble, Cantus. You will discover that the tune to this piece is very familiar and is one of the most stirring tunes in the United Methodist Hymnal, the melody known as known as FINLANDIA. The melody comes from a symphonic tone poem by Jean Sibelius (1865-1957) by the name of Finlandia, Op. 26. The lyrics, or poem for the original setting was composed by Lloyd Stone (1912-1993), an American public-school teacher. Lloyd wrote the first two stanzas of “This Is My Song” for its inclusion in the collection, Sing a Tune (1934). During the brief time of peace between two world wars, it was a song of hope for all nations — “for lands afar and mine.” The poet acknowledges love for his own country, but balances that with the love that others feel around the world for their nations, their fellow countrymen, and a deeper connection to one another without concern for political background, creed, or purpose. We are all God’s BELOVED sons and daughters. 

Here is Lloyd Stone’s text:

This is my song, O God of all the nations,
a song of peace for lands afar and mine;
this is my home, the country where my heart is;
here are my hopes, my dreams, my holy shrine:
but other hearts in other lands are beating
with hopes and dreams as true and high as mine.
 
My country’s skies are bluer than the ocean,
and sunlight beams on cloverleaf and pine;
but other lands have sunlight too, and clover,
and skies are everywhere as blue as mine:
O hear my song, thou God of all the nations,
a song of peace for their land and for mine.

Click Here for this amazing recording. I hope you enjoy and find solace in the powerful words and music. May peace and love be with each of you.

Ryan Keebaugh
www.ryankeebaugh.com

Grace Notes Newsletter September 2020

 Click here to view the September Grace Notes newsletter

The next newsletter deadline is September 24. You are welcome to submit letters, pictures, recipes, stories, and prayers. Send to Robin at GraceUMC2@comcast.net 

Someone has left us a lovely painted rock on our grounds! 

Music Relection: The Human One

This morning I offer you a poem of John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892), a Massachusetts journalist and anti-slavery campaigner. His work continues to find a place in modern hymn-books, far beyond the boundaries of the Religious Society of Friends.

Dear Lord and Father of mankind

Forgive our foolish ways!

Reclothe us in our rightful mind,

In purer lives thy service find,

In deeper reverence, praise.

In simple trust like theirs who heard

Beside the Syrian sea

The gracious calling of the Lord,

Let us, like them, without a word,

Rise up and follow thee.

O Sabbath rest by Galilee!

O calm of hills above,

Where Jesus knelt to share with thee

The silence of eternity

Interpreted by love!

With that deep hush subduing all

Our words and works that drown

The tender whisper of thy call,

As noiseless let thy blessing fall

As fell thy manna down.

Drop thy still dews of quietness,

Till all our strivings cease;

Take from our souls the strain and stress,

And let our ordered lives confess

The beauty of thy peace.

Breathe through the heats of our desire

Thy coolness and thy balm;

Let sense be dumb, let flesh retire;

Speak through the earthquake, wind, and fire,

O still, small voice of calm!

The musical selection, this morning, is entitled, The Human One. This piece was commissioned and written for the String Trio, Musica Harmonia, in 2015 and was premiered during the Shenandoah Valley Bach Music Festival in Harrisonburg, VA.  The Human One read as Son of Man in many translations of the Bible, is from a common Greek word, anthropos, meaning human being. This humble work is a meditation on the deity of Jesus with human appearance, characteristics, and challenges. The Human One is God come to earth, made flesh, to live among us within the human experience. 

May you find peace,

Ryan Keebaugh
www.ryankeebaugh.com