October 26th, 2008 – Reformation Sunday

October 31, 1517, an important date in Protestant Christianity’s history. That was the day when Martin Luther posted on the doors of the Cathedral of Wittenberg, Germany, his 95 Theses against the teachings and practices of the medieval Roman Church, which ignited the 16th-century Protestant Reformation.

Last year Pastor Dayle taped the 95 Theses on our church door in remembrance of the 490th anniversary of the event and the service was memorable. The service this year was also memorable.

Today we sang responsively for our Psalmody A Mighty Fortress Is Our God. This felt appropriate as it draws from Psalm 46. Luther found solace in Psalm 46 from his interior struggles with God. He described these struggles with the German word Anfechtungen, a word that's hard to translate.

Anfechtungen precipitated what Martin Marty, in his biography of Luther, calls a “delicious despair” or crisis of certainty for which the believer could only cast himself upon the mercy of God. It encapsulates for Marty, Martin Luther’s meditations on what was irreconcilable:

God present and God absent, God too near and God too far, the God of wrath and the God of love, God weak and God almighty, God real and God as illusion, God hidden and God revealed.

Anfechtungen, says Marty, are “the spiritual assaults that Luther said kept people from finding certainty in a loving God.”

Many attended worship this morning. Seeing both Denise and Chris today was particularly meaningful for me.

Choir sang twice; during the Processional Praise, Praise, Praise the Lord and during Offertory When In Our Music God is Glorified. It reminded me what Luther wrote about the use and power of sacred music:

I would allow no man to preach or teach God’s people without a proper knowledge of the use and power of sacred song.

And there was something ineffable about the music of the service. The setting was Now The Feast by Haugen and with that and the hymns that were sung there was a strong sense of a faith briefly lifting us from daily concerns and understanding.

The Affirmation of Baptism for Mary and Marlowe was a special moment, particularly during the Laying on of Hands. Everyone in the congregation laid their hands on those sitting next to them. The closeness was palpable.

After the service the timing was tight because of Reformation Sunday and the Affirmation of Baptism celebration for our RIC event Other Explicit Welcome.

There were emotional stories about moments of pain, anger, and times of not feeling a part of the community. Toni told her story about the bible verse against divorce being read in church right after she and Rick came back from her honeymoon and how weird that made her feel.

There were stories about people not feeling comfortable with others in church and outside church. There were incidents related where people thought they could do better to making people welcome. Personal stories were also shared about racial prejudice (some stories about current incidents at Jesuit).

For the most part it was about hospitality and welcome. Pastor Mary did a great job in a short period of time. Mary asked us to introduce ourselves and to talk about the most recent act of hospitality we had engaged in.

There were lessons I took to heart about hospitality. Once again an event in Creator's RIC discernment process caused me to examine how I am reflecting Christian welcome personally.

October 19th, 2008 – Many of us love religion all too much and God all too little. We love ourselves too much and the world too little

- Erwin McManus

During the Congregational Conversation after the service Pastor Dayle talked about worship being the work of the people and how she disliked Sunday services where that was not the case. She experienced some services like that during her sabbatical.

I begin with Pastor Dayle’s remark because David invited me to play this Sunday with Lisa. It is a deep delight and joy to contribute to Creator’s worship music on either side of a microphone. And Pastor Dayle is right, I don’t think most people would consider music and the word of the liturgy as something they passively hear but are actively involved in at Creator.

We started with David’s The Path to You. A new perspective, a new voice emerged while we sang David’s song. Today, a part of the song swelled in volume as these words were sung, “In this quiet moment / Fill me with Your presence / Find me, guide me / Show me the path.” Sometimes the music stresses the outside quiet of the moment. Today the swelling volume pointed to how loud the presence can feel or how loud the cry of “find me, guide me” can feel from the heart.

The setting for the worship was Call Us Home. Susan express in the Congregational Conversation how she felt the service’s word and music with new meaning through thoughts and feelings surrounding her mother’s death.

There was a Camp Lutherwood presentation where we learned a song called Mercy is Falling. They talked about a theme for this year Get Drenched which is all about recognizing how we get drenched in God’s love. Tyler, who is in charge of Camp Lutherwood, ended the presentation with a talk about the values of Lutherwood.

