Second Sunday after Easter April 23, 2006

We performed Kelly Carlisle's liturgy today. It is word and music infused with strong faith. I hardly feel I can describe it in a way that can capture much of it's power but I will try.

The Kyrie invokes God, and Kelly's music is rich stating our work in worship and our plea to God to unite us in God's love. It is personal and communal as the minister sings first the call and then over the response of the congregation. It is deeply treasured by our congregation.

Then, without pause, the Gloria follows. The joy in this music cannot be contained and it feels like angels could be singing to everyone about the peace and glory of God. There is a forward momentum that propels us through to the end where there is a confident recognition of the Trinity and that God alone is the Holy One and the most high.

Deep into the liturgy, during The Great Thanksgiving, is the Sanctus. The music builds the prayer, the words punctuate the music. Then, after amens are sung to welcome each aspect of the Trinity, the music changes key and there is this warm affirmation:

Through Christ, with Christ, in Christ, in the unity of the spirit, All glory and honor is yours, O God, now and forever. Amen, amen.

Pastor Dayle talks about Sunday and worship as 'a spiritual battery charge for those who attend' for the rest of the week. This is music that does precisely that for me, together with the rest of the liturgy.

Also we perform Kelly's Jesus Lamb of God with the liturgy for the first time. Beautiful song and it is beautiful how Kelly's litury continues to grow and evolve.

The music composed for the liturgy is complete but the service ends with This Little Light of Mine. There is something alive and joyful in this sending song that speaks to Kelly's liturgy for me - a confidence about God being with us and that what Jesus has given us will stay. The closest comparison I can think of is a Bob Dylan song that he performed during his Christian period called Solid Rock. The chorus is:

Well, I'm hangin' on to a solid rock
Made before the foundation of the world
And I won't let go, and I can't let go, won't let go
And I can't let go, won't let go, and I can't let go no more.

There is a confidence and a will expressed in the I won't let go together with a trust in God that the I can't let go describes.

Kelly's liturgy captures and elicits this spirit and faith within me.

Holy Week: Easter

After the three services of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Vigil; the Sunday morning Easter service covers familiar ground. The services certainly were a musical showcase. Matt led a choir practice with Joel, Greg, Peter, Sue, Shirley, Liz, Craig and myself with the song I Go To The Rock and it was apparent that this long time choir favorite was going to be a highlight.

David played a trumpet fanfare at the beginning of the service that announced the special service. Matt was the master of the three ring musical circus as the music moved from one style to another. Kelly was playing guitar and the excitement of the service was palpable.

The choir sang and I Go To The Rock was a highlight. Even more so than usual there were a variety of musical styles and Matt was the ringmaster keeping the musical styles compatible and moving.

There was a fantastic fund raising breakfast for the youth between services and an Easter egg hunt for the children.

Holy Week: Easter Vigil

Out of the Darkness.

Easter Vigil is not a service I celebrated until I began worshipping at Creator and, after attending one, I was immediately hooked.

The tradition of telling stories of God’s promise and deliverance is powerful. The folks at Creator mix joyous music with acting and skits that might best be described as inspired silliness.

Donn was the Assisting Minister and chanted the processional verse, “The light of Christ”. The response of “Thanks be to God!” set one of the many moods of the service.

The “Story of Creation” was acted out by members of the congregation who would improvise something on the spot. For instance Al played darkness and as he moved he came up with using the Darth Vader theme from Star Wars to make himself known as “dark”.

The “Story of the Flood” involved the whole congregation in something like a party game where we tried to sort ourselves into correct groups based on cutout pieces we were given prior to the service. The Sunday school children also sang songs about God’s goodness.

The High School youth performed “The Story of the Exodus”. Taylor, Tory, McKenna, Laura and Abby all participated with Larry as an adult volunteer. Their dialogue was witty and the story charmed us.

The room fills with joy as the performance of Kelly's song "Out Of The Darkness" fills our hearts while the santuary is transformed from somberness into light. Earlier Old Testament stories were shared together with songs. This year Pastor Dayle tried to to have people tell personal Creator stories. Toni Hartung talked about the meals that Creator members prepared for her family when their daughter was in the hospital. The stories I know, that have impressed or stayed with me I will try to post here.

