Enacting the Gospel

It is good to have a guest preacher every once in a while. This past Sunday having Rev. Mae Cannon preach gave Lauren and me a nice break the day after our Staff-Council retreat. It also brought a different voice and perspective to the pulpit. Mae’s sermon reminded me of Tony Campolo’s comment that him, being a guest prophet not a pastor, can say things a pastor might not say, and let the pastor and church to figure out what to do in response to his sermon. 

The Rhythms of Life

Inspiration and respiration, inhale and exhale. Diastole and systole, blood in and blood out. Out with some, in with some. The rhythms of our bodily existence speak of input and output, and it is so obvious we experience it without thinking of it. But, upon reflection, I would suggest that these rhythms are a great image for the rhythms of our lives beyond the biological. They speak of my life right now, maybe yours as well.

The Blessing of Animals

I received an email in June of 2021, shortly after Susan and I arrived in Seattle and a few weeks before we met in person for worship for the first time. It contained a curious request. This email came from a member of our church who mentioned how many families had acquired "COVID" pets during the pandemic and how important they were to their and their families’ wellness during the unwell season of the pandemic. The request was to have a blessing of animals near the Feast of St. Francis (October 4) that year. (This is commonly done by churches of all sorts on or about this day.) I was not opposed to the idea but wasn’t able to pull it off that Fall. So, I kept the idea on the back burner, but never moved forward with it. When Pastor Lauren was called to serve our church, I thought this would be right up her alley. And so, Pastor Lauren and our Vashon community group have been organizing such a worship service for our church on Saturday, September 21 on Vashon Island at 11:30 am.

Directing Music

We are on the threshold of hiring a new Music Director. We have spent some time creating a job description, defining what we would expect this person to do as well as what gifts and skills we would hope this person would bring. There are tasks like playing, choosing, coordinating, leading, and collaborating. There are various constituents they need to coordinate: from children to adults, vocalists—solo to ensemble, instrumentalists, as well as helping to facilitate the worship of our congregation. Because of the configuration of our church, it is difficult to direct an ensemble or choir in our choir loft while accompanying them because of “challenging sightlines” to say the least, so this person may or may not direct the choir. Regardless, as a church we have an appreciation for beauty, and those who are able to make beauty part of our vocabulary of worship, and we value all this person will do to that end, whatever they do or do not do.

Notes on Notes

This past week began for me with a request to republish some of my “Notes” from our previous Life on the Vine issues. After some consideration, I consented to one that they suggested, and you can now find last week’s offering on this week’s Pacific Northwest Conference blog. This invitation has given me reason to reflect on what it is I am trying to do in these weekly offerings. 

A busy summer

Every year, I’m surprised by how quickly the summer flies by. This wasn’t always the case. When I was a child, it seemed to last a blessed lifetime. The sunny days were endless–filled with time for swimming, biking, visiting family and–most importantly–eating lots of ice cream. That all changed when I became an adult. Now the summer is over before it even starts. Part of that is the general passage of time which seems to speed up as you age, but I think another part is that my summers are much busier now. Between work, sports, and vacations squeezed in between, September comes all too quickly on the heels of June. 

A busy summer

Every year, I’m surprised by how quickly the summer flies by. This wasn’t always the case. When I was a child, it seemed to last a blessed lifetime. The sunny days were endless–filled with time for swimming, biking, visiting family and–most importantly–eating lots of ice cream. That all changed when I became an adult. Now the summer is over before it even starts. Part of that is the general passage of time which seems to speed up as you age, but I think another part is that my summers are much busier now. Between work, sports, and vacations squeezed in between, September comes all too quickly on the heels of June. 

Words

Susan and I are hosting Jurhee, Sang, and Alice for the week. Alice is on the threshold of two years old and has grown a great deal since last we saw her in person. She is certainly more verbal. Her parents are bilingual, Korean and English, and so they speak to Alice in both Korean and English. So Alice calls her parents “mother” and “father” using both the English and Korean words. 

Owning Up

A myth is a story that may or may not be historically “true,” but contains truths about a people group, such as their values and their views of themselves and their world. One of our nation’s earliest myths is that of George Washington “owning up” to cutting down a cherry tree. That story speaks of the values of honesty and taking responsibility; qualities of not just our first president, but what we expect from all our presidents. 

Postcard from the San Juans

Having a lovely time in Griffin Bay on our first day in the water. Praying you are paddling along well wherever you are and whatever you are doing.

