April 5th, 2009 – Palm Sunday, RIC Certificate & Blog Anniversary

This blog began three years ago on Palm Sunday. In 2006 the entry centered on my feelings about playing guitar for worship and the reason for this blog. This was to be the story of Creator’s good news as a church “to be a ministry that reaches in and reaches out and to tell of the ministry we share in the nitty-gritty details of life”.

A new piece of music was being debuted that Sunday, Kelly’s Peace I Give To You. The song was simple and powerful; highlighting the words of Jesus from John 14:27 “Peace I give to you; not as the world gives, give I to you. Don't let your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful”

In 2007 the Creator community came into Holy Week with the fresh, community knowledge that Bethany’s bone marrow biopsy showed that she is no longer in remission. Holy Week that year brought us together in unanticipated ways.

Last year the RIC team had just finished national LCNA training.

This year Palm Sunday was an amazing worship experience. The sanctuary was filled to overflowing with members and visitors. There was an explosion of colors in the narthex and sanctuary either rainbows or ribbons of colors suggesting rainbows which had kept the congregation focused on God’s covenant during Lent.

Our whole Lent experience was centered in journey. The configuration of the sanctuary changed from week to week, thanks to Larry, Pastor Dayle and others. On Palm Sunday our worship experience, like the week before, was in the round which concentrated a sense of community and celebration.

This was not a Palm – Passion Sunday. We processed in from the narthex after singing Creator Praise with the Processional Hymn All Glory, Laud and Honor. The atmosphere was one of exhilaration.

One part of a long journey for Creator was officially recognized with the presentation of Creator's RIC Certificate by LCNA Regional Coordinators Karen and Paul Jolly to Susan Nolte.

Pastor Dayle’s sermon highlighted the bittersweet part of this journey; the joy of this moment and the recognition of the long Good Friday that has been experienced around this issue, how long it has taken to get to this moment, and the struggle still ahead.

The past few days have been unprecedented in endorsing the rights of lesbians, gay men, and bisexuals nationally. Last Friday the Iowa Supreme Court found that denying same-sex couples the opportunity to marry violated that state's constitution. Four days later, the Vermont legislature overrode the governor's veto of a law giving same-sex couples the right to marry. Vermont and Iowa now join Massachusetts and Connecticut in providing full marriage equality to same-sex couples.

Back to the worship I had not played guitar for awhile at worship but Janice suggested I write a song for the RIC Certificate presentation. I am glad she did. Investing the energy in writing and performing helped me understand and experience the moment in a way that would not have happened otherwise.

Pastor Dayle liked the song and I performed it just before the presentation with Kelly on piano and David on drums. With minimal rehearsal they helped drive the song in a unique way. Here are the lyrics:

A Coming Welcome

Pressing on, we keep on pressing on
To live out welcome
Holy welcome
A coming welcome.

God's courtship and call
Sets our hearts on fire
When we care for one another
When we lift each other higher

And we carry on
Both borne and bound
Ever stretching
Inspired to astound

While we're pressing on, we keep on pressing on
To live out welcome
Holy welcome
Our coming welcome.

Lord God Creator
We are yours
And though we fall and stumble
Your faith in us endures.

Let us see through your eyes
And may your strength we use
As we learn to act in love
How can we refuse

To be pressing on? We keep on pressing on
To live out welcome
Holy welcome
Your coming welcome.

March 8th, 2009 – Table Worship

Creator was shaken out of a "worship complacency" during Sunday service when we found ourselves seated in chairs around tables with the altar in the center.

The sanctuary was set up for Sunday evening’s Backpack Buddies Benefit Dessert concert. The altar was in the middle of the sanctuary and Pastor Dayle and Joe, the Assisting Minister, did not wear albs. This all contributed to an encompassing nature in the worship where there was little separation between the congregation and those presiding.

We were focused on what was essential to us for worship because we were asked to write or draw this out on paper. Pastor Dayle asked at the end if all that was essential to worship for us had been given to us during the worship.

It reminded me how unique worship at Creator has been for me. So many members are given, find or continue to pray for a vitality that demonstrates how important worship is for them.

In the sermon Pastor Dayle preached on the importance of naming in the story of faith from the readings in Geness 17 and Romans 4 where Abram (exalted father) is called Abraham (father of all nations) and Sarai (my princess) is called Sarah (Princess). God makes life fruitful and possible from barren impossibility. When God makes this covenant Sarah laughs, reacting to the impossiblity and impracticality and craziness of what is promised.

It was meaningful, thoughtful, nurturing worship.

March 4th, 2009 – To Pray as Jesus Taught Us and To Sing as Kelly Teaches Us

This Wednesday was a Lenten worship about prayer. Invitational. Expansive. The readings were two different translations and a paraphrasing of Matthew 6:7-13, the Lord’s Prayer that, as Pastor Dayle pointed out in her Reflection, we do not pray word for word.

