Some time last year I heard Susan Werner being interviewed on public radio. She told of traveling to more than 20 churches across the country and then sitting down to write the songs that make up her CD "The Gospel Truth."At the time of the interview, I was running errands and actually sat and listened in the Target parking lot. I was so taken with her lilting voice, her hard questions that melted into beautiful lyrics, the longing and power in the timbre of her voice.

Words like: "Excuse me sir what did you say, when you shout so loud it’s hard to tell. You have that I must change my ways for I am surely bound to hell. Well I know you’d damn me if you could. But my friend, that’s simply not your call. If God is great and God is good, why is your heaven so small?"

I find that powerful stuff. There have certainly been times when I have been a visitor at a church and have felt something similar. And being someone who has given much of her life to the daily workings of the church, I pray that no one ever leaves a worship service with the same feeling. But I am sure it has happened and I feel the pain of that.

Werner’s words carry a deep longing for what I would call the kin-dom of God…..that gathering of people that lives in the Way of Jesus. A community that is loving, peaceful, accepting,non-judgmental, hopeful,compassionate and unconditional in its pursuit of goodness."I got plenty and then some, what do I do? I got plenty and then some, what do I do? I go out and help somebody get plenty and then some too, that’s what I do." The connections that gird the social action of the church runs through each song.

The pain of being rejected by people who profess belief in a God of Love also finds voice in her lyrics: "How do you love those who never will love you, who are happy to shove you out in front of the train? How do you not hate those who have loaded their Bibles and armed their disciples?  And I can’t find forgiveness for them anywhere in this, and with God as my witness, I really have tried." Those words break my heart because I know so many people who could sing those words with such conviction.

But perhaps the song that most touches me is Sunday Morning."Sunday morning there is someplace that I’m supposed to be. Keeps returning, the feeling keeps coming over me. Just like music, or like sunlight on a a distant memory. Sunday mornings.Sunday mornings." In this song she remembers what it was like to be a part of a family that attended church together, the rituals, warm feelings and sense of safety and belonging that brought to her. As she grew and felt more alienated by her view from the pew, she finally left. But the longing continues and led to the creation of these songs.

If you want to hear the beautiful music that accompanies these words, I invite you hear Susan at Hennepin Church on April 11th. If you cannot make it, I commend her CD to you. She is a minstrel with a heart of gold and a deep search for faith.