A spirituality of radical hospitality in song...

This Sunday is our church annual meeting: tomorrow and Thursday I will craft my Sunday message re: mission and challenge (I had to be away from my usual prayer and study routine to be with a dear friend today.) So tonight at band practice we worked on a tune by Mary Chapin-Carpenter that is one of the defining songs of my ministry: Jubilee.

+ It speaks of radical hospitality and grace...

+ It honors the broken places in all of us in light of God's deeper love...

+ And it is simultaneously joyful and achingly sad...

We worked on it to reflect OUR experiences at this moment ~ and our happy/sad voices ~ and wounded/joy-filled realities.  After a tough and demanding day, I feel blessed and embraced by the love of God.

I sang this song at my mother's funeral ~ she was a complicated woman ~ and I give thanks to God that her suffering is now long past and healed.  This is one of those "secular" songs that speaks volumes to me about God's still speaking voice.