The alternative Lord’s Prayer started:

Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver, source of all that is and that shall be, Father and mother of us all. Loving God, in whom is heaven.“

Try the different language”, Pastor Dayle urged, “Language is powerful and can open up our conceptions of God”

The silence incorporated into the worship felt profound. The conversation afterwards was lively.

Choir, as Kelly put it, was Lent light in attendance. We “dug in” on a couple of pieces. There were the typical puns and humor, particularly when we practiced a Haydn piece which, Kelly told us, followed the Baroque period. Haydn and Baroque were way to tempting in terms of puns and choir members explored them thoroughly, including Pastor Dayle’s “Where was he during the Baroque period? Was he Haydn?”

I went home with the Haydn's "The Heavens are Telling the Glory of God" from "The Creation" dancing in my head.

March 1st, 2009 – Rainbows and a song "Bind Us Together, Lord" – 1st Sunday in Lent

Throughout Epiphany there was no post to this blog. Much has happened in Epiphany but there were no words in me to describe what Creator was doing or what the activity meant within me. Thanks to those who commented they wanted the blog to continue.

On January 25th we voted and became a Reconciling in Christ congregation. The voting members at the congregational meeting adopted an explicit Affirmation of Welcome to all groups who have felt that the church’s welcome did not include them. The percentage of the vote was high enough (93%) that it felt like this touched some part of the congregation’s identity.

Today (as often happens in Sunday worship) the words of a hymn, together with a book I am currently reading, gave me language to describe Creator for me at this moment. The hymn is “Bind Us Together, Lord” and the book is Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s “Life Together” which Creator’s Book Group selected as our next book to read.

“Bind Us Together, Lord” rose as Creator Praise opened worship. What impressed me was how those words did not idealize Christian community life. Bonhoeffer writes about how, by God’s grace, the community life, that we idealize until it becomes a “wish dream”, is broken down to reality. This language speaks directly about the power I feel at Creator right now. The prayer “bind us together, Lord” with no “and we will live happily ever after as one” stuck on at the end, inspires me because happily ever after is not reality.

If someone declared that Creator is an uncommon church I would not argue. There are Creator worship and community moments have spiritually inspired and guided me. If someone declared that Creator is a common church, again I would not argue. There is hypocrisy, judgment, brokenness and fear that are all in the hearts of each of us which stops us from living a Gospel life.

This church has helped me to understand the strength of this dicotomy.

I listen to those who can sometimes see our congregation as something less than the memories they have of this church in the past.

I don’t really know if that is a past I share. Twenty year Creator members are likely to have a different perspective than I. There are vivid memories that shake my soul as I recall them.

Some moments are current. There were amazing moments in last week's Ash Wednesday service. Pastor Dayle remarked how many people can perceive Ash Wednesday as a downer and "kind of creepy". Ash Wednesday worship offered time for reflection and thoughts of our return to the Lord but there were also moments of laughter as Pastor Dayle pointed out the difference between her invitation to all of us to use the prayer circle and not worry about who was looking at us and the Gospel reading which commends us to pray in secret.

This Sunday there was also a rainbow moment where a "rainbow" was created out of crepe paper rolls strung from the baptismal font to the walls of the church. This tangible rainbow from the multicolored font emphasized the covenant God made in a powerful new way.

An exciting way to start Lent.

December, 2008 – A Different Perspective

There is time for everything to happen
under the sun to lift anchor
in the flow of seasons

everything has its moment
under the uncounted stars
its season of desire

summer of being born
winter of dying
spring of seeding

From Ecclesiastes 5 – The Poet’s Bible

Since many could not make it in to church safely given the amount of snow for the Portland metro area in these last couple of weeks, this became both this city’s and Creator’s time for private worship and, for our family anyway, a private celebration of Christmas.

The December 14th worship was the first for Creator where snow was a consideration as far as driving. At first it was only a handful of worshippers gathered. Our greetings for one another that day were definitely not routine, there was a deeper recognition of who was there. Last minute plans were made to cover for those who could not attend. There was a different joy too in the service.

Attendance built throughout worship to about 50. Our Congregational Conversation and Sunday school were called off due to the anxiety of what might happen with the weather that morning. From there the weather made things less safe. The council meeting was called off the next day, then Wednesday’s Advent service and choir practices and the next Sunday service.

Then the delay of Christmas Eve services to Sunday morning was announced. All this changed the tradition for many families I know and particularly members who traditionally attend both services. Worship at Creator forms the heart of Christmas celebration for many.

