GOOD FAITH FOR THE COMMON GOOD

Good Faith and the Co= mmon Good

Occasional Offeri= ngs from Sam Candler on issues of faith, church, and the world.<= /p>

= I GOT RHYTHM

= 220;I got rhythm, I got music” sang Ethel Merman to the music of George Gershwin in the Broadway show, Girl= Crazy. Even if we don’t know who sang the original, all of us probably know = the tune. It catches us. It’s got rhythm.

I l= ike rhythm, too. I play a little jazz piano, and it’s the rhythm that fascinates me (Gershwin again!). Rhythm is part of our human pulse. It̵= 7;s part of our breathing. There is a rhythm in the very seasons of the earth.<= o:p>

One= reason I am a Christian is because of the rhythm Christianity brings to me. And the real rhythm of Christianity occurs next week, during Holy Week of each year= . It starts with Palm Sunday, with “All Glory, Laud, and Honor,” and with the celebration of a king. We honor life on Palm Sunday, with our heads lifted high.

By = Good Friday, our heads have sunk low. We honor death itself on that day, the dea= th of Jesus Christ. But, behold, on Easter Sunday, our heads are raised again.= We honor not just life on Easter Sunday, but we honor NEW life. God has brought new life out of death.

The= rhythm of Christianity is Life to Death to New Life. It is a beat that pulses in t= he life of Jesus Christ, and it pulses in our own lives, too. At churches arou= nd the world, we know it almost daily, as we move from baptisms to weddings to illnesses to funerals and back to thanksgiving, sometimes all in the same d= ay. In your own life, you probably know this rhythm, too. You have known the he= ight of joy and the depth of despair, and you know that they often occur amazing= ly close to one another.

In = Holy Week, the Christian church honors that rhythmic dance. This dance, dipping = from Palm Sunday down to Good Friday and rising up to Easter Sunday, is a sacred dance. Live with the church, from life to death to new life again; and you = have learned that the grace of God is in all those places. God honors life, God honors death, and God honors new life.

I g= ive thanks for this great pulse that God has given the world. It is this pulse = that restores us, time and time again, like red blood flowing through our arteri= es. And it is everywhere in the natural world around us, from low tide to high tide, from winter to spring, from midnight to dawn.

Thi= s pulse is even in the church. At their best, all the ministries and services of the Christian Church honor the pattern, too. They keep the beat; they keep the rhythm; they keep the faith – good faith.

22 = March 2007

Sam Candler is Dean of the Cathedral of St. Philip in Atlanta, Georgia. Contact him at scandler@= stphilipscathedral.org.
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