Jan 4, 2926; Reflection Second Sunday of Christmas: What Do We Seek in 2026? John 1:35–51;

"The future enters into us, in order to transform itself in us, long before it happens.” Rainer Maria Rilke 

To let go does not mean to get rid of. To let go means to let be.”  Judith Hanson Lasater 

John’s Gospel does not begin with a rule, a commandment, a parable or even a story that unfolds neatly. It begins with a question.

“What do you seek?”

In John 1:35–51, Jesus does not recruit disciples with a speech. He turns, sees them following, and asks them to name their longing. Not Who are you? Not What do you believe? He asks, "What do you seek?" The question assumes faith begins not with certainty, but with desire.

For 2026, there's certainly a new year dawning, and this question feels particularly alive. We are not crossing a threshold into a year we understand. We are entering one that we are seeking our way into. After seasons shaped by ancient voices of the Old Testament, prophets who cried out for justice, poets who named grief, storytellers who remembered covenant in the Narrative Lectionary, we now turn to the Gospel of John. This is not a rejection of those earlier scriptures. This deepens them.

John does not discard the law and the prophets. We move from listening to them and then reaffirming, “And the Word became flesh.”

Where the Old Testament often names God’s movement in thunder, fire, wilderness, and exile, John insists God is found in bodies, relationships, conversations, and risk. In questions asked on dusty roads. In curiosity that refuses to stay still. In people who say, “Come and see,” instead of “Here is the answer.”

John 1:35–51 is a story of movement. John the Baptist points away from himself, “Here is the Lamb of God” and suddenly, disciples are walking. Andrew runs to tell his brother. Philip seeks out Nathanael. Nathanael resists,“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?”, and is not shamed for his skepticism. He is invited anyway.

This is how faith grows in John’s Gospel: not by silencing doubt, but by honoring it enough to keep walking.

This passage sounds like permission. Permission to follow before we fully understand and to be changed by encounter rather than convinced by argument. John’s Jesus does not demand allegiance; he offers relationship. He does not explain himself; he reveals himself over time.

As 2026 dawns, that feels like holy wisdom.

Yesterday the United States has conducted airstrikes in Venezuela and President Nicolás Maduro and his wife have been reported as captured and taken into U.S. custody in a military operation announced by U.S. President Donald Trump. The  legal implications are not immediately clear. The U.S. government may argue it has the right to detain Maduro because he has been indicted in U.S. courts on drug-related charges and other alleged crimes. Some experts note that U.S. courts can try someone regardless of how they arrived in U.S. custody. However, that is a domestic criminal procedure issue and does not in itself justify the use of military force under international law. 

Yet the operation took place as reported without UN Security Council approval or a validated self-defense justification against an imminent threat, and most international law experts and international bodies consider it a violation of international law. Sovereignty and prohibition on the use of force are core principles of the UN Charter, and this operation appears to contravene them 

Does might make right? Is this a challenge we must face to international law, or an instance of total disregard for it 

This new year does not arrive with clarity. It comes with complexity, unfinished grief, ongoing injustice, fragile hope, and questions we are still learning how to ask. John reminds us that God is not waiting at the end of certainty. God is already present in the seeking itself.

And when Nathanael finally encounters Jesus, he is seen, “Here is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.” This is not praise for purity; it is recognition. To be seen fully and loved still is the promise John holds before us. A God who knows us, names us, and calls us into a deeper life, not by erasing who we are, but by drawing us forward.

So as we completely turn our weekly Bible discussions from the long arc of the Old Testament into the luminous poetry of John, and as we cross into the unknown terrain of 2026, we encounter this simple, demanding invitation:

Come and see.

Come and see what happens when faith is lived, not mastered. Come and see what happens when God takes on flesh in real communities, real struggles, and real hope. Come and see what the Word might become among us this year.

And perhaps, as we walk, we will discover that we are not just seeking God.

God has already been seeking us.

December 28, 2025: Worship First Sunday of Christmas - John 1:19–34: John the Baptist: A Man Refusing to Be Impressive

I sometimes find myself wrapped in the humour embedded in the Bible. This passage is, at heart, a story about a man who absolutely refuses to build a brand.

This opens with what today would be the religious authorities arriving with clipboards and questions, ready to categorize John into a recognizable framework. Who are you?  Are you the Messiah? Elijah? The Prophet?

It’s a multiple-choice test, and John keeps answering “none of the above.” “No.”, “No.”, “No.”

This is already humorous and unusual. Most of us would have said yes by question two, if only out of exhaustion. Or politeness. Or, perhaps, allowing for a label for some LinkedIn optimization.

Finally, they beg him, “Who are you? We need something to tell the people who sent us.”
John replies, in essence: I’m a voice.

Not a personality. Not a movement. Not a brand.  A voice.

And not even an original one. John borrows from the prophet Isaiah. In a world obsessed with being someone, John chooses to be a sound. That’s the first surprise of the text: Holiness here points to extremely radical unimportance.

Then things get decidedly stranger. John is baptizing people. Rather dramatically, publicly, soaking sinners in the Jordan River. Simultaneously, he insists he doesn’t really know what he’s doing. He says, “I baptize with water. But among you stands one you do not know.” Basically asserting: I’m doing the visible thing, but the real action is happening just off-camera.

