Shifting Perspectives: The Organ
Wednesday, July 2, 2025
written by Rev. Erik Khoobyarian
I recently preached a sermon in which I talked about changing our perspective in order to see the world a little differently. I shared about a time when I laid down in the grass to take photos. I described an exhibit featured on our Art Wall with photographic images and drawings made by the children of Pinnacle Presbyterian Preschool. The children explored the Memorial Garden and their creations offer a different perspective from which to see the Garden. One image in particular has stayed with me. Having no reason to know that the granite beneath her is enclosing an empty tomb, one of the students draped herself over the stone in an embrace I can only call a sacred blessing. I have no idea which niche she blessed.
Shifting perspectives. One of my favorite teachings of the midrash (ancient Jewish commentaries) says that there are 70 aspects, or ways of seeing, every scripture. The scripture, the midrash says, is like a diamond reflecting light from each of its facets. We turn the diamond – shifting our perspective – in order to see it in different ways and in a different light. This is part of why it is so important for us to hear one another’s voices and observations about scripture and the world.
This is also one of the reasons why I value the gifts of others, and especially people with gifts dramatically different from my own. We each bring gifts into this world and part of our role is to see the various facets on the diamond and to turn the stone and see what others are bringing.
Music, for me, is one of those ways that I connect with the Divine, but also where I see how God has gifted others around me with such wonderful skills, motivation, creativity, and passions so that I might be drawn even more deeply toward God by seeing God reflected in them. Pinnacle’s organ has been one of the avenues by which I have experienced God’s goodness through the gifts of others. Ever since I first visited Pinnacle, I was drawn toward its magnificence, but also the subtleties of the limited exposed elements of the organ. There’s so much that lies behind the ornamental doors which makes it possible for the artist to release the wondrous glory.
The more I’ve gotten to know Dr. Ilona Kubiaczyk-Adler and appreciate her musicianship, I see that there’s so much more to the Richards, Fowkes & Co. Opus 14 than its creation and construction nearly 20 years ago. Indeed, the mystery of perhaps any instrument, but especially this one, is that there is a relationship that forms between the musician who cares for it and plays it, and this mystery is one that is difficult for others to understand. Again, even after spending more than three years watching Ilona practice on the organ, perform, and even tune the organ, there has always been some missing link in my ability to understand her relationship with the instrument.
Mysterious relationships are sometimes the best opportunity for those shifted perspectives – the turning of the diamond to see the light in a different way. So, I was absolutely delighted when I learned that Jacob Adler was working on a short film about the organ. Jacob is a talented composer, musician, and filmmaker and decided he wanted to capture something of that mystery between the organist (who happens to be his wife) and our Opus 14. Jacob began gathering footage of the organ and working to capture something of the wonder.
The shifted perspective – the glimpse into a world so different from mine, and I presume most who will read this – resulted in a beautiful short film featuring Ilona and the organ. The film is an utter joy that left me breathless on first viewing. Turning the diamond to see the light shine from a different angle. Interestingly enough, I think somehow there’s even more mystery now after this look through Jacob’s creative lens at the interplay of the organ and the organist. And perhaps that’s the greatest gift of shifting perspectives – the mystery continues as does our thirst to learn and see more.
You can watch Jacob Adler’s film The Organ at this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJ-JfhJ6uJw. Jacob recommends experiencing the film on a large screen with high quality audio equipment. If you do not have the ability to do this at home, on Sunday, July 6, following the 10 am worship service, we’ll show the film in the Rehearsal Hall at Pinnacle Presbyterian Church with special guest Jacob Adler joining us for a filmmaker Q&A following the screening, along with Dr. Ilona Kubiaczyk-Adler.