March 27, 2016 - Holy Week - Easter - Christ is Risen and Bodies on Earth

Christ Has No Body

L'Estasi di Santa Teresa

Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

Saint Teresa of Ávila

Pastor Michelle offered this quote from Saint Teresa of Ávila at the end of her Easter sermon about Jesus Christ risen.  Understanding, reason and faith collided and merged together for me at that moment.   My "how to make traditional services contain something new" question I pondered on Palm Sunday a week ago was resoundingly answered.

Saint Teresa inspired me personally a long time ago.  I learned about her, not through quotes or her writings but, rather, discovered her through an art class when studying Bernini. His sculpture, L'Estasi di Santa Teresa or The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa in the Cornaro Chapel, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome captured my imagination when I first encountered the stories and photos of this piece.

Let me write about the service and then delve into the importance of thinking about Saint Teresa of Ávila on Easter..

These were the first Easter services for me that Creator celebrated without Pastor Dayle.  There was a shift in emphasis to take in.  There was both the familiar and unfamiliar throughout the service.  The Creator Praise songs Lord, I lift Your Name on High and There Is a Redeemer were very familiar and the Creator Choir led the congregation on them.

Christ the Lord is Risen Today was also familiar to the choir and congregation from last year's musical cantata.  There is music that forms the community on holy days like Easter and Christmas.  The Gathering Hymn - Jesus Christ is Risen Today is one of those hymns.  I noticed people coming in late while the congregation was singing this song, made the sign of the cross as they entered.  I think they were unconsciously responding to a holy moment the singing was creating.  I did not see people earlier or later making the sign of the cross.

Photo By Ron Houser

The readings were traditional.  Pastor Michelle made Children's Time fun by having children and the congregation sing "Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelujah, Praise ye the Lord", alternately having half of us only stand when singing "Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelu, Hallelujah" and the other half only when singing "Praise ye the Lord".  

After the sermon the Hymn of the Day was Now All the Vault of Heaven Resounds, another song emphasizing triumph with it's repeated Alleluias.

The Creator Choir sang songs the congregation had not heard before, like He is Risen (Mary's Song) with Janice's strong solo and Resurrection Song from The Day He Wore My Crown cantata.  Matt added some choice piano accompaniment and Jon directed both pieces' dynamics and emotions    Performing them as a choir member was exhilarating.  There is something that resonates with music you have practiced for months and are completely familiar with singing.

The Communion songs were Be Not Afraid, You Are Mine and another Easter hymn Alleluia! Jesus Is Risen! The service closed with our traditional Sending Song - Hallelujah, We Sing Your Praises.  For the 8:00 service, it was delightful to watch Shirley playfully flexing her muscles while singing "Strong in faith" and little Mimi stomping to the beat.

Back to the sermon, Saint Teresa, and a great sense of humor. Saint Teresa's sense of humor is documented.  For example on one occasion Teresa complained to God about her mistreatment from so many different people. God replied to her saying ‘That is how I always treat my friends’  St Teresa replied ‘That must be why you have so few friends’.

Photo By Ron Houser

St Teresa struggled because few could understand or appreciate her inner ecstasies.  I learned the levitating stories that float around her (forgive me using the word float).  I read her description of God giving her spiritual delights.  God's presence overwhelmed her senses and she would be filled with rapture while she was in a glorious foolish, prayer of union.  At times she felt "the sun of God melt her soul away"and at other times her whole body was raised from the ground.

If she felt God was going to levitate her body, she stretched out on the floor and called the nuns to sit on her and hold her down. Far from being excited about these events, she "begged God very much not to give me any more favors in public."

I never connected St Teresa's levitating with raising from the dead.  I learned again this morning how my mind fragments my spiritual activities and knowledge into convenient cubby-holes.  St. Teresa was contained in the cubby-holes of Art, Bernini, Catholic Saint, and the Spanish Inquisition.  None of these referenced back to my Lutheran or Easter cubby-holes until today..  

St. Teresa's story tied in with aspects of Easter clearly described in today's Gospel reading but normally not emphasized like Pastor Michelle did today. Her sermon focused partly on the disciples not believing the story of the risen Jesus from the women, women normally not considered reliable witnesses at that time.

Something flying in the face of normal rational world is disconcerting.  Lutherans are suspicious of leaving our minds / reason at the door when it comes to religion. Yet Christ is Risen is God's deepest revelation of God to us and that, in turn, is hard to reconcile with life's reality.  As Pastor Michelle said as she concluded her sermon "Resurrection is a gift from God received by faith".

Pastor Michelle's "gift" of the St. Teresa quote brought everything to a full circle.  Art, together with religious revelation. Without faith, Christ has no body now on earth but our's.  In my mind's eye ( I will make it easier for you by inserting an image to the left) I see St. Teresa's body captured in a miraculous sculpture with an angel. They are both depicted as levitating above the ground so they are without bodies on earth in more ways than one and yet are portrayed in a sensuous encounter.

What can those of us with bodies anchored to the earth do as the body of Christ on earth besides exclaim "Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluiah!"?

March 26, 2016 - Holy Week - Easter Vigil - Sabbatum Sanctum

Third of the Ten Commandments in the Bible is: “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.” When a chant or prayer is made absentmindedly, without complete attention on the Lord, the Divine Name has been taken in vain; that is, without result, without the power of that Name, and without receiving God's response. To repeat a chant with ever-increasing understanding and devotion is to invoke the Name of God and not in vain.