This is deeply inconvenient theology. We prefer faith where the main event is obvious and preferably sponsored. John insists the Messiah is already standing there, unnoticed, uncredentialed, unverified.

And then, after all this anticipation, Jesus finally appears. Does John give him a grand introduction? A trumpet fanfare, or an impressive résumé?

No. He points and says, “Here is the Lamb of God.” Which is a deeply odd thing to say if you want people to feel confident.

Lambs are not impressive. Lambs do not seize power. Lambs do not win debates or overthrow empires.

Lambs get eaten.

This is the second shock of the passage: God appears not as a force, but as vulnerability, not as certainty, but as a gift. John doubles down on this anti-branding campaign by explaining that even he didn’t recognize Jesus at first. The Messiah did not glow. There was no heavenly name tag. Recognition came only when the Spirit moved, like a dove, gentle enough to be missed by anyone looking for fireworks.

And here’s the uncomfortable, liberating truth underneath all of this:

God is not waiting for us to be impressive enough to notice Jesus. God is waiting for us to be quiet enough.

John’s entire ministry is a slow act of self-erasure so that something truer can be seen. “I am not the Messiah,” he says, and in doing so becomes one of the most faithful witnesses in scripture. This text gently mocks our addiction to certainty, power, and religious relevance. It suggests that God’s greatest work may already be present, standing among us, while we are busy asking the wrong questions.

Perhaps the invitation of John 1:19–34 is that faith can be less about becoming someone and more about becoming a voice. What if holiness is not being in the spotlight, but knowing where to point? What if God is already here? Only quiet, vulnerable, unbranded, simply waiting to be recognized not by our confidence, but by our humility? A meal combining memory and identity.

And, profoundly, even later in the Jesus story, John is not certain. 

Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?”  Matthew 11:3

Advent lives inside that question. John doesn’t tell us who Jesus is so much as how to look for him. And that, it turns out, may be the most faithful thing anyone can do.

Blog Post for First Sunday of Christmas, 2024  

December 24, 2025 Creator's 2025 Christmas Eve Services

 “Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.”  -Luke 2:19

Creator, like many churches on Christmas Eve, opened singing with O Come, All Ye Faithful. The Bm7♭5 “word chord”  served as, perhaps, a hidden and beautiful reminder to those gathered that Christmas is more than sentimental comfort, it’s cosmic disruption. Christ, the Word enters the world, and even the harmony has to wobble to make room. This chord is harmonically unstable and theologically loaded. Simultaneously, both an unforgettable tradition and an upending of all we want to hold onto tightly.

Opening her sermon, Pastor Emillie posed a clear, evocative question, "What does Christmas mean to you?" Many " snapshots" of both more public and personal memories went through my mind. 

This year I'm seventy years old. Suddenly, I flashed back to being seven, when my family celebrated Christmas with a Hickory Farms cheeseball, stuffing a Swedish sausage called potatiskorv, making krumkake cookies, and glögg, a traditional Swedish mulled wine.

My family would "dress up" and go to church. I still remember the scent of the wood in the pews and the dim light of the candlelight service. Christmas Eve has taken on many meanings throughout the years, and how we honor the holiday season has changed in significant ways.

In an earlier blog post, I quoted a line given in a recent film, “Maybe these stories of faith aren’t lies or fantasies like Disneyland. Perhaps they resonate with something deep and profoundly true inside us that we can’t express any other way.”

I thought about how intertwined what I find meaningful about Christmas is tied to and expressed by family and Creator. Pastor Emillie preached about the marvel of the Christmas story being told so many times and in multiple ways by people of different cultures.

Many of the musical highlights, besides the carols and Silent Night, Holy Night, I wrote about in A Midweek Advent Evening of Poetry, Prayer and Advent Music with Mychal and Theresa Lotz

 I will highlight a special song the choir sang, "Do You Hear What I Hear?" during the services at offering time. This was a change from Creator's children who would tentatively sing the verses, and then shout out the familiar chorus of Go Tell It On the Mountain.

“Do You Hear What I Hear?” is one of those Christmas songs that sounds gentle and childlike on the surface, yet carries a surprisingly urgent and hopeful message underneath. It is not "traditional" yer. The song was written in 1962, at the height of the Cold War, by Noël Regney (music) and Gloria Shayne Baker (lyrics). Regney, who had lived through World War II in France, was deeply shaken by the Cuban Missile Crisis. He reportedly couldn’t bring himself to write a conventional Christmas carol about sleigh bells and snow. Instead, the song became a prayer for peace, like Crosby / Bowie's "Peace on Earth/Little Drummer Boy" duet, wrapped in a Christmas story.

That context matters. This isn’t just a nostalgic carol; it’s a song asking whether humanity is listening when peace is being announced. There is a chain of hearing, emphasized in performance by the message being echoed within the choir. The song unfolds as a series of conversations:

• The night wind speaks to the little lamb

• The lamb speaks to the shepherd boy

• The shepherd boy speaks to the mighty king

• The king speaks to the people everywhere

Each voice passes the message along. Peace doesn’t arrive with thunder; it travels through listening, trust, and telling. That structure mirrors the Christmas story itself, angels speaking to shepherds, shepherds bearing witness, ordinary people becoming messengers.

