By R.G. Huff
I have to admit that I did not choose to write this preparation for worship based on the Gospel reading from which Timothy is preaching today. While the Richard Strauss ballet Salome is based on it, the beheading of Jesus’ cousin is not one of those stories that necessarily calls us to worship.
However, Ariel’s anthem choice for today is more appropriate! The interpretation of Psalm 8 in the lyrics by Linda Lee Johnson definitely calls us to worship … calls us to praise.
I’ve conducted this anthem on innumerable occasions, and each time I’ve rehearsed it or taught it to a choir, the phrase that has caught my attention and affected me profoundly is “Little children praise you perfectly, and so would we.”
Small children are great artists because they express themselves so honestly and without boundaries. They dance with abandon until some adult tells them they need to be still. They splatter watercolors all over the place with some of it landing on the paper until someone tells them to stay on the sheet and make their drawings look like something we might recognize … a feat Jackson Pollock never learned!
When the young grandkids start ad-libbing at our piano — you might call it “banging” — I never stop them. I notice that in the haphazard arrangement of notes and clusters, patterns begin to appear. My music composition professors would not likely call them songs, but maybe they are … because “little children praise you perfectly.”
I think maybe this is why Jesus said that if we are truly going to find the kingdom, we need to come like children: wide-eyed, excited, hopeful, accepting, open-armed … simply.
Today, could we let down our adult-i-ness a bit and return to a childlike faith … and a childlike expression of our faith? Come on, let’s give it a try, shall we?
“Little children praise you perfectly, and so would we. Alleluia. Alleluia.”