A Year in Review

As we come to the close of another year, it is a good time to stop and look back at the things we have experienced together as the St. Mark community. 

You may recall last January, how we elected a new class of Elders and Deacons, who then attended a Leadership Training event before we ordained and installed them into their offices. I’m always impressed with the spiritual maturity that our leaders exhibit when they take on this three-year commitment. Since the word “Presbyterian” identifies us as “elder-driven,” we invest a lot in our diversifying, recognizing, and empowering leaders from among our entire congregation.  

In February, the Presbytery of Los Ranchos met at Orange Canaan Presbyterian Church. It was a significant meeting, because Orange Canaan is a Korean congregation, who were perfect hosts, supplying us with “singing chefs” and everything a presbytery gathering could hope for. We also were able to host Denise Anderson as our guest preacher on a Sunday following a Synod Peacemaking event. 

In March, there are two things I want to recall. First, several of us attended a NEXT Church annual gathering in Seattle. NEXT Church is the movement within the Presbyterian Church (USA) that brings me the most hope about the future of our church and the church. Please visit their web site and feel free to ask me if you have any questions about it. If you are interested, the next annual gathering is March 2-4 in Cincinnati, OH. The second memory of last March was that we began our season of Lent with the theme, “Fragile Beauty of the Earth.” For six weeks we looked at the 104^th Psalm and had “Talkback” sessions on Saturday as well as “Earth Care” presentations on Sunday. 

The season of Lent carried us into April, with Holy Week services and three Easter weekend celebrations of the resurrection. We also heard from two of our youth who attended the Ecumenical Advocacy Days training in Washington D.C. In 2020, EAD will be April 24-27 (with a bonus PCUSA training on April 23). If you are interested in attending, contact the church office and we will forward your name to our Peace and Justice Commission, which provides scholarships. You can find our more here.  

During May we hosted two weeks of Family Promise and attended an Angels game. 

In June we celebrated Pentecost wildly, as is appropriate, hosted two more weeks of Family Promise, and celebrated our choir’s huge commitment each week to rehearsing and leading us in our Sunday worship. 

In July, several of our youth and adults attended the Presbyterian Church Youth Triennium, along with others from our presbytery. We also celebrated the retirement of Ann Scott as our Parish Nurse for many years. During this month we also concluded three intergenerational “Fun, Food, and Faith” events hosted by our Children and Youth Ministries commission. 

August is that month where we roll up our sleeves in preparation for the tsunami known as “September.” We also responded very generously to an appeal from United to End Homelessness, resulting in 7 families being able to find a home. 

September is when we kicked off a new season of Sunday School, choir, hand bells, and a host of other ways that we open the work and ministry of the church up to full participation. We also had a Tween Retreat, one of many events that 2019 saw which has been building up our Tweenage ministry. And in September we moved many of our commission meetings on the first Sunday of the month, in order to allow more participation. Finally, during this month we hosted Muna Nassar, a Palestinian Mission Co-Worker as our speaker for Saturday and Sunday. 

In October we had a series entitled, “The World Where It Happens,” during which we celebrated Worldwide Communion, welcomed new members, had our annual meeting, and make our stewardship commitment for 2020.  We also had our Harvest Festival on the last Sunday of the month, which is always delightful. 

November was a time of celebrating All Saints Day, hosting fundraisers for Home for Refugees and National Farm Workers, and setting up our “Giving Tree” for gifts we collected in December. And November is when we have our Alternative Christmas Market, a very labor-intensive, community-saturated event that raises over $23,000 for charitable organizations. 

And, December: We have observed Advent with the theme, “Everybody Needs a Home,” during which we looked at the displacement of the Holy Family and many others like them in the world. We hosted a Christmas party for persons who have been victimized by Human Trafficking. We had a Las Posadas event featuring organizations that serve the homeless. We ordained and installed new leadership for 2020. And we celebrated Christmas Eve with three different, beautiful services. 

Along the way, we had worship every Saturday and Sunday, too many memorial services of friends to whom we have said goodbye, baptisms, weddings, and all of the gatherings that are necessary for a church to thrive and serve. I thank God for every piece of it and for the honor of being your pastor. 

