October 29th, 2006

I had a different perspective on Sunday worship, participating with the congregation rather than playing guitar and singing as a musician. It was a beautiful Sunday for the change; being both Reformation Sunday and Affirmation of Baptism at the 10:15 service. Perhaps it was an answer to my question about Creator transforming my life.

Service followed the Now the Feast and Celebration setting. Pastor Mark opened the worship service and Pastor Dayle led the children’s time and gave the sermon. An unexpected blessing for me was experiencing worship where Pastor Dayle and Pastor Mark each presided over different parts of the worship. The service was richer for it.

Reading Marcus Borg's The Heart of Christianity is coloring this writing. I was introduced by Borg's book to the metaphor of “thin places” from Celtic Christianity, a form of Christianity that flourished in Ireland and parts of Scotland, Wales and northern England beginning in the fifth century.

“Thin places” has its home in a particular way of thinking about God. It sees God, “the More,” as the encompassing Spirit in which everything is. In this view, God is not somewhere else, but he is right here. As Paul says in Acts, God is “the one in whom we live and move and have our being.” Borg notes that one of his favorite quotations expressing this understanding of God is from Thomas Merton.

“Life is this simple. We are living in a world that is absolutely transparent, and God is shining through it all the time. This is not just a fable or a nice story. It is true. If we abandon ourselves to God and forget ourselves, we see it sometimes, and we see it maybe frequently. God shows Himself everywhere, in everything - in people and in things and in nature and in events. it becomes very obvious that God is everywhere and in everything and we cannot be without Him. It is impossible. The only thing is that we don’t see it.”

We don’t see God, but when our hearts are open we do occasionally “experience God shining through everything.” These occasions are Borg’s thin places.

Worship Sunday was such a thin space for me. The setting and singing, hymns like A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, the lessons and the gospel were all part of the feeling. Probably the different perspective was the another piece, together with Pastor Dayle and Pastor Mark working together on presiding over worship and lastly reading the faith statements from those who were about to go through the Affirmation of Baptism.

Pastor Dayle challenged us in the sermon to come up with our own faith statements and then mission statements about what we believe we are meant to be about in our faith.

There is a William Wordsworth poem The World is Too Much With Us; Late and Soon that sums up part of what I struggle against and what this service moved me from:

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not. -Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

And yet I don't need to be standing on a pleasant lea. If I can move to a personal description of this "thin" place, it was not about natural beauty but of familiarty and an affirmation of radical faith we rediscover through God's grace. Wordsworth states, "For this, for everything, we are out of tune" and at most moments in my life this rings true. Sometimes, however, life is in tune. Experience teaches rather than just unfolding.

That is the "thin" place for me and worship transformed me again today. It was a brief glimpse of something I am afraid to hang onto but today the glimpse was enough.

October 22nd, 2006

My approach, until now, has been to report Creator's activities as they transpired in order to give an "objective" report and move it away from a personal focus. Certainly what is written here is, by nature, personal but I wanted to leave personal “baggage” out. The possible exceptions to this were thoughts, readings or song lyrics I believed to be pertinent to the subject at hand.

However to be true to the power of the service last weekend and the events that contributed to my understanding of the service I have a different approach for this entry.

On Saturday I went to my sister’s 50th birthday party. She was a prominent member of Victory Music, an organization based in Tacoma, Washington that promotes music and musicians. For her birthday she invited friends and family to an area restaurant that was, and still is, important to most of them. Anyone who had the desire could perform at the invitational mic which was a focus for the celebration.

Fifty or so people showed up. It was a memorable and uplifting night for many who attended. This was not only for the celebration or musical performances, although there were incredible performances on Saturday night. My sister invited people who were important to her from her past and present. The core group of friends who ended up in the restaurant, however, were predominantly individuals from Victory Music during the time she was involved. As each took the stage it became apparent why these were the friends who came.

Victory was, for some, a circle of people who transformed each other’s lives by inspiring and helping one another. The purpose of Victory Music, according to its mission statement, is to support acoustic music in the Northwest by fostering a community that nurtures musical growth, creativity, and the appreciation of acoustic music. For the people there on Saturday night, by providing that support, important lifelong friendships were established.