So this turned into a season for individual pondering. It is a different way of creating a sense of the sacred. The silence at home was not the silence that enfolds us in the late service singing “Silent Night”. It was not the silence that occasionally graces an Advent Wednesday. I reflected on the many Advent Services of the past, the intoxicating sense of God I felt at the first Advent Service I experienced at Creator with Holden Evening Prayer. Some great feeling of being at home in worship overflowed as the music echoed within us that night.

There is Matthew 18:20 “For where two or three are come together in my name, there am I among them” and this year there were three in my house. We celebrated Christmas differently than last year. Matthew 18:20 was experienced in another way. An unexpected experience of Jesus came among us.


Now comes the anticipation of this coming Sunday morning. It will be our Christmas Eve service at 9:00 AM. The time the Creator worship community has spent apart will likely lead to a different appreciation for worshipping together again. The service will be unusual. This spell will be broken. I don't think I would describe all this in the same way tomorrow after worship.

Eventually the last remnants of snow will disappear and so, eventually, I suspect that different appreciation will fade into memory. Still I remember Ecclesiastes and I know I will not forget these last two weeks. I also consider this "spell" not only a private experience but a part of my Creator community experience and so this blog entry seems appropriate.

I look forward to seeing you tomorrow at worship.

November 23rd, 2008 – Christ the King Sunday: Last Sunday of the Church Year

Lisa started the service with her Our Journey Story. As a five year member at Creator she outlined what stewardship means to her:

Present – Lisa considers a fundamental piece of stewardship being present for Sunday worship.

Participating – There are many ministries going on at Creator. Lisa encourages us to “go with the Holy Spirit when it tugs at us.”

Giving – The easiest and the hardest piece of stewardship. Lisa detailed how moving comfortably through by upping your percentage giving each year is one way to plan increases. This is also where faith and trust in God figures in the calculus we use to determine our giving. Will God provide for our needs or do we need to keep back what we could give for ourselves because we might need it?

Being this is the last Sunday of the Church year, Pastor Dayle reflected on the past year at Creator in her sermon. We celebrated the 20th anniversary of Creator’s first worship service through Pastor Mark’s unexpected resignation through putting into place the Spiritwork teams and the other changes that we have experienced at Creator.

In preaching on the Gospel reading Pastor Dayle asked "What does the reign of Christ look like and how can we bring it to come? In talking about the sheep and goats both do not know that both ask the same questions about what they did to help when the king was hungry, thirsty, naked or in prison.

Pastor Dayle observed we are both sheep and goat. We are challenged to bring about God's kingdom and sometimes we rise to that challenge and at other times we do not. This, however, is the time to put away the old and think about the new.

The Hymn of the Day, I Will Sing, I Will Sing became a joyful noise and it did feel like the old was being put away and we were thinking about the new as we were singing it. Then the children sang Mercy is Falling as special music for offering. The congregation appreciated their performance.

What Feast of Love had a simple majesty and mystery the way it was sung on Sunday during communion and Beautiful Savior continued with a feeling of reverence and beauty. Worship ended with Soon and Very Soon. Another clapping, joyful noise, end to the service.

The Adult Forum was on Asset Mapping. Pastor Dayle led a revealing Adult Forum this Sunday. She directed us to write on down three spiritual gifts we personally felt we had, three things we do for fun, and two things other people would say were our gifts. We then posted these, looked for similarities in the group, and broke into two smaller groups of people based on those similarities. The common interests (or gifts) among this particular group were music and compassion. We discussed ideas and ministries for those two groups.

This felt like a very concrete way to start to promote the participation Lisa talked about at the beginning of the service.

November 16th, 2008 - Pay Attention - The End is Near

Pastor Dayle was on a WELCA retreat, she arrived after worship and the Congregational conversation for today's choir minkistry. Father Al presided today.

He noted that Creator Praise was more worship than music this Sunday and that we would continue worship rather than start it.

The musis continued to be energtic. The Hymn of Praise was particularly strong full of celebration.

Father Al started his sermon by having us think about a sign with God is Coming printed on one side and The End is Near printed on the other. This mental sign was to mark that this Sunday is the end of Ordinary Time, the green "Sunday after Pentecost" Sundays. Next Sunday is Christ the King Sunday, the end of the churh year.

From there the sermon moved to how uncomfortable we, as Americans at this time and in this place are with Gospels like we have had the past two Sundays. Last Sunday was the Parable of the Ten Bridesmaids; this Sunday the Parable of the Talents. Father Al talked about how we have domesticated God. We do not have a God that “shatters” history. Our God gives comfort and care rather than challenge. And yet the church needs to remember all of its history.

There are words that have gone stale. These are parables that teach us to pay attention to who we are and who God is. We need to pay attention to what we are doing today.

Paying attention. Why is that more difficult than it seems? The father in front of me was having his son follow his finger for the hymns and the words that were in the bulletin. A very beautiful moment about focusing attention.

There was a Congregational Conversation and a choir trip to Princeton Village this Sunday as well.