August 31st, 2006 - Welcome to the Creator Lutheran Blog

Pastor Dayle sent out an email with a link to the blog. I want to welcome everyone reading this blog for the first time. Please note you can navigate to any recent entries by clicking on the titles displayed on the left hand side of the screen. Past entries are available in the archives.

Always feel free to make comments or email if you would like to make an independent entry in this blog.

It is clear to me, particularly since beginning this writing; we have more than our individual faith stories to consider. We have a group story as well; and we are carried by and carry one another in our worship, in our mission, and in our lives.

This group story is harder to see as we live it day by day. It takes reflection and prayer. This writing, for me, is part of that reflection. Up until now one of the biggest restrictions of this blog was that it was limited to a single point of view and my participation in the recorded activities. Hopefully, this is an opportunity for that point of view to expand.

To everyone who recognizes Creator touches an essential part of their lives, I trust that past or future entries will capture a few of the reasons why.

August 30th, 2006 - Adult Education Planning Meeting

It can be easy to concentrate on the topic of the meeting, the agenda and what needs to be accomplished. What impressed me about this meeting were the participants; Janell, Teresa, Debi and Pastor Dayle. This was not an established group. This was our first meeting but all of us were past volunteers and woven into the fabric of our church life.

It was obvious we started and stayed on the same page in what we wanted to plan. Our suggestions for Adult Education overlapped and were enhanced by the ideas of everyone in the meeting. The discussion naturally flowed into ideas for the Hunger Awareness group, who are now scheduled for Adult Education hours in December.

Debi loaned me a book I was seeking but not knowing it was out there. I know that seems strange but the book is called Food & Faith, from the editor of Simpler Living, Compassionate Life which was on my list of Adult Education possibilities. This editor had this other book out about food awareness which will be helpful to the Hunger Awareness group.

Pastor Dayle provided plenty of material and we were able to schedule most of the year pulling from our ideas and what she presented us. As we were reviewing everything we talked about delving into Faithful and Courageous by Bishop Mark Hansen as an organizing book for the October Dessert Bible Study that is currently being planned.

This shows how easy it is to concentrate on accomplishments of the meeting. As I said, what caught my attention were the connections being made between us and how quickly things could be decided. When Teresa expressed an interest in exploring prayer, the idea of prayer witnesses for Lent was built up within minutes. We watched a video featuring Kelly Fryer whose No Experience Necessary book is planned as the basis for an Adult Education Bible Study in April. There was almost a shorthand understanding that we all had of the thoughts and meanings of what Kelly was presenting in the video.

It was an energizing and productive meeting but it seemed even more important we all left with more friendship and connections to each other than were there before the meeting.

August 27th, 2006 - Sunday Service Worship Celebration

Services at Creator vary greatly from one another in many ways. Intentionally the liturgy settings change from Sunday to Sunday. During Lent we choose to follow a taize-inspired silence between readings using inner silence as a prerequisite for prayer.

Often worship bursts with energy and celebration. This Sunday was one of those worship moments. Creator Praise songs were sturdy, familiar songs the congregation enjoys singing; Come Now Is The Time To Worship and Where Justice Rolls Down. Where Justice Rolls Down also has a series of hand gestures and a line of volunteers is spontaneously formed in front (normally youth and Pastor Dayle) to perform these gestures to this song. Creator Praise set a tone that was picked up in Kelly’s compositions; both in the liturgy and his other music.

We sang You Have Searched Me as the Psalmody today after a long period of not singing it in Creator services. It is a beautiful, humble piece that reminds us of how much God knows about us and in it is a heartfelt prayer:

Look into the shadows of my heart, Lord,
Search every corner of my mind,
Lord, please help me to see all the hurtful things in me
And lead me in Your light.

Once again Pastor Dayle touched on the idea of breaking (actually this time the word was cracking) as not being something to be viewed as wrong or bad but a way for light and truth to shine through who we are and what we build as people, as is described in Leonard Cohen's song Anthem. She also quoted Paul Simon's I Am A Rock as a strong definition of life without community and a part of what Christianity can fight what we wall within us thinking that this keeps us protected.

The cracks, the breaks remind us that as individuals, or what we create by our own work, nothing is God or perfect.

Overall this was a service of music and movement. The joy was palpable. In coming weeks, I'm sure, the services will have different feels and communicate new truths. I anticipate them all.

