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

Advent 1

This weekend is the beginning of the Advent season! I rarely use exclamation points, but I really love the season of Advent. Our theme this year is “Everybody Needs a Home.” Special thanks to our Worship Commission - as well as Brian Parker and Shane McCullough - who have worked very hard on our seasonal installation in the sanctuary. To get a sense of what this season is about, here is an excerpt from an Op Ed that I have sent to our local newspaper: 

For those preparing to hear the Christmas story, there is one small feature that particularly deserves our attention this year. In a passing phrase, the Gospel of Luke says that Mary and Joseph wrapped the newborn in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no room in the inn. That slight reference to an inn with no vacancy is impacted with lots of meaning. For Luke’s story, it is a reminder that Jesus’ birth takes place under the umbrella of Roman dominion. Luke’s story begins with a reference to Caesar Augustus demanding that all of Israel return to their family hometown for a census. At the least, this census would be added to Caesar’s self-congratulatory list of conquered peoples. Beyond that, it would serve to show how many legions would be needed to maintain Rome’s control, as well as to provide a tax base for funding the next conquest. There was no room in Bethlehem’s inn because so many people were displaced by Caesar’s command. This moment of imperial, politicized displacement is the context in which Jesus’ birth takes place.  

Since the Christmas story is grounded in the experience of displacement, we will listen to it through stories of displacement as well. Each week we will have a subtheme and will point toward a related event that will offer a way of living into this story today.  

November 30/December 1: "Dislocation and Relocation"--When a home no longer feels like home (due to dementia, empty nest syndrome, loss of a loved one, children moving back, etc.). Our Health Ministries Commission will offer a Blue Christmas session at 11 a.m. on Sunday for those who are experiencing loss and grief during this season).

December 7/8: "Displacement and Replacement"--The challenge for refugees, immigrants, and castaways. On Saturday St. Mark will host a special event on behalf of victims of human trafficking. (Due to the need for confidentiality, this event is not open to the public. If you want to support it in some way, please contact the church office.)

December 14/15:  "Homelessness and Housing"--Facing economic, situational, and chronic homelessness in our community. On Saturday we will have a “Synerjazz Christmas Party” in the Fellowship Hall following worship, and on Sunday we will have a Las Posadas event throughout the Fellowship Hall after worship. 

December 21/22: "Unwelcomed and Welcomed"--Exploring the feelings of not being welcomed or not welcoming others. On Saturday there is a “Homeless Persons Interreligious Memorial Service” at Christ Cathedral at 8:00pm, to remember those who have died on the streets of Orange County this year. 

I hope you make every effort to be part of our Advent season, as well as our Christmas Eve services at 4:00, 7:00, or 9:00. I’ll share more information about those services soon. 

Blessings, 

Mark of St. Mark 

United to End Homelessness

As many of you know, I have gotten involved with several attempts to address the homelessness challenge in Orange County during the last several years. Initially, we started the Orange County Alliance for Just Change (OCAJC), with the hope of working to identify and address systemic roots of injustice. Early on we decided to make homelessness our focus and brought Professor David Snow on board, who had just led a team that produced a groundbreaking study called Homelessness in Orange County: The Costs to Our Community. Dr. Snow’s team had been commissioned by the United Way of Orange County and demonstrated that the costs of “doing nothing” are higher that it would be for the county to house homeless persons, in order to provide wraparound services for those who need them. 

About that same time that OCAJC was getting started by offering educational forums about the root causes of homelessness, the United Way was creating a new program in response to Dr. Snow’s study called United to End Homelessness (U2EH). Basing its structure on a model from Orlando, FL, U2EH formed a Leadership Council made up of persons at various levels of government, service providers, business leaders, and educators. And, after a time, they formed a Faith Leaders Council, on which they invited me to serve. I was asked to moderate the Faith Leaders Council in our second meeting, and as a result I was asked to represent the Faith Leaders as part of the Leadership Council. Subsequently, I was asked to be on the Executive Committee of the Leadership Council. Please understand, I’m not bragging about my resume – this is more of a testimony of my inability to say ‘no’ than anything else. And despite my reluctance to add more layers of meetings to my life, I wanted to take advantage of these invitations in order to represent St. Mark, OCAJC, as well as other faith communities in this coordinated effort.  

And it has been an incredible experience so far. Let me share some highlights. 

- U2EH has the goal of seeing 2,700 new units of Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) in Orange County by 2025. For a great definition of and look at PSH, check out this page by Jamboree Housing here.  

- U2EH began offering Homelessness 101 workshops that provide one of the best overviews of homelessness and responses to homelessness anywhere. 

- U2EH,  in cooperation with OCAJC, has just initiated a new Housing Champions training called Advocacy 101. The first training took place this week in Mission Viejo. The next two training dates are December 4 at the Muckenthaler Cultural Center in Fullerton and December 5 at the Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove. For more information and to register, click here.

- U2EH began a program called Welcome Home OC, which works with apartment owners to provide “scattered site” PSH, which do not need approval by city councils, but do require initial costs to incentivize apartment owners to participate. 

