Author: Clarice Erickson

Grill? Hey, folks, our grill is missing. Just checking if anybody from the church took it before I assume it was stolen. If you have any information, please let us know.

Saturday, June 6, 10 am – 12 Noon:  Mask Drive: We will be handing out masks to the community. Hoping for nice weather, a table will be set up outside in front of the church. Spread the word to Morgan Park friends and neighbors (or anyone that may need a face mask). There is no charge for masks. Thank you to our sewing experts for heading up this project!

Sunday, June 7, Worship 10:30 am: Thanks to Cathy and Linda for their wonderful music last Sunday! They'll be back this Sunday (and Paul will remember to share the page numbers of the hymns this time!). This Sunday we're looking at "The Great Commission" and what it means to "be a disciple." The doors to the church are open and we are welcoming members to worship with us, with respect to social distance and hygiene protocol in place.

Monday, June 8, 6:00 pm, Bible Study in the Sanctuary: This week will be led by the group as Pastor Paul will be out of town.

   Recently a church member told me that when she entered the church building for the first time in months, she felt the presence of God in a way she has not been able to feel anywhere else. Amen. This brought a group of us to thinking of how we can open the church, in this challenging time, as a sanctuary space for quiet prayer (I'm thinking of something akin to a Catholic adoration chapel, for those that are familiar.) – the idea is that people know the doors are open and there is a space for them to pray and feel peace.

   So: A call for volunteers! Would you be interested in spending some quiet time hosting the church space for visitors that need a space to pray? Volunteers would welcome visitors, notify them of our hygiene protocol, and help assure things are kept clean and sanitary. If this sounds like something you're interested in, please call or write the church with a schedule of when you might be available and for how long. If we get enough volunteers, we can make this happen. Thanks, Friends!

NOTE: Pastor Paul will be out of the office from Monday-Thursday. He'll be out in the Boundary Waters, rekindling his relationship with his son (see below). For concerns (or joys), you may call the Prayer Chain at 626-1272.

"And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age"   ~ Matthew 28:20

   So closes the Gospel of Mark…and so begins, this Monday, a week with my son in the Boundary Waters. I think about all the time we will have to talk. With all the transitions in life, we haven't had time like this for the past five years, and he's grown from a child to a teen. So I ask myself: what do I want to tell him and teach him, here at this age of his life? Is it clear in my own head? So in my morning prayers, I wrote it out. And in the spirit of sharing testimony – of sharing our truth with one another – I thought it was a good thing to share with my people.

   But first, it was his birthday this week, and I also wanted to share with you my morning prayer for him: Morning prayers brought me to Eliot, turning 15 years old today. My thoughts turn sentimental, but that's not where I should linger. Love is not in scarcity and never will be. Where I linger is the true and honest attachment I have to that bundle of boy. I know he will stir my heart and break my heart. I know I will be afraid and angry and elated and proud – and sometimes all at the same time. I ask God "what is the best thing I can do to honor and support this love?" I hear the words "lead by example"…I am told to show him what good and healthy and thriving and just looks like in this world. He won't grow up to be just like me, I suspect. No "Cat's in the Cradle" here. He may not have my values, nor my lifestyle, but I can teach him what love and joy and care and creativity and balance and contentment and justice look like. I think that's what "Dad" means to me now.

OK, so…here's that list: "Things That I Want to Tell Eliot While We Float"

–  People change a lot throughout their lives. I'm a very different person than I was at 15, and you will be too, but some values remain constant. Being kind to others is a good example here.

 – The person that you are presently is not "wrong" in any way, it's just where you're at right now. When I say "you're growing up" I mean to say that you're gaining wisdom and understanding. Would I want to be my fifteen-year-old self again? No! But I wouldn't be who I am today without being who I was then.

– When I critique you for something I consider an unhealthy thought or behavior, I shouldn't be mean about it, but I really want to help you with "right from wrong." I'm a Dad, after all.

– Personally, I'm still growing up too. Recently, I've been working on getting rid of all the anger I've had inside of me – a lot of that came from my family. I don't want to pass it down to you. I haven't been very good at that through most of your life, but I'm trying to stop being angry and yelling, and I'm getting better. If you could support me in this change, I'd appreciate it.