One of the most striking moments comes at the end:

“Pray for peace, people everywhere.”

The king is told that the child is “small” but “strong as a mountain.” This is deeply biblical. Like the Christ child, strength is not military or political dominance, but moral and spiritual gravity, a power that draws people toward peace rather than forcing them into submission. 

This is a sharp reminder, and the song asks an uncomfortable question: Are we actually listening? Or have we heard the story so often that we stop letting it change us? 

In a world that continues to know war, fear, and political brinkmanship, “Do You Hear What I Hear?” feels as relevant now as it did in 1962. Its repeated question is not rhetorical. It’s an invitation, perhaps even a challenge, to tune our ears to the quiet, persistent call of peace that Christmas proclaims.

In that sense, the song isn’t just about hearing a message long ago. It’s about whether we’re willing to become part of the chain that carries it forward.

3:00 Christmas Eve Service

7:00 Christmas Eve Service 

December 29, 2024 - First Sunday of Christmas - Where God Dwells

“Jesus among the teachers” by JESUS MAFA

The first Sunday of Christmas and songs about Noel rang out in the service. 

Today was a day for a children's sermon. Pastor Emillie made a comparison to the colors of Skittles collectively melting together and combining into something beautiful to God.

She also gave a helpful PRAY. acronym to use in Christian prayer to guide the process of connecting with God. Here's what each step represents: : Praise, Repent, Ask and Yield.  

Here's what each step represents:

1. Praise
   Beginning prayer by acknowledging and worshiping God's greatness, thanking God for blessings, and focusing on God's character.

   Example: "Lord, You are mighty and loving. I praise You for Your faithfulness and the beauty of Your creation."

2. Repent
   Confessing sins and ask for forgiveness. This step helps to clear any barriers in a relationship with God.

   Example: "Lord, I confess my impatience today and ask for Your forgiveness. Help me to show more grace."

3. Ask
   Presenting requests to God, whether they are yours or for others, trusting God to meet your needs according to God's will.

   Example: "Lord, I ask for Your guidance in my decisions and healing for my friend who is unwell."

4. Yield
   Surrender to God's will, expressing trust in God's plan and committing to follow the guidance.

   Example: "Lord, I surrender my plans to You and trust that You will lead me in the right direction."

The Gospel was Luke's account of Jesus remaining in the Temple at Jerusalem. Pastor Emillie highlighted in her sermon the Greek phrase in Luke 2:49, " Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” could also be translated as "Why did you not know that I must be about my Father's business?" Pastor Emillie said in her sermon that the words used are somewhat obscure, but most translators use the phrase "in my Father's house" because that's where Jesus was when he said it. Other possible translations include "I must be occupied with my Father's things".

The ambiguity is illuminating in it's own way. Unlike the Jewish thought in Jesus' time, we don't believe that God dwells only in the temple.(although it is probably a useful exercise to contemplate where, exactly, we do think God dwells). Yet where are we directing our prayers to God. A specific place or direction? To the holy spirit within us? To a created universe in general?

 

January 1, 2023 - First Sunday of Christmas - Peace and Power

This is the First Sunday of Christmas, the first Sunday of 2023, and Pastor Steve's first service presiding as Creator's Bridge Pastor.

However, this is not only a Sunday of beginnings but of continuation. The Gospel lectionary text continues with the Wise Men of the East as they make their return trip without visiting Herod again and Herod's slaughter of innocent children when he realizes their decision. Here we have many dreams instead of one. 

In the first dream, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him. In the wise men's dream they are warned not to return to Herod. And in a third dream, that happens after Herod dies, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.

Pastor Steve preached about how often we think of peace and power as distinct. We tend to think of power in terms of the material world - political power, or wealth, or military might of a country. We think of power as wielding influence for an individual end. Yet that is not the way we think that God's power is expressed. We can think of power and find ourselves re-imagining this as God's power becoming manifest. That is not only compatible with peace but actually affects our world and brings peace about. 

This is a Sunday of new beginnings and imagining a new world.

December 24, 2022 - Christmas Eve - No Room at the Inn - The Power of the Particular

 Luke 2:7 "And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn."

I did not expect profound truths on Christmas Eve that I had never considered before in the Christmas story. This is normally a service that connects me to personal memories of past Christmases filled with familiar traditions and readings. Yet Pastor Steve's sermon unleashed new insights by isolating and commenting on the "because there was no room at the inn" in verse 7.

My perspective had always been contained within my current cultural context. When I think of travel I imagine multiple hotels that offer rooms in a city. Pastor Steve preached that there was no "innkeeper" that was mentioned to deliver this fact to Joseph and Mary He also framed this verse as being unusual because the hospitality imperative in that region. Why would there not be family to offer a room? Or perhaps they did.  My thoughts raced as I imagined and speculated as I built on the particulars of what I knew about this other cultural context. I needed to know more.

