7th Sunday after Easter Sunday Service

Pastor Dayle started her sermon by saying:

Stories are our way of understanding the world. Jesus prayed the story of our lives: “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world.”

These strong words relate directly to my efforts in this blog. At the Oregon Synod Assembly apparently one speaker said unless we in the ELCA do a better job of telling our story, our denomination could be gone in 50 years given the current trends in church attendance.

Pastor Dayle’s talk during children time helped emphasize how much of our worship and music are as intregal to that wonderful story as the Bible readings. I was touched by what she pointed out to the children.

During the Music in Worship, Worship in Context facilitated by Mark Douglas, Director of Worship and Arts for Central, Portland he talked about the Christian story being, at root for Lutherans, a different message to the one everyday world presents to us. He proposed the Christian message is not the same message that we hear in society.

It was an interesting statement. This is in keeping with the church as I see it today more than the church I experienced as a child and young adult. At that time, for me, the Lutheran churches I attended seemed in lock step with society’s perspectives and concerns. I remember my pastor saying, “God helps those who help themselves” in response to a question I had as if he was quoting the Bible. The church to me seemed about sanctifying everything we did as Americans.

When thinking about the parts of the Christian community that are currently growing it seems society or “family values” is of major importance to the churches that are experiencing a burst in attendance. We have, at our core, a different message. Might some of this be playing a part of the decline in attendance?

Back to the sermon Pastor Dayle said more about stories:

I’ve come to believe that telling our stories is the most important thing we do. Our stories are our breath. Our stories are life. Jesus was a master story teller. His followers we enthralled with his stories. People understood God through the stories Jesus told of the poor being rich, the lowly being lifted up. And these stories are our stories to tell and retell.

One of the passionate stories we heard in the service today was Rebekah Burton singing, “The Potter’s Hand”. Mary and I saw her perform more than a year ago at The Grotto during Christmas with her trained voice singing sacred music and were blown away by the power of her voice. We have also seen her perform with her band “Tribe of the Outcast” where her voiceand piano are imbued with a raw, naked authenticity. This was a performance that blended those two extremes. Rebekah turned the chorus into a plaintive, heartfelt prayer and I was astounded by her performance.