Why Church? – by Roberta LaHue Brown

In my years of attending church, I have had many wonderful relationships.  Some have been friends, some have been mentors, some teachers, others family, some all of these things in one.  I met my husband in church.  My children attend church with me and are learning about and praising God right beside me.  But my biggest reason for going to church is that attending devotes time to my relationship with God and the others I encounter.  Being intentional keeps me focused on the purpose of all this.  Intentional means ‘done with purpose.’  Forming ‘intentional relationships’ is one of the reasons I go to church. I go to church to remind myself to look at Him, to thank Him, to praise Him, to let Him embrace and heal me, to make me whole.   It is through finding this wholeness that I am able to extend that amazing love to others.  Others who are seeking wholeness extend amazing love to me.  And in spreading and receiving that cultivated love in our relationships, something amazing happens.   A moment that takes your breath away.  Makes your heart skip a beat.  That instant might be filled with joy, it  might be filled with sorrow.  Sometimes the miraculous juncture is so fleeting that you aern’t even sure in hindsight if it actually happened.   Many times we are exposed to these touchstone moments and blessings through our interactions in intentional relationships that are formed by living in Christian Community.

Today, August 13th,  is one of those touchstone days for me as I bid ‘adios’ to Emily and Andrew (TCC’s former co-pastors).  These dear friends of mine are embarking on the international portion of their Peace Corps adventure.  In all reality, they are probably frantically gathering their bags from the hotel room in DC right now so that they can catch a flight from there to Nicargua. They’ll be spending the next 2 years immersed in a new culture and in new relationships.  In this day, and in this moment, I am filled with joy and sadness, tears and smiles, thoughts of past and future…and I am feeling blessed to have such wonderful people in my life.   And because I simply can’t put into adequate words what I’m feeling as we say farewell, I decided to let Emily do the talking.   Sometimes things are best said by another and we just need to listen.    I’m posting Emily’s blog entitled ‘Blessed to be a Blessing‘ here.  Emily posted this testimony on her and Andrew’s Peace Corps Blog (www.maywesuggest.com) the Sunday that we said our official congregational goodbye last month.

So, Emily and Andrew, as you leave this ‘land that you love,’ my prayer is that you will love the new land that you are in and it will love you back, and that through this adventure you continue to be intentional and let your blessings flow on.
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Thank you for your love, light, kindness, wisdom and friendship.  I (and all of us at Tuality Community of Christ) will miss you.  God be with you until we meet again.

Blessings, Roberta

co-pastor Tuality Community of Christ

“Let Your Light Shine” – by Nicholas Carroll

When I saw that the theme for the February 9th, 2014 service was “Let Your Light Shine”, I knew that I wanted to plan this service because a decade ago, in 2004, my favorite blues singer Keb’ Mo’ had released a peppy blues song entitled “Let Your Light Shine” and the first time I heard it, I knew that I wanted to use it in a worship service one day. However, as that day drew closer, the Portland metro area was hit with a rare winter storm that made traveling outside a dangerous trek, so the service was cancelled. Since I did not want the theme to “go to waste”, I asked for it to be rescheduled when there was a lull in the calendar.

 

March 23rd was the new day and it turned out to be a great week for the theme. I mentioned the recent news item about the passing of a preacher who was known to picket military funerals with signs that said “God hates…” and how that message contrasted with another famous preacher who had said: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” The preacher of that message was, of course, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. When I think of God, the experience and image that comes to the forefront of my mind is perfectly stated in a popular campfire song that many church members know by heart: “I’ll shout it from the mountaintop, I want the world to know, the Lord of love has come to me and I want to pass it on.”

 

I love the theme of light and of lit candles in a dark room. I also believe that each of us emits a light that others can see or feel. Two examples I’ve shared were Nelson Mandela and Aung San Suu Kyi. Both individuals have been in dangerous situations where they could have been killed, but even the people who wanted to kill them and had the means to do so admitted that there was something remarkable about them that they actually feared causing them harm. Many who know these individuals have often said the same thing: Mandela and Aung San Suu Kyi had a regal presence about them. What is this thing that people recognize? What kind of inner light do these individuals have that causes them to endure the hardships of long imprisonment, torture, seeing their beloved friends killed by the government, and living without contact with their loved ones?

 

When I first started attending Tuality Community of Christ in January 2010, I was in a dark place. The previous month, December 2009, one could say that I had hit rock bottom. I had lost a lady that I wanted a relationship with when she moved away, I was miserable in a job that I absolutely hated and which caused me pain anytime someone asked me about work, and I attended a congregation where I felt like I didn’t belong. I was considering going to the Unitarian Church in downtown Portland since I had started meditating there, but the Weavers told me to give Tuality a try and they generously offered to give me rides to and from church. So, in 2010, I started attending and participated in the hikes with Jeff Cox and other members of the congregation. Slowly, I crawled out of my personal darkness and by the end of 2010, I was in a new job and feeling a lot better about myself. I also found a spiritual home in Tuality and have come to view all of you as my extended family, which makes life easier when my parents and sister live on the other side of the country.

 

During the testimony portion of the service, Harold Lasley shared his impression of how he saw my light grow brighter in the years that I have attended Tuality. He said in the beginning, that I would sit at the back of the sanctuary and I wouldn’t speak much with people and he could see my light slowly beginning to shine, particularly in the last year. I was touched to hear that someone has noticed the change in me since I started attending.

 

During this particular service, the opening music was the praise song “Shine, Jesus, Shine” which always puts me in a happy place. In the middle part of the service, Keb’ Mo’s “Let Your Light Shine” played, with the most relevant part of the lyrics being:

 

“…If you could see you
The way I see you
You’d start flying on your own.
Step aside and . . .
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Refrain:

“Let your light shine.
Let your love show
It’s a short ride
Down the long road.
When the rains come
And the winds blow
Let your light shine
Wherever you go.

“This world is ready and waiting
For you to break on through.
It’s time to recognize,
To realize,
You’re the only one like you.
Step on up,
Step into your greatness.
Don’t be afraid.
There’s a place where you will rise up to;
No one else could do what you do.”

 

The service ended with a YouTube video of the Christian pop song, “Go Light Your World” by Kathy Troccoli. Everyone held a small white candle that was lit by someone else’s candle. The beautiful song is a reminder to keep our light and to bring light to the dark spaces we encounter. While we can’t be responsible for someone else’s lack of light, we can strive to be a guiding light for others and perhaps be that individual spark that relights the inner flame in someone else.
March 23rd Weekly Theme Reflection by Nicholas Carroll