Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

First Lutheran Church of San Diego

The crucified Christ hung against an intense aquamarine background in the contemporary-primitive painting that adorned the chapel at First Lutheran. His heart was exposed and bleeding. The rough-hewn character of the painting provided dramatic contrast with its surroundings, which, like the rest of the building, felt like a tasteful, modern update -- and also a reminder -- of the elements found in a traditional church. Everywhere was brick and hardwood, glass and metal, tile and rough cement block.

The organ and piano held pride of place near the front of the church. Over the course of the service, it took on many moods -- swollen and booming, sweet and trilling, somber and meditative. It boomed for the opening hymn -- all four verses of it, as well as an interlude -- but before it did so, Pastor Miller asked all to rise and face him at the back of the church as he welcomed us. "We pray that you might encounter Christ's presence as you are with us. We also welcome you, regardless of denomination or affiliation with other churches, when it is time for Holy Communion.... Jesus invites you all to partake of this great meal."

That desire to welcome others showed up again in the Confession: "We have not loved and accepted one another. We have not reached out to those who are poor, hungry, or lost." It showed up in the hymn after the Gospel: "Here the outcast and the stranger/bear the image of God's face/let us bring an end to fear and danger/all are welcome, all are welcome, all are welcome in this place." It showed up during A Prayer for Others, as the deacon prayed that the church might bring "God's healing hand to all who are marginalized or outcast, that the world might see the power of Christ's love," and during the Sign of Peace, when the congregation left their seats and milled about -- chatting, smiling, shaking hands. And it showed up in Pastor Miller's homily.

The Gospel told the story of a leper who cried out to Jesus, "If you choose, you can make me clean." Jesus, moved with pity, touched him, and he was made clean. Miller, clad in a white cassock and green stole, began by seeking our empathy for the leper. Shunned for his disease, forced to wear a warning bell and cry "unclean!" he "longed to be embraced, to be included in the lives of those he loved." Miller reminded us that the leper had been cast out by a priest who was following the religious tradition begun in Leviticus, and that Jesus, in touching the leper, "has a deeper desire to heal the suffering soul than he does to obey religious tradition."

Miller never took a step, and his gestures remained controlled but his whole persona grew increasingly animated. "The very word religion means 'to reconnect with,' and yet, time and again, our churches, in the name of holiness and cleanliness, do the exact opposite of reconnecting: we disconnect.... This past week, Bono was invited to the National Prayer Breakfast." The U2 frontman gave "a sermon that few pastors would dare preach: 'I have avoided religious people most of my life. Maybe it had something to do with having a father who was Protestant and a mother who was Catholic.... I remember that my mother would bring us to chapel on Sundays, and my father used to wait outside. One of the things that I picked up from my father and my mother was the sense that religion often gets in the way of God.'"

Sponsored
Sponsored

Members of the congregation rang bells to symbolize their own unclean aspects, but even so, said Miller, "Have you heard? We are the body of Christ, people who love the unlovable, embrace the unclean ones." Communion and the feeding of the homeless, he said, were "the same meal...Jesus coming to feed the broken and the hungry. "

After singing a refrain ("Taste and see the goodness of the Lord") throughout Miller's praying of the Communion Liturgy, and after praying the Our Father, the congregation approached the altar to receive communion. The acolyte stood, his arms wrapped around a large glass bowl holding a round loaf of bread. Miller, standing beside him, tore off chunks and handed them to the communicants, saying, "The Body of Christ, given for you." Communicants then proceeded to one of two cup-bearers -- one holding wine, one grape juice -- and either sipped or dipped their bread into the cup: "The Blood of Christ, shed for you."

What happens when we die?

"It seems to me that Christians spend far too much time worrying about that," says Miller. "I believe in heaven, and I have lots of visions of what it will be like, but Jesus says, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' We say in our funeral liturgy that when we get to heaven, Lazarus will welcome us who was once a beggar. I'm called to live my life faithfully now, in this world, and I catch glimpses of heaven, because Christ was present in this world, and I catch them in the poor and the vulnerable and the broken."

Place

First Lutheran Church of San Diego

1420 Third Avenue, San Diego




Denomination: Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Pacifica Synod

Founded locally: 1888

Senior pastor: Pastor Wilbert Miller

Congregation size: 200

Staff size: 6

Sunday school enrollment: 40

Annual budget: $280,000

Weekly giving: $5,000

Singles program: no

Dress: some semiformal, some dressy-casual

Diversity: mostly Caucasian

Sunday worship: 9 a.m., 11 a.m.