Grace and Peace,

~ Pastor Todd

Freedom, Unity, and Responsibility:
A Covenant Resource Paper

At the recent annual meeting of the Covenant Church, a proposed position paper was approved by the assembly. (For more about this meeting in general, see Aaron Nilson’s offering below.) I had seen early drafts of this paper as prior versions were sent to the ministerium. We had opportunities to discuss and offer feedback on these drafts, and revisit it when revisions were made. The version posted on the Covenant website still identifies it as a “draft”, though I am fairly certain it is the document that was approved. For most of the delegates, though, this was the first time they had seen this document. 

Church: Universal and Local

In the early Christian creeds we find the phrase “one holy, catholic (or universal), and apostolic church.” The implication is that from the beginning the Christian churches were unified and unanimous in their understanding of what the apostolic faith was. One should understand that the creeds were written because at that time there were Christians who didn’t believe those things. The creeds were a line in the sand: if you agreed you were orthodox, if you did not you were incorrect and possibly even dangerous or heretical.

Juneteenth is about more than Race

On Sunday, June 9 the Reverend James Lawson passed away. Rev. Lawson was a force for justice in the greater Los Angeles area when I lived there, even though he had retired from his ministry at Holman United Methodist Church in LA in 1999, six years before we moved there. Both before that ministry, Rev. Lawson was a prominent leader in the civil rights movement with Dr. King. Rev. Lawson followed the lead of Rev. Howard Thurman, who studied pacifism and passive resistance with Gandhi in India. Where King was the visionary and a spokesperson for the movement, and Thurman was the philosopher and spiritual director of the movement, Lawson was the organizer. It was Lawson’s ability to train troops of non-violent protestors who were able to embody grace under fire that made this movement something to be reckoned with, and forced our country to reckon with its injustices.

Questions

My last few weeks have been quite curious ones. In that time, I have had conversations with a number of people: in and out of our church, religious and non-religious, national and international. What is curious is how much overlap those conversations had. For example, recently someone observed how much COVID seems to have affected people in ways that are still currently evident. The very next day someone in a completely different context commented on how COVID has “changed everything” and wondered if we will ever go back to “normal.”

Life on the Vine, Revisited

One December, when all our children were home for Christmas and my brother Don was with us as well, we decided to make a pre-Christmas trip to Wine Country in Northern California. Growing up in Pennsylvania, we had neighbors that had a grapevine in their backyard. Although it was a scrawny, puny vine, I found it impressive at the time. After all, you could eat the grapes it produced. It wasn’t until this California road trip that I had ever seen a full-scale vineyard and endless rows of impressive vines. 

UNITE Fundraising: Exceeding our Goal

Over the last few weeks, you’ve heard us talking about UNITE and our fundraising efforts to give our high schoolers the opportunity to attend this week-long gathering of Covenant youth. I’m thrilled to report that we have already surpassed our fundraising goal! We hoped to raise $7,800, and to date, we’ve raised $9,400!

Half Time Adjustments

Some sports divide their game into halves, with a “Half Time” in-between. It is in half time when teams make adjustments to try to ensure a victory, or at least improve their chances. Sometimes a second half will play out very differently from the first half. Sometimes a game is won or lost by the fine tunings a team makes or doesn’t make at half time.

From untie to UNITE

Back in the day, a few decades ago, Covenant High in Congress—the Covenant’s meeting of high school students from across North America every four years—was the largest Christian youth event in North America. I was on the planning team in 1988 for its meeting at Colorado State University. At that time our meetings were so large there were only a few campuses that would be able to accommodate a group our size. I had never attended when I was in high school, so this was all new to me.

Children’s Rites

This past Sunday we as congregation received Charlie Larson-Strobel into the Body of Christ universal through our church. We promised Eva and Brent that we would support them in raising Charlie in the faith, and welcome him as member of our church family. Later in that service we came to the Table—Christ’s Table—where we received communion as a sign of the grace of Christ which redeems our lives and establishes the bonds of the Spirit that holds our church family together. Both Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are considered sacraments in Covenant churches. But the Covenant as a denomination allows for diversity in both theology and practice of sacraments, particularly related to children. After worship this past Sunday, Pastor Lauren and I led the first of two conversations about children, initiation, and sacraments reflecting on these themes.

REJOICE!

Our bulletin this past Sunday greeted us with a command: “Rejoice!” In other words, be glad, celebrate the goodness of God and the life we have been given. This coming Sunday’s psalm, Psalm 98, proclaims that when God’s justice and mercy are evident and obvious to all, all God’s people will rejoice, all the people of the world will rejoice, and all of creation will rejoice. The presence of God in the world draws praise and joy out of everything and everyone.This only reinforces the direction we were given last Sunday from the outset: “Rejoice!”