A message from Father Mark
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY March 16, 2025
Images of faithfulness and protection dominated our readings last week. In a time of uncertainty and fear for many, the words in Psalm 27 today should be comforting. They say, “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear?” and “though war should rise up against me, yet will I put my trust in him.” The image our Gospel lesson gives us today is God as a mother hen. Compared to other metaphors of God in the Bible — shepherd, potter, and bread of life, the hen is different. Themes of protection and safety are all over this metaphor. And it’s worth noting that mother hens can be quite fierce if their babies are in danger.
The invitation of Lent is to carry the image of God as a mother hen with us as we travel. This does not ignore the realities of the dangers up ahead, but it does give us something to hold onto when we are afraid. How we long to be gathered under those wings! Much like those comforting words from Psalm 27, knowing that God is with us at every twist and turn can make a world of a difference — even and especially in these difficult times.
Question of the Week: Where can you see the “goodness of the Lord” at work in your own life?
Peace,
Mark+
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY March 9, 2025
Thank you to all stepping up last Sunday to plan and assist with worship when I was unexpectedly absent. Special thanks are due to Tim Pridgen, O. J. Booker, and MaryAnn Dartnell. Many thanks as well to Joe Napoli for leading the singing. I’ve heard only high praise for how meaningful worship was at both services!
Though our style of worship certainly favors the presence of clergy, it does not require it. We need reminding from time to time that the heart of the church is found in the energy and passion of its lay leaders. That’s why the future of Advent is so bright even if the identity of its next priest is uncertain. I’m honored to be part of your journey.
Peace,
Mark+
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY March 2, 2025
In our Gospel text, Jesus goes up to a high mountain with three of his disciples. On that mountain, Jesus is transfigured. His appearance radically changes. His face radiates power in a way that recalls Moses’ encounter with God. His clothes are described as “dazzling white,” as if they are a source of light. At that moment, his human appearance slips for just a second and he must have looked to his disciples like the God that he is.
Jesus was not transfigured because God wanted to put on a show, but to invite us to share in his likeness. And not in the glowing face and sparkling white garments. But to share in a love so intense that it led God into the body of a human being and to death on a tree. God invites us to partake of a love so profound that it is not afraid to descend into the valleys of despair and bring new life and hope to those who need them. So let’s do as Jesus asks. Let’s get up and not be afraid to let the love of Christ change us into the people that God intends for us to be.
As we begin the season of Lent this week, many of us will look for ways to grow closer to God. To deepen our faith and find new connections with our siblings in Christ. Some people will give up some things; some people will take on new things, like new spiritual practices. This year, let us also earnestly consider what is keeping us from fully embracing the likeness of Christ.
Question of the Week: What do we need to give up, what do we need to take on, that will open our hearts to allow them to be changed into the likeness of Christ’s heart?
Thank you and peace,
Mark+
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY february 23, 2025
In our Gospel reading from Sunday, Jesus tells us to love our enemies. Do good to those who hate us. But how in the world do we do that? How do you love someone for whom you feel no love? Before doing the countercultural, counterintuitive act of loving an enemy, you have to do something else that is countercultural: you have to recognize that love has little to do with feelings.
When we stop to think about it, we know that our love cannot be based on our feelings. Our commitment, a commitment rooted in and shaped by love, cannot depend on how we feel at any given moment. It must be measured by something more substantial. That something else is action. Love is known in action. Love is a verb.
Jesus makes that perfectly clear. He tells us what love does: “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” It is the great rule of love, by which you can tell if you are loving someone even when you don’t feel like it.
So how can we love someone who is unlovable? We must first resist the temptation of our culture and stop believing that love is only a feeling. Then we must act. The proof, the evidence of our love is known in the way that we behave toward one another. “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” That is the great rule of love; it is a rule that begins with DO.
Question of the Week: Think of a person in your life whom you don’t especially like or maybe actively dislike. Now, apart from how you feel about that person, what could you DO – what action could you take – to demonstrate that you love that person in the way Jesus commands?
Thank you and peace,
Mark+
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY february 16, 2025
On Sunday, we heard Luke’s version of the Beatitudes, commonly called the Sermon on the Plain. Reflecting on this famous litany of blessings and curses, I was drawn to one central idea.
The more privileged lives that people lead, the more difficult it is to see the dynamics of anger and oppression. If you’re on the top of the heap, then that just looks like the way things are and ought to be—you’re totally happy to go along and be nice to everyone… as long as they don’t step out of line and suggest that something needs to change.
Notice that when Jesus talks about being blessed, he doesn’t talk about being angry or violent. What he does talk about is the prophets. The prophets spoke the word of the Lord—they expressed God’s compassion and comfort to God’s people. They expressed messages of hope and blessing. Exactly as Jesus does in today’s Gospel lesson. But what particularly characterizes the prophets is that they were bold in criticizing and denouncing the rich and powerful who violated God’s love for the poor; who exploited power for their comfort while God’s people suffered.
Question of the Week: How do we rouse ourselves from the tendency to focus on the circumstances immediately around us and be reminded of God’s call to compassion, generosity, and caring community?