I was writing last Sunday about perhaps my needing something new in worship.  I had no idea that the something new would be something ancient. The Easter Vigil Proclamation this year was chanted and floated through the air.  Those gathered were invoking God's name in devotion.

I am not going to pretend I apprehended it all at the moment.  I was holding a candle along with the rest of the congregation.  The wick on my candle must have been a bit longer than the others, I'm not sure but the chant went on far longer than years past and the wax on my candle was melting and dripping onto my hand from about halfway through the Proclamation.  Pastor Michelle, in her upper range, delivered chant after chant.  The words were English but, at least for this listener, the actual words lost one level of meaning.  I was aware there was something both familiar and unfamiliar about the moment.

I remember my reaction to the unfamiliar first was to totally embrace the beauty of Pastor Michelle's delivery chanting of God's heavenly powers. About the time the wax was dripping on my hands a part of me was no longer receptive and I was only wondering how long the chanting would continue.  I thought about what I could do to accommodate the length by adjusting my candle and moving my bulletin to catch the wax drippings.  I then returned to listening to the words where what was being chanted became important again.

Christ Candle

When I was home, I found my memory of the Easter Vigil Proclamation contained something I was only vaguely aware of at the time.  There was a distance to what was being performed that I was unused to as being part of Creator worship.  Another time, the reality of people I did not know from a different time and place, were being made present with this chant.  This was a different perspective of God than the God of those in my time and place.  My views of God suddenly seemed a bit foreign to me.  I was filled with a sense gratitude for the ancient traditions that have been passed down, all the transformations to those traditions and to the work of creating this worship opportunity.  It was a humbling experience.

The next part of the service was fun.  The familiar stories and songs of Creation, The Flood, Exodus, and The Valley of the Dry Bones were told and simultaneously acted out.  This was a very familiar Easter Vigil that was easy to take part in.  These were stories that do define how we perceive ourselves and our culture.

We also need new stories that provide life-giving ways to understand our world that can spring from and be nourished by the past. The last "story" - An Invitation to Abundant Life - had more than abundant lyrics in the song we ang in response - Come to the Feast.  Matt gave the congregation a map to follow with his vocal leadership.      

Everyone was then sprinkled during our Thanksgiving for Baptism.  We welcomed Nicholas as a new member and transitioned to the First Service of Easter in Creator's traditional way, revealing the banner behind the black cloth that had kept it hidden.  There was the Eucharist and we left with the foretaste of Easter services tomorrow.

March 25, 2016 - Holy Week - Good Friday - Tenebrae

Maudy Thursday closed with singing repeatedly "My God, my God, O why have you abandoned me?" from Marty Haugen's My God, My God.

In the Gathering Rite of Good Friday the congregation sang "Hold us in your mercy" repeatedly, led by Crag, Janice, Robert and Shirley as cantors from the Cooney / Daigle piece Hold Us in Your Mercy.

There was a power and continuity to be experienced with this opening.  They are very interesting prayers when juxtaposed with one another.  The congregation was then invited to meditate on the divine mystery - God comes to us in the most unexpected way.  In the midst of suffering and death.

Trish, the Assisting Minister, and Pastor Michelle led the Bidding Prayer. There was a solemness and dignity with the bids and conclusions and the congregation sealed each with an Amen until the conclusion where we prayed The Lord's Prayer.

Next came the depth of the Tenebrae.  The word "tenebrae" comes from the Latin meaning "darkness." The Tenebrae is an ancient Christian Good Friday service that makes use of gradually diminishing light through the extinguishing of candles to symbolize the events of that week from the triumphant Palm Sunday entry through Jesus' burial.

After each reading another candle was extinguished and there would be a sung response, either from the congregation or the choir.  The women in the choir sang See Him There.  The men sang Midnight in the Middle of the Day.  The choir sang a heartfelt Behold The Lamb and Greg Lindstrom gave a passionate solo with the choir on The Day He Wore My Crown.

As the candles were extinguished, the increasing "darkness" symbolized the approaching darkness of Jesus' death and of hopelessness in the world without God.

When the Paschal candle was extinguished there was The Adoration of the Cross of Christ.  Pastor Michelle began each adoration with the words Behold, the life-giving cross on which was hung the Savior of the whole world.  The life-giving cross.  How that adoration is true is one path to understanding the power of the Christian vision and faith.

The service concluded in darkness and the Christ candle, carried out of the sanctuary, symbolizing the death of Jesus. Pastor Michelle ended with a startlingly loud snap of The Closing of the Book which symbolized the closing of Jesus' tomb.

Worshipers then left in silence to ponder the impact of Christ's death and await the coming Resurrection.  It felt like we were participating in an ancient ritual that honored the impact of why we were gathered and reminded us that we were not alone in honoring that impact.

March 24, 2016 - Holy Week - Maundy Thursday

Today, once again, is the time we acknowledge the beginning of the final journey of our Lord and Maundy Thursday begins our three day, three part service of Holy Week. This day commemorates the Last Supper, when Jesus washed the feet of his disciples and established the Eucharist. “Mandatum novum do vobis” (“a new commandment I give to you”) is the command given by Christ at the Last Supper, that we should love one another.