Length of reviewed service: 1 hour, 15 minutes

Website: firstlutheransd.org

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

A poem for March by Joseph O’Brien

“March’s Lovely Asymptotes”
Next Article

Pacific Beach – car thief's paradise

Take photos of your automobile and license plate

The crucified Christ hung against an intense aquamarine background in the contemporary-primitive painting that adorned the chapel at First Lutheran. His heart was exposed and bleeding. The rough-hewn character of the painting provided dramatic contrast with its surroundings, which, like the rest of the building, felt like a tasteful, modern update -- and also a reminder -- of the elements found in a traditional church. Everywhere was brick and hardwood, glass and metal, tile and rough cement block.

The organ and piano held pride of place near the front of the church. Over the course of the service, it took on many moods -- swollen and booming, sweet and trilling, somber and meditative. It boomed for the opening hymn -- all four verses of it, as well as an interlude -- but before it did so, Pastor Miller asked all to rise and face him at the back of the church as he welcomed us. "We pray that you might encounter Christ's presence as you are with us. We also welcome you, regardless of denomination or affiliation with other churches, when it is time for Holy Communion.... Jesus invites you all to partake of this great meal."

That desire to welcome others showed up again in the Confession: "We have not loved and accepted one another. We have not reached out to those who are poor, hungry, or lost." It showed up in the hymn after the Gospel: "Here the outcast and the stranger/bear the image of God's face/let us bring an end to fear and danger/all are welcome, all are welcome, all are welcome in this place." It showed up during A Prayer for Others, as the deacon prayed that the church might bring "God's healing hand to all who are marginalized or outcast, that the world might see the power of Christ's love," and during the Sign of Peace, when the congregation left their seats and milled about -- chatting, smiling, shaking hands. And it showed up in Pastor Miller's homily.

The Gospel told the story of a leper who cried out to Jesus, "If you choose, you can make me clean." Jesus, moved with pity, touched him, and he was made clean. Miller, clad in a white cassock and green stole, began by seeking our empathy for the leper. Shunned for his disease, forced to wear a warning bell and cry "unclean!" he "longed to be embraced, to be included in the lives of those he loved." Miller reminded us that the leper had been cast out by a priest who was following the religious tradition begun in Leviticus, and that Jesus, in touching the leper, "has a deeper desire to heal the suffering soul than he does to obey religious tradition."

Miller never took a step, and his gestures remained controlled but his whole persona grew increasingly animated. "The very word religion means 'to reconnect with,' and yet, time and again, our churches, in the name of holiness and cleanliness, do the exact opposite of reconnecting: we disconnect.... This past week, Bono was invited to the National Prayer Breakfast." The U2 frontman gave "a sermon that few pastors would dare preach: 'I have avoided religious people most of my life. Maybe it had something to do with having a father who was Protestant and a mother who was Catholic.... I remember that my mother would bring us to chapel on Sundays, and my father used to wait outside. One of the things that I picked up from my father and my mother was the sense that religion often gets in the way of God.'"

Sponsored
Sponsored

Members of the congregation rang bells to symbolize their own unclean aspects, but even so, said Miller, "Have you heard? We are the body of Christ, people who love the unlovable, embrace the unclean ones." Communion and the feeding of the homeless, he said, were "the same meal...Jesus coming to feed the broken and the hungry. "

After singing a refrain ("Taste and see the goodness of the Lord") throughout Miller's praying of the Communion Liturgy, and after praying the Our Father, the congregation approached the altar to receive communion. The acolyte stood, his arms wrapped around a large glass bowl holding a round loaf of bread. Miller, standing beside him, tore off chunks and handed them to the communicants, saying, "The Body of Christ, given for you." Communicants then proceeded to one of two cup-bearers -- one holding wine, one grape juice -- and either sipped or dipped their bread into the cup: "The Blood of Christ, shed for you."

What happens when we die?

"It seems to me that Christians spend far too much time worrying about that," says Miller. "I believe in heaven, and I have lots of visions of what it will be like, but Jesus says, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' We say in our funeral liturgy that when we get to heaven, Lazarus will welcome us who was once a beggar. I'm called to live my life faithfully now, in this world, and I catch glimpses of heaven, because Christ was present in this world, and I catch them in the poor and the vulnerable and the broken."

Place

First Lutheran Church of San Diego

1420 Third Avenue, San Diego




Denomination: Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Pacifica Synod

Founded locally: 1888

Senior pastor: Pastor Wilbert Miller

Congregation size: 200

Staff size: 6

Sunday school enrollment: 40

Annual budget: $280,000

Weekly giving: $5,000

Singles program: no

Dress: some semiformal, some dressy-casual

Diversity: mostly Caucasian

Sunday worship: 9 a.m., 11 a.m.

Length of reviewed service: 1 hour, 15 minutes

Website: firstlutheransd.org

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Hip-hop artist Don Elway makes movies for his music

Not Ordinary EP tells a story of life on the streets
Next Article

Tyler Farr, Blue Water Film Festival, Mustache Bash

Events March 21-March 23, 2024
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.