Here are some of my reflections on what happened and what was meaningful about worshiping at Creator during 2017.
Historically 2017 commemorated the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. On Reformation Sunday this last October Pastor Ray challenged us to "live wet" by remembering our baptism. Living wet (living the gospel) describes how we can celebrate and affirm our faith. It is more than simply remembering who we were and who we are now. It is not just about believing the right words or following established traditions but in how we live in the world and interact with others. Reliance on shared histories or birthrights does not alone build our relationships with one another as Jesus taught and demonstrated throughout his life.
A crowd of American protesters in Charlottesville chanted "blood and soil" in August of this year. They were later defended under a blanket presidential observation that "there are very fine people on both sides" of the protests over the fate of Confederate statues in public spaces. Creator worship was a potent reminder for me of how Christians can engage in public life. Pastor Michelle, our Interim Pastor for most of the year, guided the congregation through what was happening in our national dialog and in changing American political policies as well as how our personal lives were engaged in our faith as these changes took place.
As it happened, on the day of the August Charlottesville protest Creator held our memorial service for a valued member of our congregation. Dr. Samuel Tse was an immigrant from China’s Canton province and one of the best witnesses in our congregation to the “wet life” Pastor Ray referenced. Sam was an extraordinary man with an amazing story who inspired those around him in all walks of his life. He had shared his amazing baptism story with the congregation earlier during Lent.
Pastor Michelle preached the Sunday after his memorial “As I listened to the Chinese interpreter for the service, I looked around the room and saw many beautiful children of God who happen to be of Chinese ancestry. I also saw a few other nationalities and races represented among Sam’s family and friends.... “This is the family of God!” I said to myself. “These are the beautiful rainbow children of God....”
Pastor Michelle helped shepherd Creator through the pastoral transition period after Pastor Dayle’s retirement. Both congregation and Pastor Michelle felt a strong love and connection to one another throughout her time in 2017. Many felt the presence of the Holy Spirit throughout our search and Pastor Michelle’s tenure as our pastor as well. The call process culminated in Pastor Ray’s October Installation.
In past years Creator has occasionally announced and planned a focus, like 2009’s Year of Discernment when Creator chose to become a Reconciling in Christ congregation. Other years have been like 2017 which focused on a recurring theme. From the end of 2016’s Christmas Journey to this December’s Advent Journey how to speak meaningfully now about God’s presence with us came up again and again.
Pastor Michelle’s invoked the Christmas birth story in her January 1st sermon and imagined that the no room at the inn narrative commented on how there was never “room” in this world for a God-as-Emmanuel presence. She suggested we use the twelve days of Christmas to strip away the layers that generations of Christians have covered Jesus in – our worldly flags, prosperity and other ideologies. She felt when we strip the layers down to the cross and manager and we could remember his naked, God-with-us-and-for-us humanity.
In her Easter sermon Pastor Michelle preached about a moment when the reality of God directly came into her daily life. She admitted to being a little scared of giving the sermon. Sharing how we individually experience God’s presence in daily life can become awkward. As a result we can be reluctant to share these perceptions privately to one another, much less publicly in a sermon. In doing so Pastor Michelle gave the congregation more courage to open up. There were more stories about personal encounters that were told among the members at Adult Forums and in our ongoing conversations.
She also told us about a dramatic moment she experienced in seminary at an Adult Forum. One of her teachers summarized Christianity to his students by drawing an arrow pointing downward on the white board. After allowing the students time to reflect on this, the teacher explained that we are a people who believe in a God that always comes down.
We explored the beauty of that statement together with the inherent remoteness that can resonate and echo in our lives. A God that always comes down is not always with us. A God that intermittently “comes down” is a God that can exist outside of the world in what is traditionally referred to as heaven. If we visualize a horizon line, God comes down from the sky (or heaven) to earth when God is with us. In fact this is a very familiar conception of God for me.
There is another way to think of God with us in life, however. Imagine a horizon line that divides sea from sky, rather than earth, from the sky. God might be better understood as an iceberg in the sea. The tip of the iceberg is visible at times in history or in personal moments for us, but the iceberg is always present even when the tip is not visible.
Pastor Ray continued with explorations of God’s presence in the world through our collective Advent Journey with an Advent Study each Wednesday and in our Christmas Eve services. Exploring God first as manifested in the wilderness, and then in the Promised Land, gave attendees many new perspectives.
I was reminded during the Advent studies about the story I once read of a village woman in Africa who always carried a Bible. One day her neighbors ask her, “Why are you always carrying around a Bible. There are so many other books you can read.” She answered, “Yes, of course there are many other books that I could read … so many. But there is only one book that reads me.”
Pastor led us in an exploration of the Biblical grammar used in this year’s Advent Gospel verses and how this affects we think of God and his presence. The tense of verbs changing in Mary’s Magnificat and the shift of personal pronouns in Isaiah sparked our imaginations in how better to live with and express our questions about God.
Reaching any true chronicle of Creator’s meaningful events for a year is challenging undertaking. A more overarching perspective is demanded than pastors or any one lay person can provide. Please post any personal additions as comments to this post.