August 20th, 2006 - Sunday Service apart from David Lee's Liturgy

There is an entry this Sunday about David's liturgy but more happened in this Sunday's service than its liturgy. We heard an incredible sermon from Pastor Dayle on the gospel passage John 6:1-58 and gathering strength in worship for our spiritual journey.

Pastor Dayle starts with her first reaction to the gospel passage when Jesus says, “unless you eat the flesh of the son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.” She admitted it “creeps her out” and the rest of the sermon delves into the meaning of the verses.

This speaks to something central in my faith journey right now. Currently I walk on a tightrope between reading God’s word as metaphor or as events that could be recorded on a video camera if it were there. I am constantly falling and trusting God and Jesus to catch me and help me find the truth.

Notice here I use the word tightrope because it rings true as a description about what I am going through spiritually. I know it is a metaphor and I use it without concern. If someone pointed out that I am not, after all, walking a real tightrope I would admit they were correct. To say I was lying, however, would call into question any use of metaphor and that I would have to protest.

As a writer I am comfortable with metaphor. I trust stories, myths and metaphors can reveal deeper truths. I feel comfortable with the words Pastor Dayle uses to describe the communion meal – we know “when we eat and drink the bread and wine Christ’s presence is real and in some mysterious way, Jesus is taken into us and becomes a part of us.” Jesus calling himself the bread of life makes sense to me metaphorically.

What gives “the creeps”, to my mind, is trying to move this to the everyday language we use to describe the physical world. It doesn’t fit. Yet Christianity also revolves around a historical figure. The further it moves away from the historical there is a danger of it becoming “pie in the sky”. Of course, there is also a danger moving away thinking of the language metaphorically as well. It makes what is being said somewhat ridiculous. What is “living bread”, (that was mentioned in the sermon) if it is not understood as metaphor?

The meaning of communion is a mystery. I can move from a deeply emotional understanding to a purely physical action (hard to admit but sometimes I'm distracted). I understand others might feel differently on the issue, but the more insistence on the details of transubstantiation the more I mentally detach, the more I am "creeped out".

I have read scholars who do not like bible passages considered as metaphor or symbolic language. Their concerns come down to "what is being described did not really happen".

There is a phrase that has haunted me from Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s nest. The narrator swears his story is true “even if it didn’t happen.” Here is where I feel the swing of the tightrope. In literature metaphor and symbolic language is the primary way to receive truth. Is it the same way with religion?

A beautiful piece of the sermon gives some answers to my mind:

We come to communion, the table of new life to receive this living bread, and we are given a piece of bread that is torn from the loaf. A piece of bread that isn’t perfect, it’s pulled apart and the edges are stringy or crumbling. And we hear the words, the body of Christ broken for you. In our world that’s preoccupied with perfection, we realize the body of Christ is broken. The church is broken.

This is the heart of the matter. Christianity is messy. Everything is broken and needs to constantly be reviewed. The last is first, the first last. As soon as you feel you are humble, you are no longer humble. Ultimately there is no final answer to the history / metaphor (or story) debate. The truth is felt moment by moment and it is not clean. Sometimes it feels crummy that there are no pat answers.

So, frustrating as well as fruitful, the journey continues.

August 20th, 2006 - David Lee's Liturgy in Sunday Service

When I reflect on Creator's blessings I am humbled. For example, I never met musicians who wrote liturgies before coming to this congregation and now I know two who have commited their time and talent to that end. I already discussed Kelly’s liturgy in an earlier blog entry. I look forward to experiencing that liturgy next Sunday. Today the service's setting was David Lee’s liturgy.

This is gorgeous music. Glory To God starts with rich, full notes emphasizing the glory. That glory is made home, the place where the piece needs to return to. When it moves to song from that center David quickly creates a tension in the music that builds until the glory comes again. This tension happens during the petition when the words "Lord Jesus Christ, the only son of God / you take away our sins, have mercy on us / seated at the right hand of God, receive our prayers" and the music answers the petition with the" glory" home.

David's music bursts into beauty. The Path To You is a perfect example. This starts with a simple melody, a simple statement. It is the quiet moment the lyric describes. The with "Fill me with Your presence" it builds into a dramatic "Find me, guide me show me the path". The musical passage lasts until the last line where "Show me the path to You" is back to a simple prayer.