Thank you and peace,
Mark+
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY february 9, 2025
In Scripture, “Here I am, Lord” is a frequent response from people whom God calls to perform various pro-phetic tasks and other purposes. But these callings rarely come to us in fully developed plans with clear in-structions. Much of the time it’s just an inkling or a recurrent passing thought. Notice in the Gospel reading that when Jesus tells Peter to move to deeper water, he doesn’t tell him exactly how things will happen, only that they will.
Why did Peter go along with his call? The text doesn’t tell us about Peter’s thought process. The most likely ex-planation is that something told him that he was in the presence of someone extraordinary, someone calling him to his true purpose, a greater purpose. And so Peter took a chance on Jesus. Some might call this “going with your gut.” But I think what Pete did was respond in faith. Like Abraham, Moses, Samuel, and others be-fore him, Peter said, in his own way, “Here I am, Lord.”
This phrase – “Here I am, send me!” – is the only faithful response to the call of God on our lives. It doesn’t mean we have an instantly clear vision of what that response means. It doesn’t mean we don’t have doubts. It doesn’t mean that we know what will happen next. But, when called, the only response to the God who has been faithful to us in more ways than we can conceive, is to say “yes.” Isaiah knew that. Peter knew that. We know that.
So the next time we feel that tug of the Spirit, that hunch that God is calling us to serve God’s people in a new way, even if it freaks us out a little, let us pray for the will and the courage to say, “Here I am, Lord. Send me.”
Question of the Week: Do you suspect that God might be calling you to use your gifts in a new way? How do you know?
Thank you and peace,
Mark+
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY february 2, 2025
On Sunday, we celebrated the Feast of the Presentation of our Lord Jesus Christ. In our Gospel reading, we read about Simeon and Anna, who were present when Mary and Joseph presented Jesus at the Temple.
Tradition says that Simeon was super old. One line of tradition has him as one of the translators of the He-brew scriptures into Greek. That translation began around the middle of the third century before Christ. De-pending on how you calculate, these parts of our tradition say Simeon was between 270 and 360 years old.
Whether Simeon was that old or not, we know that Simeon’s life was full of expectation, anticipation, and waiting. Simeon waited and wondered. “Is this the day? Is this the day I will see salvation? Is this the day I will experience the fulfillment of God’s promise?”
Like Simeon, we’re waiting, too. We’re waiting for things like wholeness, something to be healed, forgiveness and reconciliation, something to come alive, a sense of fulfillment and completion.
Question of the Week: What would change your life and how you relate to yourself and others? What would let you walk away fulfilled, without regret or second guessing yourself, satisfied and confident that you have faithfully and fully lived your life? And how long are you willing to wait for it?
Thank you and peace,
Mark+
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY january 26, 2025
In our Epistle reading from Sunday, we got a biology lesson from Paul. The body comprises individual members—one body, many members. The body works as a system, and all these members – the brain, the hands, the feet, the eyes, – are arranged to help the body live well. If all were separate, where would the body be? It is the same with the body of Christ. So many members, so many gifts, all of them a part of the body, all of them needed for the body to live well. No gift better than another, all matter to the body; no gift worth less than another, all matter to the body.
But it’s not just about the community of faith functions. It applies to our community of humanity as well. No one group gets to look down upon another, and those who have been at the bottom—those who are weaker, those who have had less honor, those who have had less respect. They are lifted up in this body. They are in-dispensable to this body of humanity; they are clothed with greater honor, and more respect.
Look around our community, our society, how are we doing at breaking down the barriers? How are we calling out those who would say to another, “I do not need you,” starting with a self-examination of that voice within ourselves who thinks that about another? How are we making known to those who have little power in our society that they are indispensable? How are we lifting up those who lack honor and respect and treating them with the respect and dignity that is their God-given birthright?
Take your place in the body, and let’s be the hands that reach out until everyone knows they belong.
Question of the Week: Who is one person to whom you could reach out this week who you know longs to feel more a part of the whole?
Thank you and peace,
Mark+
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY january 19, 2025
Our Gospel lesson from last Sunday is one of my favorites: The Wedding at Cana. What intrigues me is the dy-namic between Jesus and his mother, Mary. First, Mary announces to Jesus, “They have no wine.” Jesus re-sponds with the enigmatic, slightly haughty, “Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My time has not yet come.” But then Mary turns to the servants and says, “Do whatever he tells you to do.” From that point, Jesus tells the servants to fill six jars with water, and off we go. Basically, Mary just ignores Jesus’ objection. Be-yond that, she starts giving instructions that contradict his words!
The text doesn’t tell us why Jesus hesitated beyond the strange statement that his time had not yet come. But I wonder if maybe Jesus just didn’t feel quite ready. Maybe he was a little nervous about such a display. And what if Mary knew that about her son? By putting him on the spot a little, Mary gently pushed Jesus and en-couraged him to take that first big step into public ministry.
And who doesn’t need a push from time to time? Who among us doesn’t need a little encouragement when we’re a little unsure of ourselves or what we should do? Pushed out of false beliefs about our abilities, worth or effectiveness. Pushed out of our ideas that we’ll just be in the way or that God has somebody better mind. We can all be that person who says, “You know, I really enjoyed your insights in our last Bible study. Have you considered leading a Bible study yourself? I think you’d be fantastic at it.” There are people just waiting for someone to give them that tiny boost of confidence to launch them into new areas of ministry or service. We can all be that person.
