Beautiful Resilience

 Faithful Friends, 

Last week we read the story of Zechariah, in the temple, lighting the incense, as the faithful were doing their part by standing outside, praying. As I was going through my usual weekly preparation for teaching about that story in our weekly Text Study and preaching about it over the weekend, I couldn’t escape the idea of how Zechariah and those faithful folk were very much like the St. Mark community. We will hear more about this pronouncement this coming weekend, but for now let’s appreciate what Zechariah and those other folks were doing for a moment. 

 

Zechariah was probably at an age when he could have declared himself a “former priest,” or “honorably retired” as we put it in the Presbyterian Church. He could have stepped away and let other people carry the flame for a change. And, when we hear that for many years he and Elizabeth had been praying for a child to no avail, there might be other reasons why Zechariah would walk away – Where is God, anyway, when our prayers go unanswered? Yet Zechariah was there, performing his role, keeping the liturgy going by lighting the flame. It is one of the less appreciated parts of how God’s people have always responded to God’s grace – through what we might call “beautiful resilience.” 

 

We can see it in those folks outside of the temple praying. They easily could have been somewhere else. This temple had not proven to be eternal or magically blessed – having been looted, destroyed, and desecrated time and time again. In no instance did the looter, destroyer, or desecrater die of a divine lightning bolt coming out of the sky. For all of its reputation as a place of divine power, the temple proved often to be just another casualty in power struggles. And even when the king Herod rebuilt the temple into a magnificent structure of beauty, he placed a golden eagle above the entrance gate – a symbol of the Roman God Jupiter and the glory of the Roman Empire. It was an inescapable message to anyone who entered that Rome, and not God, was in charge. When some zealous Jews cut that golden eagle down, they were mercilessly and publicly slaughtered. Those folks who gathered around the temple to pray had every reason to decline and do something else, to be somewhere else. Yet, they were there, praying during the time of incense. Beautiful resilience. 

 

That’s the kind of resilience we see when choir members, Saturday musicians, the kitchen crew, Deacons, Elders, counters, ushers, teachers, advocates, commission members, planners, overseers, cleaners, staff, worship leaders, and others show up, week after week, faithfully, as part of their service to God. Sometimes we see them up front and publicly when the community is gathered. Sometimes they come in when nobody is looking and fill the teeny communion cups, arrange the doughnut holes, or some other invisible service. Sometimes their work involves learning a song at home, writing a prayer to start the meeting, visiting a sick friend, or ordering the other parts of their lives to be available. Everyone who makes that effort has a thousand other things they could be doing instead. But here they are, serving God and serving others out of grateful hearts. Again, beautiful resilience. 

 

I invite you to see yourself and your St. Mark community as the people in the story, keeping the flame of hope alive, keeping the prayers lifted up, when we could easily be doing other things. Thank you for that beautiful resilience. 

 

Mark of St. Mark