Presbyterian Association of Musicians conference-goers consider Moses’ frustration with the people
by Mike Ferguson | Presbyterian News Service
MONTREAT, North Carolina — The 700 or so people attending the Presbyterian Association of Musicians’ Worship & Music Conference this week were welcomed to worship Monday by the pleasing sound of 13 people playing 26 handbells.
On this day of the Juneteenth celebration, worshipers sang “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” accompanied Dr. Tony McNeill, who slowed everyone down for the poignant third verse which opens with: “God of our weary years, God of our silent tears, thou who has brought us thus far on the way …”
Worshipers exchanged the peace of Christ, with a few younger worshipers grinning and saying to one another, “pizza crust be with you.”
Under the direction of Jason Max Ferdinand, the Adult Chamber Choir sings Cindy Berry’s “In the Beauty of Your Holiness.” (Photo by Rich Copley)
The service also included a premiere of sorts for Ann Jacob’s hymn, “Thirsty We Wander the Desert (Even from Rock).” Dr. David Bjorlin, the Routley lecturer for the Worship & Music Conference, wrote the lyrics to the hymn. Here’s the fourth verse: “Thirsty we wander the desert, our homeland a far away dream; but we will endure for your promise is sure, and even from rock, your water will stream. Even from rock, even from rock, even from rock, your water will stream. Hosanna, hosanna!”
The Rev. Larissa Kwong Abazia, the conference preacher, used Numbers 20:1-13 as her preaching text, with Moses and Aaron demanding of the people: “Listen, you rebels; shall we bring water for you out of this rock?”
Moses was especially tired of their grumbling. “It wasn’t long before they yearned for the familiarity of captivity,” Kwong Abazia said of the people. “It might have been harsh, but at least it was predictable. Why can’t they trust God will provide for them? They have got to be thick!”
The Rev. Larissa Kwong Abazia explored Numbers 20:1-13 during her Worship & Music Conference sermon on Monday. (Photo by Rich Copley)
To be enslaved, she said, “means you have absolutely no identity. You are beaten into submission … This is what the Hebrew people bore into their being when they stepped out into the wilderness.”
“Shall we bring water for you out of this rock? Moses is less than sympathetic to their situation. He is an exhausted leader brought to the limits of his capacity. His people are pressing in on him,” she said.
“This is the reality of empire. We are like the Hebrew people yearning for the familiar comforts of life in captivity. But we’re also like Moses: “Do as you’re told!’ We want unwavering trust and absolute obedience.”
“That witness to empire,” Kwong Abazia said, “can cost us crossing into the promised land, too.”
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