Some time ago our church was in a weekly rhythm of responding to a creative prompt. To our joy, so many of you participated. We had somewhere around 300 submissions over the course of our early quarantine time. Perhaps to jog our memories it’s helpful to remember where we started and how far we’ve come. We started just after the March equinox with “spring” because winter had passed us by and that was worth celebrating. Then “shelter” because we were sheltering in place. Then we focused on the themes “holy” and “arise” as bookends to holy week. We then considered what we were “missing,” how we (or our gardens) were “growing,” and the color and/or feeling of “blue.” Then we realized that we’d been doing the quarantine thing for a while and considered what our new “normal” was. We wondered about the value and mystery of “memory” and the worthwhile activity of “play.” And then our own Twin Cities saw the death of George Floyd and we “lamented” racism and violence in new and difficult ways. We ended our creative marathon with a tribute to “water” and finally an exploration of the meaning of “place.”

Then we took a break. We spent the summer doing our best to to breathe fresh air. We took walks and visited lakes and in many arenas we slowly learned how to mitigate some level of risk and yet still attempt to do some of the important “human” things we had been missing. We all, of course, have reasons to be approaching all this differently. We have had to learn how to consider and navigate one another’s hopes and expectations while we figured out and enacted our own. It. has. not. been. easy.

In the midst of this turmoil we have opened the doors of our church to regather. Social distancing, mask wearing and the fact that we are missing so many who are unable to join in person keep us less fully “gathered” than we’d like to be. And yet, we are grateful for the options we have. Personally, I am so elated to not just listen to my own voice anymore and that instead I get to hear many of yours!

This brings me to our topic for our final creativity project (at least for the time being). In the midst of a global pandemic, societal unrest, an economic crisis and a difficult presidential election, we celebrated the 16th birthday of Church of the Cross. The Church, the Body of Christ, even in times of great difficulty and trial, continues. There is one body, there is one Spirit, there is one hope to which we are called! The body of Christ is not dependent upon the circumstances of this world for its vitality, strength, love, and humility. The church relies on God alone, and through Christ’s death, through the Eucharist, and through each other we are fed and built up to answer the call of Christ and be the body of Christ on this earth until the new heavens and new earth comes into being. Friends, this is good news. Below are a few submissions that reflect on this from various perspectives.

EAC5CA1D-6B87-461B-8C56-9C36700B4CD2 - Melody Villars.jpeg — Colossians 2

Melody Villars
*watercolor & ink*

From my Scriptures Sketchbook: We are to be knitted together in love, rooted in the wisdom and knowledge of Christ and growing in God, so that we can discern and withstand false teaching (the arrows of the enemy). From Col. 2:2,3,6,7,8,19

“Then breathe thy wail upon the earth’s wailing winds…”

Lexi Tavani

composition for string quartet

Of This Earth is a nine movement string quartet that explores the creation of the earth and its natural beauties.

Underneath, the immense weight of the ponderous mountains crushes rock and plant to form crystals of beauty. Shimmering and sparkling, these gems and jewels glisten with light. As a prism of color casts its various shades, harmonics, trills, tremolos, and arpeggios portray the vast spectrum of brilliance these jewels hold within them. Iridescence* reflects and refracts.

The principal material is taken from an ancient liturgical chant, a cry for redemption – Kyrie Eleison, Lord Have Mercy. This somber movement brings us to our knees as we see how we have taken this – our Earth, our people, our life - for granted.

