Moving Forward

 This week, the session of St. Mark made some important decisions that will affect the life of our church now and in the future. I’m going to share two of those decisions with you now, one of which is a done deal and the other of which is a work in progress. Next week I will share two other important decisions as well.  

 

First, the done deal: As of August 31, the St. Mark campus will be open for small group meetings, with10 or less people. We are specifically thinking of some of our commissions, forthcoming book groups, and other gatherings. We have a “Faithful Phasing” framework that clearly spells out the expectations that we invite those who gather to agree to, such as not attending if one is feeling unwell, keeping safe distance, and wearing masks. Our framework also invites meeting conveners to keep a zoom component to meetings, so that those who are not able or comfortable attending meetings in person can still participate. Each meeting will have a convener and the Faithful Phasing framework will be sent to each convener who will be responsible for ensuring that they are followed. It all sounds very cautious, because our goal is to ensure that the most vulnerable person is able to participate fully in the life of the church. 

 

If your commission or small group wishes to gather in person beginning August 31, you start by contacting the church office and scheduling the meeting with Sue-Ann Wichman.[1] The Church Office Staff will ensure that there is hand sanitizer available for each meeting, that you have a restroom available, and that the space will be sanitized before and after your meeting. Finally, we encourage groups to meet outdoors if they are able and have obtained shade umbrellas to make that feasible. 

 

Next, the work in process. We have a Faithful Phasing Team that meets every Tuesday morning, keeping an eye on how the numbers are trending in Orange County, what the State mandates and allows, as well as collecting resources about best practices for gatherings, worship, and so forth. The Session has set a process so that when the Faithful Phasing Team sees a three-week decline in important trend numbers, we can make a recommendation to initiate outdoor, in person worship gatherings. We have not set a date yet. We have set the process for making that decision and, meanwhile, the Worship Commission is working on how we plan to approach worship when that time comes. Even when we begin in person, outdoor worship, we will continue to have an online service for those who are not able or ready to begin gathering in person. 

 

In the meantime, the Membership Commission has put together a brief survey so you can let us know how you feel about our worship services going forward. The results of the survey will be collected and anonymous, so you are invited to be as candid as possible. Click here for a link to the survey.  

 

Finally, we know that the world is facing many challenges today, some far more severe than the question of when we can gather in person. There are fires in the west, storms in the east, and again we have witnessed an act of Police violence against an unarmed African American. Our call to pursue racial justice, and to begin by examining our own participation in systemic racism, is as important as ever. To provide a way for us, the Adult Discipleship and Nurture Commission will be starting a 4-week book discussion group on Robin DiAngelo's White Fragility starting in the first weeks of September. We will do our best to accommodate a range of schedules and hope that this will provide a congregation-wide opportunity to concretely engage on issues of race and racism. We only ask that you come with open hearts and a willingness to be challenged. Please email SueJeanne Koh-Parsons at suejeanne.koh@gmail.com if you are interested in participating or have any questions. 

 

Mark of St. Mark

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[1] Sue-Ann Wichman’s contact: SueAnn@stmarkpresbyterian.org ; or 949-644-1341

The Two Faces of Anxiety

It’s curious how we have come to use the word “anxious” in two different ways. We might say, “I’m anxious to get started on our presentation, so please send me your part of the project soon.” As such, we use “anxious” to mean, “ready” or “eager.” Or, we might say, “I’m anxious about this presentation.” In that case, we’re not expressing eagerness but “apprehension” or “reservation.” Isn’t it weird that a single word can lean in two very different directions, of readiness to go and dreading to go? 

 

To wit: “I’m anxious to get back to in person worship” and “I’m anxious about getting back to in person worship.” Both of those comments are true for me. And, please note that what follows is an intensely personal perspective. When we get back to in person worship is a matter that our session will decide, not your pastor or staff. I am only disclosing my own reflections with that caveat in mind. 

 

I’m anxious to get back to in person worship. I miss you, I miss your faces, and even though I am more of an introvert than an extrovert, our gatherings on Saturday evenings and Sunday mornings are very meaningful to me far beyond the personal experience of praise, prayer, and preaching. I am getting my fill of praise, prayer, and preaching through our virtual worship services. It’s not the same as how I’ve been doing those things all of my life, but it is actual praise, actual prayer, and actual preaching – things that I thirst to offer as my response to God’s grace. Even so, while we have praise, prayer, and preaching, we’re missing ‘people’ (I decided to keep all of these descriptions in the ‘p’ family.) One day our praise, prayer, and preaching will be a people event. And I’m anxious for that day to happen. 