The Great Thanksgiving leads us into the mood of the Sanctus. This is not necessarily a joyous Sanctus. It is a Sanctus that captures the awe in these words. The praise is sound, again quiet with dignity which emphasizes the words are describing.

The sung response to the Eucharistic Prayer continues the mood of the Sanctus starting with the declaration "Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again" it moves into an invitation "Amen, come Lord Jesus" and ends modulating up in key with the invitation "Amen, come Holy Spirit". The melody basically moves up then down moving up a note at the end of the phrase which is underscores attempt reaching up and opening our hearts to the higher spirit of God coming down.

Lamb Of God moves in minor and flatted chords. This is the mystery of Eucharist captured in this music. As it is sung there is a feeling of being part of something that is beyond individual joy or sorrow, something timeless.

A congregational favorite of David's compositions is I Lift Up My Soul. Sung as it is in the liturgy - during communion - the first part suggests sheer energy, an acknowledgement and release knowing you are part of Christ's body "I lift up my soul to you, all that I am is Yours". Like David's other music there is a complication in the second part, a prayer to "receive my troubled heart, lead me in you truth, and show me your mercy".

There is a powerful combination in Kelly and David's liturgies, and a congregation who are familiar with both. Together they lift the services with these liturgies in our hearts. I am moved beyond words to be a part of incredible worship experiences when they happen like this.

August 15th, 2006 - 6th Bible Study Whol – i - ness with Myself, Others and God.

Host: Kelly and Nancy Carlisle

Topic: Volitional

Bible Verse: 1 Thessalonians 4:1-12

The last in this series of Whol – i - ness with Myself, Others and God was well attended. All were comfortable with the format but the passage ended up being a sensitive one. Creator is still deeply divided over the circumstances that led to our youth leader's departure most recently and how to define and deal with sexual immorality or freedom and recognize when boundaries are being crossed. This bible passage highlighted all the decisions, concerns and love that came up during that departure. We read the passage and the historical background in which it was written. Converts, at that time, had not fully understood the ethical implications of the Gospel and were showing laxity in ethical matters. Some felt they no longer needed to work as they waited for the second coming. Kelly led our group and asked the questions like “What three areas of lifestyle, discussed here, most affect a Christian’s ministry?” and “What does this passage say to someone who has already made sexual mistakes?”

Susan talked about striking a balance between individuals serving themselves, serving others and serving God.

Many of us spoke to the issues from different perspectives. The teachers, like Michele, talked about teaching limits to students who believe they can do anything they want, as long as you mind your own business and no one gets hurt with an exercise where the ripple effects are revealed to the students.

Many of us were parents thinking about teenagers in or heading into times where decisions in this area will dictate and change their lives.

There was the aspect of judgment and whether it was appropriate, effective, or damaging to tell someone you care about if, in your judgment, a bad choice was being made. Creator, as talked about earlier, was factionalized by questions of what constitutes immorality versus freedom. There have been many changes in those definitions.

What impressed me is how open so many in the group were to truly discussing this issue and understanding there were many contradictory answers to these questions. Everyone seemed to respect other's answers to these questions.

August 13th, 2006 - Sunday Service

Today worship feels expansive. We confess our sins, give our thanks and pray as our thoughts turn to grace and salvation.

I find immediate blessing as I touch the water in the baptismal font this morning. There are small shiny stones with words, fun, inspiration, joy to name a few.

Those words are on my mind as I play an upright bass for the first time on one of the songs during worship. There is an infectious drive on this song “Be Bold, Be Strong” that helps the bass part along. I admit I have much more to learn on the instrument yet I know I can perform and contribute with this new voice.

The theme of the sermon was how God invites or draws us to the gospel life. Pastor Dayle preaches on personal events she has experienced over the summer. She was emotionally moved talking about experiences around her brother's death and there are several touching moments that move people's hearts.

We end with "Be Bold, Be Strong" as well. It is an instantaneous, joyous, musical moment.

August 9th, 2006 Hunger Awareness Meeting

Our lives are busy. David, Diane, Roger, Mary and I meet. There are ongoing agenda items to be discussed. We are slightly behind where we want to be in food collection. We talk about an item in the monthly newsletter, an insert, magnets with each month's collectible items to keep the church aware of the monthly donations.