We welcomed a new member during the service, Jill. We were told she is currently living with pancreatic cancer and, in her career, had worked for Adidas. In a conversation with her afterwards I found myself caught up in her spirit and courage. Her enthusiasm for our congregation was evident in our talk.

Today the sermon was about the hidden hand of God in working through the tyrant Cyrus to have the Hebrews return from their exile that came from the First Reading. Pr. Dayle spoke about the Gospel as well, the coin of the realm and rendering unto the Emperor that which is the Emperor’s.

She pointed out that Martin Luther wrote about the left and right side of the Kingdom of God. The left is all about the law, the church, the government and the right is about Gospel and grace. It was interesting to hear after reading “The Shack” by William Young, a book that many in the congregation are reading right now but I will save my thoughts on that book until another time.

The children who were part of Holy Family Episcopal sang with their families during the offering a song called Make a Joyful Noise. They played kazoos and there was a percussive clap that was completely endearing.
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There was a Congregational Conversation after the service that I mentioned throughout this blog entry but I will report about the conversation in its own entry.

October 12th, 2008 – Don’t worry (Keep praying)

Her second Sunday back the first change Pastor Dayle suggested, that she learned worshipping at other churches during her sabbatical, was moving announcements from the start of the service to the end. For me, even as a change today, it didn’t feel awkward. The move linked Creator Praise more closely to the rest of the service and kept worship focused to the end.

For the Psalmody we sang Shepherd Me, O God. It related to one of this morning's themes of worry or fear with the refrain:

Shepherd me, O God, beyond my wants, beyond my fears, from death into life.

Pastor Dayle preached about a book she is reading Kathleen Norris’ Acedia & Me, an intensely personal memoir of and meditation on the author’s 30-year marriage to poet David Dwyer. Acedia is a word describing a soul-weariness Norris discovered in her early thirties, not to be confused with depression which can have a more medical root.

The sermon wove this back to discoveries Pastor Dayle made in talks with others over the past months. She wanted to find out detailed reasons why some do not feel a need to worship in church on Sundays.


She found that, from the perspective of those she talked to who don’t attend, many point to a lack of caring and authenticity as keeping them from church. What worked in the past to draw people into the church is not working to attract these non-attendees to worship.

The sermon moved to the Gospel reading in Matthew 22. The reading was a parable about a king giving a wedding banquet where all are eventually invited but the king instructs this attendents to bind one of the guests, who was not wearing a wedding robe, hand and foot and cast him out into the outer darkness.

For many are called but few are chosen.

Augustine thought the missing robe was a metaphor for love, Luther thought it a metaphor for faith. Pastor Dayle urged us to bring our whole selves to the wedding banquet which she talked about as worship on Sunday. She also understood that is not always possible and then she encouraged just showing up to pray. If we are worried we can offer our concerns to God in prayer.

Mary gave the second Bible Study on Ruth after the service. Nita remarked that these Bible Studies probably benefit presenters as much, if not more, than the participants. As a presenter of the first of these Ruth Bible Studies that started the series off well, she spoke from experience.

I did not antipate the remarkable ties of the work and planning Mary did in preparation for this Adult Education hour. Of course her material related to the book of Ruth but it also informed the theme of the upcoming WELCA Women's retreat, and related to the Wednesday book group's discussion of East of Eden and to the Reconciling in Christ discernment process we are currently pursuing as a congregation.

What the participants shared of their lives today humbled the group. There were moments of extraordinary fellowship when personal stories were told or when there was witness to the actions of others in the congregation. For example, Ruth spoke of Toni and her devotion to Bethany and Toni's heroic actions that sprung from that devotion.

We closed with prayer, in gratitude of those who worship with us and are our friends.

October 5th – First Sunday of Pastor Dayle's Return from Sabbatical

It was a homecoming for Pastor Dayle and Creator. Many came to worship today and Spiritworks Team Light took care of the assigned volunteer positions. Father Al and Pastor Mary took part in the service together with Pastor Dayle.