 

And I’m anxious about getting back to in person worship. Every physician, nurse, epidemiologist, or hospital technician that I know is deadly serious about the real and present dangers of COVID-19. The persons whom I know who have lost family members to this pandemic are crying out for people to take it seriously, to listen to experts, to attend to safety precautions, and to act accordingly. And, to be painfully candid, it seems that Orange County has long cultivated a “You’re not the boss of me” attitude of individualism that makes it challenging to respond to a virus with the kind of concern for communal well being that is required. Even churches have tried to baptize this individualist perspective by painting themselves as oppressed and forgetting the Apostle Paul’s warning about harming our neighbors by turning our liberty into license. I am anxious about getting back to worship for both sheer safety reasons and because I don’t want to play into the hands of those who are ignoring or demeaning the concerns of public health. 

 

So, I am torn between the two differing modes of the word “anxious” when it comes to in person worship. I suspect that we all are, to one degree or another – just as we are when it comes to attending any public event; visiting parents, grandparents, children, or grandchildren; attending school in person or remotely; even hugging people whom we love. 

 

I wish I had some kind of magic answer to how we resolve these competing forms of anxiety. It seems that we may have to simply fall back on the virtues that we’ve always known were required for making community – love, listening, patience, honesty, and at times deferring our own desires for the sake of the common good. 

 

When the time comes that the session is ready to resume in person worship, you will – of course – have the final say over whether you will attend. That is a matter of your conscience over which God alone is the judge. So, you will not be judged one way or another by us. Rather, we will try to ensure that we can honor both definitions of what it means to be anxious for in person worship.

 

Mark of St. Mark   

Trend or Movement, pt. 2

 Last week I raised the question of whether the Black Lives Matter and anti-racism moment is a trend or a movement. You may have noticed that I raised the question but didn’t actually answer it. I will offer my best answer at the end of this message. Until then, I want to add two thoughts, which burrow a bit more into the complexity (and perhaps unfairness) of the question. 

 

First, last week someone asked me to consider the relationship between the Civil Rights actions of the 60's to what is happening today in my question. And while there is no shortage of people making reference to Martin and Malcolm and John Lewis, etc., it was a wise correction for me. I should not pretend that anything of significance arises out of nothing, so a 'beginning' point may be as hard to pinpoint as an 'ending' point. As I reflect on the current BLM moment, I will be mindful that our moment has numerous histories that inform, empower, shape, and challenge it. 

 

Maybe I ought not to think about big seismic movements, like the Protestant Reformation (which also had a history but we see it as a significant, lasting event of change.) More common, yet perhaps just as long lasting in their significance, would be something more like associated waves of change. The abolitionist movement, the reconstruction period, the civil rights movement, and so forth could be part of a long, series of connected waves that wax and wane, with moments of progress, followed by reactionary pushbacks like Jim Crow, redlining, and the school-to-prison system in many cities. 

 

To use my favorite metaphor for how I think God is at work in history, I do not accept the idea that history is always a trajectory of progress, like the “onward and upward,” “every day in every way getting better and better” idealism of the late 19^th century. But, neither do I think history is a static pendulum of progress and regress, with every progress accompanied by an equal regress. I like the metaphor of “Foucault’s Pendulum,” which has that back and forth quality of static realism, but even while the pendulum swings back and forth it makes it way ever so steadily to a new place. The idea of Foucault’s pendulum is that between the force of gravity and axial tilt, the back and forth motion will actually knock down pegs in a full circle over a 24-hour period. So, again, perhaps our BLM moment is part of a larger movement that is progressing ever so slowly despite the pendulum swinging back and forth. 

 

Second, when I ask whether the BLM moment is a trend or a movement, I need to say also that I am strongly opposed to predictions. Whether it is a bookie in Vegas placing odds on a Laker’s game or a Fundamentalist pretending to read biblical tea leaves, prediction is always a guess. And that’s true, even if we present it under the guise of “prophecy.” It is a sad thing that the word “prophecy” has been reduced to guesswork. The prophetic tradition did speak to trajectories often, warning that if such-and-such a practice continued there would be dire consequences. I’m posing the question not to invite guesses or to make one myself. I am posing the question because it is often the case that some passionate moments are short-lived and some are long lasting. And, if we’re committed to BLM as a matter of justice, we have to ask this kind of question. 

