I hope you enjoy this special “Psalm 148 Thanksgiving Day” letter! As we read the 148th Psalm last weekend, it invited us to broaden our view – not only of what we are thankful for, but with whom we can offer praise and thanksgiving. My hope is to get outside today and join with all nature in offering praise and thanksgiving to God. I never quite know how to name this particular way of the presence of God - when God is present in and through things that, in themselves, are not God. The technical theological term is “panenthism,” but who speaks technical theology these days? Some might refer to God in this way as, “The spark of life.” I like that for flora and fauna, but I need a term that see the presence of God in inanimate things as well. Perhaps, “Being itself”? That is a term often used in philosophical writings and, to me, sounds like a term often used in philosophical writings. Paul Tillich reframed “being itself” by speaking of God as “The Ground of Being.” That works quite well for me, to be honest, but it works best in Tillich’s native German language, where “ground” more commonly means something like “source” or “foundation.” I am leaning toward coining a new phrase, by thinking and speaking of this manifestation of God as “The Wellspring of Existence.” When I say that, I not only mean that once upon a time God created the heavens and the earth, or even that as the world we know came into being through the big bang, evolutionary processes, and other means that God started it all – the “unmoved prime mover,” as it were. No, I’m thinking of “The Wellspring of Existence” a little differently, as an “eternal now” possibility. In every time and place, God is, and as such God is always and ever the source of existence for all that is, from the smallest nit to the most distant nebula.
So, get outside and join the cosmic song of thanksgiving and praise to the one who in whom all existence has its being, The Wellspring of Life. Thanks be to God. And now, I want to offer a couple rounds of thanks.
First, I am very thankful for my family. I don’t talk about my family much, deliberately. Being a pastor carries with it a lot of expectations, therefore a lot of disappointments along the way. At the same time, being a pastor carries a lot of affirmations along the way. I think being the spouse or child of the pastor often brings the expectations without the affirmations. I think it is a much harder call to be a pastor’s spouse than to be a pastor. My spouse and my children have been wonderful sources of humility, strength, and healing for me for over 30 years of pastoral ministry. For them I am humbly grateful.
Second, I am thankful for our church staff. I still cannot believe the gyrations and contortions we have learned to expect week after week since the pandemic threw a stick into the church’s spokes. We survived the initial wreckage and have learned new ways of being the church as a result, but not without bumps and bruises along the way. One brief example: We really had to up our online game when it comes to worship. Each week I have elderly or distant St. Mark members tell me how much they depend on our online presence. So, we’ve learned how to use Keynote, YouTube, Zoom, Pdf conversions (e.g. see the bulletin for Sunday attached to this message), Monitors, and Website functions, to make our worship or text studies available. What a lovely staff to make such things possible. For them I am humbly grateful.
Once again, I hope you have a blessed Psalm 148 Thanksgiving!
Mark of St. Mark
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