Holy Week: Good Friday

Creator's evening service emphasizes Good Friday as the darkest night. It is the dark night of our soul. This is the night faith is tried, when the consequence of faith is frightening to us. This is the part of the three part service where the altar is stripped, where we understand how deeply and constantly we betray in life what we profess to believe.

Thomas Merton in New Seeds of Contemplation writes:

Souls are like wax waiting for a seal. By themselves they have no special identity. Their destiny is to be softened and prepared in this life, by God's will, to receive, at their death, the seal of their own degree of likeness to God in Christ. And that is what it means, among other things, to be judged by Christ.The wax that has melted in God's will can easily receive the stamp of its identity, the truth of what it was meant to be. But the wax that is hard and dry and brittle and without love will not take the seal: for the hard seal, descending upon it, grinds it to powder.

Therefore if you spend your life trying to escape from the heat of the fire that is meant to soften and prepare you to become your true self, and if you try to keep your substance from melting in the fire -- as if your true identity were to be hard wax -- the seal will fall upon you at last and crush you. You will not be able to take your own true name and countenance, and you will be destroyed by the event that was meant to be your fulfillment.

Jesus helps us deal with our fears, our knowledge of death and our knowledge of injustice in the world and this is the night where this is the most visceral.

Thursday Study: April 28, 2006

Toni led a small group in reading and discussing "Faithful and Courageous: Christians in Unsettling Times" by the current ELCA Bishop, Mark Hanson.

What struck me was how quickly this group, which met for the first time, could be so candid. We discussed fear being a true opposite of faith and the truth of that in our lives. How can one be courageous and act as we are called upon to act as Christians when 'common sense' might dictate different behavior?

The discussion turned to our definitions of faith and courage. Ruth and Don had recently seen the HBO miniseries Band of Brothers and talked of the courage revealed in that drama based on exploits of Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment. The emergency workers who rushed to help at the World Trade Center on 9/11 were also mentioned.

This is one of the few meetings I will likely be able to attend. The meetings are at noon and I would be at work but I left impressed and continue to read Bishop Hanson's book.

Holy Week: Maundy Thursday

Maundy Thursday begins the three day, three part service of Holy Week. This day commemorates the Last Supper, when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples and established the Eucharist. “Mandatum novum do vobis” (“a new commandment I give to you”) is the command given by Christ at the Last Supper, that we should love one another.

The foot washing has been, in the past few years for me, at the emotional core of Maundy Thursday. This year, though, it is the personal confession opening the service that rivets my heart. How many opportunities slip away where I could recognize where I personally miss the mark. Each Sunday it is so easy to crowd away from my mind and spirit during the service, all my actions that were rooted in ego, cynicism, routine or laziness throughout the week.

The commandment is global but even applying this locally is challenging. For me church is the foundation of where this kind of love begins. I think about how close so many people in our congregation are to each other.

This year the observance of Holy Week also reminds me how much more meaningful it becomes for me each year. Dante Alighieri chose to begin his epic poem the Commedia Divina--Divine Comedy on Maundy Thursday and today this links with this command to love one another. My awareness was triggered by a recent exploration of Dante’s work.

Most of us, when we read Dante, focus on the Inferno. There is a palpable feel to the images we encounter in this first part of the Divine Comedy. However a few lines from the Paradiso captures a perspective and depth to Jesus’ commandment this year I had not apprehended completely in my heart until now:

O grace abundant, by which I presumed
To fix my sight upon the Light Eternal,
So that the seeing I consumed therein!

I saw that in its depth far down is lying
Bound up with love together in one volume,
What through the universe in leaves is scattered;

Substance, and accident, and their operations,
All interfused together in such wise
That what I speak of is one simple light.

The universal fashion of this knot
Methinks I saw, since more abundantly
In saying this I feel that I rejoice.

With these lines in mind Jesus' commandment to love one another illuminates my thoughts and how I view the world and the people around me.

So often we assume there is a constant scarcity of resources in our daily life. This is how life appears, particularly when the theory of evolution is accepted which has its root in Thomas Malthus and his "Principle of Population". In this view all of us compete for life and resources. What we are given is divided with the constant questions as to the justice and fairness of the division.

Jesus, in this one commandment, offers a way to shatter this assumption. As Dante writes, what through the universe in leaves is scattered is “bound up with love together in one volume”. Loving one another as unique pages, each necessary for the whole volume, is now at the heart of the commandment for me. To lose one page is to diminish the relationship of our universe with God. There is a new meaning and urgency to this commandment today that challanges me to put into practice what goes against my 'common sense'.