– I'm sure you've seen a change in my attitude toward people I used to be angry at. I hope you can appreciate that change. I know you will benefit from it. We all do.

– My kindness toward anyone comes from an honest desire to BE that kind person and make the lives better for those around me. That, in itself, is my whole goal. It's my goal like yours is "popularity and fame and money and girls" right now. I need no other personal gain anymore. I don't care if I'm rich or famous, just that I am a nice guy.

– The only part of life you can really control is your own actions, and your own attitude. You cannot blame others for how you feel. Yes, people can trigger feelings of hurt or anger in you, but those emotions are yours. If you choose to stay there, in those emotions, that's your own choice, but you'll only hurt yourself.

– And you have every option open ahead of you, and a supportive family behind you. The only limitation here is your own willingness to step forward and do what you want to do.

– I am so incredibly looking forward to seeing where life will take you and who you will grow up to be. I want to support you in all of that. Sometimes my support comes in the form of making sure you don't slip off a cliff. I speak figuratively, but from experience, sometimes literally.

– You really need to treat your sister with respect. She is growing up and  you can't rush her. She doesn't need your judgment because she's not your brand of fifteen-year-old "cool".  As I often say: "let seven be seven".

– Your mother was raised with yelling and chose to stop doing it. I was raised with yelling and chose to keep it going for most of my adult life – but now I am choosing to stop.

– So: Yelling at people will get you nowhere. In fact, it is pretty much a guarantee that you won't get what you want.

– There's a lot of changes taking place, but I am assured that God will lead us all to a healthy "yes" – even though we don't know what that will look like yet. Give yourself patience. Things take time.

– Yes, I said "God will lead us"…I truly believe God guides us, every day. The best thing I can do is listen and respond when God nudges me. I don't believe the whole path is set before us like some people do, but I believe God walks with us every single step of our lives and can guide us to be our best selves…and that gives me great comfort. So I pray every day to be in touch with God and God's guidance.

– Each soul is unique in this world, and each person has reasons for who they are and what they do. Don't judge them, because you don't know their story.

– That said, take the time and listen to their stories when you can.

(And now, an edited version of the "fifteen-year-old boy" puberty talk)

– Relationships and friendships are different when you get older. We start to see them differently, and desire other things than the things that you want now as a fifteen-year-old. I have female friends that fulfill my desires for friendship and companionship, and sex is not the center of the conversation. The friendship of your mother and I, though divorced, is a good example of that.

– Objectification of women (treating them only like objects for sex) causes great pain and evil in the world. You may have desires, but you have to remember that each person is unique and has her own humanity and her own stories.

– That said, sex is ok and should be celebrated, but it must be fully equal between both partners. Mutual. And every person along the spectrum (male to female) has wants and desires that are unique, and they should be honored as unique to them.

– We are all different. We should not judge.

As I share this list, I realize that's a rather "non-Churchy" way to close…but we are people who speak our truth and live not as a veneer of "proper behavior" but as real, honest human beings. The more honest we are – the more real we are – to one another, the closer the presence of God is in our midst of fellowship. The more we can be authentic disciples.

Keep in touch, friends

Pastor Paul

Cathy and Linda will be here on piano and organ. We will be recording the service and offering printed text as usual, sharing on Facebook and our mailing list, but friends, the doors will be open if you would like to attend, and we will be intensely practicing safety and hygiene. It is our assumption that our numbers will hardly exceed double-digits for worship, and that we can maintain that safely in our gathering space. Please note: we are asking that you wear a mask, or we will provide one for you.

We will also be gathering for fellowship afterward out on the lawn. The church will provide meat for the grill, chips, deli and such. Please, DO NOT BRING a homemade dish – this is not a potluck (there'll be time for that in the future), but do bring a lawn chair. 

…Gathering wisely, folks! If we work together, we can share fellowship AND keep it safe.

A few folks from UP Church have been busy sewing face masks for Morgan Park folks. We will be handing out the masks on Saturday, June 6, from 10:00 am until noon. We are hoping the weather is nice so we can be set up at a table outside the front of the church. Please spread the word to Morgan Park friends and neighbors (or anyone that may need a face mask) that they can stop by to pick up a face mask. There is no charge for the masks.

  

Pastor Paul's commentary "Toward Sunday" will be coming in a separate email tomorrow.

