December 31st, 2006

This Sunday we celebrated Jesus' name. When Pastor Dayle googled “names for Jesus”… there were 145 on the google list. She asked:

How is it possible to live up to such a name and to such a high calling? I think it happens in community. It happens when we all gather on a Sunday and lift our corporate voices in song, liturgy and prayer. It happens when we pray for the sick. It happens when we gather around the bed of the dying. The way Creator has rallied and supported Bethany and the Hartung family is the purest sense of community.

Pastor Dayle talked about this being bigger than Creator and mentioned the effect we have had on the community and state.

It made me think not only of the name of Jesus but the names of God. Meher Baba created a universal prayer that used different names for God:

O Parvardigar, the Preserver and Protector of All,
You are without Beginning and without End,
Non-dual, beyond comparison, and none can measure You.
You are without colour, without expression, without form and without attributes.
You are unlimited and unfathomable, beyond imagination and conception, eternal and imperishable.
You are indivisible, and none can see You but with eyes Divine.
You always were, You always are, and You always will be.
You are everywhere; You are in everything;
and You are also beyond everywhere and beyond everything.
You are in the firmament and in the depths.
You are manifest and unmanifest on all planes and beyond all planes;
You are in the three worlds and also beyond the three worlds.
You are imperceptible and independent.
You are the Creator, the Lord of Lords, the Knower of all minds and hearts;
You are Omnipotent and Omnipresent.
You are Knowledge Infinite, Power Infinite and Bliss Infinite.
You are the Ocean of Knowledge, All-knowing, Infinitely-knowing,
the Knower of the past, the present, and the future;
and You are Knowledge itself.
You are All-merciful and eternally benevolent.
You are the Soul of souls, the One with infinite attributes.
You are the Trinity of Truth, Knowledge and Bliss;
You are the Source of Truth, the Ocean of Love.
You are the Ancient One, the Highest of the High;
You are Prabhu and Parameshwar;
You are the Beyond-God and the Beyond-Beyond-God also;
You are Parabrahma, Paramatma, Allah, Elahi, Yezdan, Ahuramazda, God Almighty and God the Beloved.
You are named Ezad: the only One worthy of worship

Here is what those names mean:

Parvardigar: The Preserver or Sustainer - Sufi
Prabhu: The Lord (God). Vishnu. Literally, master, lord, king. A name applied to God. - Sanskrit.
Parameshwar (also Parameshwara): a Hindu concept that literally means the Supreme God. - Sanskrit
Parabrahma: Supreme Spirit; God in the Beyond Beyond state - Vedanta.
Elahi (pronounded with a long "a") is Aramaic and means "My God." It is considered likely that this is the actual word used by Jesus on the cross.
Yezdan (also Yazdan): Almighty God. - Zoroastrian
Ahura Mazda Name of God's attribute of Life and Wisdom.
Ezad (also Yazad): The one God, the only one worthy of worship. - Avestan.

There are so many names for God. There is a power to the "non dual" attribute in the prayer above but I know many worship Shiva, God of Destruction, in their pursuit of God. I was fascinated by a God pursuit associated with the name Abraxas that I read in Hermann Hesse's Demian:

The bird fights its way out of the egg. The egg is the world. Who would be born first must destroy a world. The bird flies to God. That God's name is Abraxas".

The names and attributes of God in the New Testament are associated with Jesus. They are quite different from Old Testament attributes.

What's in God's name is locked in with how we worship and how we preceive this world.

There are other names I want to know more about and I look forward to the exploration.

December 24th, 2006

There were 7 and 11 o'clock Christmas Eve Services. There is a different mood, as usual, in both services. The 7 o'clock is a family service with more children attending and making their presence known.

The 11 o'clock always becomes introspective. The candlelight feels more intimate and I reflect on the words to Silent Night. The musical gift tonight is Pietro A. Yon's Gesu Bambino as performed by the Carlisle Trio.

Gesu Bambino is a wonderful piece and the arrangement makes this performance. The lead is picked up between viola, cello, piano and voice in a way that is enormously satisfying.

Pastor Dayle preached on the intersection of cradle and cross. It once again reminds me of the power of the sermons she preaches. Pastor Dayle often gives us the intersection of the gospel with her life and, through that, to our lives. Another underlying strength is the faith that God's way of love trumps the ways of law.