Question of the Week: Whom do you know that just needs a little encouragement from you to step into a new ministry?
Thank you and peace,
Mark+
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY january 12, 2025
But what does it mean that Jesus was baptized? And what does it mean that we are baptized?
As the Son of God, Jesus was baptized to truly become one of us, to share our pain, our suffering, and even our death. Jesus’ baptism is important because it shows us how far he will go to identify with us, And as he was, he heard a voice from heaven say to him: “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
Because when we were baptized into Christ, his baptism became ours. Because Jesus became one with us in his baptism, we become one with him through ours. And just as the message that was beloved gave Jesus the courage to do his work, no matter the cost, so it can do for us. These words can give us the courage to live our lives for God. Believing that we are God’s beloved gives us the courage and the desire to face down our selfish-ness, and to live in a way that is pleasing to God. Believing that we are God’s beloved comforts us when we are facing trials in life, but it also challenges us to live out this love.
Question of the Week: Do you think of yourself as the beloved of God like Jesus? If not, what are you going to do to get there? If so, how does that status motivate and challenge you to live a life of servant leadership like Jesus?
Thank you and peace,
Mark+
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY january 5, 2025
In our Gospel lesson from Sunday, we heard the account of the boy Jesus in the Temple. Following Passover, Mary, Joseph, their family group, and others traveling with them, begin the journey back to Nazareth. After a day of traveling, they discover that Jesus, age 12, is missing. After making their way back to Jerusalem and searching for him for three days, Mary and Joseph finally locate Jesus in the Temple, learning at the feet of the religious scholars there. Mary, to say the least, is put out with Jesus: “Child,” she says, “why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.” Jesus responds, “Why have you been searching for me? Did you not know I must be in my Father’s house?”
The text tells us that Mary and Joseph didn’t understand, and who can blame them? However, with knowledge of his subsequent ministry, we can deduce a few things from Jesus’ words. Jesus was telling his parents that he was growing up; he was no longer the little child they were used to. More importantly, I think Jesus is saying, “I’m beginning to understand who I am and the important role I have to play in God’s purposes.” And his heavenly Father’s house, the Temple, was his true home. It was where he could be closest to those who spent their lives trying to understand God, God’s ways, and God’s truth.
So if anyone was left behind in this story, at least momentarily, it was Mary and Joseph. They had not yet caught up to the reality of who Jesus was and what this meant. Do we find ourselves left behind spiritually sometimes? Do we lose track of our faith priorities and in doing so, lose track of Jesus? We forget what matters, run out of time to do what’s important, and are preoccupied with other concerns. This lesson is a re-minder that we need to align our priorities with God’s priorities, or, like Mary and Joseph, we will be left behind. We need to adopt Jesus’ priorities and make them our own.
Question of the Week: What misconceptions of Jesus do we see in the world today that prevent us or others from carrying out the work he called us to do?
Thank you and peace,
Mark+
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY december 29, 2024
Every year on the First Sunday after Christmas, we read John 1:1-18. Like most of the Gospel of John, it’s airy and mysterious: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”
So the powerful, creative word of God took on a body and lived a flesh-and-blood life as one of us. Too often we reverse that process: we take the flesh and blood Jesus and make him into a word, a doctrine, an intellectual idea, or a theological argument! But that’s not who Jesus is and, therefore, not what Christmas is all about.
And maybe you say to me, “Well, that’s all very interesting. But where do we come in?” My answer to that is that the Word still needs to be made flesh. And so as we welcome Jesus into our hearts and put his teaching into practice in our lives, the Word becomes visible and tangible again – in us. All of us together: as we use our hearts, minds, and bodies to follow Jesus, the Word is made flesh and moves in the world around us.
Question of the Week: How are you making the Word made flesh real to those around you?
Thank you and peace,
Mark+
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY december 22, 2024
Among the texts we considered on Sunday was The Magnificat, a veritable explosion of praise and thanksgiving from Mary for what God has done in the history of Israel and is doing in her own life. It’s a striking departure from the image we most associate with Mary. Historically, the church has emphasized a narrow image of Mary: meek and mild and, by extension, voiceless and even timid.
The Magnificat obliterates this limited image of Mary. Mary’s words present us with a radically different side of Mary. We hear a prelude to the radical, counter-cultural message that Jesus himself will teach and preach. In the Magnificat, Mary speaks as a woman of transformative vision. We see Mary in three pioneering roles: first as a radical Christian disciple; second as a New Testament prophet; and third, as a mother – mother not only of Jesus, but of all the sons and daughters of every generation who will become the Church.
If we take the time to ponder Mary – her life, her commitment – her faith and obedience – her vision – per-haps we can begin to relate to Mary as a mother and as a role model who can help us to see and accept God’s will for our lives: first by claiming our identity as beloved children of God, and then by responding, acting and serving others, always in and through God’s love.
Question of the Week: What characteristic of Mary inspires you most?
Thank you and peace,
Mark+
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY december 15, 2024
“What then should we do?” That’s what the crowds say. That’s their response to John the Baptist, when he stands along the banks of the river Jordan, calling the people to repentance. That question – “What then should we do?” – is no less pertinent today than 2000 years ago.
