Thursday Thoughts
Created to Create
by Rev. Dr. Amy Chilton on 01/25/24
Perhaps you are like me and have way more projects started than you will ever finish in a reasonable amount of time. Whether it is house remodeling, paper sorting, writing, crafting, etc, a project always feels more manageable at the supply store than it does at home (or when you are planning it to avoid another project)! Ask any knitter, and most will tell you that they regularly purchase yarn for the next project (or ten) before they are done with the first - and often end up with a pile of unfinished projects and a huge yarn stash. I myself just took a rug hooking class at the Mill at Shady Lea even though I have untold knitting and sewing projects, a loom I keep putting off dressing for the next weaving project, and a garden that is going to wake up in a few months.
I want to embrace the drive to creative that lies under the stockpiling of various kinds of building and creating projects. I am convinced that we were created as co-creators, and embedded deep in our person is the “dna” to create. We are created in the image of the great Creator who painted the earth and skies with all the colors. The Psalmist said it for us in Psalm 19:1, “The heavens herald your glory, O God, and the skies display your handiwork.”
In Exodus, when Moses was giving the directions for the building of the tabernacle (the tent precursor to the Temple), a man by the name of Bezalel was appointed by God and “filled with the Spirit of God [he was] given skills and knowledge of every craft” (Exodus 35: 30-31) - including embroidery work and weaving! Moses went on to record that Bezalel and his helper Oholiab taught others handicrafts so they too could contribute to the creation of this portable worship space: “every woman and man whom YHWH has blessed with skill and understanding” (35:36).
Again in Psalm 8, David reflects on God’s creative works and the role God has given humanity to be responsible for creation. Compared to the beauty of God’s work, who are we in comparison? He asks. And yet. And yet, God has created us to care for this creation. We are created in the image of God for this purpose. And being created in the image of the Creator might just explain the desires we have to grow gardens, build things, and create beauty through art.
So, the next time you start to create something, look at your hands and remind yourself that those hands were created to create. When you feel the urges in your soul to create, let yourself revel for a moment in the truth that this is a sign of the Divine image in you.
How great are your works, Oh God, and how marvelous that we get to join in your work through our own!
Blessings,
Pastor Amy
PS - Want to join us in a shared creating space? Our knitters gather every Tuesday at 1 p.m. in our Parlor. Or, try our new 1st Saturday art and craft space at 10 a.m. in the Hope Circle Room. Or, watch for opportunities to volunteer with the CCAP garden!
The In-Between Seasons
by Rev. Dr. Amy Chilton on 01/19/24
The days are getting longer - yet now there is
snow on the ground. Yesterday evening at 5 p.m. it was still dusk, and at 5:15
p.m. I could still see light in the western sky! The shortest days of the year
were hard on me this year, so the return of some evening sunshine has been a
blessing. But, having it coupled with these below freezing temperatures and
crusty snow on the ground reminds me that while we are moving toward spring, we
really are in an in-between season. We have the cold of winter but the light is
increasing toward spring.
I don’t particularly like in-between seasons. I like things that are clear cut. I want to know what to expect to happen at all times.
If only life did what I wanted it to! Unfortunately, like many of you, I often find myself in in-between seasons. This winter, as I've been sick, is one of those seasons. I’m ready for spring in more ways than one. I’m still having to learn to sit and be with this body God has given. To sit and wait for the Spirit to move.
Perhaps you too struggle with the in-between parts of life. If so, let me leave you with a prayer.
A Prayer “For Those Who are Looking for a Sign”
God who shows,
I need a sign. However sincere my discernment, it seems like clarity continues to evade me. God, how will I know? In the absence of firm assurance, this lack of confidence pulls me here and there like a leash. Remind me that many things can be good at once, but if there is an answer that is most right for me in this season, reveal it to me. Help me to have compassion for myself as I name my uncertainty. Show me what it means to be a person of both conviction and openness, that I might gain the courage to act and decide even when it feels like a risk. May I find divine affirmation on the path to self-trust. Amen
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From Cole Arthur Riley’s Black Liturgies: Prayes, Poems, and
Meditations for Staying Human. New York: Convergent, 2024, p. 54.
Blessings,
Pastor Amy
Hopes for 2024
by Rev. Dr. Amy Chilton on 01/11/24
Which of you have said or heard something akin
to the following in the past month: “2024 had better be better than 2023 was.”
I did! But then 2024 rolled in with Covid (SO MUCH COVID), continued warring
between Israel and Palestine, and all the other struggles that come with life.
Did the New Year forget to let the old one go?
I don’t know about you, but I am notoriously bad at keeping New Year’s Resolutions, which I am convinced we make because we hope that the New Year will be better than the last. I haven’t made them for years, primarily because when I did make them I would inevitably fail to keep them, then feel ashamed that I had failed to keep them, then keep them even less, then feel ashamed for not keeping them, etc. You get the point.
So, instead, I want to ask not what are your New Year’s Resolutions, but rather what are your hopes for this new year? As followers of Christ, our faith and hope for the future are inseparable. The author of Hebrews said succinctly: “Faith is the reality of all that is hoped for; faith is the proof of all that is unseen” (Hebrews 11:1).[1] Christian hope is an expectation for the future God has promised for all of creation, a future where God is fully present, where pain and suffering are no more, and where folx of all kinds live in harmony with one another. But, hope is more than a feeling, it is a lifestyle. It is living each day as if that promised future is here now. It is helping to create that future for God’s beloved creation.