That faith moves a church, as far as I am concerned, away from the temptation to judge too harshly and towards forgiveness. This is an evening, like all evenings, for forgiveness and for acknowledging God's gifts; for focusing on God's gift to us.

Time for Christmas.

December 24th, 2006

The Fourth Sunday in Advent and the morning worship brings amazing gifts of music. The tone of the service was changed from our usual worship custom. We did not start with Creator Praise.

Before her performance Rebekah joked about coughing out Michael W. Smith's All Is Well. It turned out to be a musical highlight of morning worship. Matt's piano accompaniment highlighted her vocal and I helped on guitar.

There was a service heavy with music. There were comments on how strong the music was afterwards. Worship music can be a strange balancing act of trying to stay in the moment while anticipating the next piece of music that is coming up.

There are interesting things that happen. During the opening hymn the musicians had different lyrics than the congregation. There were many words using Christmas pieces of music. When the music is on one page and and the words to sing on another the prayer can simply be that it all comes together without tripping up.

I wouldn't normally talk about this personal a view on worship but there is some encapsulation of Christmas as a whole in this. There are more demands, and hopes everything comes out better than usual while simultaneously there is normally there is less time to prepare because of all the other preparations happening at the same time.

Well, time to prepare for the Christmas Eve services.

December 20th, 2006

There was a wide variety in the music of the Christmas program this year. All the children and youth sang. The youth orchestra played The First Noel and O Little Town of Bethlehem. Josh and Luke selected Mannheim Steamroller's Deck The Halls for an exciting keyboard duet. Taylor, Stephanie, and Seth performed What Child Is This as a cello trio.

Liz gave us a gorgeous Breath of Heaven. I performed Snowflakes, a song I recently completed writing. Kelly and his sons performed One Bright Little Star. This was a beautiful choral piece he composed in 1987. It was a standard for a few years of the University of Puget Sound. The lyrics revolve around the light of the Christmas star and bring in other light sources from the Christmas story, stable lights and the moon. They emphasize the light coming into the world that is piercing the darkness.

The choir sang from three songs from Let Heaven and Nature Sing Gloria. Awaken Us, O Lord reminded me of Agnus Dei that the choir sang for two years as the Christmas program. There were many reminders of programs past. There were glorious moments in the past like there were at this performance. The evening ended with Go Tell it on the Mountain.

Matt and David provided music and direction throughout the program that pulled everything together and left everyone with an incredible Christmas spirit high.

Creator Christmas programs remain memorable for me and I have thought about what would best express that. The lyrics to Time Wraps Around You by a band called the Velvet Crush from their album Teenage Symphonies to God capture part of what I feel:

To the summer of love from the winter of fear / Seasons change us around, the reason’s not clear...

Like the motions you make, the wave of your hand / Like the time that it takes to know that you can. Standing by... to try and make you feel alright

This time wraps around you and I wrap around you know I’ll stay.

It is a song of hope and comfort. The main lick of the song circles around itself, as do the vocals in the chorus. Even in the lyrics I wrap around you, [you] know I'll stay the you is implied and links two lines together.

Time Wraps Around You is inspirational, and comforting in the same way as this Christmas program tonight. It is a lyric like the voice of your best friend leaving you with a warm feeling. It is a memory that will be tucked away to both remain and sustain.

December 13th, 2006

Turned around again with my on call schedule, I work nights and am off days. There was choir practice but I could not attend choir or the soup this Wednesday.

Mary and I did hear the John Nilson Concert for worship. He has a tradition of playing around Advent at Creator. For this performance John interspersed Christmas carols and hymns with his original songs.

Overall Nilson's performances sounded like majestic mediations, particularly his arrangements of O Holy Night and Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel. There was a beautiful, searching quality as well that quieted our thoughts and was in keeping with Advent.

As I listened my mind flashed back two years ago to the second Sunday in Advent. Pastor Dayle had flown back the night before from Minnesota after presiding over Dianne Sjobeck’s funeral after Dianne's long illness. Her loss was deeply felt by the congregation and I felt honored to have known her. Dianne was embraced by those who knew her both in Minnesota and Oregon. My heart ached but the music seemed to point to a deeper presence than the memories that had come to mind.

