Most of you aren’t going to know the name “pulipit rock” but if you happen to be from Decorah, you’ll recognize the name of one of the most famous landmarks in the area – which also served nicely as name of the contemporary Christian music program on Luther’s radio station, KWLC. It is the title of today’s blog entry because of a wall – shaking music performance at Holy Communion this morning which also served for yours truly as a first stab at playing in a rock band. The piece was “Little Drummer Boy,” but it wasn’t any gentle Burl Ives rendition; our arrangement was copied off of a $1.99 CD which Kate Barrow bought at our local Speedway gas station. . . and it was pretty amazing. We had three keyboards, two electric guitars, one electric bass, and drums – and Tom Hagemann sang lead vocals, backed up by the youth choir and assorted male singers from the congregation (plus a sprinkling of altos) . And by the way, I was playing strings on my particular keyboard, so my part in the proceedings was the least rocky of anybody up there- but still, Kate got a nice big laugh when she announced to the congregation that this was my initial attempt at playing in a rock band. What made it even funnier was that I was wearing one of my favorite Mr. Rogers’ cardigan sweaters – although I did have jeans on as well- leading my wife to say that I was Mr Rogers from the waist up and L.L. Cool from the waist down. (The first guy I’ve heard of – no such luck with the latter, although I’m guessing he’s from the wonderful world of rap.)
By sheer chance, our wonderful bell choir also played today, and it was so interesting to have both the exquisite delicacy of the bells and the roar of rock both in the same service. That’s actually been a hallmark of Holy Communion for most of the time that I’ve been here- cutting a rather wide swath, musically – although the stuff like today has largely been the result of other people’s work.
And when it was all said and done, one of the things I was happiest about is that Henrietta Welch, our 94-year-old friend, actually liked it. Well, that might actually be overstating it just a bit; if she were stranded on a desert island and could only have three CDs with her, I’m pretty certain that this wouldn’t be one of them. But she enjoyed it and appreciated the importance of us doing something that would hook the younger people in the room for whom “Ding Dong Merrily on High” just doesn’t quite do it. And she appreciated the fact that we did a good job with it and didn’t just throw it together, willy nilly. It was good music making. And last but not least, she probably had fun being able to turn off her hearing aids for once. At least I hope she did.
Amidst all of the fun of hearing real live rock music in our sanctuary, I hope people also caught the way in which this performance really embodied the message of this wonderful Christmas song. . . that it’s all about giving your best effort to God, whether you’re ringing bells, bowing a violin, or “cranking” on an electric guitar.
pictured: two of our guitarists, including Holy Communion’s own Skip Carlson to the left.