The importance of prayer to start and end meetings like this became more evident for me today. Pastor Dayle normally leads us in those prayers but she was on vacation. We moved from a few of us talking about some of the agenda items to beginning the meeting and the opening prayer was missed.

As I reflect back, I lost a context and perspective in my heart and I believe the opening and closing prayer may have been the reason. My mind was on how busy we were, together with the work Mary and I would be doing on the insert, and where that activity would fit in our schedules. I admit it was not until thinking about writing this that God came back into perspective.

Praying publicly does not come easy to me because I don’t make a habit of preparing for it. Before this meeting I dashed out a short agenda and thought of old business and new business. I knew Pastor Dayle was going to be gone but never a thought for prayer.

Other than that this was a good meeting. We talked about giving the youth an opportunity to get involved, perhaps with an Oregon Food Bank Work Day. They are eager to do something after the San Antonio youth gathering.

August 7th, 2006 - 5th Bible Study Whol – i - ness with Myself, Others and God.

Hosts: Paul & Debi Stromberg

Topic: How is your love life?

Bible Verse: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13


A small group gathered tonight. There was no need to split into two groups and there was plenty to eat.

First of all we talked about how these verses were part of everyone's weddings with two exceptions, Mary and I being one.

This was the first bible study Mary and I were together for the discussion. The first question we answered, "When in your life have you felt the most loved?" we both flashed first on a poinsettia I gave her for Christmas while she was still in Wisconsin.

For her it was special because it was a gift from me. For me, it was how she nurtured and kept it alive for years afterwards. She would let me know, by letter, how it was doing. We had two different perpectives but the same story. We had never talked about that before as something that let us know were deeply loved and our synchronicity on that surprised me.

The talk moved to how the love described in the passage differed from the love typically defined in our culture. Shirley stressed our culture's insistence on on bringing in the conditional, "I will love you if...". Susan followed up with a powerful story about her parents supporting and loving one of her sisters though she did something in opposition to their moral value system. We also talked about the focus on romantic love and that our cultural stories practically ignore the deep love people have towards one another after their initial romantic love.

Each question led us deeper into our faith and our search within to extend the love 1st Corinthians describes. There were stories of disappointment and stories of perserverance - what has troubled and supported the faith of each of us around the table. When we talked specifically about how to develop the ability to love others within ourselves Paul felt there had to be a love of who we are within us before we could move outward with our love.

There was a question about verses 8-10 and in what way they put our church in perspective. Susan gave us an inspirational update on the call for an Associate Pastor. We talked about how sometimes in the midst of the work done for the church we can lose sight of why we are doing it and just get caught up in the busy part of the activity.

When we talked about meeting Jesus face to face, which was the last question, some people could not get their thoughts around that. Sarah talked about how important a question this was for her Pentecostal friends. For her it was hard to focus when she tried to imagine the answer to this question.

There were several people who imagined what it was like when hearing a couple of Kelly's songs being performed. One was Come As You Are. The other was All That I Am. For these people, these songs captured something that triggered their imagination of meeting Jesus face to face. I am always impressed by the power Kelly's songs have on those of us priviledged to hear them.

We sang Great Is The Lord to close the bible study. Once again I was struck how the bible study groups are not afraid to reveal their hearts.

August 6th, 2006 - Outdoor Sunday Service

The setting was the African-American folk service setting Creator uses on fairly normal rotation. Sometimes it is individually hard to connect with all the energy of a service and this was one of those services for me where had the feeling I was on the outside looking in.

There were many parts of the service that would normally engage me in the moment. The youth and adults who went to San Antonio gave interesting, enthusiastic reports about what happened at the ELCA youth gathering and there were many inspirational moments they described. Stephanie movinly summarized a speaker's message who worked advertising. He had talked about how in that business it is about making people in society feel they are lacking something as to make them complete and then selling a product that will make them feel complete again.

There was an energetic singing of E-L-C-A (It's Good To Be In The) done to the tune of the Y-M-C-A (It's Good To Be In The).

Erik, in his pottery class at college, made some communion chalices that were consecrated at the service. Two beautiful grey chalices with blue top borders we will no doubt be using for a long time.

The music was great and, as usual, Matt and David had the congregation singing and clapping.

