Christmas Cantatas at First Evangelical Lutheran Church began some 35 years ago.  Years earlier, I became involved in music at the church as a little girl. Accompanying the church choir, serving as an organist for worship, and eventually becoming the Director of Music Ministries.  In the early 1980’s I had the opportunity to attend my first music continuing education classes. 

 

The week in Minneapolis was a gift from my Pastors.  I climbed on a plane for the first time in my life and traveled to Minneapolis/St. Paul for a Lutheran conference.  The Pastors took care of every single detail in planning for me to attend, even including some extra spending money.  The conference was a mountain top experience with featured guests such as master organist Paul Manz, and theologian, Martin Marty along with many other greats in the Lutheran culture. 

 

During an evening at the conference, I attended an inspiring event that would change my life forever. It was a Lutheran choir presenting a “cantata.”  A cantata is a collection of music, with narratives to create a musical story.  On the plane ride home, quite honestly without much prayer, I decided to embark on a Christmas Cantata for my choir at the church. 

 

A cantata called “The Love Gift” was purchased.  I’ll never forget that first cantata.  I couldn’t even tell you what the message was that year as I was so overwhelmed by the number of singers. On any given Sunday at the church during my first year as director there were 9 singers in the choir.  On cantata Sunday there were 14 singers.  The number was amazing to me and I believe, the first affirmation from God.

 

Each year the choir held more and more singers and came to include people from other churches and denominations.  The Christmas Cantata Choir would sing at First Lutheran and then take the presentation on the road to sing at other churches. We received invitations from all over the community and accommodated those invitations as much as possible.  One year we were invited to sing at an L.D.S. church. Following our cantata presentation, the leaders of the stake presented me with a most wonderful book filled with my personal genealogy.  Hundreds of documentations and dates going back to the 1600’s.  It was then that I learned of my 9th great grandparents, John Alden and Priscilla Mullins, pilgrims who survived that first winter in Plymouth, on rations of 6 kernels of seed corn per day.  The book was truly a gift of love given to me by the L.D.S. church.  Another moment that had an impact on my life.  A passion was placed in my heart to make sure that celebrating the birth of Jesus was done with open doors and open hearts to all people of Idaho Falls.  I realized that God’s gift of music brings people together, and I focused more on celebrating the things our churches have in common, rather than our differences.  I have been blessed over and over again, really beyond measure, by the bridges that music can build.

 

About 25 years ago I simply couldn’t find anything that touched my heart in the published cantata booklets.  I decided to try to put my own together. I chose a theme based on the Bible that centered around the birth of Jesus Christ. I began with the writing of narration, then gleaned through hundreds of choral anthems to find ones that inspired me and enhanced the theme. I selected and purchased the music and collated binders for each singer. Our Christmas music library grew over the years to house hundreds of anthems.  Some years we would reuse pieces that were fitting for other cantata themes.  The choir loved singing the old favorites as well as learning new music each year.  I would begin the work in early summer to plan our cantatas.  Prayer most certainly was involved in the process and when the cantata was completed, each sort of took on a life of their own.  They were personal and beautiful, and according to the people attending, very meaningful. Throughout the years, many monetary gifts were given specifically for our music program at the church. This allowed details that enhanced the theme to be accomplished.  I was able to hire pianists, harpists, trumpeters, violinists, flutists, percussion etc. Monetary gifts helped build our hand bell choir, established in the year 2000, and also played a part in our cantatas. There were years with live nativities. Even one with a donkey penned just outside of the church.  Our Mary and Joseph characters, dressed in costume, stood with the donkey, greeting people as they arrived to hear our presentations that year. What a blessing to be allowed to dream big dreams and have funds available to make those dreams possible.  I believe this was another affirmation from God.

 

For many years there were over 75 participants in our cantatas.  I borrowed choir risers from a local high school to accommodate the large choir.  That was when we determined that all presentations would have to take place only at the First Lutheran Church building.  And just as the choir continued to grow, so did the people who came to listen. Soon, we began to offer extra presentations to accommodate the crowds that gathered. 