When John and Jesus respond to these questions, they speak in terms of practicalities, not high-minded metaphors. “Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none,” John says to the crowd. “Don’t extort money from anyone,” he says to the soldiers. “Sell all that you own and distribute the money to the poor,” Jesus says to the ruler. Be fair. Be kind. Be generous. Be compassionate. Be honest.
“What then should we do?” Maybe the better question is, “How then do we want to be?” If we know how we want to be, the values we hold, and the qualities we embody, then we’ll know what to do.
Question of the Week: Identify one thing that you can do to make the love of God be felt more profoundly by an individual in your life.
Thank you and peace,
Mark+
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY december 8, 2024
Our Gospel text from Sunday says that the word of God came to John the Baptist in the wilderness. The word came to him. I wonder what that means. Might it have been a growing insight? Or a sudden flash of inspiration? Whatever it was, it clearly changed him and prompted him into a new ministry.
The Gospel calls his message: a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. That’s another interesting phrase. Forgiveness of sins happens as people open up to the boundless grace of a loving and forgiving God. But I don’t think it stops there. That contact with the boundless goodness of God has the power to radically transform the lives of those who truly accept it.
Change on our part (which is all repentance is) involves a whole other way of seeing life and relating to God and each other. But where do we start? Something that Paul wrote in today’s Epistle is helpful. The starting point, he says, is our love for each other. The key to improving our lives and the lives of those around us isn’t doctrine. It isn’t some new device or innovation.
We could be more forceful – in word and deed – in reasserting and reinforcing the primacy of love as the foundation of change and reorientation so needed in the world at this moment, in the lives of individuals, and more broadly. The way we get people out of the wilderness and otherwise prepare our world for the way of the Lord is to love people more and better. Always more and better.
Question of the Week: Consider a challenging situation in your life. How might your perspective be impacted by re-centering the love of others in your attitude and approach to that challenge?
Thank you and peace,
Mark+
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY december 1, 2024
We started our new Church year on Sunday with the First Sunday of Advent, the season when we prepare for Christmas and for Jesus’ arrival. We often think of Advent as the prelude to Christmas, which, in a way, it is. But we’re really preparing for Jesus’ arrival on two different levels. We’re preparing to celebrate the birth of Jesus at Christmas. We’re also preparing for the Second Coming, for a time someday in the future when Christ will return and the world as we know it will be transformed.
We are now getting ready to celebrate “the time of this mortal life in which Jesus came to visit us in great humility”—that’s Christmas, when we tell the story of how Jesus was born as one of us, born poor and weak in a stable. We’re also preparing for another great mystery: how Christ will come again in glory to judge and save the world. There’s this language of judgment around Christ’s return, and a lot of us carry deep hurt around the idea of God’s judgment—sometimes the idea of God’s judgment has been used for hateful and controlling purposes.
But this Advent, I’d invite us to reimagine this language of judgment. We can start doing that by remembering who it is we’re waiting for. We are waiting for Jesus who already loves us. And Jesus is not making a list and checking it twice to see if we’re good enough. Jesus loves us so much that even on our worst day Jesus sees more goodness and beauty and glory and wonder in each one of us than we can see in ourselves . We are waiting for Jesus who comes near us with boundless compassion.
This season of Advent is a time to prepare our hearts and homes and lives anew to meet the God who loves us and who chooses to come close to us.
Question of the Week: Quite apart from getting ready for Christmas, how are you getting ready for the arrival of Christ during Advent?
Peace,
Mark+
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY November 24, 2024
This Sunday was the last of the Church year, Christ the King Sunday. The notion of a king or queen can be hard for many of us to relate to. Of course, the historical and cultural context of our Gospel passage – Jesus’ interac-tion with Pilate – is important to bear in mind. In Jesus’ day, the king of Ancient Rome, Caesar, was believed to be the Son of God himself, though not the god of Jewish worship and understanding, and any challenge to Caesar’s authority was a challenge not only to Caesar’s person, but a challenge to the divine order of the world.
As governor of Judea and an agent of Rome, it was Pilate’s job to help neutralize any threat to Caesar. So, Pilate asks Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?” what he means is, “Are you a threat to the current king’s power?” But Jesus doesn’t answer Pilate directly. How could he? Christ’s kingdom does not consist of a small parcel of land with protected borders separating it from the rest of creation. Christ’s kingdom is creation. All of crea-tion. Christ’s kingdom is not from this world, but it encompasses all of this world, and more.
There is what could be called a kingdom or a realm and we have power to fully participate in it. Use that pow-er wisely, in service to the one who gave his very life for you and in service of those he came to serve. As it turned out, the accusations made by the chief priests to Pilate were right; Jesus was a threat to Caesar’s pow-er. After all, how much does Caesar influence your life today? How much does Jesus influence your life today? Look at your surroundings, how you chose to spend your Sunday morning. That’s a power that endures. That’s the power of the one who is, and who was, and who is to come.
Question of the Week: What specific steps will you take this week, however small they seem, to facilitate God’s realm on earth?
Peace,
Mark+
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY November 17, 2024
Our Gospel reading from this past Sunday, Mark 13:1-8, is often called “the Little Apocalypse.” Jesus talks about the temple being torn down, wars everywhere, earthquakes, and famines. It’s the end of the world. It’s the kind of passage I heard a lot growing up. And it was used to instill fear and impose conformity.