This brings it all home again to me with the confession I found so important in this Maundy Thursday service.

There are lyrics going over and over in my head as Mary and I leave worship. They are from the Joni Mitchell song, The Three Great Stimulants:

I picked the morning paper off the floor
It was full of other people's little wars
Wouldn't they like their peace
Don't we get bored
And we call for the three great stimulants
Of the exhausted ones
Artifice, brutality and innocence
Artifice and innocence

Holy Week: Palm Sunday Afternoon - The Cross Walk

Since my wife and I first participated in the annual Cross Walk for the Oregon Trail Cluster of the ELCA, it has become an important event of Holy Week for us. It is a unique ministry. Church members and pastors follow a pre-planned route and carry a cross in a local neighborhood. At stops along the route each church leads the group in brief words appropriate to the service provided by those within the selected building. For instance, if it is a fire station, prayers would be spoken, appreciation would be given, and songs would be sung for the firemen. Those members of the church that lead are then responsible to carry a good sized cross to the next location.

At 2:30 PM, my family headed for Zion Lutheran Church in Oregon City. The rain, which was threatening all day, begins once we are underway. Mary is recovering from being sick. Both of us remember last year’s Cross Walk when it poured down rain for the entire event. Mary asks me to promise to stop her if from the temptation to walk in the rain because she is worried she will become sick again if she does. Fortunately the weather clears when we pull up to the church.

David Biggam is already in the church, ready for the initial service, and Pastor Dayle arrives as well. Both have been a part of the Cross Walks that we have attended over the years. While we are waiting for the service to begin David notes, “This doesn’t excite as many people in our congregation as the church auction or other fund raisers. I am not sure why.” Something in his thoughtful gaze and his voice shows how important this ministry of walking out into the community is for him.

Why this is a powerful experience for all of us is certainly unique to each individual and, at least for my wife and I, varies from year to year.

The first year we chose to attend there was a large group of people. The weather was beautiful. There were so many people Sunday traffic was stopped and cars waited while we crossed streets. The power that year came in what this demonstrated to the community outside of the participants. This was doing something unusual. It was easy to imagine pedestrians and drivers pausing to consider what they were seeing.

Last year the focus shifted to the endurance of the group. Many did not have umbrellas or waterproof coats to protect themselves from wind and rain. When carrying the cross umbrellas were useless anyway, and water penetrated the coats. The waterlogged cross was heavy and awkward. I know my wife and I, had we been alone, would have left for comfort and shelter as soon as the heavy rain started. However; the strength of those around us, as they persevered, kept us on the walk until the end.

This year there was no rain and we were thankful. There was also a much lighter turnout and there was speculation if it was due to last year’s experience. We walked the area where the Oregon Trail ended and, in beauty and the quiet of a peaceful Sunday afternoon, it was the songs the group sang stood out for me today.

As each of us sang these very familiar songs, it emphasized the community we share in common with one another that has developed over years of worship. The qualities that contributed to the strength of the songs is hard to breakout and describe. The group was small and the individual voices were clear. We sang songs of faith; we sang outdoors without any musical accompaniment and there was a beautiful vulnerability in that sound.

Music is important to our church, but I must admit I don’t often recognize those moments when the music is moving beyond the ears of those who could possibly be listening. That was what I felt with the songs. It didn’t matter who was listening, these songs were reverent messages to God. Once again, the power of the Cross Walk was overwhelming.

Holy Week: Palm Sunday - Morning Worship Services

Praying for God’s grace and help; this blog is dedicated to you on Palm Sunday April 9, 2006.

So what is to be remembered in the first posting from this present to our past? What really happened, that these words can pass along, during the Palm Sunday services at Creator Lutheran Church and an afternoon Cross Walk in Oregon City today?

With each struggle made to capture the events of the day, layers of significance are revealed. When should I call an end to the struggles? What will these words convey and what details will not be used? What can be revealed in these pages?

I know many people looking to achieve the best daily life offers; others are looking for another level of meaning. Many have hopes and desires to reach both. Different hearts with different open doors. Right now, these words are a door I want to keep open. As to the other decisions, basically the workmanship of these postings I leave to the spirit within.