There were glad shouts throughout the service (a younger member at times shouting "yea!") and Susan thanked Pastor Mary and Father Al for their help and guidance during the sabbatical.

The music was strong, the selections meaningful and the pieces tied into the readings together with the hymn of the day, O Christ the Same, which Pastor Dayle chose because it associated to her sabbatical.

Sometimes you can sense a vitality that flowers out to and from where we stand. Invitation and acceptance and some inkling of the depth of man's capacity for life is felt and understood. Today's service pointed to that. It felt like a whole service where no one part dominated the other. The volunteer work, liturgy, music, sermon, and communion all blended into a seamless reaching up, reaching in and reaching out.

Pastor Dayle reminded the children about the M&Ms she gave to them the last Sunday before her sabbatical. She wanted them to think about mission & ministry during her time away. Many at Creator thought about mission and ministry. Part of the reading from Isaiah described the vineyard yielding wild grapes and not the grapes that were expected. Wild grapes signify injustice and Pastor Dayle asked us to reflect on what we are neglecting and misusing in the vineyard that could produce wild grapes.

During the offering I was struck by some beautiful gestures of intimacy and endearment. Little familiar touches that showed how much one person cared for another.

The service ended with the congregation singing Build Us Up, Lord. I heard many humming the song as we left the sanctuary. There was a bright, shiny power in the way David performed it that was picked up on in the singing.

We discussed food with Care of Creation after the service. Vera brought up many interesting facts. The congregation is not of one mind about what those statistics reflect. Al summed up what some in the congregation thought during the presentation when he said he was a child of this society he was born into. He likes the convenience and to start changing his purchasing habits he would ned to have strong reasons why. That was what Vera was trying to provide in this session.

We talked about farms, land, food, overproduction and concerns about some corporations. Mary and I bought a book that publicizes work that some researchers have done in this area.

I am looking forward to more of the Care of Creation Adult Education series.

September 29th, 2008

There was a palpable anticipation among us that Father Al gave a voice to in his sermon. Pastor Dayle returns next week from Sabbatical.

Father Al recognized the work of the staff, Toni and David and saluted Susan for guiding and maintaining the wisdom and grace of Creator over the summer. He talked about Reconciling in Christ, Day Camp and having Holy Family Episcopal now worshipping with us.

He named many services and efforts the congregation, through their involvement, have kept strong through the summer or planned, like Sunday School. He mentioned Hunger Awareness, Back Pack Buddies, Spiritworks, WELCA and alluded to the fact there were many more efforts the congregation was involved in.

Then he expressed what many in the congregation feel, the joy of having Pastor Dayle coming back. He pointed to the paper cranes strung down in rows in front of the sanctuary. “You know if Pastor Dayle had been here we would not have worshipped with these all summer.” he remarked, “There are many things that have been left undone that she would and will likely do.”
He used Philippians, the Second Lesson, to preach his point.

If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.

This Philippians text was perfect in preparing for next week - Make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being of full accord and of one mind. This is what we will have the pleasure of doing as the congregation and Pastor Dayle share Sabbatical stories as she returns.

Paul read the First Reading and the Psalm, which was David’s I Lift Up My Soul, continued what I would call the quiet earnestness of the reading. It was an earnestness that was quite moving.

Also, the Creator Choir gave a performance of Wide Open Are Your Hands. The choir knew this song and had performed it before but I was amazed how much Kelly was able to pull the music and voices together having only our first rehearsal under our belt. We also were fewer in numbers but there was a simplicity that made it powerful.

The Adult Forum was a Reconciling in Christ discussion about the survey with another question and answer period. Some felt we were simply restating information to the same people but there are always a few new faces and people who want to know more.

When asked about the moments in the discernment process that touched people deeply Bishop Dave's Bible study was brought up as one of the powerful moments. Another was the RIC team truly being involved in congregational discernment rather than trying to take the congregation through a process where RIC designation was inevitable.

We went over the upcoming themes for the months until the January vote. For the most part the participants felt comfortable with future plans.

There is a unique strength I feel that is in this congregation at times and I did feel it throughout this Sunday.