April 22nd, 2007 - Sunday Service; Earth Day Celebration Micah's Village

Pastor Mark gave the sermon today from behind the altar. Everything he wanted to emphasize was in close proximity; the cross, the banner and the Holy Communion table.

The sermon was a response to the Virginia Tech shooting tragedy that has held our collective national attention over the past week.

First Pastor Mark addressed the “what if” and “why” questions as our collective attempt to assert control over evil and prevent this kind of shooting from happening again. A noble enterprise we naturally engage in that is sadly doomed because evil always, momentarily, finds a way. In the end, evil does not have the last word but this can be hard for those of us battling a current darkness to see.

Pastor Mark tied this back to the Gospel Lesson; John 21:1-19. He talked about how we can do something to help those who are finding it hard to see that light will overcome the darkness of evil. Jesus calls us to “feed my sheep”. Pastor Mark pointed out Jesus called the disciples to do this after they have been fed themselves. We are fed at the communion table and we are called, in turn, after that to feed others.

Pastor's choice to give this sermon from the behind the altar was interesting. There is more seperation between the pastor and the congregation with this position. It gave the sermon a different feel this time; it was more dramatic than usual. Normally the struggle is to break down the distance between pastor and congregation and sermons preached from the center accomplish that goal.

At the end of the sermon Pastor Mark invited the entire congregation to sign a care booklet the youth created that will be sent this week to the Lutheran Student Movement at Virginia Tech.

After that the Hymn of the Day was Stay with Us. Often this hymn strengthens the sermon. Today both the sermon and the words of the hymn gave each other a new depth of meaning:

Walk with us, the road will bend:
make all our weeping, wailing end.
Wipe our tears, forgive our fears:
Jesus lift the heavy cross.

Our collective prayer, as music, rose upward throughout this piece.

We broke into small groups during the Adult Education hour. Debbie, Marvis, Roberta and I talked about the topic of how well Creator satisfies what newcomers might be looking for in a church. We will likely be continuing this talk in May after the next two Sundays.

These are talks where it is hard to generalize. For example, Marvis talked about members in the last church they belonged to overwhelming newcomers with questions and trying to fit them in before they had a chance to feel comfortable. Others feel shy about approaching members who are involved in conversations with one another after the service.

When we came back together as a large group we talked about what had increased membership in the past; follow up visits where bread was delivered. It seemed when this was discontinued there were many people willing to bakethe bread rather than deliver it. There were other ideas that were discussed. Hopefully this is what we will explore in detail during the Adult Ed hours mid to late May.

There was also some follow up conversation about exploring current questions with Bible readings during Adult Education. It will likely come up in our next Adult Education committee meeting.

After the service Mary and I went to the Earth Day Fair at Micah's Village, across the street from Creator. We had lunch and toured the booths. We learned about interfaith outreach efforts that the ELCA is involved in, when we explored the booths related to hunger and social justice issues.

There are many people trying to make a difference in the world.