In the 14th century Julian of Norwich, a mystic who lived in seclusion in a tiny cell attached to a church in England, had a vision of Christ while she was thought to be dying. She went on to live multiple decades after that, which she spent reflecting on her vision. She also lived in a challenging time with the bubonic plague, peasant revolts against oppressive powers, and internal strife in the church. And like us, she wrestled with the realities of her world and keeping faith in God. She asked God at one point why there was sin in the world and told God that perhaps it would have been better if “the beginning of sin [had been] prevented.”
Seriously God, with all the ways that humans hurt each other and this creation, could you not have created us a bit nicer? A bit more compassionate? A bit less able and willing to harm others?
Julian records that God’s answer to her was that “sin is necessary, but all will be well, and all will be well, and every kind of thing will be well.”
By sin she meant, “all which is not good.”[2]
There’s a lot to unpack in that vision - certainly more than I can do in this one Thursday’s Thoughts! But, what gets my attention today is her conviction that although sin/suffering/pain/war (they are all part of the same reality) exists, God’s promise is even more real. And although the world contains sin/suffering/pain/war, all will be well.
Friends, as we head further into 2024, what are your hopes for this New Year - hopes for yourself, for this church, for your friends and family, and for this world? Where do you hope the Spirit will move and heal? Where do you hope you will be more fully present to God’s presence?
Live into those hopes each day, trusting that all will, indeed, be well.
Blessings,
Pastor Amy
P.S. - Do you want a fun “fictional” first-person retelling of Julian’s life? Read Claire Gilbert’s “I, Julian: The Fictional Autobiography of Julian of Norwich.” This is the most beautiful book I read last year.
A Guiding Star
by Rev. Dr. Amy Chilton on 01/05/24
This past week we found ourselves in Oregon for a bit longer than we had anticipated when my daughter tested positive for COVID. While I certainly appreciated the extra time with my parents, it was also a challenge being under the cloudy PNW skies. We did not see the sun for 8 days and we never saw the moon. I had nearly forgotten all about the stars until on our flight from Detroit to Providence I looked out my window and saw the Big Dipper in all its glory, standing on its handle for all to see. How glorious to see the stars so close and luminous!
Now, people from the PNW aren’t supposed to complain about the weather and gloom. But, the sight of those stars after so many days under the clouds was exactly what I needed.
Have you ever considered that Jesus, who lived prior to light pollution, would have seen and known the big dipper? It is breathtaking to think that we share this sight with him.
While it is hard to see the full glory of the stars from the city, the authors of Scripture wrote so long ago that light pollution wouldn’t have inhibited them from seeing the fullness of the night sky. There is the famous star that led the magi to the Christ child, of course, but stars appear throughout Scripture in other places as well. Take Isaiah 40:26-31, for example:
Lift up your eyes and ask yourself
wff not the One who drills them like an army, calling each by name?
Because God is so great in strength, so mighty in power,
not a single one is missing.
How can you say,
tribe of Leah and Rachel and Jacob,
“My destiny is hidden from YHWH,
My rights are ignored by my God?”
Do you not know? Have you not heard?
YHWH is the everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
This God does not faint or grow weary;
With a depth of understanding that is unsearchable.
God gives strength to the weary,
and empowers the powerless.
Young women may grow tired and weary,
but those who wait for YHWH
find a renewed power:
they soar on eagle’s wings,
they run and don’t get weary,
they walk and never tire.[1]
The author of Isaiah wanted their readers to keep the faith and used the very presence of the stars as a reminder that God is always present and faithfully upholding creation.
So, take a step outside tonight and see if you can find any stars amongst these clouds. Then remind yourself that these stars were created and placed by God, who also promises to uphold you.
As we head into this near year full of hope or trepidation, may we look to the God who created the stars that shine down on us for our strength.
Blessings,
Pastor Amy
[1] The Inclusive Bible
A Blessing
by Rev. Dr. Amy Chilton on 12/28/23
As I am rounding out this year at the Chilton Homestead, I leave you this blessing. We all have losses and gains and lessons learned from this past year. I have been privileged to walk with you through some of yours. As we finish this year out together, I pray for God's blessings and presence in 2024, just as God was present with us in 2023.
Blessings,
Pastor Amy
“At the End of the Year”
The particular mind of the ocean
Filling the coastline’s longing
With such brief harvest
Of elegant, vanishing waves
Is like the mind of time
Opening us shapes of days.
As this year draws to its end,
We give thanks for the gifts it brought
And how they became inlaid within
Where neither time nor time can touch them.
The days when the veil lifted
And the soul could see delight;
When a quiver caressed the heart
In the sheer exuberance of being here.
Surprises that came awake
In forgotten corners of old fields
Where expectations seemed to have quenched.
The slow, brooding times
When all was awkward
And the wave in the mind
Pierced every sore with salt.
The darkened days that stopped
The confidence of dawn.
Days when beloved faces shone brighter
With light from beyond themselves;
And from the granite of some secret sorrow
A steam of buried tears loosened.
We bless this year for all we learned,
For all we loved and lost
And for the quiet way it brought us
Nearer to our invisible destination.[1]
[1] John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings (New York: Convergent, 2008), 159-160
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