 

During the additional presentations outside of Sunday mornings no offerings were ever gathered – until one special year.  One of my singers, a school teacher, came to me and told of a student of hers who, along with her single mother and another child, had fallen on some difficult times and were about to lose their home.  The teacher asked me if we might consider taking up a collection for them at our evening presentations.  She and I paid a visit to our church leadership and they gave us the OK. Out of respect for the anonymity of the family we used no last names.  The fund was called “Katie’s family”, the name of the student. Money collected was funneled through the school and the principal helped with appropriate dispersions.  Was Jesus at work during that time in Idaho Falls? The answer is an overwhelming yes! The cantata offerings seemed to become like the fish and loaves used during Jesus’ miracle of feeding the 5000.  The monies were enough to provide Katie’s family with mortgage payments for a year, a new roof on the home, and a remodeled bathroom.  This began our added ministry of taking a free-will offering for local charities at our cantata events. Over $200,000 was given over the years for the needy in our community. 

 

One sweet story about the impact of not just the generous help for the needy, but what blessings come back to the giver, happened prior to a presentation one year. A lovely young mother came to me while holding the hands of her 2 boys.  One boy on each side.  She mentioned that she had attended the cantata the year before and when the offering plates were passed she didn’t know what to do.  In her L.D.S. church that isn’t a practice.  After they returned home that first year, her boys began to keep money in jars for the offering that would be gathered the following year.  And . . . there they were.  Holding their mother’s hand and jars filled with coins in the other, to be place in the offering plates that day. Jesus at work in Idaho Falls.

 

Over the years I received hundreds of cards and letters expressing thanks and telling me of the impact our cantatas had on their lives. Hearts changed.  Faith in God renewed.  The meaningful comments and stories from the attendees have a special place in my heart.  On one occasion, a husband and wife came at the end of a presentation to speak to me.  Their faces were red and swollen and it was clear they had become emotional during our cantata.  The collars of their shirts were even wet with tears.  They told me about their lives as parents.  While choking back tears they talked of having to bury all 4 of their children in a short span of time because of a genetic defect discovered during the children’s teenage years. I was very moved by their life story and will never forget them. The music of the cantata touched those beautiful people, and in some small way helped to ease a bit of their pain.  For any cantata successes, all honor and praise belong to God, and God alone.  

 

One special theme for the cantata in 2004 came because of a choir anthem that my husband Jim and I had commissioned Joseph Martin, a prolific Christian music writer from Austin Texas, to compose specifically for my choir.  We commissioned it to be published in 2005, which was my 35th anniversary of working at the church.  During the first part of 2004, I called Joseph, paid him the commissioning money, and asked that he write a choral anthem with a theme of "cradle to cross."  I gave no other ideas for the piece he would write.  Because he is my favorite composer of church choir music and has had thousands published, I put my trust in him. The anthem was to be completed in time for the choir to sing during the 2004 Christmas Cantata and then be published in 2005.  I loved the idea that the choir at First Lutheran would be singing the song for the first time in its history.  I began working on the other anthem selections and had written all narrations for the 2004 cantata.  There was a space left for Martin’s anthem when it arrived. I had chosen the theme of Jesus’ mother Mary.  I had written a narration segment that contemplated how it might have been for Mary to watch her Son dying on the cross.  I put myself in her place and wondered if perhaps she would have sung a lullaby to comfort Him, as she most likely had done when He was just a Babe.   When Joseph Martin brought my choir anthem to me, (which he did in person to Idaho Falls) I was stunned to read the words.  The anthem went from cradle to cross with each verse having Mary singing a lullaby to her Son.  The anthem is titled “Pieta” which is the name of the Michelangelo’s statue of Mary holding Jesus when He was taken from the cross.  Simply divine.  No other explanation possible except the hand of God. Incidentally, “Pieta” is rated #6 in popularity out of Martin’s over 3000 published choir anthems. It is sung by church choirs throughout the United States.

 

My prayers were fervent every year both in preparation and presentation of our cantatas.  Whenever the choir gathered together, we joined in prayer.  I reminded the choir to be mindful of who may be hearing about Jesus for the first time and also, who may be hearing about Jesus for the last time.  We always talked about the cantata being a presentation, not a performance.  A presentation to God, the Giver of the Gift in the first place.