In researching this I found Luke 2:7 has been the source of much discussion throughout church history. For many, this verse says there was no room for Joseph and Mary in "the inn," a tradition that stretches way back. But other Christians suggest that this verse is better translated as "upper room" or "guest room," as in Luke 2:7.

At the heart of this debate is the Greek word kataluma. Specifically, the verse says there was no room for them in the kataluma. In the New Testament, this word is used only here and in Mark 14:14 and Luke 22:11, with the two latter verses describing the location of the Last Supper before Jesus was crucified. A deep Greek word connection between Christ's first days and his last that I was unaware of before.

Could it be that God wanted others to see, experience, and go tell about the birth of Jesus? I imagined before that as a new mother, Mary may have preferred privacy and protection in a hotel room rather than placing her precious baby in a feeding trough. And yet, God chose not to make room for Joseph, Mary, and Jesus in the inn. God’s grand plan made Jesus available to all people from His very first hours of life.

Moving away from the idea of a hotel to staying with family changed this story significantly. Almost like opening a Pandora's box of possibilities. At the root of why there was no room could have been the scandal of Mary's pregnancy and an extended family's refusal to accept that scandal but still feeling the obligation of providing some hospitality.

I always thought of "no room at the inn" at least partially representing an idea that there is no room in our daily lives for the miracle of what Christ offers without a significant metanoia. However Pastor Steve's emphasis on the particulars here made this idea vivid and alive in new ways,

January 2, 2022 - Second Sunday of Christmas - In the beginning ...

"Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start." the Sound of Music's Do-Re-Mi opening floats through me head as I hear the familiar words that kickoff the Gospel of John.. The words are obviously a riff off of Genesis. This is not simply the Genesis account, however. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." This does not contradict the Genesis account. Instead John's gospel compliments Genesis with some mysterious, new understanding that is added.

"He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being."

This new presence is now anthropomorphized. The presence of a, so far, unnamed Christ.

"In him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it." Now we have this presence associated with The Word, Creation of Life, and Light.

"There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light." A man is introduced, a specific man, a man with the same name as the author of this gospel. He comes to testify.

"The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God."

 "This is the beginning of God's love story." Pastor Janell preached today. She loved The Message's translation "The word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood." This is the testimony of this specific man with a vision. The he being talking about will not be accepted by his own people. For all who receive him and believe in his name he gives the power to become children of God. These are people who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God. 

This is a holy statement. Who are the people who receive him and believe in his name? People who were born of God. The author seems to make divisions that seem real when declared but where truly there are no divisions. After all, one of the opening statements is "All things came into being through him".  All people are born of God.

"And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.'") From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known." We started at the very beginning and are not given the name of Jesus until the end of the reading, followed by a koan-like sentence. The sentence invites us to contemplate two things it introduces:

1) Did Moses see God? Moses was in the presence of God seven times at Mount Sinai and hears God's voice in the burning bush on Mount Horeb. What did Moses see in those moments.

and

2) Before answering the Moses question we may need to answer, what does it mean to see God?

Pastor Janell summed it up in her sermon "Our future is in the love of God."  

December 26, 2021 - First Sunday of Christmas - To Treasure and To Ponder

Pastor Mary Peterson presided at today's sermon and her peaceful presence together with her gentle message were communicated throughout today's hybrid worship. 

This felt fitting on a snowy, first Sunday after Christmas morning. The gospel text was Luke's account of Jesus, sitting at the temple with the teachers, listening and asking questions.

Pastor Mary's sermon mirrored the tone of Luke's simple, yet profound verses describing one of the few moments where Jesus appears in scripture as a child. Luke's powerful portrayal of Jesus reports that he was listening to the teachers and asking them questions. Pastor Mary pointed out that he responds to his parent's question and statement with questions. If wondering whether Jesus could amaze those who heard him with the questions he asked, his response to his parents is a perfect example.

The sermon moved then into the Christmas story that is half-echoed in this Luke passage pointing out the treasuring and leaving us to complete the pondering that hovers in the air from last night . Mary treasures and ponders things in her heart, and Jesus does as well. Pastor Mary made this plain when she quotes the verse in her reaction to the Festival of Choirs she listened to as she prepared this sermon. The Gospel is meant to be treasured and pondered. 

Pastor Mary spent yesterday with a man who she considered to be an amazing man. When she thinks of him she thinks about the words blessed are the pure of heart for they shall see God, He said several times that he was soon to see his maker. He also told her he knew God loved him. She shared Christmas music with him yesterday and he was still singing even after the music stopped, making Pastor Mary ponder these words from Silent Night, Holy Night "Sleep in heavenly peace, sleep in heavenly peace".

By responding to his parent's anxiety with questions Jesus disarmed their anxiety. He did not fix the anxiety but he spoke the truth.with his questions. When she thought about what pondering means Pastor Mary thought pondering meant to trust even when we don't understand. To treasure, as she defined it, is to practice wisdom. 

She closed her sermon by inviting us to treasure and ponder all that is in our hearts. I will certainly continue to treasure and ponder these words today.