Historically 2017 commemorated the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. On Reformation Sunday this last October Pastor Ray challenged us to "live wet" by remembering our baptism. Living wet (living the gospel) describes how we can celebrate and affirm our faith. It is more than simply remembering who we were and who we are now. It is not just about believing the right words or following established traditions but in how we live in the world and interact with others. Reliance on shared histories or birthrights does not alone build our relationships with one another as Jesus taught and demonstrated throughout his life.
A crowd of American protesters in Charlottesville chanted "blood and soil" in August of this year. They were later defended under a blanket presidential observation that "there are very fine people on both sides" of the protests over the fate of Confederate statues in public spaces. Creator worship was a potent reminder for me of how Christians can engage in public life. Pastor Michelle, our Interim Pastor for most of the year, guided the congregation through what was happening in our national dialog and in changing American political policies as well as how our personal lives were engaged in our faith as these changes took place.
As it happened, on the day of the August Charlottesville protest Creator held our memorial service for a valued member of our congregation. Dr. Samuel Tse was an immigrant from China’s Canton province and one of the best witnesses in our congregation to the “wet life” Pastor Ray referenced. Sam was an extraordinary man with an amazing story who inspired those around him in all walks of his life. He had shared his amazing baptism story with the congregation earlier during Lent.
Pastor Michelle preached the Sunday after his memorial “As I listened to the Chinese interpreter for the service, I looked around the room and saw many beautiful children of God who happen to be of Chinese ancestry. I also saw a few other nationalities and races represented among Sam’s family and friends.... “This is the family of God!” I said to myself. “These are the beautiful rainbow children of God....”
Pastor Michelle helped shepherd Creator through the pastoral transition period after Pastor Dayle’s retirement. Both congregation and Pastor Michelle felt a strong love and connection to one another throughout her time in 2017. Many felt the presence of the Holy Spirit throughout our search and Pastor Michelle’s tenure as our pastor as well. The call process culminated in Pastor Ray’s October Installation.
In past years Creator has occasionally announced and planned a focus, like 2009’s Year of Discernment when Creator chose to become a Reconciling in Christ congregation. Other years have been like 2017 which focused on a recurring theme. From the end of 2016’s Christmas Journey to this December’s Advent Journey how to speak meaningfully now about God’s presence with us came up again and again.
Pastor Michelle’s invoked the Christmas birth story in her January 1st sermon and imagined that the no room at the inn narrative commented on how there was never “room” in this world for a God-as-Emmanuel presence. She suggested we use the twelve days of Christmas to strip away the layers that generations of Christians have covered Jesus in – our worldly flags, prosperity and other ideologies. She felt when we strip the layers down to the cross and manager and we could remember his naked, God-with-us-and-for-us humanity.
In her Easter sermon Pastor Michelle preached about a moment when the reality of God directly came into her daily life. She admitted to being a little scared of giving the sermon. Sharing how we individually experience God’s presence in daily life can become awkward. As a result we can be reluctant to share these perceptions privately to one another, much less publicly in a sermon. In doing so Pastor Michelle gave the congregation more courage to open up. There were more stories about personal encounters that were told among the members at Adult Forums and in our ongoing conversations.
She also told us about a dramatic moment she experienced in seminary at an Adult Forum. One of her teachers summarized Christianity to his students by drawing an arrow pointing downward on the white board. After allowing the students time to reflect on this, the teacher explained that we are a people who believe in a God that always comes down.
We explored the beauty of that statement together with the inherent remoteness that can resonate and echo in our lives. A God that always comes down is not always with us. A God that intermittently “comes down” is a God that can exist outside of the world in what is traditionally referred to as heaven. If we visualize a horizon line, God comes down from the sky (or heaven) to earth when God is with us. In fact this is a very familiar conception of God for me.
There is another way to think of God with us in life, however. Imagine a horizon line that divides sea from sky, rather than earth, from the sky. God might be better understood as an iceberg in the sea. The tip of the iceberg is visible at times in history or in personal moments for us, but the iceberg is always present even when the tip is not visible.
Pastor Ray continued with explorations of God’s presence in the world through our collective Advent Journey with an Advent Study each Wednesday and in our Christmas Eve services. Exploring God first as manifested in the wilderness, and then in the Promised Land, gave attendees many new perspectives.
I was reminded during the Advent studies about the story I once read of a village woman in Africa who always carried a Bible. One day her neighbors ask her, “Why are you always carrying around a Bible. There are so many other books you can read.” She answered, “Yes, of course there are many other books that I could read … so many. But there is only one book that reads me.”Pastor led us in an exploration of the Biblical grammar used in this year’s Advent Gospel verses and how this affects we think of God and his presence. The tense of verbs changing in Mary’s Magnificat and the shift of personal pronouns in Isaiah sparked our imaginations in how better to live with and express our questions about God.
Reaching any true chronicle of Creator’s meaningful events for a year is challenging undertaking. A more overarching perspective is demanded than pastors or any one lay person can provide. Please post any personal additions as comments to this post.
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