My expectations are not that every service will make me feel or meditate deeply about God in a new way or have some spiritual highpoint. Worship often helps rid me of a certain self-centeredness and this Sunday I was tired and mired while I was participating. It is a feeling I used to get alot when I was young but is rather unusual now.

The readings were about God giving manna to the Israelites in the desert. The passages talked about things of value being a God-given gift not as a reward. This tied in with something Josh said when he summarized the message of one of the speakers at the youth gathering. Josh quoted the speaker "Our desire is to put God's gift into a formula - do this and God must give you that; when God is bigger than formulas."

My thoughts moved to the unmerited good we have in the world. My thoughts, like many others currently, are consistently engaged with the news from the Middle East and the terrible fighting going on. That news and our daily lives can often move us away from the other thoughts - what Pastor Dayle called in her sermon the "manna that reigns down on us".

It seems like there are many situations demanding a certain kind of resolve. At those moments I want to have faith that will move me, like so many others seem to have, to a certainty of action and what I know is right. The, listening to my heart other realizations take over and, at those moments, I believe my greatest faith helps me live in uncertainty.

It calls to my mind the quote from St. Augustine, "Love God and do what you like" .

Strong words to pull me from feeling unconnected.

July 31st, 2006- 4th Bible Study Whol – i - ness with Myself, Others and God.

Host: Rich and Mary Steinberg

Topic: Peace of Mind

Bible Verse: Philippians 4: 2-9

A pure moment with memorable motion was tied this evening's discussion for me.

After the casual, satisfying potluck dinner there was the usual, friendly conversation while Dayle and Peter decided to use the rope swing hanging from the tree just behind the deck.

It was simply Peter pushing Dayle on the swing and then the reverse. An easy, relaxed swinging motion. Nothing out of control. The swing reached the forward highpoint, stopped, naturally descended, and moved to the back highpoint.

Mary was looking from the deck as I came back from where the food was with filled cups and desserts. I put my arms around her while we watched this swinging. Maybe that was part of what opened my eyes to its charm and everything that surrounded us, the people and the place.

Philippians 4: 8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things.

Our discussion took us in many directions but the all poured into that small period of time, remained in my mind as something lovely and pure. Verse 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me - put it into practice. And the God of Peace be with you.

I try to put this into practice. Yes, and it is the motion of the swing mirrored in this as well. Reaching a level and falling back, naturally. Yearning to constantly be suspended in the air is silly but on the swing one is never completely tied to an earthbound perspective, either.

Later, I appreciated the discussion of Philippians in our breakout group. Others talked about verse 8. Nancy gave the answer of "A baby" for something that would fit the description of verse 8. The group agreed and proposed other things as well.

We talked about stress, expectations, how we judge good and bad and evaluating our control over events. Shelley told the story about the farmer whose horse ran away:

Once there was a farmer whose horse ran away. His neighbor came over to tell him he felt sorry for him, only to be told in return: "Who knows what is good or bad?" It was true. The next day the horse returned, bringing with it eleven wild horses it had met during its adventurous escape.

The neighbor came over again, this time to congratulate the farmer on his good fortune. Only to be told once again "Who knows what is good or bad?

True this time too; the next day the farmer's son tried to tame one of the wild horses and fell off, breaking his leg. His neighbor came back again one more time to express how bad he felt But for the third time all the farmer had to say was: "Who knows what is good or bad?"

And once again the farmer was correct, for this time, the king of that land had started a war and the following day soldiers came by to draft young men into the army, but because of his injury the son was not taken.

Our group agreed again a problem, once put in perspective, or earnestly evaluating our perspectives and judgements tends to relieve stress.

Verse 4 held stong words for my heart. I tried to imagine saying Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! immediately after pleading with two people to agree with each other. Rejoicing was probably the furthest thing from anyone's mind. Joel had a good response "You could say this but sometimes a person wants to wallow in self pity for a while".

There was a phrase that came up that a couple people use when they want to point out that the wallowing time is over and try to diffuse it with some humour, "Someone is being a poopy diaper!"

We also talked on and off about whether you are in control of something. If not, like Ruth said, you can think about the Reinhold Niebuhr's Serenity prayer.

God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever in the next. Amen.

What went through my mind as we went home was a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson:

The best effect of fine persons is felt after we have left their presence