Beloved of God,

Music shapes us, and shapes us profoundly.  It’s the universal language that captures and conveys so many of our experiences and emotions, our desires and aspirations as human beings.  Who among us could not cite a telling moment from our personal history which is inseparably linked with a particular song?  On our trek to school each day, Kai and I have a variety of recordings from which we choose.  One of these, a compilation CD, has a smattering 70’s music—including Earth, Wind, and Fire’s Sing a Song (!)—that never fail to get me moving.  A couple beats in and it’s the fall of 1975 and I’m back at Hong Hall on the PLU campus for the first college dorm dance.  On the other hand, the slightest hint of a Ralph Vaughn Williams’ choral work transports me to churches and concert halls around the country where I lived and breathed music while on tour with PLU’s Choir of the West.

Whether you’re a person who falls captive first to the melody of a song or first to its lyric, the marriage of the two has the power to transform.  Brother Martin (Luther, that is) knew this well when he wrote:

“I wish to see all arts, principally music, in the service of Him who gave and created them. Music is a fair and glorious gift of God. I would not for the world forego my humble share of music. Singers are never sorrowful, but are merry, and smile through their troubles in song. Music makes people kinder, gentler, more staid and reasonable. I am strongly persuaded that after theology there is no art than can be placed on a level with music; for besides theology, music is the only art capable of affording peace and joy of the heart…the devil flees before the sound of music almost as much as before the Word of God.”  

When the emotional depth which music expression provides is combined with the keenest verbal expressions of our Christian faith, the combination carries us to places we just couldn’t arrive at by any other path.

For the past nearly 30 and 20 years, respectively, Sandy King and Jim Miersma have served faithfully and tirelessly as music ministers at Peace, sharing their musical gifts within our worship life and profoundly shaping the life we share as a community of faith.  They’ve weathered pastoral changes, choir director changes, hymnal changes, and myriad other changes that come with the territory of being a church musician, and they’ve done it with sincerity, collegiality, style and aplomb.   We owe them a great debt of gratitude!  When you have two organists who get along with each other so well and so long, and who are so easy to work with, you can get spoiled!   It’s truly been a joy to work with you both.  We can only hope that the person who succeeds you will be primed to carry on in the same vein as you a legacy musicianship, teamwork, and dedicated service to Christ’s church.

Thanks Jim and Sandy!  And Godspeed.  

Soli Deo Gloria

Pastor Erik

NOTE: A celebration of Music Ministry at Peace take place at Peace on Sunday, June 3rd beginning at 10:30 am worship.  Worship will be followed by a luncheon marking Sandy and Jim’s combined 50 years of music ministry at Peace.  All are welcome.