"Hark! That world-wide swell of solemn music, with the clang of a mighty bell breaking forth through its regulated uproar, announces his approach. He comes; a severe, sedate, immovable, dark rider, waving his truncheon of universal sway, as he passes along the lengthened line, on the pale horse of the Revelation. It is Death! Who else could assume the guidance of a procession that comprehends all humanity? And if some, among these many millions, should deem themselves classed amiss, yet let them take to their hearts the comfortable truth that Death levels us all into one great brotherhood, and that another state of being will surely rectify the wrong of this. Then breathe thy wail upon the earth's wailing wind, thou band of melancholy music, made up of every sigh that the human heart, unsatisfied, has uttered! There is yet triumph in thy tones. And now we move! Beggars in their rags, and Kings trailing the regal purple in the dust; the Warrior's gleaming helmet; the Priest in his sable robe; the hoary Grandsire, who has run life's circle and come back to childhood; the ruddy School-boy with his golden curls, frisking along the march; the Artisan's stuff jacket; the Noble's star-decorated coat;--the whole presenting a motley spectacle, yet with a dusky grandeur brooding over it. Onward, onward, into that dimness where the lights of Time which have blazed along the procession, are flickering in their sockets! And whither! We know not; and Death, hitherto our leader, deserts us by the wayside, as the tramp of our innumerable footsteps echoes beyond his sphere. He knows not, more than we, our destined goal. But God, who made us, knows, and will not leave us on our toilsome and doubtful march, either to wander in infinite uncertainty, or perish by the way!"
-Nathaniel Hawthorne; The Procession of Life

The Power of Place

Sue Awes

It was the building as much as anything else.

Of course I’m not discounting the people. After all I was born into a believing family; Mother and Dad, my grandparents, my aunts and uncles, especially Aunt Peg, There was Signe Frederickson, the looming presence of Sunday School, Jon, the spirited youth pastor and Mr. Kallberg who called me to be baptized. And then there were the characters that filled the sanctuary: old Swedes in the front who would yell “Amen!” or “Hallelujah!” when so moved, faithful corseted mothers who would shepherd their teens to the front during occasional altar calls – and even Beverly, a wanton, bleached-hair indigent who wore see-thru blouses and was afflicted of some strange mental malady, yet by grace loved the Lord and could make sense of the Word when she couldn’t make sense of anything else.

I’m not discounting the music, the hymns whose stanzas informed my theology, giving words to my growing faith and whose melodies kept my young heart malleable. Uncle Lawrie was the principal tenor in the choir and even today I hear his lyrical voice singing The Palms or Jerusalem.

But it was the building as much as anything else by which God took possession of me.

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The Body of Christ

Ann Zilka

From My Scriptures Sketchbook

Melody Villars

Christ is our Peace (Eph. 2)

One (Eph 4:3-6)

The Body of Christ: Formed in Community

Rev Cheryl Witham

Now more than ever we must take our stand against the strategies of evil to divide us as the Body of Christ. We can be encouraged, Jesus promised to build his Church and the gates of hell would not prevail against her. We are on the winning side. But this is an evil day. We are vulnerable to the temptations of evil. How do we stand? We read about it in Ephesians 6:10-19. We stand in the strength of the Lord, by taking up the full armor of God, the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the gospel of peace covering our feet, taking up the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, persevering in prayer. James tells us to humble ourselves under God’s mighty hand, resist the devil and he will flee from us. Romans 12, instructs us to present ourselves as living sacrifices to God. We will be consumed by something or someone, the world, the flesh, the devil or God. We are instructed to be transformed by the renewing of our minds.

Do you know that can only happen in community? Our minds can only be formed and transformed as we are interacting in embodied relational processes; as we are physically together. Our minds are more than our thinking, our minds inform our loves, our identities, our worldviews, our patterns of thought and behavior, our choices, our relationships and our futures. It is in community that we are formed. It is as the Church we stand, not for or against, but with. It is as the Church we resist, we sacrifice, we participate, we pray, we love one another and even those who are our enemies. The greatest threat of evil is that we would be separated, disintegrated as the people of God in the world. We stand not in common understanding, politic or perspective, not even belief or theology, but by what we practice together. We become integrated by what we practice together. What we practice becomes our identity; our place of belonging. We are the church! We call Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. We practice the Presence of the Spirit among us. We depend on His life within us. We eat at the same table. We practice love and hospitality, welcoming the stranger, forgiving the sinner, celebrating repentance and restoration. Our practicing together forms and transforms us. Our practice prepares us to participate, both together and in the world.

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