I remember talking to people in Victory when my sister was actively involved. More than one commented at that time that Victory events were like (or more profound than) church to them. I can see why that was said. Being in community and having the community transform who you are is powerful. To participate in the community by using your talents and the skills you felt you could develop is a powerful component of what a church could aspire to do.

Now there are many in Victory and church members who might take umbrage at that last paragraph and I apologize to all of them. Faith and belief are tricky subjects and trying to ascertain the impact of an organization, "community" or church is bound to have a number of different view points and answers to what it was or is about. The same holds true trying to conclude how successful it was or is.

I mention this here, in part, because at Creator we are invited to think about what is next for the church. Last Sunday Kelly drew an analogy between what we wanted to be about as a church with the Sunnyside Road construction in front of the church. He said it was hard for most of us to think abstractly about the future of Creator in the same way it was hard to visualize what Sunnyside Road was going to look like when the work was complete. This weekend put many questions in mind, from my past and present experiences.

Our new pastor, Mark Beatty, gave the Children’s Sermon. It cemented a piece of this idea in my mind (together with being a brilliant introduction for a pastor to Creator). He asked for help from the children to find out where the children’s sermon was normally given and then he went on to clarify the gospel reading about a leader being a servant to everyone. He called this "being a helper to people" and made it apparent that is what he would be striving to do at Creator. That we should be helpers to one another was obvious but, if I think about it, I do not operate much from that idea. Far more often I feel like I am taking on responsibility for a task that needs to be accomplished.

The questions now come to my mind. Should church members be about transforming each other’s lives, what does that look like, and is Creator doing that? Are we creating lifelong bonds with one another?

These questions can personally be answered in many ways. In my first few years at Creator the transformation of my life was obvious to me. Marcus Borg, in several of his books, draws a distinction between the existing and emerging church. I won't get into the definitions here (follow this link http://aspenchapel.org/sermon2-1-04.html and scroll to Marcus Borg's book for an introduction) but my prior Lutheran experiences were with the “existing” church as Borg defines it. Creator was an opportunity to know the “emerging” church paradigm as it is practiced today. To encounter that was transformation at a profound level for me.

Attending services regularly quickly became important, in a way I had not experienced before. Actively participating at Creator became a core piece of life. Transformation, at least personal transformation, stayed apparent to me in my first couple of years with the church.

Current transformation for me is harder to define. Pastor Dayle has preached that the cross in the passage “Take up your cross and follow me” can be seen as talking about the stake of rut and routine we all tend to follow in our lives. It can happen in our church activities as well as our personal activities and I must admit there is work I am involved in as much out of habit as intention.

The Creator Vision Quest team, when it was meeting, ran into a dilemma it never fully resolved. At one point there was a gap analysis made with surveys of the membership of where we wanted to go as a congregation and where we were. The theory was to promote and add activities the membership found important and revamp or drop activities that were not important.

The team in the end, I think wisely, concluded the vision we were after was not about added or dropped activities. There were great insights and ideas but the daunting task of defining an overall vision that worked for the entire congregation mired the team. The Vision Quest team produced a mission statement to snapshot the identity of congregation. Putting substance to the vision of what Creator aspires to accomplish still remains uncompleted.

I will work on my own answers to these questions I now want to open up to you, “Is the Creator community transforming our lives?” and "What does that look like?"

Please feel free to comment. Perhaps you don’t think that is what a church should be about. I think any answer to these questions will be revealing.

Some people reported posting comments is difficult. Let me know or feel free to email me and I will make sure your response is included.

October 9th, 2006 Spiritual Gifts and God's call
Host: Diane and Scott Mattox
John 10: 1-10

1 "I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. 3 The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger's voice." 6 Jesus used this figure of speech, but they did not understand what he was telling them.
7 Therefore Jesus said again, "I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep. 8 All who ever came before me were thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them. 9 I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. He will come in and go out, and find pasture. 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

This was a comfortable Bible study. More desserts than we could eat and we sat down and our group began our discussion of the verse by talking about animals recognizing our voices. After the blessings of the animals on Sunday it seemed fitting.