Mark of St. Mark 

Cultivating Wow

I was asked by a friend to re-post a sermon that I preached 6 years ago today at Heartland Presbyterian Church. This is for you, Renee. Thanks for asking. 

The Scripture reading are Isaiah 35:1-10 and Matthew 1:18-25. 

I saw the most delightful presentation this week by Dr. Brené Brown, describing the difference between “sympathy” and “empathy.” She described the occasion when someone we know falls into a deep dark hole. Sympathy, she said, was someone sticking a head in the hole and saying, “Oh, that’s too bad.” She said that sympathy – the worst kind of sympathy I think – often begins with the words “At least”: “At least it’s not a dark deep hole with fire in it.” “At least you didn’t bring a bunch of other people down here with you.” As if the imagination of something even worse somehow makes someone’s deep dark hole better. The ultimate, of course, is that statement that often is thought but goes unsaid, “At least it is you and not me.” Empathy, as Dr. Brown described it, is much better whenever it is possible. Empathy is when someone falls into a deep dark hole and you climb down the hole, turn on the light, and say, “It’s okay. We’ve all been here and you are not alone.” 

I particularly like Dr. Brown’s point regarding those awful sympathetic statements that begin with “At least.” There are times when we just don’t know how to connect with someone else’s pain or joy, yet we want to say something. We hear someone’s story, we have no idea how to react, yet not to react seems cold and inappropriate. So, we say something. I remember attending a conference on Jewish/Palestinian relationships once. It was a tension-filled conference – the first time I ever heard someone stand up and complain about a conference right after the opening prayer! I heard stories of Jews, living in places where there is mortar fire regularly. I heard stories of Palestinians, battling against literal and metaphorical roadblocks just trying to live their lives. For a lot of folks at that conference, every story became a soapbox moment, an obligation to weigh in on the “for” or “against” camp. They felt obligated to state their opinion, declare a side, join the crusade, and filter every story through their position. We’ve been told that we have to believe in something or else we are being unfaithful. We’ve been told that our Christianity requires us to speak the truth, embrace the right causes, be bold and assertive for God! So, whether we declare ourselves “for” or “against,” we operate out of this sense that our faith requires us to say something. But, the moment we take someone else’s experience and jam it into our cause, we’ve lost sight of the person before us, the person whose story is not an “issue” but a life. The moment we throw the gauntlet – whether we think we are on “their side” or not – we’ve traded a relationship for a position.

A better answer would be “Wow.” 

 “Wow.” It’s a silly word in many ways, because it really says nothing. “Wow” is that empty phrase that says nothing about being “for” or “against.” “Wow” says nothing about our own experience and opinion. “Wow” says nothing substantive; it is simply an empty word that is fully relational. By saying nothing, “Wow” can say just the right thing. “Wow” says “I’m listening,” but it doesn’t say “I’m explaining,” “I’m comprehending,” or “I’m judging.” “Wow” offers an opportunity for the relationship to continue between someone’s story and my life, without filtering it through my obligation to set things right. Imagine how many conversations could be transformed from confrontation to solidarity with nothing more than the word “Wow.” 

I’m convinced that the most powerful thing people of faith can do is to cultivate “Wow.” I’m not talking about manufacturing pizzazz. That’s what bored people do. Pizzazz is the junk food of empty carbs for the insatiable appetites of people who can no longer see wonder in real life. “Wow” is something else entirely. 

The Advent journey, and the Christmas story that follows it, offer us marvelous opportunities to cultivate “Wow.” “Wow” is that moment when the people in darkness see a great light. “Wow” is when the bloody uniforms and muddy boots of warriors become fuel for a cease-fire celebration. “Wow” is when an anxious King thinks all is lost, then hears the cry of a newborn baby. “Wow” is when God’s people, after a long exile and an exhausting journey, finally re-enter Israel singing songs that they never thought they’d sing in their ancestral home again. “Wow” is when an aging couple discovers that in their dotage they will conceive and bear and child. “Wow” is when a young woman discovers that God’s power of life is greater even than simple human reproduction would suggest. “Wow” is when her fiancé is invited to hear that the scandal on his hands is actually a wonder sent from God. Long before we feel the need to explain the story or declare ourselves warriors in defense of Christmas, the journey of Advent and Christmas invite us to babble that nonsensical word of the overwhelmed heart, “Wow.” 