This was a concert and it was worship, a worship that led me beyond words and beyond the music itself. A deep experience of grace, mercy and love.

December 11th, 2006 - Hunger Awareness Meeting

We opened with prayer and began by reviewing the content and success of the Hunger Awareness Committee's Adult Education hours so far and tried to plan the upcoming hour.

These sessions gave many of us different perspectives and opened up new conversations about ways we can help out. We want to continue to raise awareness of hunger issues and we will continue to donate to the Oregon Food Bank and to others who need help in our area.

Many action items came up in our monthly meeting. We are planning another Oregon Food Bank work day.

We addressed some of the perspectives from the the Adult Ed hours. Sometimes there can be an "us and them" view when our congregation looks at those in need. We would like to breakdown this view. There is an interest in widening our perspective and our experience and encouraging each other in our journey to follow Jesus' call to care for one another. We hope to establish closer ties with those who are currently involved in helping the hungry. We know of Creator members who are involved in that help and we want to work with them or learn from them.

Pr, Dayle is looking into adding additional language in our liturgy to keep those in need in our thoughts and our hearts. We are also in the planning stages of another hunger awareness event.

A very productive meeting all in all.

Decenber 10th, 2006 - Sunday Services

What do you do to prepare for Jesus? We are on our Advent journey again; to prepare for Jesus, the newborn, new hope of God made man on earth. Pr. Dayle asked this Sunday how we prepare.

To the children she answered the question by saying we should help those around us by contributing, for example to the OFB food drive, saving coins up to give to Habitat for Humanity and donating baby items for PACE.

In her sermon she talked about making straight the way for Jesus to come. She was comparing this to the construction on Sunnyside Road that we have all experienced when she preached:

For me, sometimes I feel like my whole life is a roadblock. Sometimes my head is so full of white noise and interference, I can’t hear the voice crying out… the voice crying out to me, “prepare the way, ready or not, here I come.”

Something in me understands this completely. I quoted it later in the Adult Education hour when talking about the call Jesus makes for us to care for one another. In researching the Hunger Awareness presentation this week we focused on the three gospel passages that quote Jesus "The poor will be with you always." We wanted to know how people read this passage. For me I began to think of proximity. My life is arranged so I am not close to the needy around us. Even with visits to Dignity Village there is a barrier, no sharing of trust because there is no relationship.

The Adult Ed went well. Many people shared their views who are normally more reticent about talking in groups. There were different views on how to help and energizing to know that we don't all need to help in the same way.

Finally, during both services Elizabeth Neketin sang Adonai. Liz has an extraordinary voice. I appreciated the choice of this piece. Her performance was pure, dramatic, both moving and a heartfelt plea.

These words rang within me:

One timid faithful knock
Resounds upon the Rock of Ages
One trembling heart and soul
Becomes a servant bold and courageous

Here was an answer to the questions I had about the needy during the Adult Ed hour. Perhaps the Hunger Awareness committee will provide what is needed, an opportunity to take my next steps.

December 6th, 2006 - Soup & Bread, Holden Evening Service, Choir

We open with a lively song for our prayer. The conversation at the table is light and easy, full of news, daily decisions, questions and advice. We choose from a number of different soups and ramen, buns, rolls and bread.

Pastor Dayle is on vacation. Pastor Mark leads the Holden Evening worship with Vaune. The service opens with Stay Here and Keep Watch and then moves into the service itself. Pastor Mark naturally leads this worship differently than Pastor Dayle. Tonight he reads Psalm 141 before we sing those words. Our supplication is reinforced and deepened.

For the reading Psalm 130 is chosen and Pastor Mark preaches from that text. "Who is this God," he asks, "cried out to in this psalm?"

If you, O LORD, were to keep track of sins, O sovereign Master, who could stand before you?

Pastor Mark captures the complacency and the shame we can vacillate between when thinking about personal sin from "I'm an average Joe or Jane and, on the whole, I haven't been too bad" to "How can God allow me into a church?" Probably what we need to deal with most is complacency with what we have done and what has been left undone. Yet God does not keep a ledger of our sins. His love is a steadfast love, coming not from because of the things we do but from an even though.