There were some beautiful stories that came up as we talked about recognizing the good from the voices that would rob you of life. Sharilyn told a story about getting help on the highway from a stranger when she was feeling alone and afraid.

Pastor Dayle talked about the difficulties of this passage, which particularly comes in with verse 8. On the surface it sounds like Jesus is judging everyone coming before as thieves and robbers which is not a message that sits well with us.

We talk about the shepherd's place in ancient society was not well regarded. We talked about the ancient practice shepherd's had of sleeping at the opening of a sheep's pen to act as a living door to keep the sheep in and predator's out.

We closed with prayer and probably everybody was thinking about how they could be more attentive to how they fit into God's purpose.

October 8th, 2006 Sunday Service

This Sunday was special in the blessing for the animals that was done after the last service. There were many animals that were there and there were animals blessed in absentia. There were a preponderance of dogs but there were quite a few other types on animals including a crab.

During the children’s sermon for both services Lisa brought in Molly, a cute puppy that the children really took to.

Right now Adult Education is focused on presentations based on material from the Lutheran Handbook. This week’s topic was the Lutheran Reformation. The talk was led by Kelly, who joked that indulgences were a problem where salvation unfortunately ended mixed up with a church capital fundraising project. We were given the opportunity to add to Martin Luther’s 95 theses. We were given 9.5 theses one was an open ended “Christians should be taught that….” and we needed to fill in the last half.

Everyone seems excited about Pastor Mark Beatty accepting Creator’s call. The installation needs to be coordinated with the synod and Mark’s family.

This was a Sunday that focused on relationships. The gospel was about divorce. The Pharisees are talking about what is lawful and, as Pastor Dayle put it, Jesus turns the talk to what is spiritual and good. Jesus protects the vulnerable in his answer.

There is so much to work through on the subject of divorce. There has been a profound cultural change about divorce in my life moving towards a general acceptance there will be failed marriages. It is often hard to know whether putting more effort into an unsatisfying relationship, no matter what it is, will turn it around. When do you declare this is "too much" or what the other person is giving is "never enough".

We live in a society where our expectations from life are huge. We search meaning, for the work God intends for us to do while many struggle simply to make a better life for themselves and their families.

There are pictures:

http://www.creatorlutheran.org/Photo%20Galleries/Pet%20Blessing.htm

The sermon closed with the prayer attributed to St. Francis. It is a good prayer to help take this issue of expectations to God.

October 4th, 2006 A Congregational Letter

Dear Creator Family

I am very happy and excited to announce that Pastor Mark Beatty has accepted the call to become our new half time Associate Pastor with an emphasis on youth and family!!! I am so excited for everyone to get to know him. He brings wonderful gifts and talents to Creator.We will be scheduling an installation as soon as it can be coordinated with the Synod and Mark and his family. Join me in welcoming Mark and his family to the Creator Community!!

Peace
Paul Stromberg

October 4th, 2006 - Hunger Awareness Committee Meeting and Choir

Sometimes you hear something you can’t get out of your head. This happened for me at the Hunger Awareness meeting. We were talking about connecting with people’s hearts regarding hunger and poverty. Diane asked if we shouldn’t have the congregation reflect on their personal experiences with hunger. Diane had a question and her exact words were "When was the last time you skipped a meal?".

As we begin our second year on this effort there is excitement and simultaneously a need for evaluation. There is new enthusiasm coming from the youth on this issue. There were great ideas in the meeting for changing the dynamics of collecting the food contributions. Still we were all concerned about taking on much more than we currently have with the committee members we have. We feel we have some experience but there is a push not to repeat ourselves.

There is a difficulty staying on course with what is a persistent issue. This is where Diane's question hits me. Our lives are organized not to deal with the fundamentals of poverty and hunger. We are forced to intentionally go outside our regular lives to encounter people who need our help. Our community is blessed with abundance which means we do not skip a meals out of need.

I keep thinking of the woman who came to our church and the multitude of reasons that stood in the way of us giving her meaningful help. This is what the we must address to reach another level of help.