On Maundy Thursday, we gathered for foot washing and communion. This is, of course, how the Passover Meal began for the disciples according to John 13:1-17. As they entered the upper room and sat at the table for the meal, Jesus stood up and went to each disciple with a basin and towel. He symbolically and literally took on the role of a servant as he washed the disciples feet.

Having your feet washed can be a humbling and awe-inspiring experience. Each time I have chosen to participate the experience that was hard to label.  Honoring a holiness within each of us as individuals might be one way to put the experience at least partly into words.  I believe I saw it in Debi's face, for one, this evening.

Loving  & Serving Others

To expose your feet in all their “glory” and actually have someone wash and dry them is pretty amazing. Many of us can be embarrassed by the state of their feet. I can’t imagine that our feet are any worse than the state the disciples feet were in!  I know it was a blessing for those who were willing to be humble and wash and perform what some may consider a sacrament (although, as a church, Lutherans do not).

In past years there has been one thing in the Maundy Thursday service that has brought me close to tears.  One year it was a very personal confession of our Pastor.  As I heard her confess, I saw all the opportunities that slip away from all of us and how often I personally miss the mark. It is so easy to simply crowd the mind and spirit away from others and focus on something else.

Another year, in 2008, Creator's communion on Holy Thursday was particularly amazing.  I reflected on the small group gathered to share the meal that commemorated that supper in the upper room so long ago.

In this evening's worship, there were emotional and devotional moments throughout the service starting with the sermon.  Pastor Michelle preached about two stories about breaking down barriers.

One was a story told by Francois Clemmons about his experiences on the children’s TV program “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” and how meaningful it was to have his feet in the water with Fred Rogers who also helped him dry his feet.  A very powerful story and the link is offered for you to follow it.

The other story related to this Thursday as an anniversary.  On March 24 1980, a car stopped outside the Church of the Divine Providence. A lone gunman stepped out and, resting his rifle on the car door, he aimed carefully down the long aisle to where El Salvador's archbishop, Oscar Arnulfo Romero, was saying mass. A single shot rang out. Romero staggered and fell. The blood pumped from his heart.  Pastor Michelle talked about how Romero was inspired by, and in turn inspired, those who worked to help the poor in El Salvador.

Katie gave the readings from Exodus and Corinthians,  The Gospel, of course, was John 13:1-17, 34-36 ending with the new commandment.

The commandment is global but even applying this locally is challenging. For me church is the foundation of where this kind of love begins. I think about how close so many people in our congregation are to each other and yet it is challenging to be truly loving and a part of one another's lives.

The repetition of My God, my God, O why have you abandoned me? in Marty Haugen's My God, My God triggered a deep contemplation for me and tonight lyrics repeated over and over in my head again as I left worship.  My mind was on where our nation and modern culture appears to be at this moment, spiritually and politically.

The lyrics are from the Joni Mitchell song, The Three Great Stimulants:

I picked the morning paper off the floor
It was full of other people's little wars
Wouldn't they like their peace
Don't we get bored
And we call for the three great stimulants
Of the exhausted ones
Artifice, brutality and innocence
Artifice and innocence  

It is said that the apostle John, at the end of his life- frail, blind, nearly deaf, and senile- would be lovingly carried on a bed into the meetings of the Christian community.  All he would say was ‘Love one another… Love one another…’ Over, and over, and over.  Jesus had taught and given the commandment  John was the last person alive who had been at that last supper.  He had heard it said;.  He saw it lived.  He stood at the cross, watched Jesus die, for years had taken care of Jesus’ mother and, at the end of his life, he wanted us to remember that one thing.

Dante Alighieri begins his epic poem the Commedia Divina--Divine Comedy on Maundy Thursday and today I think about this in relationship with the command to love one another.

Most of us, when we read Dante, focus on the Inferno. There is a palpable feel to the images we encounter in this first part of the Divine Comedy. However a few lines from the Paradiso captures a perspective and depth to Jesus’ commandment that I continually find difficult to completely apprehend and live in my heart.  I first blogged about on Maundy Thursday, April, 2006 after just reading Dante in the first part of that year. The lines that struck me as commenting on the commandment Jesus gives us were:

O grace abundant, by which I presumed
To fix my sight upon the Light Eternal,
So that the seeing I consumed therein! 

I saw that in its depth far down is lying
Bound up with love together in one volume,
What through the universe in leaves is scattered;

Substance, and accident, and their operations,
All interfused together in such wise
That what I speak of is one simple light.

The universal fashion of this knot
Methinks I saw, since more abundantly
In saying this I feel that I rejoice.


With these lines in mind Jesus' commandment to love one another illuminates my thoughts and how I view the world and the people around me.

We act from an assumption of a constant scarcity of resources. This is how life appears, particularly when the theory of evolution with the root's of Thomas Malthus and his "Principle of Population".where we all compete for life and resources. What we are given is divided between us.  The constant questions are the justice and fairness of the division.

Jesus, in this one commandment, shatters this assumption. As Dante writes, what through the universe in leaves is scattered will be “bound up with love together in one volume”. Loving one another as unique pages, each necessary for the whole volume, is now at the heart of the commandment for me. To lose one page is to diminish the relationship of our universe with God. There is a new meaning and urgency to this commandment today that challenges me to put into practice what goes against what might be the 'common sense' of scarcity.