The line referring to steadfast, loyal love also stands out for me in the song because of a discussion with my wife before the service:

O Israel, hope in the LORD, for the LORD exhibits loyal love

Mary talked to me about the fierce arguments people get in regarding beliefs and wondered out loud about changing vocabulary from what I believe about God to what I hope about God and here was a "hope in the Lord" verse.

After the service was choir and more rehearsal for the Christmas program. The pieces are coming together well. We talked about how many pieces we could realistically rehearse and perform. Matt was ready to cut back a little on the number of pieces but many members found it hard to let go of particular pieces.

The decision was made to decide next week.

December 3rd, 2006 – First Sunday in Advent and Consecration Sunday

Pastor Mark started us all off before the service in prayer. There are many prayers we make in worship but this one was important as well. It stayed with me throughout the morning. Part of it was recognition of the day and the people who were gathered together and another part was requesting God’s help in our morning worship.

At the first service Diane offered the Creator challenge and at the second service it was Janice, who took the thermometer charting Creator’s goal in meeting of 2006 goal of 2006 pounds of donated food (most going to the Oregon Food Bank). Janice calculated that if each family could donate eight one pound cans we would meet our goal. It was a day for understanding our part towards helping hungry people with the talk the Hunger Awareness group gave between services, but more on that later.

Pastor Mark began, before the service, with a teaching moment about the Advent wreath. There have been different colored candles from the blue we know use. Purple symbolized royalty and penitence. Blue is used to symbolize the night sky, the anticipation of the impending announcement of the King’s coming (royalty as well), and to symbolize the waters of Genesis 1, the beginning of a new creation.

The wreath signifies continuing life. The circle of the wreath, which has no beginning or end, symbolizes the eternity of God, the immortality of the soul, and the everlasting life found in Christ is remembered in the evergreens that make up the wreath.

For the Children’s time Pastor Mark talked a bit about Advent, and waiting for on the second reading and how love was repeated in this passage from Thessalonians. He gave the children “love letters” he wrote from Jesus.

The first part of the sermon was about taking time during this season of activity to think about God and each other; to take time to pray and not to get anxious about events we have no control over. Pastor Mark tied this to the gospel reading from Luke, describing the drunkenness that is discussed in Luke 21:25-36 is of the heart, staggered by worries of the day. The dissipation was the feeling of nausea and morning after effects of this drunkenness of the heart.

It was a sermon that warned us from becoming faint with fear. Pastor Mark stressed that when we wait we maintain prayer and not look for the astronomical signs or the catastrophes spokenof in Luke.

During the Adult Education hour David and the other members of the Hunger Awareness team gave a presentation on the importance of contributing towards solutions to hunger. The committee’s presentation involved opening discussions regarding our biases and assumptions as far as who is hungry in our community and why.

David opened up after a brief review of what the Hunger Awareness group had done with a question about our thoughts and feelings on the Matthew 26:11 passage when Jesus explains that the woman who anointed him with expensive perfume (rather than giving to the poor) has done a beautiful thing, for "the poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me."

It made me once again admire this congregation's ability to tackle the difficult passages in the gospel and understand the Christian calling. Paraphrasing Kelly from another part of the discussion he thought this calling is all about seeing Christ in one another. How quickly and easily that can be forgotten. There are people in the congregation that remind me how important it is to see this in others.

The discussion also went into reasons we may hesitate to help. Diane talked about one reason presented, namely “I don’t feel right or good when I help”, by saying that the point was not necessarily the point for us to feel good so much as to help.

Kelly deals with members of the community that are poor in his role as principal. He noticed their parents tried to make sure they had new shoes, more expensive jackets and clothes than you might expect. This is to try to keep others from knowing about their poverty to maintain their respect. This challenged some assumptions and opinions we might hold on how the finances in these households should be maintained. David reaffirmed what Kelly said talking about his own family as he was growing up.

Larry was interested in the last reason in the slide show about why we hesitate to help, which was basically the fear there is not enough. He talked about how man continues to try to address that question and is not sure of the answer. There will be two more Sundays where we continue these discussions between services.

Finally there was a consecration Sunday lunch. During both services there was an opportunity to offer our yearly pledges. We ate delicious salads, chicken (perfectly spiced, Larry has a great recipe), rice krispie squares and cake. After Larry gave us the total of the pledges so far, many went off to Matt's rehearsal with the young instrumentalists for the Christmas program.

A nice start to the Advent season.