It was a men's choir tonight. Two tenors and two basses. Peter came in and thought we were doing men's sectionals. We sang the trilogy of spirituals that was popular and resonant with the choir last year. We also sang Mozart's Praise the Lord, Our God, Forever which was challenging us last year and this time without the alto and soprano parts being sung it made for an interesting rehearsal.

October 2nd, 2006 - Bible Reading and Discussion
Host: Susan Nolte
Topic: Gifts and Calling

For the first Mondays in October we are meeting, like we did during the summer, for Bible passage readings and discussion.

There were similarities and differences. Instead of a meal there was dessert which made moving into the reading and discussion faster. We didn't know the verse beforehand so, unlike the summer sessions we could not prepare in advance. We read 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 on Spiritual Gifts:

12 1 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. 2 You know that when you were pagans, you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak. 3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says ‘Let Jesus be cursed!’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit.

4 Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; 5 and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; 6 and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. 7 To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 8 To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.

Perhaps because there was a new face in our group we talked about spiritual gifts but, because a piece of this was about activities in community, the meaningful parts of the discussion were about close friendships. Paul talked about a basketball team he was on where he developed lifelong friends.

Sara talked about her Pentecostal friends and how they viewed Christians feeling uncomfortable speaking in tongues.

To illustrate a point John talked about the philosophy of PLU’s now retired football coach Frosty Westering who was an inspiration to many of my college friends. The way John talked about Frosty it was obvious he was inspired as well.

We did talk about gifts we perceived in others and ourselves. Here Sharilyn's gift for hospitality and Shirley's gift for infectious enthusiasm were singled out among others. It is hard to write about all we talked about concisely. In a discussion like this you are either skimming the surface or you are wading in detail.

Calling. Our groups equated this somewhat with work. Jane is moving from a dental assistant to a physical education coach after a long discernment process.

I think this will be delved into in greater depth during upcoming sessions and in this blog so I will end here with thoughts about what is to come.

October 1st, 2006 Sunday Service

David's liturgy was a focus today with additional pieces he recently wrote, his Kyrie and his Gospel Acclamation. Both are strong compositions.

To me the lift of the melody for the line "Lord have mercy" pairs with the descend of "Christ have mercy", the first raises our voice to God and the descent reflects the comfort found in Christ. It breaks into two parts and there is a strong sense of beauty and reverence as the parts weave together.

There was another focus. Today Pastor Dayle connected with her preaching on the Gospel and the Old Testament reading that were linked thematically and drew a modern lesson. Both were about people of God Getting jealous because they can’t control the spirit and draw the nice neat lines defining who is right and who is wrong. She quoted Richard Jensen, who has had a long and distinguished career in ministry as a preacher and teacher:

Whenever you want to draw lines in order to mark who is outside the kingdom and who is inside, always remember: JESUS IS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE LINE! Jesus is always with the outsiders!"

It is an extraordinary statement that reveals a power and dynamic that is at the heart of Christianity.

I just finished reading an article by Mary Gordon that appeared in Portland (a magazine published by the University of Portland which specializes in spiritual writing). In Appetite for the Absolute Gordon expressed her concern that the 9/11 attack was an act committed in the name of God. She went further to question whether she had intentionally repressed, ignored or minimized that the forces of religion have been linked, throughout history and up to the present moment, with the forces not only of repression but violence.

The impulse towards self-sacrifice is a major component of Christianity. Gordon speaks of her feelings of the holiness of martyrdom she knew as a child and states that, while this is not offered as an excuse, she cannot say, like others do to her, that she finds the 9/11 act incomprehensible. She understands the idea of a living body being less important than the homage due to the Lord of all because of the history and experience of her religious life.

When I reconnected with church many of my friends were worried and fearful. I think Mary Gordon’s article distills the reasons for the worry and the fear. There is irrationality in faith. Who can predict how God will move us? Any moment there is the possibility that we see with Abraham sacrificing Isaac because God told him to do it.

For me, what Pastor Dayle quoted is a map for the way out of violence, fear and retribution.

The sermon also focused on Mark 9: 50

Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, with what will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.

Pastor Dayle and Mary Gordon’s article were salt to me. Both the sermon and the article were bold and individual. I'm open to more ways of understanding after experiencing and meditating on each and also inspired to do something new and true to myself.