I’ll start with the Sunday services. Parking and approaching the church on an early gray morning is familiar like most Sunday mornings. The routine silence always focuses me on the physical details of entering the building. It is easy to spot our church because the size of the cross in front dominates the overall structure. A cell phone company once approached the congregation with an opportunity to build a cell tower which would provide a guaranteed annual income. There was an initial reluctance which was finally overcome when the idea came to make the cell tower take the form of a cross.

I arrive early to I play rhythm guitar for worship. There is time to turn on the sound system, make adjustments to the microphone positions, and still have a few minutes to warm up. The other musicians, those involved in altar set up, other volunteers, greeters and ushers also arrive. Quickly the musicians agree who will play which instruments for each song, and then we quickly run through the least familiar songs.

At its best, Sunday worship is a heady, hearty mix of music and ideas; of celebration and confession; of ritual and innovation; of drama and the everyday detail, of individual need and community talents. There is a conscious effort to change the liturgy and music from week to week. Services here are often at their best and filled with joy and a strong sense of the holy.

I am nervous and tense this morning. I waited to start writing until today and I debate with myself whether to jot down notes or fully participate and remember the details later but since I play guitar through the service jotting down notes really isn't practical.

The service starts in the narthex and there is a procession into the sanctuary this morning. As the service progresses I soon find my wait is rewarded by three auspicious moments or, more precisely, three fortuitous signs of a great beginning to the start of this blog occured in the morning services.

The first came in Pastor Dayle’s Palm Sunday sermon. She spoke of an upcoming documentary on the Gospel of Judas. She emphasized that Bible is a book of faith, not a book of facts so this gospel should not threaten faith and quickly moved to other ideas.

The next is how we, as Christians, both reach in and reach out in ministry. She reaches the heart of her message when she says,

“Last week Pastor Fred Ruhnke preached about reaching out and telling others about our faith community. That’s about service! Reaching out is ministry. We reach in and we reach out. Some of you have prepared meals for families from Creator who suffered a loss or who have an illness… others of you have received such a meal. My family received a meal a few years ago when Peter’s dad died. Twenty or so family members were served a meal from a Creator family. I cannot tell you how such a ministry lifts a burden for a family. That’s ministry in the nitty gritty details of life.

To know Jesus is to have a relationship with him. We could each write our own stories of good news or gospel. Each of our stories would be a little different. Some would have palm branches; others wouldn’t even mention a tree. It’s likely that we’d all have a story or two of betrayal… because we all have betrayed or been disloyal to Jesus and to our own call to discipleship”

I am astonished as she says this. I did not share my intention to begin this blog with anyone but my wife and here Pastor Dayle’s sermon addresses in great detail everything I desire to do. I want this to be a story of Creator’s good news; to be a ministry that reaches in and reaches out and to tell of the ministry we share in the nitty-gritty details of life.

This is still in my thoughts when Kelly Carlisle, Creator’s former music minister, together with his sons, premieres a new song Kelly wrote and dedicated to his wife.

My attention focuses on this new highlight. “Peace I Give To You” quietly swells and touches many hearts, as I find out later. The song has a simple, classical feel which highlights the words of Jesus from John 14:27 “Peace I give to you; not as the world gives, give I to you. Don't let your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful”.

Kelly does not play music at the church as often now. He was our past music minister but when he was given a promotion he realized he needed to devote more time to his career. Matt Weiers, a talented jazz pianist and drummer, became the new music minister. David Lee, another talented jazz pianist who also playsdrums, is an essential part of the core group that plays each Sunday.

Needless to say, unveiling a new Kelly Carlisle composition is an event. True faith and hope are difficult to capture in song. With this song, like his other compositions, one feels the kingdom of God is not only possible but is in the process of becoming a reality. This work is structured on a bible verse and adds different dimensions to it. It is as strong and beautiful as the liturgy Kelly wrote. It helps me understand in a new way how a composition can build faith.

There is one last celebratory event that closes the service. The ending musician orientation is David Lee, playing piano, Matt on drums, and Kelly and I on guitar. David leads us through an energetic calypso-feel rendition of our closing hymn “Go, My Children, With My Blessing” as the service concludes. He runs through improvisational solos, changes rhythm, and takes his fellow musicians breathlessly through a wondrous musical breaking out. His talent is astounding and David creates an unusually free and playful musical space for us to work in. Creator is open to this space and takes this kind of exploration to heart.

Holy Week has begun for Creator.