December 22, 2021 - Creator's Blue Christmas Service

For many, the lack of daylight intensifies other suffering. The weight of depression grows
heavier when light is scarce. We get stressed out when our calendars fill with extra social
obligations. We fear interactions with family members that have been difficult in the past.
What an opportunity, then, to share that the message of Christmas is specifically sent for
those in pain and suffering. It is not that “all is merry and bright.” Rather, it is the abiding
truth that God seeks to be with us, even when we are “blue".

This is how the Blue Christmas service was described to the congregation. Pastor Janell wore a shawl and there was an empty chair in the middle of the sanctuary. We learned the meaning of both during the sermon. The empty chair was a physical reminder of some lost or difficult relationship. For Pastor Janell the chair represented her daughter Emily. We learned the meaning of that shawl when Pastor Janell talked about the process of knitting the shawl.

She was knitting the shawl in her grief and found her community was willing to make it along with her. A truly meaningful shawl, obviously a powerful and potent reminder of one empty chair standing for many individuals and the supportive communities that surround us all. At one point someone made a mistake and was ready to correct it but Pastor Janell recognized the meaning that would have for her as well and now she feels the beauty of imperfect Love togther with the comfort that surrounded her as it was knit.

We all recognized the power and meaning of this service as we were experiencing it. We thanked Pastor for sharing that personal sermon and what the service captured. ❤️

December 27, 2020 - First Sunday in Christmas - Four Perspectives

Juan Carlos La Puente, Bishop’s Associate for Inter-cultural and Inter-religious Mission on the Oregon Synod staff, gave today's sermon on today's Gospel from Luke. His stories about his experiences in Peru inevitably seem to open many people's hearts.

There are strong elements of liberation theology wrapped in the power of his stories with a secret sauce that is irresistible. He sees the liberation not only with the poor and marginalized but in the those who provide help. They are much more on a level playing field in liberation from roles and perspectives that trap everyone in roles that do not allow for their humanity.

This sermon showed the same power. Juan Carlos laid out his four perspectives on Luke. They were:

1. Salvation Experiencing Light to help see reality
2. Seeing with the Divine Light activates liberation
3. Being seen by others with the Divine Light activates our divine dignity and liberation
4. Exploring two practices connected to the experience of grace, experience of salvation

Juan Carlos moved back and forth between the Luke Gospel story of both Simeon & Anna and personal stories about his encounters the divine light. Those ardent readers of this blog will know this kind of description of the divine matches the way I understand the divine presence.This was written for last year's First Sunday of Christmas:

 "Faith and reason are hard to balance when exploring the nature of our relationship with God.  This understanding at present is different than described in scripture. Maybe we are different in how we perceive God than at many other times in humankind's history. Currently some might say they have a personal relationship with Jesus and that they can sense either his or God's physical presence.

I have some sympathy for, and I’m tempted to pursue, the physical relationship they describe. Maybe my personal experiences of God moments could be stretched to relate with that description but I choose not to. Yet I have never "heard" God's voice directing me to take some action. The closest I have come to feeling God's presence is a glowing, spiritual affirmation that some action I may have taken, even with some trepidation was, in fact, God working through my life."

This sermon also gave me a new idea about a song of Kelly Carlisle's we still occasionally play at worship, Nunc Dimmitus.

Kelly captured this Gospel text and a certain magic with this simple song composed of Simeon's words. it reaches a glorious crescendo with the words "A light to lighten the gentiles, and the glory of Israel". I have always thought of this as an eternal light, the light that cannot be overcome. Yet in this context it may be a light that not everyone can see. Simenon saw that light in a particular baby. We can sometimes get trapped into thinking of this too generically. Every child shows us the potential light of the future, but I don't think that this helps us understand Simeon and what he truly recognized in the temple that day and how.

Juan Carlos talked about weaving our experiences with those who are vulnerable. What I find compelling in his stories is that no one is simply granting favors to anyone or, more precisely, everyone is favored and serving each other reciprocally. This takes away shame, fear and the cynicism that can creep into our actions if we measure how the world changes rather than ourselves.

Let yourself appreciate the way he tells his stories by clicking here.

December 24, 2019 - Christmas Eve - From Advent's Hope to a Wailing Wall Story

The 2019 Advent journey is at an end for Creator and we began Christmas Eve with a story about the Wailing Wall. The Christmas Eve service was quiet, traditional  and relatively low-key, at least as I experienced it.  The sermon was not traditional.Pastor Ray's sermon started with this anecdote about the Western Wall that had a punchline:

A young CNN journalist had heard of a very, very old Jewish man who went twice a day to pray to the Western wall, since forever. Thinking of the story this might hold, she goes to the spot and sees a very old man walking slowly towards the wall. After two hours of prayer and as he slowly moves away, pressed on his cane, and she approaches to interview him.
 
"Excuse me, sir, I'm Rebecca Smith from CNN. What's your name? "
"Moshe Rosenberg" he answers.
"How long have you been praying here? "
"More than 60 years" he answers.
 
The reporter marveled " 60 years! This is amazing! And why are you praying? " 

" I pray for the peace between Christians, Jews and Muslims. I pray for the end of all wars and hate. I pray for our children to grow safe and become responsible adults, who love their next one."