For many people, this passage (and those like it) is the starting point for scary stories and bad theology. The list of people who teach, or have taught, that the end of the world is just around the corner, that the church would be raptured any day now, and that Jesus would return on a specific date at a specific time is very, very long. Many well-meaning believers have been led down that road, convinced that the end of the world should be the focus of their energy and prayer, buying up all kinds of books and watching blockbuster movies about “the end times.”
Instead of reading these “Little Apocalypses” for clues to the end of the time, maybe we ought to pay attention to what Jesus actually says. First, Jesus has something to say about getting too comfortable with our settled notions of religious life. “Look, teacher, what large stones and what large buildings,” the disciples say referring to the Temple complex. Jesus, in effect, says “So what? All will be thrown down.” In other words, focus on the outward trappings of faith is misplaced.
Jesus also tells the disciples to beware, specifically of false teachers. “Beware that no one leads you astray,” he says. Beware of those coming in Jesus’ name. Be alert for those preaching a message that originates anywhere other than love. A faith that cultivates mistrust, fear, and exclusion is not the Gospel. Look instead for messag-es that speak of love, acceptance, reconciliation, and peace. Those are the hallmarks of the Christian faith.
When will Christ return? I have no earthly idea. But remember what Jesus said in Matthew 25. He is regularly coming to us in the form of the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, and the prisoner. We are not waiting for their return; they’re already here. So while we anticipate Christ’s Second Coming, let us prepare by being the disciples he called us to be and loving people the way he asked us to love them.
Question of the Week: If Jesus reappeared tomorrow, what would you tell him about how you live out the Gospel?
Peace,
Mark+
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY November 10, 2024
In our Gospel on Sunday, Jesus presents us with characters of two types. He warns us against the corrupt scribes for their selfishness and crime. The scribes are concerned with gaining power over other people in order to enrich themselves.
The widow seeks no power over anyone in order to better her situation. By her gift, small as it is, she seeks to serve God. And though its cash value is slight, the gift is enormous, everything she’s got. She’s not looking to fill the emptiness in herself by stealing from others. She’s looking to fill that emptiness by opening herself to God. She wants no power over others to gain consolation prizes. Instead, with the toss of those coins, she surrenders power over herself in order that God may work through her. She’s a person of radical faith.
There are two choices: misuse power over others in order to enrich yourself, or surrender power over yourself so that you may truly serve God. Only one of those paths leads to eternal life.
Question of the Week: How have you been inspired by small, barely noticeable acts of kindness, generosity, or compassion to others?
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY November 3, 2024
On Sunday, we observed All Saint’s Day. We often talk about the saints as if they are somehow morally or spiritually superior to us; as if they had it all together and did everything right. But what if that’s a misunderstanding of what a saint is? What if saints are simply the ones who do the work that they are called to do? In the words of our reading from Revelation, they are the people who entrust themselves to being made new and participate in God’s making things new in the lives of those around them.
That’s what I’ve seen and experienced with the saints in my life. I remember them with love and gratitude. I saw them working out God’s newness in each of their lives and I experienced and was challenged by them bringing newness to my life. I still am. The saints still speak to and show up in our lives. That’s why we call out their names on this day. It’s a way they are present to us and we to them. Together, we and they are being made new.
Question of the Week: When has another brought about newness in your life? That is, who are the saints in your life?
Peace,
Mark+
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY october 27, 2024
Our Gospel lesson from this past Sunday recounted the story of Jesus’ interaction with blind Bartimaeus. We used this lesson as an occasion to consider the experience of being “invisible” in the sense of not really being seen in one’s full humanity. Bartimaeus spends his days living on the fringe of his community, begging at the city gate. Alone at the bottom of the social ladder, he is invisible to his community. Others see him, but only in a narrow sense. He survives on whatever people give him.
When Bartimaeus cries out to Jesus, the people around him tell him to shut up– which is to say, they seek to keep him invisible. These people want Bartimaeus to remain at the bottom of that ladder. Out of sight and out of mind. The Gospel account provides a specific and common experience of being rendered invisible by people who find themselves living on the margins whether as a result of poverty or some other quality that makes them unwelcome in mainstream society.
Following Jesus involves seeking to interact with people in such a way that they experience themselves as truly being seen. It means acknowledging that the people with whom we live closest possess a soul – that there is more to them than we know – maybe even than they know. It means asking who they are in themselves as opposed to who our anxious ego needs them to be.
It also means looking at strangers – for instance people we encounter in roles they fill – the immigrant in our midst, minorities like the transgender, and those with physical and emotional challenges that Dr. Dupree talked about last week — and recognizing that there is vastly more to them than caricatures we have made of them – that they too have souls and, like all of us made in the image of our Creator, are deserving of respect and love.
Question of the Week: Who are the people in Madison whom we see but don’t acknowledge and how do we go about seeing them in the fullness of their humanity?
Peace,
Mark+
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY october 20, 2024
Due to the sermon being given this week by Rev. Dr. Mary Grace DuPree, Father Mark’s message will reappear October 29.
