August 5, 2018 - Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost - Call Us Home Liturgy and Baptism

Creator always brings enthusiasm and joy into our service when there is a baptism to celebrate and we celebrated Stefan's baptism today. Pastor Ray's first baptism at Creator. Stefan's mother, Karen sings in the choir and I felt many members gave the music a special gusto. It was hard to tell, however, because today's setting was Call Us Home and Creator also has a special place in our hearts for that music, Susan Granata, one of the composers of the setting, was an Interim Pastor at Creator and helped form the community.

Another beautiful moment was when some visitor's, young girls. felt comfortable enough to come in during the service rehearsal before the service and danced to the music we were practicing. That gave our rehearsal an extra boost of joy.

There is a lilt and zeal to many of the pieces that form the Call Us Home setting. There is also an energy when Creator joins to perform this that keeps it from being in any way sung mechanically or by rote. The Communion hymn is called The Bread of Life so it very appropriate that this is the setting we use when we focus on these bread passages from John.

Singing the music pieces about bread soothed my soul where the Gospel passage had agitated caused some questioning. Bread of Life from Heaven; The Bread of Life ; Let Us Break Bread Together; One Bread, One Body, and Send Us Out all kept bread on our minds as a metaphor and as bread God gives us to eat.

This is the bread we sang about ignites my imagination. No shaming of people for coming to Jesus because they may have wanted physical bread. The pieces always kept close to the characteristics of real bread as well so the bread of life or heaven did not dissolve into an abstract concept.