Then the reporter asked "And how do you feel after 60 years of prayers? "

"... I feel like I'm talking to a wall....... "

The congregation laughed. The rest of Pastor Ray's sermon then stressed how God is trying to break down the walls within us and between us and expressed the deep, personal desire within so many of us to become part of the Christmas story, the story of Jesus.

The opening of the sermon has continued to haunt my thoughts far more than I expected. I keep coming back to the image of an old Jewish man at the Western Wall, which is also called Wailing Wall, in the Old City of Jerusalem. The wall is a place of prayer and pilgrimage sacred to the Jewish people. It is the only remains of the Second Temple of Jerusalem, held to be uniquely holy by the ancient Jews and destroyed by the Romans in 70 ce.

This wall now forms part of a larger wall that surrounds the Muslim Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqṣā Mosque, Jews and Arabs have frequently disputed control of the wall and, often, right of access to it. That conflict has been particularly heated since the Israeli government took full control of the Old City in the wake of the Six Day War of June 1967. There is a rabbinic belief that “the divine Presence never departs from the Western Wall.” Jews lament the destruction of the Temple and, in fact, many pray for its restoration.

However, the old Jewish man in this story is praying at this particular place; not for the restoration of the wall / temple; but for peace between Christians, Jews and Muslims. His simple response to the reporter's questions becomes more and more nuanced upon subsequent reflections.

At first the unvarnished, worldly truth of his answer is apparent. Praying at this location, facing a wall is truly is what he is doing. This description of prayer reminds me of a memorable bit of dialog in the film The Ruling Class. The film's story is that Peter O'Toole, as the 14th Earl of Gurney, has come to know that he, personally, is God. When asked why he knows this to be true he responds "Simple. When I pray to Him, I find I am talking to myself."

This old man has directly answered the reporter's questions but does not reveal what she is really asking in the last question. His answer does not communicate what he is feeling emotionally after 60 years, whether his prayer expectations are being realized, nor do we know for certain how he sees his current relationship with God. It could be asked if there are words that could even describe his 60 year experience. Has he learned anything about God's perspective is on walls? Is this praying making him feel is part of God's story?

Being Jewish he is simultaneously both part of the Christian story and outside of it. His story is commonplace in the sense that everyone wants peace between Christians, Jews and Muslims. Yet his dedication to praying for in this particular way for sixty years, in another way, makes his story unique. Does his particular devotion to praying in a certain way make a difference? After all, many of us are often praying for world peace.

The old man's expectations of the answer to his prayer have, perhaps, changed over the years. He may be praying for shalom rather than peace we normally ask from God, moving beyond a lack of conflict between people. Pastor Ray pointed out asking for shalom is closer to asking for completeness. This can also be confirmed in related terms found in other Semitic languages. The Assyrian term salamu means to be complete, unharmed, paid/atoned. Sulmu, another Assyrian term, means welfare. A closer relation to the idea of shalom as concept and action is seen in the Arabic root salaam, meaning to be safe, secure and forgiven, among other things.

After 60 years of prayer our protagonist may feel this complete shalom within, rather than manifesting itself in the daily world. Perhaps he feels that the rabbinic belief that “the divine Presence never departs from the Western Wall” and he is grateful to God for this holy place.

Perhaps he has moved beyond his personal well-being and is motivated truly bey praying for shalom for all.

Maybe there is another, darker side to his answer. I believe this side is expressed best in the lyrics to Randy Newman's God’s Song (That’s Why I Love Mankind). Some may consider this song sacrilegious. Newman often challenges through sharp language that people often nervously laugh off. I see it as a challenge to the way that many people can incorrectly understand God and pass along this misunderstanding through their prayers.

Cain slew Abel, Seth knew not why
For if the children of Israel were to multiply
Why must any of the children die?
So he asked the Lord
And the Lord said:

Man means nothing, he means less to me
Than the lowliest cactus flower
Or the humblest Yucca tree
He chases round this desert
'Cause he thinks that's where I'll be
That's why I love mankind
 
I recoil in horror from the foulness of thee
From the squalor and the filth and the misery
How we laugh up here in heaven at the prayers you offer me
That's why I love mankind

The Christians and the Jews were having a jamboree
The Buddhists and the Hindus joined on satellite TV
They picked their four greatest priests
And they began to speak
They said, "Lord, a plague is on the world
Lord, no man is free
The temples that we built to you
Have tumbled into the sea
Lord, if you won't take care of us
Won't you please, please let us be?"
And the Lord said
And the Lord said:

I burn down your cities, how blind you must be
I take from you your children and you say, "how blessed are we?"
You all must be crazy to put your faith in me
That's why I love mankind
You really need me
That's why I love mankind

Newman sings the line "You really need me." as a casual aside but, in how these lyrics may associate with this anecdote, they may truly contain this man's deepest insight as he continues to pray at the wall. After all he, like Newman and humankind, really do need the God we can have faith in. 

I reiterate, this sermon was not as traditional as the service and I am still reflecting on God's call to personally become an integral part of the Christmas story.     

December 30, 2018 - First Sunday After Christmas - Anger and Pondering - To Grapple with Humanity's "Negatives" and "Positives"

For last year's words belong to last year's language 
And next year's words await another voice.