- Thanks to the leadership of Cottie Petrie-Norris, U2EH received a $2.9 million grant from the State of CA to address homeless veterans through the “Welcome Home OC” program. The outreach to veterans is called “Marching Home.” 

- U2EH worked with the Santa Ana Housing Authority (SAHA) in August to provide 30 units in 30 days, in order to take advantage of 30 housing vouchers that SAHA needed to use, in order to qualify for potentially 300 more voucher. St. Mark was a huge part of that effort. U2EH needed to raise $500,000 of initial costs to house the 30 families, and St. Mark responded with over $115,0000, funding 7 of the 30 units. 

And now, a new opportunity is at hand. The federal office of HUD has awarded 12 communities grants to house 18-24 year olds who have “aged out” of the Foster Care System. U2EH is working with The Orangewood Foundation and SAHA to house 25 former foster youth. The initial costs are over $12,000 each. U2EH has already secured funding to house 7 former foster youth through our WelcomeHomeOC Program and are working to raise $228,060 by December 31, 2019 to help to house the other 18. The St. Mark Mission Commission has already put some funding toward it, and you are welcomed to participate in addition. For more information and to make a contribution, visit U2EH’s GoFundMe page here.  

Well, that’s enough for now. St. Mark has long been a leader in striving for economic justice in Orange County and I think the work of OCAJC, U2EH, and related organizations is an extension of what God has been calling us to do throughout our church’s 50+ years. It is a blessing to be a part of it.

Mark of St. Mark 

Faithful and Expansive View of God

Three quick announcements, then on with the show.

1. If you want to attend our Thanksgiving dinner, Thanksgiving Day at 4:00, please sign up today. Right now, even! Send a note to stmark@stmarkpresbyterian.org.

2. If you were not in worship last Sunday, you may want to go to the St. Mark web site and listen to last week’s sermon. It was “Hagar’s Story, part 1” and this week we will hear “part 2.” 

3. The Alternative Christmas Market is Sunday! This Sunday! Two days from now! If you’re working the market and have to miss worship, then come on Saturday and follow the crowd to Muldoon’s. 

And now … 

A funny thing happens when we leave our customary spaces and enter other spaces as a guest. Last Saturday, following worship, I was a guest speaker at the Islamic Education Center as part of their celebration of their prophet’s birthday. Our Muslim brothers and sisters know that many Americans view them primarily through the lens of news clips of violence, movie depictions of terrorists, or theories about their sinister intentions. They cringe whenever a mass shooting takes place, praying that it will not turn out to be a Muslim who is doing the violence or Muslims who were the victims. Many Muslims live with a constant shroud of fear that some random person will try to execute a kind of vigilante justice by harassing them or harming them. In truth, they are doctors, police officers, business persons, school teachers, and next-door neighbors, who follow Islam. 

When I was at the Islamic Education Center, the Imam Sayed Moustafa al-Qazwini condemned religious violence in the strongest terms possible. He argued that Muslims who terrorize, take innocent lives, or go to war in the name of Islam are misrepresenting Islam and misreading the Koran. He named names and argued that groups like the Islamic State were wrong. He argued that the best way to honor the prophet Muhammad is to live peaceably and helpfully with all of our neighbors. He honored Jesus Christ - not in the same way that I do, but with reverence and respect. He honored Moses and welcomed the Jewish persons who were in attendance. It was a meaningful experience and always is. 

The same is true whenever I visit the Shinnyo-en Japanese Buddhist Temple in Yorba Linda, the Temple Bat Yam, the Jewish Collaborative of Orange County, or any number of worship spaces where persons of other faiths gather. When the Newport Mesa Irvine Interfaith Council or Orange County Interfaith Network meet, they are respectful gatherings with progressive Christians, lots of Mormons, Jews of many kinds, Muslims, Sikhs, Zoroastrians, and Universalist Unitarians. What is curious to me is that the most underrepresented group – at least from the Christian denominations – are Evangelical churches. 

The primary reason evangelicals are underrepresented is fairly clear. Theologically, if one is convinced that professing Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is the only true way to salvation, then there is a problem with interfaith work. It would seem like one is validating a lie. I spoke with an evangelical pastor recently, who is a great guy who pours himself out in service to folks that many others would simply ignore. He said that whenever he tries to convince himself that other religions are siblings and perhaps have their own pathway toward God, he gets hung up on the stories of the Old Testament, where God demanded absolute intolerance of other religions and exclusivist claims that are in the New Testament on occasion. I disagree with his reading of these texts and -more importantly - with the presumptions through which he reads biblical texts generally. I do not doubt his sincerity, but I mourn his conclusions because of what they do not allow him to do. He is not able to enter the Islamic Education Center with an open heart, free of thinking that he is somehow compromising his faith by being there. He cannot enter a synagogue or temple without feeling that the people there are blind to the real truth of their own religion. I am not judging him. I am only speaking from my own experience, having been raised in a way of Christianity that could not encounter other religious expressions with openness. I still struggle against ingrained tendencies of religious intolerance. 