 

The responsibility was truly overwhelming at times and yet incredibly humbling that God would use my meager talents in such a way.  The program grew and grew until the last years we presented it 6 times to accommodate the crowds that gathered to listen.  Some listeners arrived over 2 hours early for our presentations, just to get a seat.  Some presentations had standing room only and people stood on their feet the entire time.  Some returned back to their homes unable to even get into the church building. Many years the wintry weather was horrendous.  Still they came.

 

The congregation of First Lutheran was incredible, with many people working tirelessly in lots of ways to enhance out cantatas. We offered a presentation for the special needs people of our area and the sanctuary was filled with walkers and wheel chairs.  The people who attended that presentation joined together for a delicious soup luncheon afterward.  Refreshments were served after each presentation and hundreds of people gathered for food and fellowship. The details of the cantatas literally took a village to accomplish.  A village of people at First Lutheran Church who rose beautifully to this opportunity of sharing Jesus in Idaho Falls.

 

During the 35th year anniversary of our cantatas, 2017, our choir was invited to sing at Carnegie Hall in New York City.  65 people were able to make the journey with me and gathered together in that place so far away from Idaho Falls.  The group included family members and singers.  We prepared long and hard for that opportunity to join with choirs from across the U.S. to sing a Christmas Cantata, written and directed by Joseph Martin.  The year prior to our Carnegie Hall invitation, Mr. Martin travelled to Idaho Falls to listen to our choir sing.  What an honor for us, and made the thoughts of singing under his direction in New York even more special.  As we gathered together on the stage at Carnegie Hall the week after Thanksgiving 2017, the exciting history of the great musicians who had graced that place was palpable. I was so very proud of everyone and spent most of my time on the stage, weeping tears of love for my choir.  The week following our Carnegie Hall concert we gathered back home in Idaho Falls and sang the same Christmas Cantata inside the sanctuary of First Evangelical Lutheran Church.  The place where we belonged. 

 

That would be my last cantata at the church, number thirty-five. The memories will stay with me always. I will forever cherish the many stories of lives changed through the music that we sang.  And I am very thankful for the people that I worked with and met during those years.  I am more convinced than ever that music serves to unite God’s people.  I have always loved and believed in these words of Martin Luther, “Music is a fair and glorious gift from God.  Singers are never sorrowful, but are merry, and smile through their troubles in song.  Music makes people kinder, gentler, more staid and reasonable . . . the devil flees before the sound of music almost as much as before the Word of God.”

 

Added note by Rachel Barnes, 12/20/2018

 

About 10 years ago I was sensing a tug in my heart to be using my piano skills in the community more.  I was assisting with worship in our church at the time but had a longing to apply my more classical skills. I had no idea where to look and prayed a simple heartfelt prayer “Lord, if this desire is from You, then please open up a door for me.  I have no clue what to do.”  The very next day I received a call “out of the blue” from Penny Dixon, music director at First Evangelical Lutheran Church.  She told me of her need for an accompanist for the adult choir, as well as for the Christmas Cantata choir.  I had never met Penny before.  We were total strangers, but it seemed like an answer to my prayer the previous day, so I easily pursued the idea.  When we met, she had me sight read from a choir anthem the choir would be singing. I started to play but before I could turn the page she started crying and said “That’s enough!  God sent you to me!”  We both felt at that moment that this was a relationship initiated by the Lord.  And to this day I have no doubts that for some reason He put us together for the final 10 years of Penny’s position as music director at First Lutheran.  So many times I witnessed the Lord’s undergirding and carrying the music to a higher level as we committed it to His glory and His care, often in the midst of much weakness, sometimes in the season of grief over loss of loved ones, or battling with sickness and disease, and myriad forms of stress.  Penny pushed for perfection but then backed off, turned and faced the cross and offered it totally to the Lord and accepted whatever happened.  Most often what happened left us all in awe of the Lord, and that is how it should be.  These 10 years were the height of my musical experience, the closest I’ve ever been to “making music in my heart to the Lord.”