Little Gidding T. S. Eliot

A Christmas prayer:

Hallelujah, help us sing your story with the voices, emotions, language and music you would have us hear to create new hearts and understandings within us.

Pastor Ray preached about reading in Mary's understandable anger through her question to Jesus and the Gospel's words regarding Mary's pondering. "His mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor.".

It is too easy to invest only positive emotions to the "good" and "holy" characters in the Bible, just as easy to ascribe the negative emotions to their antagonists. And that is if we even engage in imagining their emotions.

We feel uncomfortable imagining happy outbursts of laughter from those we hold in reverence or from their antagonists. It makes them too human. John the Baptizer's 'brood of vipers' scorn that we read a couple of weeks ago is an example of another aspect of this process of sanitizing Biblical figures. We find it hard to incorporate scorn into these figures.

Pastor Ray pointed out the anger that was no doubt present when Mary questioned Jesus, "Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety." it was probably said in anxious anger. We immediately want to jump to her pondering however. This is the Mary, mother of God, that we are comfortable seeing in our mind's eye. It also creates the distance between humans and saints that we can easily create.

What should be envisioned as holy activity - when we are actively engaged in life or when we are pondering what we remember in our hearts? Pondering can quickly become an exercise in shedding the today's world and the problems life presents us with. Perhaps, as we are embracing Mary's pondering, we should also be enfolding her anger within us as well. Would this close some distance between us and the saints we admire. At times regarding Mary as human as we see ourselves is not an uncrossable boundary. At these moments there are possibilities and other paths to follow for conversion and transformation into being different human souls.

Tiffany substituted for Matt on piano for the service today. I played guitar and sang with Craig and Shirley leading the congregational singing. This was the last opportunity to sing traditional Christmas hymns with the congregation. The congregation engaged and loved the Now The Feast liturgical setting as usual and everything was sung with enthusiasm.  

December 24, 2018 - Christmas Eve Service - A Discovery

Christmas Eve Service can be trusted to follow familiar patterns and carries on many traditions for Creator like it does for every other church. The Gospel readings this year did not vary from the traditional. The congregation sang Oh, Come All Ye Faithful, Away in a Manager and Hark! The Herald Angels Sing and other Christmas hymns.

With the sermon Pastor Ray chose to present us with Dr. Suess' How The Grinch Stole Christmas story that clearly touches Pastor Ray's heart, probably because The Grinch film that was recently released. The way Pastor Ray told this story brought much of the sub-text in the book of the children's story into a sharper focus.

The Grinch lived alone outside the community of Whoville. He resented all who could afford presents, decorations and food for the holiday feast. He hated the most what Pastor Ray called Whoville's Kumbaya moment of singing for the holiday. By taking away all the trappings the Grinch planned to steal Christmas itself. In the end, of course, he does not succeed.

This is a story to teach the "true" value of Christmas to children and not the commercialization of the season. Seuss is telling a story through subtraction. Take away what is not of crucial value and you will discover the essence that should be celebrated. This is not about the trappings or how a person is regarded by the community but centered around love and community.

And, from my perspective, I must disagree with this premise. I appreciated this Christmas sermon as the impetus that allowed me to discover that disagreement. And I think most may disagree in our hearts on closer inspection.

Subtracting all the "trappings" of Christmas would not immediately focus the folk in Whoville to express the joy of the season by holding hands and singing their Kumbaya Who song. The so-called "trappings" are just as much about Christmas as Emmanuel. Christmas is about addition rather than subtraction. Children and their parents would not feel a complete joy of the season if all the work they put into the season vanished.

If the Grinch story is taken at face value anyway Emmanuel, God with us, is not celebrated as the central Christmas event but, instead, the Grinch singing with the Whoville community and basking in mutual love is the denouement. Emmanuel, God with us, becomes shorthand for the value we place in community and the love we can feel in the world. A compelling vision that I am wary of completely embracing.

Let's agree on what the commercialization of  Christmas means. Stores selling and consumers like me buying gifts without thinking about Jesus. The selfishness and greed those consumers show in their purchases. Instead, giving to others who are marginalized could transform our world. It assumes true change in the world is conditional on the need of the recipient of our generosity.

I don't know tht I believe that completely today. Can the world not transformed by giving those close to you? When my wife or son give me presents, my thought is not on the merchant they bought from or the monetary exchange they made. I am touched by their thoughtfulness and love which truly transforms my heart.

I doubt I will complain about the commercialization and I think I will appreciate, rather than discount, the Christmas crowds at the mall in a different way next year.

I made a discovery with this Christmas Eve service I did not expect to make. It was definitely a part of the Christmas magic.

December 24, 2017 - Fourth Sunday in Advent - Christmas Eve - Emmanuel

Since Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday this year the intentions were to worship at the morning and evening services. A little snow and ice changed our evening plans and, perhaps as a result, Christmas worship substantially changed this year.

Yet there were many unexpected moments in the morning worship as well so it was not simply the timing of the worship making for a different expedience, although that certainly contributed. There was one bulletin for both services so these same reflections for an 8:00 PM worship.