Love one another… Love one another..

March 20, 2016 - Animate Bible / Genre - Rhythm of the Text - Jose Morales

Pastor Michelle led this session which was Genre - Rhythm of the Text presented by Jose Morales.

There were a few of us who had not considered the genre of particular books of the Bible until now.  The story of Jonah was a story Morales focused on and classified as satire. Those who were gathered could see the value in focusing on the framework in which the book of Jonah was written and that if we viewed as historical fact we would focus on the wrong questions.  We would be asking how someone could live in the belly of a fish without being affected by stomach acids.  

We discussed the Creation story as mythology and there was a comfort level with the group in differentiating this truth from the facts found in a scientific textbook.

Pastor Michelle then previewed the devotional we would discuss in the Council meeting immediately following this Animate session.  She expanded the worship's Philippians reading to Philippians 2:1-15 from 5-11.

I appreciated the fact that the expansion included verse 12, with the "fear and trembling" words made famous in the title of the book by Kierekgaard.  But to reconcile the first and second parts of this passage, as we later talked about later in the council meeting, is not as easy as it might first appear. the last two verses read:

Do all things without murmuring and arguing, so that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, in which you shine like stars in the world.   .

Verse 3 reads:

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.

I have to ask would the mind of Christ Jesus think of an entire generation as crooked and perverse except for a few who shine like stars in the world?  Is this description of the generation together with the knowledge that some shine like starts in the world fit with the in humility regard others as better than yourselves that Paul asks of the Philippians?

A desire for or to be God's "gold star" can blind.  It can prevent the good news from being spread to others. Is this a preaching kind of "Listen to this, you who are part of a crooked and perverse generation"? Does it help telling the powerful story of Jesus to those who are not the "stars" but are a part of that generation being labeled?  Or does the label offering hope and an invitation to a way out to those who hear the good news?      

March 20, 2016 - Palm Sunday - Start of Holy Week

The traditional Creator Palm Sunday Service elements were all there this morning.  We started with the same Creator Praise songs in the narthex that we sung in the past.  We waved palm leaves in the narthex and dropped them processing into the sanctuary.  

The choir sang selections from The Day He Wore My Crown including Cornerstone. Hosanna and Shirley's beautiful solo on There's Something That's Different about Him.  Jon directed the music enthusiastically and with joy.   The choir sang with both power and nuance.   

The Passion of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ According to St. Luke was read starting with the hymn Go to Dark Gethsemane.  After the reading there were the Prayers of the People, Sharing The Peace, and the Eucharist.  Matt played pleasing piano on In The Singing and By Your Hand You Feed Your People.  The service ended with a triumphant Guide Me Ever Great Redeemer.  

Pastor Michelle wrote "Our Palm Sunday worship was glorious--filled with love and light--thanks to the efforts of so many of you!  With joy I watched and listened, as you greeted each other and welcomed the stranger in your midst….  The Spirit of our Risen Lord is indeed alive and well, blessing you, and working in and through you to bring blessing to others!"  One comment on our Meerkat streaming gave a succinct "Glorious!" comment.

Yet I came home from church without... what?

My reaction to today's worship I know can be common for people who attends church regularly however this is the first blog entry where there was no intellectual, emotional or devotional insight, high or revelation for me in worship to dwell on as a subject.  

Why?  Perhaps because there was no sermon and so many readings the focus was not any given passage but the whole passion narrative.  Maybe.  Perhaps participation was a factor.  As usual I played guitar and sang, but today was different partly due to the processional. I was in the choir, and played Peter in the dramatic reading.  I needed to react quickly and was constantly evaluating my performance.  Not exactly an inviting environment for insights, highs or revelations.

Perhaps familiarity with the rituals, habits and repetitions of this congregation around Palm Sunday played a part.  The first Easter Vigil service I experienced at Creator lives in my memory.  Over the years Easter Vigils have all been meaningful and yet the parts that are truly memorable are where something completely different happened and I am not as tuned into the energy.  

Perhaps repetition plays a part.  This brings to mind a Paul McCartney concert in Berkeley I went to years ago.  I was exuberant about his show's energy and attended the next performance of the tour as well.  It was the same show down to the patter between songs.  People around me loved it.  I wasn't engaged in the second performance until he accidentally knocked over a microphone.  Something new.

How does the passion story become new after having a lifetime of hearing it?  This morning there was a moment.  Craig read the part of Jesus without much time and preparation.  He inadvertently read the words of Jesus on the cross as "Forgive them Father for they know what they do".  Leaving out the "not" took me off auto-pilot.  I wondered if ti would have mattered whether they knew or do not know what they were doing in their Crucifixion roles?  Not necessarily an insight or revelation, so much as a question.    

The next question that comes to my mind, "Is the insight, high, or revelation necessary?".  Is "something that's different" needed each week?.  

If I did not have this blog writing discipline (or my working on the Transition Team in the phase where we are identifying Creator's future Ministry) I doubt I would dwell on this question.  Yet this is how many people can feel (and I have felt) after particular Sunday services.  Today I am confronted with a few truths and an underlying reason for these blog posts. 