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY october 13, 2024
Our Gospel text from this past Sunday says that the disciples were astonished when Jesus said, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”
Like much of what Jesus says, these words go against the conventional wisdom. In Jesus’ day, wealth was seen as a definitive sign of blessing. Wealth was seen as a symbol of a person’s worth in the eyes of God and society. It’s no different today in a lot of ways. Jesus challenges the unexamined views of his disciples – past or present – who accept this narrative about wealth at face value.
It is a myth that the wealthy have a certain quality that those who are poor do not. What the wealthy have that the poor don’t have is money. It’s not drive, not ambition, not work ethic. The single parent working three jobs has a drive and a work ethic. Many people work back-breaking jobs at long hours their entire lives and leave this world with no material wealth to show for it. And there’s a dark side to this myth about wealth: If wealthy people got where they are on their own merits, then it stands to reason that poor people lack those merits – and are thus undeserving of support.
Jesus’ words compel us to consider how we have bought into myth that unjustly equates poverty with moral failure. Jesus’ words invite us to work towards a society that sees poverty as society’s problem and then enact solutions and promote opportunities at a systemic level to address the needs of the poor among us.
Question of the Week: Can you think of an example of someone or some event in your life that, though it may have seemed insignificant at the time, turned out to be an opportunity that radically altered the course of your life?
Peace,
Mark+
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY october 6, 2024
The texts from this passage were challenging. Between the horrible suffering of Job and Jesus’ teaching on divorce, it can be hard to find a way in. As I prepared for Sunday, I eventually came across a commentator who encouraged the reader to think of these passages as about relationships.
Some relationships are transactional. They’re about what each party can get out of them. Both Job and our Gospel reading challenge this idea. Job’s faithfulness is quite extraordinary. It is only matched by God’s faithfulness. Their relationship is not based on keeping score of every display of generosity or righteousness. It’s based on relentless grace and love.
In our Gospel lesson, Jesus utters one of his most famous lines: “Therefore what God has joined together let no one separate.” The Pharisees interpreted the law to allow a man to divorce his wife for like one discards a piece of trash, which Jesus dismisses. But this lesson is about more than marriage and divorce. This is a lesson about relationships. They aren’t about keeping score. To the contrary, one of the many blessings of a relationship is experiencing the love and faithfulness of a spouse, a partner, a family member, or a friend even in times when we receive more grace than we offer or receive more grace than we give.
Both of these passages point to the important lesson that holy relationships – whether with God or our fellow human beings – aren’t transactional. They endure, not because of what we get out of them, but because they are characterized by life-giving grace and love.
Question of the Week: What qualities define the most significant relationships you have (or have had) in your life?
Peace,
Mark+
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY september 29, 2024
Our reading this morning from James is largely about prayer. “The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective,” we hear in verse 16. Prayer is a subject we hear a lot about in the church, especially a church in the Anglican tradition in which common prayer is one of the central features of our worship and life as a community. But, for much of my life, I didn’t really know how to pray. And I was so self-conscious about it. Shouldn’t a believer automatically know how to pray? And yet, I lived in complete fear that someone would call on me to pray at church or Thanksgiving dinner.
What is this all about? What is at the root of this insecurity about praying that many of us seem to have? For me, I think it comes down to a misunderstanding about what makes prayer effective. The Book of Common Prayer tells us what prayer is: “Prayer is responding to God, by thought, and by deeds, without or without words.” Prayer is really not about the words; it’s about your openness to God. We pray when we purposefully make ourselves available and attentive to God.
We need to abandon this idea that, for God to hear our prayers, for our prayers to be worthy, we have to say them in a certain way or with our heads or hands in such and such a position. That’s just not so. There is no such thing as inadequate prayer. It is our intention that makes our prayers, not the words.
Question of the Week: What approach to prayer do you find most meaningful? In other words, what do you do to make yourself open and attentive to God?
Peace,
Mark+
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY september 22, 2024
The Gospel text from this past Sunday has Jesus uttering among his most famous teachings: “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and a servant of all.” This passage highlights for us the qualities of a leader.
Our contemporary model of leadership bears little resemblance to this teaching. There are notable exceptions of course. But our “leaders” these days tend to be those who talk the loudest, have the largest Instagram followings, or have the most money to spread around. Not coincidentally, their “leadership” tends to focus on improving their positions and those of people like them. The notion of a “servant leader,” which Jesus both exemplified and about which he taught, is not a common mode of leadership by today’s standards. Its focus is on leading by example, specifically how we treat others. Jesus’ leadership was not about what it could do for him, but an example of how to serve the needs of other people. It is the only leadership model the gospel endorses and one we should strive to put at the heart of our walks of faith.
Question of the Week: In your life, who has shown you the path of servant leadership and how can you pass that model on to others?
Peace,
Mark+
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY september 15, 2024
In our Gospel lesson from Mark today, Jesus asks his disciples an interesting question: “But who do you say that I am?” He isn’t just asking their opinion for the sake of it. I think he is assessing whether his disciples know who he truly is, which I think, in turn, highlights an important question for us: “Do we know who Jesus really is?”
If we want to know who Jesus is, who he really is, we need to spend time with him. Knowing who Jesus is requires dedication and devotion. It won’t happen automatically by walking through the doors of a church or saying the creed a thousand times. To know him, we need to study how Jesus led his earthly life. How did he treat people? To really know Jesus, we need to know what his values are. What he was willing to fight for during his earthly life.