The choir attendance was as small as expected so the choir sang one song during offering I Wonder as I Wander. The song felt like like a mysterious but also very humble offering.

The undercurrent of God's being here-but-not-here mostly flowed through the words, music and emotion of the Christmas hymns the congregation sang. Pastor Ray gave a children's sermon was about how God brought good news to the shepherds who would have been an unexpected audience, not intended to hit the ball out of the theological ballpark or designed to highlight the end of our Advent journey. The repeated emphasis was on how stinky and smelly the shepherds were. Theologically sound but not as traditional a sermon.

Not being part of intended, central audience the sermon was focused on distanced me in a way I generally don't feel for Christmas services. Pastor Ray here, in essence, dramatized how God's message was delivered that first Christmas to that particular audience. He took a traditional "Wow" factor out of the sermon, that harmonized with what this service was all about. 

The birth narrative, instead of centering on the miraculous, was brought down to earth and felt more commonplace. Singing "Oh, come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant" felt unreal and in need of some examination. Can the faithful be joyful and triumphant when God makes a promise to the world? Am I one of the faithful? Today the verse that seemed straight-forward in meaning was "No ear may hear his coming; but, in this world of sin, where meek souls will receive him; still the dear Christ enters in." in O Little Town of Bethlehem.

The contrast of darkness with lit candles in the Service of Light has been dramatic for me in past years. In the morning light, the lit candles continued to emphasize the commonplace and ordinary.

To close we sang Joy to the World with the last verse being:

He rules the world with truth and grace
and makes the nations prove
the glories of his righteousness 
and wonders of his love,    
and wonders of his love, 
and wonders, wonders of his love.

Today every time we sang about God's rule and glory there was a more complex and complicated reaction to the words describing God coming into the world. To me, this morning, proclamations with kingly adjectives came from our human grammar not God's. When we sang "join the triumph of the skies" in Hark! The Herald Angels sing. it felt like an attempt to push God up and back into heaven instead of celebrating Emmanuel, God with us.

Our God is a God of surprise and reversal. Perhaps our God claims something more than dutiful, routine love while cherishing that kind of love that we can give as well.

I suspect this will not be a consistent view I will treasure for future Christmas Eve services but it will likely be among the things I will intermittently ponder other Christmas days.

January 1, 2017 - 1 Christmas - The Name of Jesus

There is a Catholic prayer associated with the Twelve Days of Christmas that reads, "O God, who marvelously created and yet more marvelously restored the dignity of human nature, grant that we may share the divinity of him who humbled himself to share our humanity."

In Christ, our human nature was united to God, and when Christ enters our hearts, he brings us into that union.

Today Pastor Michelle's sermon was titled "Unwrapping God's Gift". She suggested we could use this year's twelve days of Christmas to strip away the layers that generations of Christians have covered Jesus in - flags, prosperity and other ideologies.  Her suggestion is to strip multiple layers in our vision of Jesus down to the cross and manager and remember his naked, God-with-us-and-for-us humanity.

Her sermon started with an observation of how thin her mother had become:

"On Monday night she assured me that it was okay for me to go home, so I went to say good-bye and hug her. The thin hospital gown had slid down her shoulders, and I could feel how thin she’s become: literally, skin and bone. Of course, I knew she’d lost weight the past couple of years, but with the usual layers of clothing stripped away, I was suddenly struck by how vulnerable she seemed…. I know some of you might be thinking, “Well, duh! She’s 93, and she’s not well, so of course she’s vulnerable! All of us are vulnerable when we’re not feeling well!…”

Her words and insight were personally all-too-familiar..  They echoed in me all the thoughts and feelings I recently expressed in my blog entry on December 4th about my wife's diabetic ketoacidosis incident together with the vulnerability explored in the latest blog post (see below).

After talking about these layers we put on ourselves and others getting in the way of our relationship to others and to God she preached:

Jesus saves us by calling us to strip off the armor and trappings of this world and come back to our true identity as naked, newborn children of God who love as God loves: without condition and without end….

Stripping off the armor, trappings and identities of this world is not easy and the sermon went on to observe how the church historically has added layers of divinity to Jesus and "set him on a golden throne". Jesus is more than an earthly King. I am drawn to Pastor Michelle's portrayal of the other Jesus - the Jesus that embodies the vulnerable and resists being crowned or put on a throne. So often there is an implicit assumption that the gospel promises prosperity and power even though this assumption is completely at odds with how Jesus lived life.

Pastor Michelle announced 2017 was the Reformation's 500th year anniversary commemorating that on October 31, 1517 Martin Luther nailed a copy of his 95 Theses to the Wittenberg Castle church door. I thought about this during Communion.  There is a book I am reading about the Reformation that my wife gave me for Christmas that details all the doctrinal divisions and perspectives the different church denominations detailed in the sacrament of communion.

Each was absolutely sure their vision was what God wanted for the world and most prevent those who don't share their perspective from taking communion.  I have not been immune to this kind of "righteousness".  Pastor Michelle encouraged us to make a New Year's resolution to strip away the layers that separate us from God and from each other.  Tackling my "righteousness" of the past will be my start to change my beliefs and behavior.