1. Telling the truth about my subjective experience.  This freedom allowed me to explore individual emotions and thoughts I have brought into the service.  This feels like a different subjective experience where others experienced an intended connection or meaning that I did not   
2. I write about what services mean for me every Sunday.  I need to confront a rather irrational fear. When will this happen again and how often?  Will it make reading the blog boring?
3. Will I unintentionally hurt people?  This has little to nothing to do with the planning or execution of Palm Sunday but personal disconnection can come off as an implicit criticism of the effort put into the worship and my true appreciation of the planning and preparation may sound hollow.

There is a self-centeredness tied in everything I have written in this particular blog post, even a belief that Holy Week somehow might depend on the overall contributions of all churches to it, to the perfect reactions (including mine), the right blog post writings, the best prayers, the deepest reflections and meditations together with the finest services. 

Perhaps this all comes form a quiet fear within me about the power of Holy Week might have.  Will it be overwhelming without the right lens to filter the story?  My current reasons listed here may be precisely the filters I need to confront and challenge why I reacted the way I did today.

Hope the beginning of Holy Week was blessed for you and will remain so during the coming days.. 

March 16, 2016 - Fifth Wednesday Worship in Lent / Open My Life, Lord - Open My Life

Craig and Janice provided the musical leadership tonight for Holden Evening Prayer.  Having the different leader's voices provided dimensions that, together with the five individual messages, the readings, Matt's musicianship and the feelings of those in the room each Wednesday, made each of our worship times in Lent unique.

Tonight's reading was Galatians 2:15-21

We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.

But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not!  If I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker.

For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!

Pastor Michelle spoke on the evening's subject, Open My Life, by testifying to how God opened and continues to open her life through prayer, scripture, and people she has met along the way some of whom she later referred to as angels.

She related that she did not grow up in the church but felt an invitation when she was told that she could believe in Christianity and not reject the theory of evolution.  As she put it "I didn't need to check my brain at the door".

From there Pastor Michelle detailed many "whispers of insight" she had received from God throughout her life.  She admitted as a "gypsy pastor" she never quite knows what is ahead but has faith she has been given all she needs for the life God has given her,

Her message made singing the words of The Magnificat afterwards much more heartfelt and personal.

Many people have asked me if it is not a bit repetitious and perhaps boring to come every Wednesday and "do the same thing".  Reflecting back what they likely are referring to is our centering on the Holden Evening Prayer vespers for five Wednesdays.  For me as I related in the opening, a different musical part of Holden Evening Prayer was highlighted and made memorable on each of the past few weeks.

All true gifts and invitations to let God open my life.  Open our lives together.

March 13, 2016 - Animate Bible / Gospels - Unexpected Good News - Nadia Bolz-Weber

Luka led Creator's energetic discussion after Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber's DVD presentation about unexpected good news.

From the beginning it was clear that Nadia Bolz-Weber is a favorite author and speaker of many of the participants of this Adult Form.  I have linked twice to her sermons just in these blogs because others talked about them in their reactions to Pastor Michelle's recent sermons.

The DVD presentation showed why.  She articulated and summarized the common response many people would have when first confronted with the gospel stories of Jesus.  Where some might simply decry the prosperity gospel some Christians now believe, for  example, she embodies that in her "initial" response to the story of Jesus.  She laments this is a depressing example of good news

After citing Jesus' death on the cross, her reaction is This is the worst good news I have ever heard.   This plays with one current assumption that financial blessing is the will of God for Christians, and that faith, positive speech, and donations will increase our wealth, like winning the lottery.  I would think the gospel message might be the worst good news for them.

Then Nadia return to an understanding of what the good news truly gives us.  Our ego, consumerism and our sense of being exceptional as individuals, or in a group we belong to, or as a nation, don't need to be at the center of our lives.  We don't need to fight to be first to create meaning in our lives.

What has challenged us throughout the Animate series is to perceive our faith in new ways.  A prime example dovetails into the discussion Diane led last week that focused on our reactions, as children, to Old Testament stories.  Most of those participating in the forum grew up with some sort of church background, albeit very different ones.  Our childhood responses are still within us and very real to most of us.

The question is can we approach them with a new understanding that comes from who we are become, with our current cultural context and what we have experienced since we were children.

Luka drew our attention to parts of the workbook.  He asked us to complete our wording of the gospel message and what the gospel means to us individually.  He went on to topics like:

• Our favorite stories of Jesus
• Whether the actions or the words of Jesus were most important to us.
• If we believed the gospel asks for a response from us
• Examples of the gospel lived out that we have experienced in our lives.

For the last topic, Debi and Paul answered with their stories of El Salvador and what they had seen lived out in those peoples lives.  For Luka it was his experience with Nativity, his former church in Bend, Oregon.

The answers to the rest of the questions varied greatly.  We talked about Jesus stopping a crowd from stoning a woman, Luka's favorite Jesus story, and hit on additional topics like retribution and justice in the ancient legal systems and church using excommunication as a tool of power in the Middle Ages.

We talked about how both his words of Jesus and what Jesus did touched the most unexpected people as described in the gospels.

Luka left us with the Leadership Guide's challenge of writing a modern day parable that would illustrate what the good news means to us.

Pastor Michelle will lead next Sunday's session; Genre: Rhythm of the Text presented by Jose Morales

March 13, 2016 - Fifth Sunday in Lent - Mary Anointing Jesus at Bethany

Today the brightness and exuberance in the singing of the Creator Praise songs Lord, I Lift Your Name on High and My Life Is in You was a fine antidote to losing an hour from Daylight Savings Time and the morning's rain.