Did the disciples understand what discipleship required, not just repeating what was taught, but helping the poor, welcoming the stranger, tending the sick, and loving people nobody else would love? I think that Jesus is still asking that question of us as his modern-day disciples. We honor who Jesus is by displaying in our lives the values – the humility, the generosity, the hospitality, and – above all the love – for which he lived, died, and rose again. May we never stop looking for opportunities to show by our example that we get who Jesus really is.
Question of the Week: Who do you say that Jesus is, not in the abstract, but in the way(s) he informs your notions of self and how you interact with others?
Peace,
Mark+
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY september 8, 2024
In our Gospel reading from Sunday, Jesus performs two healings. The first, of the daughter of a Syrophoenician woman, has Jesus initially responding rudely, only to be moved and his mind changed by the woman’s persistence in faith. In the second, the healing of a deaf man, Jesus says the word, “Ephphatha,” which means “be opened.” In these healings, he reminds all of us to be open to essential truth—a truth we still have not mastered. A truth that can never be repeated enough: God’s love has no limits.
God’s call is a call to everyone. We don’t exist as a community merely for ourselves or for those who are similar to us. Being open is the foundation of discipleship, but it can also be unnerving. It means being open to God’s will wherever it may lead us. It means being open to acknowledging that God’s ways are not our ways. We have a human inclination to limit and create barriers—and we are really good at doing that, even in the Church. In doing this, we diminish God and close our hearts.
God calls us to be open. Be open, even if it goes against everything we’re told about who is in and who is out. God asks us to be open. May we hear and respond.
Question of the Week: To what experience, people, or new ministry is God calling you to be open?
Peace,
Mark+
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY september 1, 2024
In our Gospel passage from this past Sunday, Jesus is at it again with Pharisees about the importance of tradition. It’s easy to look at passages like the one from the Gospel of Mark and think that the Pharisees must be bad folks. Jesus is very critical of them, to be sure. But remember Jesus is a Jewish teacher criticizing Jewish teachers. It’s like an intra-family squabble. The Pharisees are trying to protect the religious traditions of Israel. These traditions separated those of the Jewish faith from everyone else around them.
Jesus had a different perspective. He thought the Pharisees’ emphasis on external expressions of faith was misplaced. Jesus taught that what’s going on inside a person is ultimately more meaningful than ritual. It’s not that ritual had (or has) no place; it’s that ritual has no meaning apart from an internal experience of faith. For Jesus, true religious faith is something that’s on the inside, something that comes out of us. So, to be clear, it has an outward manifestation. But true religious faith comes from the heart and is made real in our actions.
True religious faith is about our priorities. It’s about how our actions are informed by what is in our hearts. And what should be in our hearts is the law of love.
Question of the Week: What does your participation in religious rituals important to you reflect on your belief in God and God’s values?
Peace,
Mark+
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY august 25, 2024
In our Epistle lesson on Sunday, we considered the imagery of the armor of God. Many people who grew up in other traditions will remember the “armor of God” being deployed in a militant way, one that was well suited to a selective teaching of Scripture as ammunition for the conversion of sinners. However, the phrase “armor of God” cannot be understood to condone violence or coercive forms of evangelism.
Early Christians were pacifists in the Roman Empire. They sought (and sometimes received) exemptions from compulsory military service. They refused to fight, and some died because of it. Instead, these early Christians followed the example of Jesus, who told his followers to put away their swords during his arrest, who spoke of turning the other cheek, who laid down his life to indict a culture of violence, and who stretched his arms on the cross willingly. It is from this culture that Paul, or more likely one of his students, was writing to the community at Ephesus.
The armor of God is a metaphor. And one that is not concerned with death at all because we believe that eternal life swallows up death in the power of the resurrection. No, the armor of God is concerned with life – a life of truth, righteousness, faith, and peace. It’s what we put on so that we can follow the path of love laid out for us by Jesus.
Question of the Week: Which article of the armor of faith – the belt of truth, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, or the shoes of peace – do you find yourself most frequently calling on in your faith journey?
Faithfully,
Mark+
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY august 18, 2024
We’ve been considering the passage in The Gospel of John known as “The Bread of Life Discourse” for a few weeks. To us, it’s a familiar text. But just think: if you weren’t familiar with our tradition of eucharistic worship, unfamiliar with the Sacrament of Bread and Wine, reading this text about eating a man’s flesh and drinking his blood would sound, at best, odd and, more likely, grisly.
I think that’s exactly what Jesus intended. Even as a metaphor, the notion of eating human flesh and drinking human blood would have drawn an unmistakably clear line between the old way and Jesus’ way. Eating anything with blood in it was a serious offense under the Mosaic law.
But separately from a shocking bit of rhetoric, Jesus imparts an important substantive lesson. A lesson about the incarnation: Jesus is God enfleshed. God loves human beings so much that God became a human. Not only that, God became a human so that God could teach and people could experience in human form the wisdom of God.
By using the metaphor of consuming Jesus’ flesh and drinking his blood, Jesus is conveying the truth that the key to accessing the wisdom of God, to aligning our lives with God’s will, is to integrate Jesus, his teaching, and the values for which he lived, died, and was resurrected, at a core level. In the same way that the nutrition we consume becomes part of us and drives the most basic and the most complex of our physiological functions, we have to consume Jesus to put the wisdom and values he represents at the heart of who we are.