 

So, when I pose the question of whether our BLM moment is a trend or a movement, here’s how I think a biblical prophet would answer – or, at least, this is how I want to answer: The moment will become a movement if we follow the leading of the Spirit and make it so.[1] I believe we should be asking ourselves, “What do we need to be doing now in order to assure that this will be a movement that significantly changes the story of racism in our society?” That question brings together the imperative and hope that we face today. 

 

That’s my best answer so far. Thanks for stopping by. 

 

Mark of St. Mark

 

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[1] I am not denying the sovereignty of God by making this claim. It is in the spirit of Mark 6:5-6, where Jesus could do no miracles in his hometown because of their unbelief. I believe, in a nutshell, that this is how God chooses to roll, which is why ‘predestination’ and ‘free will’ are not incompatible. 

Trend or Movement, pt.1

 I have a question. Do you think Black Lives Matter (hereafter BLM) is a trend or a movement? Here is how I’m using those terms: By a ‘trend’ I do not mean ‘unserious’ or ‘faddish,’ but something that we consider to have temporary attention and/or seriousness. And by ‘movement’ I mean something that we consider to have lastingattention and/or seriousness. So, to call something a ‘trend’ is not to demean its importance but to see it as contained within a particular time, a specific zeitgeist, whereas a ‘movement’ would have more profound effects, at least time-wise. 

 

So, my question: Is BLM is a trend, pertinent to our particular moment; or a movement, which deserves our attention and will re-direct our course for a long time? Let me flesh that out with a few examples. Should a Presbyterian Seminary have required courses in “Reformed Theology,” requiring readings of Augustine, Calvin, Schleiermacher, and Barth; then elective courses in “De-Colonizing Reformed Theology” where non-western and feminist voices are represented? Should the required “Introduction to the Bible” class teach exegesis using Greek or Hebrew and introduce critical studies regarding form, history, and redaction; while an elective class could be “Reading the Bible through Third World Eyes”? These were actually the ‘required’ v. ‘elective’ classes I took in Seminary, so I’m not making these examples up. If the big downtown church hired an “Associate Pastor for Pastoral Care,” would there be any pushback? What if they hired an “Associate Pastor for Anti-Racism”? Should a Ph.D program in theology require German and French proficiency (like mine did), but not Spanish or Korean? 

 

These examples show that we have a set of expectations as to what constitutes Christianity as a movement and what we regard as trends within the Christianity. But why should Gustavo Gutiérrez’ theology be optional while Karl Barth’s is required? My sense is that we assume Christianity is – at its core and as a movement – a western, white phenomenon. Most of the art, Bibles, educational materials, and hymnody of the church reflects that part of the tradition when 93% Christians were from the Europe or the Americas (1910). Back then, the Global North (commonly defined as North America, Europe, Australia, Japan and New Zealand) contained more than four times as many Christians as the Global South (the rest of the world). Today, more than 1.3 billion Christians live in the Global South (61%), compared with about 860 million in the Global North (39%).[1]

 

So, here’s why the question of whether BLM is a trend or a movement is important to me: If BLM is a trend (again, that does not trivialize the significance), then readings by people of color will likely remain in the ‘elective’ course, strongly encouraged but not likely to be part of the core curriculum in ten years; while Barth will continue to be required. But, if BLM is a movement, even our most standard texts should be open to critical reconsideration, especially if they have been instrumental in legitimizing racism over the years.[2] If BLM is a trend, our work of protesting, organizing, educating, and praying about anti-racism is here for now and anyone who disagrees can just roll their eyes and wait it out until we get back to normal. But, if BLM is a movement, then someone who disagrees might face the options of being transformed by it or going elsewhere because the attention will not pass. 

 

We’re not the first to ask this kind of question. The early Christian movement caused a lot of consternation to established religious leaders in the Book of Acts, when a particularly wise leader named Gamaliel put the matter into bold relief. After citing a few other failed messianic attempts, he said this to the Council: “If this plan or this undertaking is of human origin, it will fail; but if it is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them—in that case you may even be found fighting against God!” That, to me, is the question. If BLM and anti-racism more generally is the work that God is doing in the church and society today, then we cannot treat it as something ancillary to our calling, but must lean into it as precisely what we are about. And that would require moving anti-racist work from the elective to the required categories of our priorities. 

 

Mark of St. Mark

  

 

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[1] https://www.pewforum.org/2011/12/19/global-christianity-exec/ accessed 080620. 

[2] I am not suggesting that Karl Barth’s writings legitimized racism. I am only using him as an example, because his work is so widely read in Presbyterian seminaries.