We were a motley group (in the best sense of that adjective) gathered at Central Lutheran Church for the afternoon's book launch of Pastor Amanda's collection of sermons for her pastoral doctorate titled God's Pivot.
There were Pastor Amanda's friends, family, colleagues, congregation members, and her skating teammates from the Rose City Rollers.
She had recently returned from a final gathering of her doctoral cohort in Eastsound on Orcas Island with Len Sweet. Pastor Amanda explained her doctoral program to those gathered in enough detail to make sense of assorted books and party favors that were on the table. Those favors were stones of peace and flashlights, both central images in two of the respective sermons presented in God's Pivot.
Pastor Amanda's congregation is Central Lutheran. The web of interconnections here are particularly strong for me. Central was the church where I attended my first Reconciling In Christ Worship in 2007 (the effort to change church policy to affirm LGBT welcome). I became a member of a tight-knit team striving for ELCA policy change when that group could not be organized within the ELCA structure. Two of my cohorts Vicky and Sarah were there.
I attended Oregon Lay School of Theology classes studying the Book of Revelation at Central as Kathleen from that group was there with her husband Al. There are meaningful conversations that can develop quickly with certain people. It doesn't matter whether triumphs, disappointments, insights or simply observations are being shared - they feel like kindred spirits.
When I first attended Creator there were three people that profoundly changed my relationship with the church, a powerful triumvirate, Pastor Dayle for spiritual direction and insight into community spirtiual life, Kelly Carlisle for musical inspiration and also Pastor Amanda who was serving her internship at the time.
While she was at Creator Amanda ignited in me a passion for the liturgy. The meaning of the liturgy for me prior to that was as elusive as the meaning of “Lady, three white leopards sat under a juniper-tree.” in T.S. Elliot's Ash Wednesday. When asked about the meaning of the line the poet replied, “It means, Three white leopards sat under a juniper tree.” This is the same thing I found about the meaning of the liturgy. I continue to gain a deeper appreciation of the structure and content while not trying to reduce the liturgy to a sum of its component pieces.
In her introductory remarks Pastor Amanda discussed a larger project The Story Lectionary that contains the God's Pivot work. I won't go into detail here because I want to learn more about the project before providing details from the overview. I was lucky enough to be able to take home a copy of The Story Lectionary signed by all the contributors.
When I heard The Story Lectionary was a modern substitute for the Revised Common Lectionary I was cautiously excited. I was also reminded of the following story:
There was a man who visited Niels Bohr in his home, Upon seeing a horseshoe hanging from a wall the visitor laughed and said “You don’t believe that will bring you luck do you?”
“Of course not” replied Bohr, “what do you take me for?”
“Then why have you got it?” replied the friend
To which Bohr replied, “Because I was told that it brings you luck even if you don’t believe in it”
I don't believe in any particular power of the Revised Common Lectionary in itself but I like the idea of so many churches collectively following a focus. When I asked Pastor Amanda for her feelings about the idea she expressed some reservations as well, saying among other reasons the Revised Common Lectionary forces her to grapple with Biblical passages she would otherwise tend to avoid.
It is totally appropriate that this event would draw me back into a deeper examination of liturgy. I am hoping some of the techniques and methodologies applied to constructing sermons might apply to blog post entries as well.
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