Symposium 2012 Comes to a Close
Symposium 2012 did not repeat itself, but certainly featured a variety of rhymes. In the various worship services, concerts, seminars, workshops and plenary addresses, there were Psalms in abundance. The theme for Symposium was praying and worshipping through the Psalms and that book of the Bible provided plenty to ponder for the 1,800 attendees from 40 countries during their stay in Grand Rapids.
Several times during the 2012 Symposium on Worship, Anglican bishop and New Testament scholar N.T. Wright invoked an expression credited to author and humorist Mark Twain: "History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." He used the line in the context of the larger Scriptural narrative, and the echoes and rhymes contained therein, but he could well have also been speaking of the 2012 edition of Symposium. For in the various worship services, concerts, seminars, workshops and plenary addresses, there were rhymes in abundance.
The theme for Symposium was praying and worshipping through the Psalms and that book of the Bible provided plenty to ponder for the 1,800 attendees from 40 countries during their stay in Grand Rapids.
Showing the relationship
Calvin chaplain Mary Hulst provided a powerful context for the days to come at one of the opening worship services when she noted that "God knows the righteous because of Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ didn't become flesh to simply get to know us better. Jesus Christ came to redeem us and because of that Jesus Christ sent His Spirit among us to empower us."
She added that for believers God says to us each day: "Are you showing me the relationship?"
It would be a question dwelt upon at numerous other Symposium events.
Wright on redemption; Brueggemann on "pious snippets"
Indeed in a seminar called "Dying and Rising with Christ: Sacraments, Church Unity, and Faith Formation" (featuring Wright, Paul Galbreath, Martha Moore-Keish, Sue Rozeboom and Dennis Tamburello), Wright noted the relationships between especially the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper and spoke of Christ's redemption present in the sacraments.
"When heaven and earth come together in Eucharist or baptism, we dare not stand at that place unless the death of Jesus is there on our behalf," he said.
Plenary speaker Walter Brueggemann, a noted author, expert on the Psalms and a retired seminary professor, cautioned those who heard his talk to remember that the Psalms are not a collection of pious snippets and that engaging in the Psalms is engaging in subversive action.
"The dominant world given to us by our culture is not the real world," he said, "and we need not inhabit it. In a world without God there are only idols. The Psalms mediate to us the covenant-making God of Israel."
Wright sounded a similar theme in his plenary address. "The Psalms work in us and invite us," he said, "to live in the radically alternative world that is both creational and covenantal."
In addition to the day-long seminars and daily plenaries, Symposium 2012 also featured 100 seminars, workshops and interactive sessions on a variety of topics: everything from singing the Psalms to improvising at the keyboard to the power of a story to developing word pictures from the Psalms.
The gifts of God for the people of God
And the many themes—Twain's aforementioned rhymes—all came together in the closing worship service, "A Service of Word and Table." From the music (a blend of different styles and instruments and languages) to the presentation of the Scripture (a creative, dramatic interpretation by Friends of the Groom), the service's elements all served to focus attention on the elements of the Lord's Supper: "the gifts of God for the people of God."
In his sermon, Thomas G. Long, a professor of preaching, spoke about the work of believers to shine a light on the mountains of memories and blessings in the lives of fellow believers, to mark and to remember those moments of God's faithfulness and the faithfulness of His followers, to, as Hulst might say, show the relationship.
And then those in the Covenant Fine Arts Center auditorium came forward to participate in Communion before being sent on their way with a triune blessing in different languages: "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all."