Last week we celebrated Pentecost. Many wore red and our thoughts turned to the fire of the Holy Spirit that burns within each of us The scripture that came to me was the Emmaus story when Cleopas asks "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”. When hearts burn there is an intensity that is both engaging and infectious.The birthday of the church is celebrated on Pentecost. While preparing to be a new council member, I have been thinking about the birth of Creator in particular while reading Creator's Charter and Constitution. The first thing proclaimed in our Charter is for our church to provide an opportunity to gather for Word and Sacraments and offer Holy Communion weekly. The charter members put worship first at the heart Creator's mission. The importance of this was again stressed in Creator's ministry site profile three years ago during Pastor Ray's call process.
Creator's unique worship has transformed many lives. I have blogged about Creator's weekly worship for over 10 years now. I have known and written about how our hearts burned within us while worship's scriptures, music and sacrament opened us to God and the word. Now certainly feeing God's presence, even when we are given time to do it directly today, doesn't happen for each of us every Sunday during worship nor can we expect it to. But, invariably, every Sunday worship happens.
I have often struggled to define how Creator's worship transformed my life and others. The way I would describe it today begins with the ELCA motto: "God's work, our hands". Because of my experiences with Creator each Sunday morning now, wheneer I hear that motto I silently add "God's worship, our hearts." For me each Sunday worship is a community heartbeat A strong, regular pulse that has constantly indictated that promise the charter members made, so many years ago, continues to be fulfilled.
The Holy Spirit may nudge us at times to ask, "Could Creator worship be even more inspiring?" or to even indulge in some reminisce or a dream that worship was better some time in our past. We know worship has changed and will change. There is an adage goes, “If you want something you don't have, try doing something you’ve never done.” That will continue to happen with worship. Keep in mind , however, the Creator's heartbeat has always continued since Creator's first day.
Can that heartbeat alone be considered to be enough? I, for one, do trust that heartbeat alone is enough for God. Whenever in doubt I think about Romans 8:38 - 39 "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus".
Joe, Valerie and Shirley have talked in June about 13th month and what Creator does to help and transform the community through our work. I would ask when you think about God's work our hands in all of Creator's ministries to please keep in mind the related heartbeat of Creator worship that pulses through those hands as we do the work we do.
Your support of Creator's worship over the years, now and in the future will continue to make a difference.
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