Today's Gospel reading was informed by last Sunday and Wednesday's readings and informs Palm Sunday looking forward.

This was the perspective Pastor Michelle started her sermon.  Jesus is a marked man. She also pointed out the reference back to Deuteronomy in how Jesus defended Mary's action with Deuteronomy's There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.  

At the heart of last Sunday's Prodigal parable was God's extravagant and undignified love as displayed by the father's loving actions when his son returns.  In this week is a story of God's extravagant love that is returned.  Pastor Michelle illuminated the reasons Mary's anointing of Jesus.

• Mary takes on the role of a prophet in anointing Jesus as king
• The anointing foreshadows the impending death of Jesus by anointing him
• Jesus can carry the memory of this sweet fragrance to give him strength 

An interesting note here is the Christian proclamation that Jesus is king or Lord as an empire counter-narrative.  This is helpful as a metaphor for the power of Jesus and reminding us the emperor in not God, as we discussed in Animate Bible after the service, but can complicate our understanding with a set of problems.

Jesus is not a typical king or lord with demands that are made and given when political power is at stake.  We can get confused since our relationship with Jesus is not a king-subject relationship as it is perceived with an earthly emperor. We would not expect an emperor to make an extravagant gift to a subject unless there was an extraordinary reason or an ulterior motive.  It would not make sense in our world.

The sermon went into how we process bad news more quickly than processing good news   This is "common sense" and our first reaction to what life throws at us.  We ask "Is this a threat to my life, my family, my country?" and answer that before we evaluate the merit of an act.  

Pastor Michelle also referenced Parker Palmer and his eloquent writing on vocation and speaking in the world, particularly regarding  his writing on what Jesus commands at the Last Supper "Love one another as I have loved you".  Mary's insight at Bethany, as demonstrated in what she wants to show Jesus, is extraordinary.  Particularly if you contrast that insight to the indifference of the other disciples.

Last week Pastor Michelle preached about how labeling a parable can domesticate it.  Here is a story that is so powerful that even the writer is trying to domesticate it in parenthetical judgments that first remind us that Judas will betray Jesus and next hat his motivation for criticizing Mary's extravagance was that he was a thief and wanted to steal from the common purse.

What if this criticism came from another disciple?  In appealing to our common sense, wouldn't we tend to agree with this observation?  Might we even be tempted to make this judgment ourselves?  

Perhaps the challenge, if we don't follow common sense, is knowing where to stop.  Spending three hundred denarii (or as Pastor Michelle converted it for us, a year's wages) for what might be called a fleeting act of devotion moves beyond a more sensible tithe (which, frankly, most of us find had to achieve in our lives) and this illustrates and is connected to the "foolishness" of the cross

This story around Mary's hair and the fragrance detailed here also makes me think of my Episcopal brothers and sisters.  The house being filled with the fragrance of the perfume reminds me of one of Al's sermons and numerous times where he wistfully commented to me that he missed the "smells and bells" of the Episcopal worship service.

There is something about smell that can bring back powerful memories or link a story into a past experience that is only linked by smell.  I remember when Creator's one Sunday an Animate group changed a worship practice by filling the narthex and sanctuary wiith the smell of apples from apple cider and an air freshener.  I recall that memory using the connection of that smell as an index.

Jesus is about to make a journey of trasformation into Jerusalem that will be full of hardships, darkness and peril.  At this point, just before the journey, he accepts Mary's gratitude for the life he has given to Lazarus, Mary and Martha.  He draws out the good within Marty with a love that washes away her guilt and shame.  He accepts her gift, not as a king or lord but as a friend.

Our sung response to the sermon is There's a Wideness in God's Mercy which beautifully captured the theme of the sermon, particularly with the line "We make this love too narrow by false limits of our own"..I appreciated the associations and the reminder of God's mercy and the Year of Mercy that I blogged about on Wednesday and have though about throughout last week.  There was another dimension, however, that was not captured in the song's text.

There is a depth to God's mercy as well.

March 9, 2016 - Fourth Wednesday Worship in Lent / Open My Life, Lord - Open My Hands

Tonight's reading from Deuteronomy 15 started at verse 6: For the Lord your God will bless you as he has promised, and you will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. You will rule over many nations but none will rule over you.

If anyone is poor among your fellow Israelites in any of the towns of the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or tightfisted toward them. Rather, be openhanded and freely lend them whatever they need. Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought: “The seventh year, the year for canceling debts, is near,” so that you do not show ill will toward the needy among your fellow Israelites and give them nothing. They may then appeal to the Lord against you, and you will be found guilty of sin. Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you to be openhanded toward your fellow Israelites who are poor and needy in your land.

Brie gave the message which deftly tied the "Open My Hand" theme with helping the disadvantaged that she heard clearly articulated in the Deuteronomy as she reread it preparing her message.  Her message was a call for expressing God's mercy in our lives, a theme which echoed throughout this evenings service for me.

A first time visitor and I talked after the service.  He was grateful for a Wednesday evening service because it was hard for him to attend worship on Sundays.  He also commented on, in his words, how Jesus was at the center of, and absolutely felt present in, the worship with us this evening.

Pastor Michelle and her husband Robert shared the musical leadership in this evening's vespers.

