The gifts of food and wisdom
Tuesday’s Worship & Music Conference service features beautiful choral efforts, African drumming and, as always, insightful preaching
MONTREAT, North Carolina — During Tuesday’s worship service, choirs sang beautifully. Conferees played their djembe drums with gusto. In between, Dr. Margaret Aymer, the preacher for the Presbyterian Association of Musicians’ Worship & Music Conference being held this week and next at Montreat Conference Center, talked to the 650 conferees about putting on clothes of kindness.

The Adult Choir sang Lori McKenna’s “Humble and Kind,” arranged by Ed Lojeski. Among the lyrics: “Go to church ‘cause your mama says to/Visit Grandpa every chance that you can/It won’t be wasted time/Always stay humble and kind.”
During an instrumental interlude, choir members walked forward, shaking hands with worshipers and handing them candy, before resuming their anthem.
Young people read from 1 Samuel 25:1-39, the account of Abigail saving David and his renegade army before David became king. From time to time during the reading, a singer would sing the chorus of “Goodness Is Stronger Than Evil.”

The ancient hymn writers in the psalms spoke of God’s kindness “bearing a special mark,” Aymer said, and Paul writes to the church in Galatia that kindness is a fruit of the Spirit.
In 1 Samuel 25, David “is in an anxious place. David and his followers are hiding in wild desert places” and he “needs someone to show him God’s grace in a time of fear and grief.” It reminded Aymer of the song “You Will Be Found” from “Dear Evan Hansen”: “Have you ever felt like nobody’s there? Have you ever felt forgotten in the middle of nowhere?”
“David could easily have sung that song, and in truth, so can some of us,” Aymer said. Isolation, peer pressure at school, stress at work, health and home “all leave us hungry for generosity, thirsty for kindness.”
David and his rebel forces could have attacked the vulnerable shepherds and taken over their flocks. Instead, they “protect the vulnerable with benevolence, generosity and kindness. Even as he longed for kindness, David showed kindness to others,” she said. For Nabal — literally, “The Fool” — “kindness is ridiculous,” she said. “Why should he care for refugees fleeing oppression? Nabal the Fool spits in the face of David’s kindness, dismissing David’s men as though they were dirt in his shoe.”

These days, “we have entered an age where kindness is viewed as an expletive by those with an excess of power and wealth,” Aymer said. “Doesn’t the Bible say God helps those who help themselves?” The Bible says no such thing, Aymer pointed out. “It says that God is kind and God’s people are kind, and friends, David tends to be kind. But David is also human, and Nabal the Fool has roused David’s anger.”
Only one person stands between these men and disaster: Abigail the Peacemaker. “Abigail takes of her abundance to feed David and his men. She averts certain disaster upon herself and her husband,” Aymer said. Food isn’t her only gift; she also brings him wisdom. “It is a gift of kindness generously given and gratefully accepted by David, the future king. … She reminds him he belongs to God, and he is anointed to serve God as the leader of God’s people. As God’s anointed, David must choose how he will lead.”

Each of us has the capacity to be Nabal, David and Abigail, Aymer said. “We all have a place we can turn to when we are needing kindness, when our foolishness is too much to bear. Through Christ, we can always return to this table,” she said, gesturing at the Communion table, “where every wanderer will be given sustenance for the journey — where foolish Peter, doubting Thomas and even betraying Judas were welcome.”
It took about 20 people to serve the Lord’s Supper to such a large congregation. Dr. Tom Trenney led the gathering in a powerful call-and-response Great Thanksgiving, with the final glorious “amen” ringing throughout Anderson Auditorium.
The Senior High Choir rendered a gorgeous rendition of Wendell Whalum’s “There Is a Fountain.” Members of the African Drumming class, which will be featured in an upcoming Presbyterian News Service article, put the exclamation point on yet another engaging Worship & Music Conference service.
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