Musical Memorials
Word From Wiese
31 May 2023
What a weekend past—Graduations, Memorial Weekend, and Pentecost.
This past Sunday, we celebrated Pentecost big-time. Two Sundays ago, we blessed our graduates. So today I lean into the Memorial nuance of last weekend’s triad.
I offer two quick little stories, each with its own special piece of music offered by a remarkable young lady.
First is Amelia Merriman.
Speaking in terms of our weekend themes, Amelia is a graduateof our COS confirmation program. She lives with a Pentecost Pulse, filled with gifts of the Holy Spirit. She wound up at Yale School of Music, just down the street from my seminary days at Yale Divinity School. And now as part of the United States Navy Band, she helps our country both look forward and remember through her gift of music. A few months ago, I contacted Amelia and asked if there were any videos of the Navy Band that we might show at COS. She replied that she’s not in any of them yet. But, she’d be glad to send us a special piece. Here it is, as shared in our service Sunday:
Here is a second story.
One emphasizing that as nations remember and rejoice alike, we rarely do so independently, but usually with partnering nations and peoples, in the spirit of Pentecost.
About six miles from Maastricht, in the Netherlands, lie buried 8,301 American soldiers who died in “Operation Market Garden” in the battles to liberate Holland in the fall and winter of 1944, the story of which I vividly remember in Steven Spielberg’s Band of Brothers.
Every one of the men buried in the cemetery, as well as those in the Canadian and British military cemeteries, has been adopted by a Dutch family who mind the grave, decorate it, and keep alive the memory of the soldier they have adopted. (Personally, I find this practice inspiring and instructional: None of us can help the whole world. But we can help a specific person or cause.
That’s the way Pentecost works. Each one of us allows the Holy Spirit to work through us, empowering us to make a difference right where we are with the special gifts we’ve been uniquely given. Together, church happens). Annually, on “Liberation Day,” memorial services are held for “the men who died to liberate Holland.” The day concludes with a concert. The final piece is always “Il Silenzio,” a memorial piece commissioned by the Dutch and first played in 1965 on the 20th anniversary of Holland’s liberation.
The year is 2014 the soloist is a 13-year-old Dutch girl, Melissa Venema, backed by André Rieu and his orchestra (the Royal Orchestra of the Netherlands). This concert piece is based upon the original version of “Taps” and was composed by Italian composer Nino Rossi.
Melissa Venema – “Il Silenzio”
Remembering with you,
Pastor Fritz
Let us pray:
Dear heavenly Father, remembering is important work. We want to remember well so many things: those who gave their lives for us—chiefly our Lord Jesus, that our graduates have been called by you to discern the special pathway you desire for them in the world, and the good news that your Holy Spirit equips all of us to play our special roles as Pentecost people, which we offer never individually but as part of your larger connected plan of love and life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