Personally, I entered into the sanctuary in a somewhat foul mood feeling apart and alone even after I had enjoyed a good dinner conversation beforehand.  The sacred space of the community I experienced the past few Wednesdays was gone.  I did appreciate Craig sittijng next to me. There were some rather petty reasons for my unconnected feeling.  I knew them and recognized those reasons for what they were but simply knowing reasons does not necessarily change how you feel.

When the vespers reached the prayer God of Mercy Hold Us In Love it reminded me of an interfaith discussion my wife described to me that she attended with Jane.  My wife related her experience with a breakout One to One session last Sunday afternoon where they were asked to tell a story about God's mercy they had experienced in their life.  Mercy is a Catholic church focus this year.  Pope Francis has declared 2016 a Year of Mercy - an opportunity to encounter the mercy of God

I agreed with Mary that telling a story of God's mercy in your life on the spur of the moment is hard to do.  I appreciated another point she made - that an individual may not label the mercy that is granted in their lives as mercy.  Compassion doesn't necessarily announce itself, grandstand, nor is it always asked for or recognized as mercy when it occurs.  

Back to what happened in the evening's service.  There was a lullaby-like feel I don't always hear in God of Mercy Hold Us In Love.  I swayed and felt rocked as Robert and Pastor Michelle traded verses and everyone sang this prayer to Matt's tranquil piano accompaniment.  Others swayed too.  As we alternately softly hummed and asked for divine mercy, I imagined some were caught in an overwhelming individual and collective holiness.  My "apart" feeling, at least for that moment, dissolved.  I was caught in, and overwhelmed by, the vespers and those gathered.

After the service I was ready for. and gifted by. the first time visitor's kind observations and for the choir time after the service, where we practiced singing together, both with our individual parts and in unison.

March 6, 2016 - Animate Bible / Testaments: One Story, Two Parts - Rachel Held Evans

Today's Animate Bible session focused on the tensions that may exist when reading the Old and New Testaments and our discussion brought out many member's personal responses.

After Rachel Held Evan's presentation Diane led today's group and started our discussion by being forthright about how hard it is for her to read the Old Testament because of past church experiences and what she was taught about God when she was younger.  She also expressed her discomfort telling the story of Daniel and the Lion's Den (as one example) to children and but simultaneously felt a twinge of guilt not passing on and teaching Old Testament stories like this.

This gave the group permission to tell of the individual pain and discomfort people have had with many Old Testament stories in the past.  Others offered what they had learned from grappling with the same fears or having their cultural sense of justice being challenged.  Kate talked about being frightened by heavy rains in her childhood after knowing the story of Noah and the flood, despite God's rainbow promise at the end of the story  Sam brought up the flood stories in more than just the Old Testament that were told by many people living in flood plains.  Pastor Michelle talked about her child's reaction to learning about all the animals and people who perished in the flood and reminded us how we are enriched by the Old Testament story of Creation to cite one.  She went into several more. .

When the Abraham and Issac story was mentioned all the discomfort I felt about that story as a model of faithfulness to God returned.  I did not share my concerns with the group because we quickly moved from the topic but I have always felt that tension.  I'm worried about faith in God which defies basic human morality and see why modern atheists fear any religious fervor that moves in this direction.

A main piece of Evan's presentation involved the description of genocide or massacre contained in the story of Joshua and the Walls of Jericho.  Linda brought up Rahab, the woman who was saved by helping Joshua and living by faith and. later in the discussion, that she was included in the genealogy of Jesus.  Looking at this through our eyes, however; even the justifications given, that Cannanites were wicked and that God had promised Canaan to the Israelites, what was perceived to be God's divine call for massacre appears to violate our cultural and moral sense of human justice.  This is not easy to address.

Another cultural lens is the Old Testament's world of patriarchy, just one example of many where ancient customs and laws are recorded in the Old Testament.  Trish brought up The Red Tent, a novel by Anita Diamant, with a title referring to the tent in which women of Jacob's tribe must, according to the ancient law, take refuge while menstruating or giving birth,  This book dramatized examples of the patriarchal rules of Old Testament societies.  When these are all woven into Old Testament law how do we (and how should we) respond to those particular laws today?

Luka will lead Nadia Bolz-Weber's presentation of Gospels::Unexpected Good News next week           

March 6, 2016 - Fourth Sunday in Lent - A Prodigal Parable - Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

Pastor Michelle preached how titling a parable can domesticate it and parables are not meant to be domesticated but a way for Jesus to open the door for us to see a glimpse (or more) of the kingdom of God.  For today instead of The Parable of the Prodigal Son she provisionally called it Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, just for today. She said it was because in both love triumphs.

Today's Gospel is another parable containing a never-ending party and no limits on grace.  This party is God's grace which, as Pastor Michelle noted, is without decorum, at least from the elder son's viewpoint. Nadia Bolz-Weber gave a sermon noting the father sacrifices his dignityl. The brother keeps his dignity and is troubled because the party is thrown solely because his brother, who was dead, comes to life.

The parable is marvelous and multifaceted.  Here are a few interpretations I have heard over the years:

• Mark Allan Powell had twelve students in a seminary class read the story carefully from Luke’s Gospel, close their Bibles and then retell the story as faithfully as possible to a partner. None of the twelve American seminary students mentioned the famine in Luke 15:14, which precipitates the son’s eventual return.
  