Thank you to the crew who mowed the lawn, and cleaned out, weeded, and planted bright cheerful flowers in the memorial garden.

Watch for details regarding a "Mask Drive" to share masks with the community. If you are interested in sewing masks or assisting with distribution, please contact the church.

Saturday, May 23: Ruby's Pantry at Mission Creek Church, 521 131st Avenue W., 11 am-12:30 pm

"I am asking…on behalf of those you gave me, because they are yours."  ~John 17:9

    I've been thinking a lot this week about friends…those from my past, those present, and those that have passed away but are still very present. I think of the ones that held on through my hard times, and I also think of those that chose to make themselves distant when I needed them – those that stayed away in times of darkness, or took sides in time of divorce – friends that opted to engage in judgment rather than seeking understanding.

    Catching myself here: I just spent more words on the negative than I did on the positive when talking about friends in that last paragraph – which is a telltale sign that something ain't right with my thoughts. I ask God to help me catch it. Maybe they were going through hard times themselves, and I was so wrapped up in my own drama that I missed their own need for friendship? Light and dark are always at play, influencing one another, and it's a fair bet that we will never know the full truth of every relationship.

    But hey, friendship is important…and I might go so far to say that it is essential. So for this moment, friends, take an inventory. Who are they? Are they there for you? Are  you there for them right now?

    See, there's a unique aspect to this farewell discourse in John's gospel (faith tip: read through the teens in John as one unit…you'll thank me for it!). Here, Jesus is praying for his disciples. He is petitioning God on the disciples' behalf. Now let's take it a step further: as we are the church in that living tradition of the disciples, they are the "Christians" that we have become. So it's worth letting this sink in: Jesus is praying for us!

    Usually we're the ones doing the praying – buying a one-way ticket to transcendence. But when we pray (to mix metaphors here), it's helpful to remember that we don't travel down a one-way street. Prayers like Jesus's in John are coming right back at us! Put another way: Jesus is praying for me.

    Know why? Because Jesus loves me…this I know, for (my exegetical analysis of Johanine Gospel) tells me so.

    And here's a double "know-why?" Because he loves us. Because he's a friend – and not a conditional friend, but a stand-by got-your-back thick-and-thin sort of friend.  You couldn't push that friend away if you tried.

    Remember that, friends. It's sure helped me. I'm thinking it will be a dose of grace in your day to think about it as well.

Keep in touch,

Pastor Paul

A group of church members is interested in doing a "Mask Drive" to share the masks they have been sewing with the community. If you are interested in assisting or helping sew masks (or know of someone who needs a mask), please contact the church.

The gardens and grounds around the church are longing for a little TLC. If you are interested in doing some weeding or planting, send a note. We can form a safe and healthy work group.

Reminder that all meetings, gatherings and events are still suspended until further notice.

…so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him…though indeed he is not far from each one of us.  ~ Acts 17:27

    It's gotta be my favorite part of being a minister…I mean, preaching is pretty cool, and I love the songs, and the friendships, and let's not forget the sweet treats on Sunday and good food on Wednesday (can't wait for those again!), but my favorite part is hearing the stories people share of the moments they feel God's presence in their lives…you know, a feeling of grace that something happened just the way it did and prompting a hearty "thank you" to God. Or when people share about thoughts or questions or work toward healing and then suddenly – an epiphany! I love it when people tell me about some grace-laden clarity that has formed in their lives, or a connection with a loved one that has passed away – ah, so many! I love them all! I thank God that people share them! I celebrate them, care for them, and do what I can to nurture them like flowers in a garden. Each precious, each holy.

    So, it feels right to share with you about one in my own life. See, I shared a bit in last Sunday's sermon about how an area of brokenness and pain in my life that I had been carrying for years was erased in a sudden instant by the right conversation with the right person at the right moment. I have to tell you, friends, feeling that transformation from pain to healing, from grief to solace, from anger to love, is what I hope and pray heaven is all about!

