This and That

 Friends, it was absolutely delightful to be in worship with you again last weekend. We use the phrase “Presence of the Holy Spirit” to try to describe that strangely wonderful connection that we feel when we are gathered in worship, even with all our differences of opinion and stages in our faith journeys. It’s a connection that is more powerful than any lingering resentments we may harbor, more sustainable than passing misunderstanding, and more comforting than words can convey. For all the criticisms that one can generate against the church in general or a church in particular, that shared heartbeat makes it all worthwhile. I missed that when I was on sabbatical and at home recuperating from COVID. 

 

Second, I want to speak a bit about our Saturday Evening worship services. As you may recall, we began the “Saturdays @ 5” worship seven years ago, after spending some time exploring and discerning together how we might widen our music and worship repertoire here at St. Mark. After about a year of experimenting with different styles and locations, we settled on a worship experience that was deliberately contemplative and – because of the smaller numbers – intimate. I’ve never cared for the language of “contemporary” and “traditional” or the “worship wars” approach to making worship and musical choices. I’m more inclined to think that each congregation has its own gifts and character that ought to indicate how God is glorified most authentically, rather than relying on popular styles and publishing houses to provide one-size-fits-all worship products. It’s the same reason why I cannot use too many prefabricated worship litanies and prayers that are available for churches. It’s worth the time and effort to write our own liturgy week after week to capture the spirit and power of what God is doing here. And I want to add that I have never tried to siphon off Sunday worshipers to boost the Saturday services. Our Sunday worship experiences is a beautiful thing in its own right, where God uses our gifts and talents marvelously week after week. Our two services are not in competition with one another and never will be.

 

The “Saturdays @ 5” worship services have evolved nicely and continue to provide a very meaningful worship opportunity for St. Mark members and our surrounding community. Up until 2020, the average attendance was climbing each year. But the shutdown during the pandemic affected worship attendance at both of our services (and everywhere else for that matter) and it has been especially noticeable on Saturdays because of the smaller numbers initially. After the shutdown and prior to my sabbatical, our “Saturdays @ 5” services were rebuilding slowly. We decided not to provide the customary “Saturdays @ 5” services during my sabbatical because it would have required housing our guest speakers overnight, providing meals for the entire weekend, and other added costs. As a result, we are again in a mode of rebuilding the momentum of our Saturday worship. 

 

I have often felt that our “Saturdays @ 5” worship might be where those who do not have happy memories of worshiping in their past may find a place that’s just different enough and just familiar enough to be meaningful. If you know of someone searching for a meaningful worship experience, but for whom Sunday morning may not be the right solution, I encourage you to bring them to a Saturday service. But, again, if you are a happy worshiper yourself on Sunday mornings, stay there and keep it sacred. It is a gift. 

 

Third, I want to say that some of you responded very kindly to my invitation to “return to worship” two weeks ago. I was looking forward to starting anew with you after my sabbatical absence. I did not know at the time that I would be down for the count that first weekend, but we are all better now and I look forward to seeing you again. 

 

This weekend we will be welcoming some new members into our congregation and I will be sharing a very personal message with you, which I think is important for understanding our unique ministry and calling as a church. I look forward to seeing in worship either Saturday or Sunday. 

 

Mark of St. Mark 

Catching Up

 Last weekend, in an opening video during worship, I mentioned that moment in Luke’s gospel when Jesus tells his disciples, “With desire I have desired” to eat this meal with you. I felt the depth of that redundancy all last week, as I was so anxious to be in worship with you again and to participate in all the weekend activities that we had planned. With desire I had desired to be with you again! Alas, a better quote might have been the old Yiddish phrase drawn from the 2^ndPsalm, Mann tracht, un Gott lacht, meaning, “Humans plan and God laughs.” With all the tragedy in the world God could use a good laugh, so I’m okay with being the butt of that one. However, I am ready to return this week and be with you physically, not virtually. According to the protocols that we follow for our staff, Tuesday was the end of my 5 day isolation period, which is followed by a 5 day time of extra caution – wearing a mask and keeping social distance. That means I will be in person for Julie Hume’s memorial service on Saturday morning, as well as for worship on Saturday evening and Sunday morning. And, except for those moments when I am actively speaking to the group, I will be wearing my surgical mask and careful about distance. And, once again, thanks all around to our excellent staff and volunteers for stepping up and making all things smooth. Okay, enough about that. Now, for the bitter and the better. 

 

The Bitter: It is astounding how commonplace mass murder has become in the United States. During my sabbatical there were three such events that particularly caught our attention – A racially motivated shooting that killed ten persons and wounded three more at a supermarket in Buffalo, NY; a mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, killing nineteen students and two teachers, wounding seventeen other people; and a Fourth of July parade shooting in Highland Park, IL, that killed seven people and wounded 46 more either directly or as a result of panicked fleeing. Each of the shooters was a male between the ages of 18-21. 

 

We don’t know if each of these young men had the same politics, if they played the same video games, listened to the same music, or watched the same violent movies. We don’t know if they have similar religious feelings or any such feelings at all. But something enabled three young men to conclude that, whatever itch or grievance they felt that they had, their course of action was to use weapons to murder children and adults, most of whom - if not all of whom - were strangers to them. There is something about our culture – that’s the catch-all term for speaking about all three of these events collectively – that made the action of ‘callously taking the lives of others’ an option. Ours is not a culture that instills such a deep sense of respect for human life that such an act would go unthought. While we might say it is “unthinkable,” it is not. They thought it, they planned it, and they did it. And the worst part of this cultural misanthropy may be that during that same period we hardly noticed other atrocious acts of violence because the numbers weren’t quite as large. 

 

During that same time, the Supreme Court made any governmental action toward regulating the sale and possession of such deadly firearms even more difficult with a ruling that seems incredibly myopic. I’m not a “strict constitutionalist” for the same reasons that I’m not a biblical fundamentalist. As such I don’t see where 1^st century mores regarding marriage should be binding on 21^st century relationships, and I don’t see why late 18^th century dispositions toward firearms should be binding on 21^st century armaments. These opinions, of course, are my own. I am not speaking on behalf of St. Mark or the Presbyterian Church USA, and these are matters on which persons of faith and good will can disagree. My only purpose in mentioning them as forcefully as I am is to recognize the added layer of anger or frustration that many of us have felt on top of the horror of the mass shootings themselves. 

 

All of that is to say that, while I was on sabbatical, I was commiserating with you, experiencing the horror and the frustration of things that lie beyond our immediate control. At the same time, we feel some measure of responsibility. So, we pray. And we educate. And we advocate. And we keep going, using the power of persuasion and good will to work toward justice. 

 

The Better: While we cannot repair the state of our shared culture magically, quickly, or easily, we can provide a better way. One way of doing that is through our youth ministry. This weekend we have four adults and seven youth attending the Youth Conference at the Montreat Presbyterian Conference Center nestled among the Black Mountains of North Carolina. Pastor Hayes will tell you that anyone in the southeastern portion of the Presbyterian Church knows about the beautiful setting of Montreat and the energetic Youth Conferences that they host every summer. If their week goes as we anticipate (see the Yiddish phrase above), we can expect our seven youth and four chaperones to return with energizers and energy, along with a lot of new friends and Instagram followers. While this week should be fun and enjoyable, it is also one way that we cultivate a different way of being in the world, based on compassion, hope, and justice. This week we will lift up our Montreat attendees in prayer as part of our radical hope that our world can be a place of joy and justice. 

 

See you in worship, 

Mark of St. Mark