  Powell found this omission interesting, so he organized a larger experiment in which he had one hundred people read the story and retell it, as accurately as possible, to a partner. Only six of the one hundred participants mentioned the famine. The group was ethnically, racially, socioeconomically and religiously diverse.
  
  The ‘famine-forgetters,’ as Powell calls them, had only one thing in common: they were from the United States. Later, Powell had the opportunity to try the experiment again, this time outside the United States. In St. Petersburg, Russia, he gathered fifty participants to read and retell the prodigal son story.
  
  This time an overwhelming forty-two of the fifty participants mentioned the famine. Why? Just seventy years before, 670,000 people had died of starvation after a Nazi German siege of the capital city began a three-year famine. Famine was very much a part of the history and imagination of the Russian participants in Powell’s exercise.
  
  Based solely on cultural location, people from America and Russia disagreed about what they considered the crucial details of the story. Americans tend to treat the mention of the famine as an unnecessary plot device.
• The younger son tries and fails as a rebel who follows a different understanding of the world than his rich family.
• The father and younger son both die in the parable.  The father when he executes his "will" at the request of the younger son and the son when he confesses his sin to his father.  Through their deaths they can be reborn, unlike the elder son.

Pastor Michelle did not focus on the famine this morning (although she did talk about when there is self-righteousness there is no room for compassion and that it is easy to slip into elf-righteousness when we always have food on our table).  She did observe that we don't necessarily need a rabbi (or commentator) in her sermon to understand a parable's meaning for ourselves.

This reminded me of a story I heard recently.  Peter Rollins, a new theology philosopher, describes Christianity as more of a wrestling, and a journey and a transformation, rather than trying to nail down some correct answer. Coincidentally he told a story of a Rabbi.  A young man comes to him and says, “I want to learn the logic of the Hebrew people and the logic of God,” The Rabbi thinks he is too young. says, and the man says, “No, no, I know Aristotelian logic, I know Symbolic logic, I want to know the Hebraic logic.”

The Rabbi responds, “I’ll test you, I’ll ask you a question.  Two guys come down a chimney, one has soot on their face and one doesn’t. Who washes their face? The young guy answers, “The guy with the soot on his face.” And the Rabbi says, “Of course not the guy without the soot. He looks at his friend, realizes his friend’s got soot on his face so he thinks, “I’ve got soot on my face.”

The guy says, “Okay, okay, test me again.” The Rabbi says I’ll ask you a different question. “Two guys come down a chimney, at the bottom of the chimney, one has soot on their face and one doesn’t. Who washes their face?” The guy says, “Well, the one without soot on his face.” And the Rabbi says, “Look, don’t try to be clever, of course not. The guy with soot on his face feels it in his eyes, tastes it in his mouth, sees it on his hands; don’t be so stupid.”

And finally, the young guy goes, “Sorry, sorry, sorry. Test me one more time.” The Rabbi asks, “One more question. Two guys come down a chimney, at the bottom of the chimney one has soot on their face and one doesn’t. Who washes their face?” The guy answers, “The first person, but for different reasons.” And the Rabbi says, “Go away, they both wash their face. How can you not come down a chimney and not know that you’ve got soot on your face?”

The Judeo-Christian tradition is about wrestling and fighting; not pinning down one "right answer". Pastor Michelle talked about Jesus giving us more than glimpse of the kingdom of heaven through parables. Focusing on whether famine is a major or minor plot device is not as important as how the parable speaks in the time and culture in which it is encountered and invites everyone to experience the kingdom of God.  This all tied into and informed our Animate Bible discussion later..

In both the Children's Time and in her sermon, Pastor Michelle emphasized the parable does not tell whether the elder brother accepts the invitation to the party.  It is a beautiful way to leave the story, with an ongoing party and an invitation always ready to be accepted.

Musically Luka played bongo drums this morning and there was a new drive that he added to the songs.  Let Us Go Now, to the Banquet and Amazing Grace were particularly joyous and deeply moved the congregation.

March 2, 2016 - Third Wednesday Worship in Lent / Open My Life, Lord - Open My Ears

Shirley and Vaune led Holden Evening Prayer with Pastor Michelle and a familiarity returned.

It was not only my history of hearing Shirley's and Vaune's voices but that a trio of leaders created new ways for the music and lyrics to interweave with the congregational voices.

This was fitting for this evenings theme of Open My Ears.  What I listened to created a momentary, sacred space the way it often does.  As I reflected on the service later in the evening the presence of that sacred space was with me again.

Last week the words of Psalm 141 were powerful.  This week I thought about the words "Let my prayer rise up, like incense before you, the lifting up of my hands, as an offering to you. Oh God, I call to you, come to me now; oh hear my voice as I call to you...Keep watch within me God, deep in my heart may the light of your love be burning bright...All praise be to Christ and the spirit of love."

Everything evoked is diminished when simply reading the words on the page or listening to the music without the words.  The words and the melody together has created that sacred space for the people who gather each Wednesday. Listening to this engages heart, mind, and soul.

Pastor Michelle gave the message.  She ended by emphasizing how important listening to each other will be in Creator's time of calling a pastor.  As the Transition Team works I hope we can incorporate this into how we explore our ministry and desires in One to Ones and / or Cottage Meetings.