The genius of the Christian church has been how its yearly calendar begins, not with January 1^st, but with the season of Advent. When we’ve said “Wow” at how people in exile maintain hope, we are ready for everything that the year will throw at us. When we’ve said “Wow” at Zachariah and Elizabeth, we are ready for the miracle stories in the gospels, when we hear over and over how “all of them were amazed.” When we’ve said “Wow” at warriors beating their weapons into tools, we are ready to hear the Sermon on the Mount. When we’ve said “Wow” at exiles returning to their homes, we’re ready to read Paul’s letters to churches struggling to maintain their unity amid their differences. When we’ve said “Wow” at the manger, we’re ready to look at the cross and believe that good can overcome evil. Likewise, when we’ve said “Wow” at the strange visitors from the east, bringing the best gifts their culture has to offer, we are ready for a year of enlarging our lives by meeting strangers in our world. When we’ve said “Wow” with Mary, we’re ready to say “Wow” with anyone whose journey of sexuality or parenting can be the occasion of grace. 

Advent is that season when we cultivate “Wow.” Nothing prepares us better for experiencing “God with us,” in our darkness, in our world, and in our hope. Thanks be to God. Amen. 

Christmas Eve

On Tuesday night we will have three wonderful opportunities for our church family, our extended families that are visiting, and for guests to join together in worship and wonder. Christmas Eve is a meaning-filled time for many reasons: Family gatherings keep us grounded and connected; festive lights and music all around enlarges the joy to a larger community; quiet moments with a single candle glowing in the darkness is enchanting; and the excitement of children is always wonderful. For the Christian community, the heart of this celebration is captured in the name Emmanuel, “God with us.” It is a message that brings great joy to shepherds keeping watch over their flock by night, Magi from the east, a young woman with all kinds of revolutionary aspirations, and even causes a heavenly band of angels to break out in praise. For you and me, Emmanuel means we are not alone when we are grieving a loss, trying to make ends meet, wondering what the future holds, or wearied by the never-ending struggle for justice. In our greatest moments of joy, as well as our most trying moments of despair, anger, and hate – you and I have the assurance that “God is with us.” It will not necessarily make everything easier and it surely is not a magical formula. Rather, it gives our pain more meaning and our intentions greater purpose. If you hear nothing else this Christmas, please find a way to speak the name, Emmanuel, “God with us,” into your life. It matters. 

Here are our Christmas Eve opportunities. This is both for your information and for you to be able to share this information with a neighbor who may be in need of a Christian community as well. (That’s me encouraging you to be an evangelist! ) 

At 4:00 our children will take us on a journey, following the Mexican tradition of Las Posadas. I’ll leave it to the children to describe that tradition, but it will be an excellent way to re-visit the Christmas story. Many thanks to our coordinators and Pastor Hayes for preparing this service. The service will conclude with “Passing the Glow Sticks of Christ.” 

NOTE: Our 4:00 service is usually very full, so come early and, if you are able, consider parking by the Administration building or even the preschool so that others and late-arriving guests can park near the door. 

At 7:00 our choir will lead us in a musical embrace of the Christmas story. I’ve had a glimpse of the arrangements that the choir will be singing and they are absolutely lovely. Many thanks to Scott Farthing, Alicia Adams, and our very dedicated choir for making this service possible. It will be a wonderful service that concludes with “Passing the Light of Christ,” which I find to be one of the most savor-able moments of Christmas Eve. 

At 9:00 our worship service will gravitate around a traditional Catalonian poem called “El cant dels ocells,” or “The Song of the Birds.” There’s a lovely story behind this poem and it provides a unique way to hear the Christmas story anew. Many thanks to Steve Johnston, Jennifer McCullough, as well as our Synerjazz and Synersingers for making this service possible. It will also conclude with “Passing the Light of Christ.” (Please note: We will not be serving communion at this service, as previously announced.) 

If you are traveling this Christmas Eve, our hearts go with you. If you are in the area, I hope you will make every effort to be in worship and please feel free to bring someone whom you know would appreciate this sacred time with us. 

Mark of St. Mark