When I was invited to the Islamic Education Center for the prophet’s birthday, I was asked to speak about interfaith relations. I raised the question of why some Christians read the New Testament exclusively and others expansively; why some Jews read the Torah exclusively and other expansively; why some Muslims read the Koran exclusively and other expansively. The only sorts of answers that I could offer were roughly this: The lens through which we read Scripture is shaped by our theological predispositions. My journey has led me to have a large view of God, to where God is free, able, and willing to act in ways that lie outside of my own way of faith; and a small view of humanity, where each claim I/we make about God is proximate at best. For me, “truth” about God is less about the proposition that we formulate, and more about the hunger that drives us to search, hope, and believe. 

Or something like that. 

Mark of St. Mark  

Undies and Church Attendance

Let me begin with Two Quick Notes: 

1. Did you notice the announcement that we’re going to have a St. Mark Thanksgiving dinner this year? If you’d like to come, and are willing to help with the before-during-after stuff, please drop a note to stmark@stmarkpresbyterian.org.   

2. The Orange County Alliance for Just Change is working with United to End Homelessness to offer three “Advocacy 101” opportunities between now and the end of the year, to advocate in our cities for more Permanent Supportive Housing. For South County, Wednesday, November 20, at the Presbyterian Church of the Master in Mission Viejo. For North County, Wednesday, December 4 at the Muckenthaler Cultural Arts Center in Fullerton. For Central County, Thursday, December 5 at Christ Cathedral in Garden Grove. All event open registration at 6:30 and you will want to arrive by then so you can register and be ready to start promptly at 7:00pm. If you want to attend one of these workshops, sign up, at https://www.eventbrite.com/o/united-to-end-homelessness-19985632942.

And now, for the Weekly Missive: 

A recent article in the Huffington Post said, “It may be the most familiar dream in the world.” They were speaking, of course, about the “Suddenly realizing you are in your underwear in public” dream. Dream studies folks reckon that the dream is either prompted by what you’re wearing (or not) when sleeping (so let’s not talk about it). Or, they say it may be a subconscious expression of feeling unprepared and risking being exposed in some way (Let’s talk about this one). 

Based on my own sleep experience, which I actually experience every single night, I happen to think that the ‘underwear in public’ dream is just one expression of ‘anxiety dreams’ in general. Beyond physical exposure, those anxiety dreams often tend to be specific to our job, our daily routines, or our deepest fears. For example, as a pastor I often have the anxiety dream of being in a crowded church building and discovering at the last minute that I’m supposed to preach from a text that I had not even given any consideration sermon-wise. I don’t have that dream every weekend, but often enough to know that I carry within myself the feeling of not-quite-prepared anxieties. 

So, here’s a funny thing. The other night I had a very different pastor-anxiety dream, the first of its kind that I can remember. This time I was prepared: The bulletin was ready, the accompanists were in place, the sermon was in hand and mostly in head, and the time was nigh. As I got up to begin worship, there were maybe ten people scattered throughout a cavernous-looking sanctuary. Ten people! And most of them were family to the paid staff! While I know that worship is about the glory of God, not a popularity poll of the preacher, that moment was devastating for me. 

So, it leaves me wondering why my usual anxiety dream of being unprepared took on the form of being prepared but irrelevant. Here are some theories. 

1. I once read that genuine prophetic preaching results in driving away most people in order to build upon the truly committed folks. That may be true in some churches, but I don’t buy it at St. Mark. For many years my predecessors preached the unvarnished gospel of grace and justice, so it does not fall to me to separate the wheat from the chaff. I just try to maintain that faithful legacy.

2. Perhaps I am feeling the weight of all of the church studies about how the ‘nones’ and ‘dones’ are outnumbering the folks in the world who affiliate with some kind of organized faith. I actually happen to think that there is some encouraging news in those reports, but they certainly raise some concerns as well. I’ll reflect on my reading of those reports some other time because it is too nuanced for this post. 

3. A theory that may have legs falls under my general maxim that dreams reflect the dreamer – in this case the dreamer’s anxieties – more than any of the persons who might appear in the dream. I can’t wake up mad at someone because they mistreated me in a dream, but I can explore whatever mistrusts or anger I might be harboring toward that person because of the dream. In the case of the “Ten People in Worship” dream, perhaps it is an expression of my feelings of inadequacy. 

4. The most convincing theory I have is that I am still adjusting to the “new normal” that many people now practice “occasional attendance” instead of “weekly attendance,” that children have activities whenever there is space and no longer is “worship time” considered off limits; and that our weeks are so over-scheduled that many people choose St. Mattress or St. Arbucks over St. Mark when they have the leisure of choice. (You may now say, “OK, Boomer” if you wish.)

When that is the case, it seems to me to be similar to when a family sits down to share dinner and one or two members are not there. They may have perfectly good reasons and so there’s no need for judgment. It’s just the case that those who are there miss the joy of their company and the family misses the continued strength that comes from being together. That’s how I feel when we haven’t seen someone in worship recently. No judgment, just a tinge of sadness from missing a valued companion. I don’t know how God feels, so I won’t speculate on that. 

Having said all that, I hope to see at least 11 of you on Saturday or Sunday this weekend! It’s a family thing.

Mark of St. Mark