Make a Big Deal of It

My yoga teacher in Willow Glen used to very carefully lead us into a pose, through all aspects of form, alignment and breath. And finally when we were fully in the pose he would say "now make a big deal of it"

This phrase rang in my head this weekend as the church celebrated its bicentennial, and held my service of installation. My dear colleague from California traveled 3000 miles with her toddler to preach the sermon, 2 friends from seminary drove all afternoon having preached that morning to say words in the service. My mom and sister and mother-in-law drove all day to be part of the celebration, and family, new friends and colleagues drove from the Ithaca area and all over the district to be part of things. I was so proud of the worship service. All the words and music these dear people offered came together so powerfully, that it left me feeling "wow, and that was just the beginning of whatever it is we have been called to do together!"

Here's a favorite moment: Over a dozen children, who had been waiting patiently in the nursery for the service to begin, lead our processional wearing fabulous glittery, feathery wings. Even the teenagers and some of the visiting kids wore wings (including my little niece, who looked FAB in her little red wings that matched her dress). My son had said "no, I don't think so" to wings, but I brought them anyway. He hurries over to me shortly before the service and says "Mom, I think I changed my mind" and spent the rest of the afternoon finding out how best to get his silk-rainbow wings to catch the wind as he ran and jumped over steps and down the halls. Our children's story featured a chicken, and the story-teller got an earful when he asked which of our kids knew about chickens -- because our kids know chickens, I tell you what. All the music was beautiful. Our choir had to import a tenor from Binghamton to make sure we had 4 part harmony and sang my favorite hymn accapella. But really it was when my husband's clear voice started to sing "I Hear Them All" as he and my sister-in-law strummed their guitars that the tears started to roll down my face.

So I had worked and hoped and lost sleep to make sure the Heritage Sunday service and the Installation service would be the very best I could help create. I should have known that the congregation was also losing sleep and rolling up their sleeves to make the weekend stunning. There were volunteers in the kitchen of the church from before I showed up on Saturday until after our family caravan left Sunday night. I couldn't believe how they transformed the place. Now this is a beautiful historic church building to begin with, but the volunteers of the church had really made a big deal of this. Fresh flowers on every table. Personalized red satin robins on gift bags for every visiting dignitary. A hand-made cake designed by a member on the theme "roots and wings." A catered dinner for the Bicentennial celebration and tons of yummy home made food for the Installation. As I brought my last load of stuff to the car Sunday night, a volunteer ran after me with 2 giant baskets of flowers: "for you" she said. I thought of the volunteers that would be at the church vacuuming and restoring things to Sunday-morning condition while I started the long drive home to Ithaca. I had Monday off, but most of these volunteers had to be at work bright and early. The gratitude was almost too heavy to hold. The energy of many hours of work, of months of planning released over those 2 days of celebration like a powerful wave washing over the whole community.

Now that the last of the guests has flown, it is time to begin the process of sifting and sorting, of processing, of trying to express gratitude, of saying thank you for a multitude of unexpected gifts. I hesitate even to start knowing that in such an outpouring of love and creativity and hard work, I will probably never even know all that went into making it possible. But the celebration is all of ours to share, and is something we can all be proud of. We did it, and it was beautiful. It was a big deal.