    Thing is, it is already here. "He is not far from each of us," Paul spoke to the Athenians, and by golly he's right! See, I knew my brokenness was unhealthy, and the pain inside of me was also affecting other people. I knew because every day I would keep up my faith practices, and as I turned to God my prayers would remind me that I am, indeed, in need of healing. So I kept moving toward the things that I knew were life-giving to me. I would walk in the woods, spending time with the flora and fauna I love so much. I would play music, because I knew that some day I would "feel" it again. I would gather with life-giving, affirmative people (a tip o' the hat to y'all) and share moments of laughter and creativity and good food. I would write, even if what came out wasn't all I wanted it to be, because I knew it had always been a positive thing in my life. Friends, this is not to pat myself on the back because I "kept working at it" – those things were just self-care. What I really want you to know is that each and every one of those things I was turning to were, in their very presence, gifts from God…and it was God's timeline that I was living in, not my own – no matter my tendency to seek instant gratification. Thy will be done on Earth, as it is in Heaven. At any moment, God truly is not far from us.

    And here's the other cool part of the story: all those things I would turn to – nature and music and friendship and words and on and on – those things are still there, and I gotta tell you, when I turn to them now, they fill me with a delight that I haven't felt in a good long time. Thanks, God! Even if I couldn't always feel it the way I wanted to, I knew you were always there. Good plan, that one.

Keep in touch, Friends

Pastor Paul

There's a group of church members interested in forming a "Mask Drive" – to share the masks they have been sewing with the community. If you are interested in assisting, or would like to help sew (or know of someone that needs a mask!), contact the church.

Also, the gardens and grounds around the church are longing for a little TLC. Interested in lending a hand? We can form a safe and healthy work group. Send a note!

Reminder: The Morgan Park 5K Run/2.5K Walk (planned for May 31) is cancelled. Eve plans to be back in 2021 to head up the race!

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.  ~John 14:3

     Of the many things whirling around my mind in this time, at the center is how to sustain my faith in the midst of missing community interaction. I guess I hadn't realized just how much my faith is nurtured by the presence and sharing of others in Christian life. Oh yes, I keep my disciplines and practices, I engage my spiritual journey, continue to make myself receptive to God's good work through me, and study and pray and journal and write…but there's something about being together that draws me out of my thoughts and  into my whole person. I 'll call it the Pentecost Spirit. I love and miss it, as I love and miss you.

     So…gathering calls me, and from our words over telephone and computer, I know I am not alone. I keep thinking of how we could connect safely, being a group of comparatively smaller numbers. I think: Bible Study can be done with safe distancing…and couldn't we grill on the grounds and keep healthy space? …what about Sundays? If the wipes and sanitizer and masks were utilized? Hey – what if we opened the church at scheduled times so that people can have a quiet sanctuary place to be calm and pray? All of these ideas float out there, but wind up getting lost in the day-to-day concerns about social responsibility, about reminders that we haven't even seen the worst of it yet, about placing one another in potentially uncomfortable situations – about sounding like I'm in-step with the machine gun-toting self-centered bullies shouting "Don't tread on me" – OK, stop, Paul! Don't go down that road. Remember the tools you share with others about walking with faith – about living into resurrection. Am I sharing God's message of love, or contributing to the already rampant fear, anger, and scarcity around us? Am I creating more brokenness, or am I participating in repair? Am I saying "Yes" or "No"? Crucifixion or Resurrection?

     On my morning drive to see the birds and flowers down in Chamber's Grove, I heard this quote over the radio: "I do not claim to have all the answers in Spiritual matters. There are also others engaged in a spiritual search, a spiritual journey. If I keep an open mind about what others have to say, I have much to gain."

     It was from Ricky Defoe, Elder in the Fond du Lac Band (and thank you WGZS 89.1 for airing it), and it reminded me that God transcends in a myriad of different ways in as many different souls and as many different settings. God is present everywhere. Jesus said, in his Johannine prayer that began with these words: "I will come again and take you to myself." If I believe that God is ever present, and Jesus is always with me (as Resurrection has taught me), then what is it about sharing with one another that makes God's presence burn with such a hot flame when we are together?

     …Or maybe it's just that habit of being together? A prompt from the setting of church? Muscle memory? In any event, we're trying an experiment: beginning on the 17th, Cathy Dale will be returning to Sunday morning worship so that we may share music and worship beyond the rambling words and wild hand gestures of your Pastor. Every Sunday, there have always been a few people here in the church, practicing safe distancing and responsible hygiene. The doors are always open. The folks that attend, albeit a small and widely-spaced group, will help to bring us back to a rhythm and setting that all are familiar with.

     Church is not about the words a pastor says in a sermon or a prayer…it is about the shared love present when we turn our hearts and souls collectively toward the presence of Christ in our lives. Good prayer, like good food, means so much more when it is shared.

Keep in touch, friends!

Pastor Paul  

Saturday, April 25: During the shutdown, Ruby's Pantry food distribution continues on 4th Saturday of the month at Mission Creek Church, 521 131st Avenue W., 11 am – 12:30 pm

Marna Fasteland is sewing face masks from leftover quilt fabric. If you need a face mask, call or email Marna, and she will mail one to you. There is no charge for a mask – she is using up scraps so she can buy more fabric!

For those who have been able to share offering: THANK YOU. It truly makes a difference. We rely heavily on the plate giving of Sunday offering here, as expenses still continue. What you give, again, makes a difference.

And, as always, we'd love to share your thoughts and well wishes with one another! Send a note, give a call! Your people want to know how you are doing!

…but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.  ~ Luke 24:16

    Well, for those of you that appreciate the reference, a "Facebook Memory" popped up on my phone (for the rest of you…the majority…just smile and nod and consider the source and read on)…it was a picture, from three years ago, of my children standing in a grassy meadow in Asheville, North Carolina, with a rainbow above them. Oh, it warmed my heart, back then as it does now. A heart that certainly longed for a little warming at that time…a heart that still does, I suppose.

    Here's what I thought: y'know, for a difficult time, the fact that I saw and felt this experience was a blessed afterthought. See: I was getting divorced back then. I didn't quite know it, or accept that it was really happening at the time, but in retrospect it was clear. I was in mourning. I was uncertain about the future. I was afraid and I was lonely, and yet my children ran out into the meadow and wanted to have their picture taken underneath a rainbow.

    Which leads to this: later that Spring I went to get my car repaired at a dealership. The people there were kind, and welcoming. They treated me like a real human being, not just a customer. A seemingly insignificant moment, all things considered, but here that moment is, three years later, in my heart…right next to that rainbow.

    And it was also right about that time that Buzz and Pat were in need of somebody to house sit while they traveled, and they knew I was in need. They welcomed me. They had cats (as many of you reading this will know, I am not particularly fond of cats) but I figured it out. (And, oh, for reference: I did learn that cats are not fans of saxophones, and only grudgingly supportive of banjos, but that is another story.)

    Three years later now, I think of the graces that I received during that time. Kind things from good people. Beautiful things intent on stirring the heart of anxious people. It may be (to quote brother Luke) that my "eyes were kept from recognizing them" at that very moment  – after all, I was rather distracted by rugs being pulled out from under my life…but God has this way, my friends, of sharing heaping helpings of grace even in the mists of dark uncertainty. 

    Oh, this is no great theological treatise I write here. You've been there. Your own life experience echoes this wisdom. I mean: think of your most uncertain times. Think of your greatest discomforting fears. Weren't there shards and shreds of love and kindness and beauty, yes, even in the midst of it? Didn't you feel your heart stir even as your heart was being wrung out like a dishrag?

    So here's my thought: you or I may be so wrapped up in our own drama that our myopic eyes are prevented from seeing the grace around us. Our hearts may be gripped tight in the clenched fist of anxiety…but…is there someone, somewhere around us, that can continue to help us to see? Someone that can hold up the mirror back toward our lives and be a shared witness to God's love in the midst of us? I was blessed with friendships then, as I am now. I remember them as Balm in Gilead (wounded whole/sin sick soul).

    Things didn't get easier when I left Asheville, North Carolina. They got harder. I struggled and suffered and crashed and burned, but I landed in a kind town with kind people doing kind things…for which I thank you Morgan Park affiliated goofballs reading this. I thank you and I ask: wasn't God there? Every step of the way?

    "Summoned or not, God is present" wrote Carl Jung, and he was right (on that point…for everything else, let's talk). Can you see it now? Can you dip a cup and drink of that grace like placing a finger in a flowing spring-thaw river?

    Yeah…I know…not always that easy. I'm here to tell you that I missed it a-plenty o'times.

    But it was there…in many shapes and souls and colors – whether my thick head knew it or not…and that's what I want to tell you. That's your good news for today.

Keep in touch, 

Pastor Paul