Question of the Week: Is there a particular lesson that Jesus taught that you have not yet fully integrated into who you are? [Hint: This is true for most of us.]
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY august 11, 2024
In our passage from Ephesians, Paul challenges us to “be imitators of God.” How do we do that? The text suggests five specific ways.
- Acting with kindness is the most fundamental way we can imitate God. Our God is defined by kindness.
- We must put away all falsehood and imitate God by speaking the truth. God always tells the truth. We, too, are always to tell the truth. In a kind way. In a loving way. But also in an honest way.
- Maybe surprisingly, Paul says it’s ok to get angry, but don’t get carried away. Don’t carry grudges. Don’t internalize anger where it turns into rage and resentment.
- We are to work honestly, i.e. by not stealing. Obvious, right? But the twist is why we do it. It’s not to hoard wealth for ourselves, but so that we have something to share with others.
- Finally, we are to shun “evil talk.” What kind of talk is that? The text tells us: Words that don’t build others up. The words we use should make people feel loved and inspire them to love others in return.
All of this can be summed up in another phrase that Paul uses here: “Live in love.” We imitate God best by living in love.
Question of the Week: Given our lesson from Ephesians, what’s one way you can imitate God better in the coming week?
Peace,
Mark+
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY august 4, 2024
This last Sunday, we heard the first verses of what is called the Bread of Life Discourse. Jesus says, “I am the bread of life.” But we know Jesus isn’t describing physical nourishment. He’s speaking about a spiritual sustenance that goes to the very core of our being. Clarifying further, he says that we receive this spiritual sustenance when believe in him; that is, when we align ourselves with him, commit ourselves to him, and allow our lives to be shaped by his life. Belief is our work.
This bread costs something. It requires us to set aside our selfishness and be retrained according to God’s values as embodied in Jesus. It means living our lives through and for him. Lives of compassion, mercy, humility, and service: in short, we are to emulate as best we can his life of all-embracing, everyone-encompassing love. It means giving ourselves over to the deep and sometimes painful work of transformation that will make us more like Jesus. And, of course, not just for the sake of making us nicer people; it’s so we can be the ones Jesus sends into the world to carry on the work he came to do and has charged us with continuing.
Jesus is the bread of life because he embodies God’s will for our lives. Jesus provides both the example and the fuel we need allow ourselves to be changed into what God intends each of us to be. Jesus is the bread of life because eternal life is to be found – not just in the hereafter – but in the living the way that Jesus lived.
Question of the Week: When you come to the altar rail on Sunday to receive the sacrament of bread, how do you experience it? Does it sustain you? Does it prompt change? Or something else?
Peace,
Mark+
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY July 28, 2024
In our Gospel lesson from this past Sunday (John 6:1-21), we get two famous miracles. Jesus feeds the 5000 and then walks on water. I have a pretty traditional take on Jesus feeding the five thousand. Jesus asks Philip, “Where are we going to get bread for all of these people?” What kind of response does he get? Human realism. But God isn’t bound by human realism. At the end of human knowledge and expectation is Jesus. God can do a lot with very little.
My take on John’s account of Jesus walking on water is somewhat less orthodox. I think the disciples, worn out from the day’s work or distracted by the work ahead, forgot Jesus. They left him on that mountain where he’d gone to pray. Some people on that boat, Peter among them, looked around at some point and said, “Oh, my God. We forgot Jesus.” And imagine you were a disciple and you had forgotten Jesus and then you looked up and saw him coming through the dark mist and walking on the water? “Terrified” wouldn’t begin to cover it.
Each of these stories has something instructive for us. In our recent discussion of the Congregational Assessment Tool (or CAT), one of the things that really stood out to me was the drive that members of the parish have to understand how the church can have a positive impact on Madison, Morgan County, and the world beyond.
Against this backdrop, our Gospel lessons remind us of a couple of important ideas. One, the story of Jesus feeding the 5000 reminds us that small things matter, too. Sure, the church can and should think about specific initiatives and specific programs. It should contemplate and strive to meet specific needs, particularly of the most vulnerable in our communities. But the story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 thousand reminds us that God can do a whole lot with very little. So, by all means, let’s do the big things while not neglecting the smaller ones.
The other point emerges out of my fanciful reading of John’s Gospel account. Whatever this community undertakes as a means of reaching the broader community, however well-intentioned, it can’t do so by leaving Jesus behind. We don’t do things just because they’re good or kind or compassionate. We do them out of gratitude for the grace shown to us and the love that God has placed within each of us simply because of who we are. Can a person do good in the world without the church? Yes. But Advent is a church and this church has a mission: to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ, by praying and worshipping, proclaiming the Gospel, and promoting justice, peace, and love.” And you can’t do any of that by leaving Jesus behind.
Question of the Week: What small act of love or compassion can you perform today that God can take and magnify to reach more and more people?
Peace,
Mark+
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY July 21, 2024
The appointed Gospel reading for this week skips over a bunch of stuff. In the “missing” 19 verses are the feeding of the 5000 and Jesus walking on water. Those stories come back next week. At first, I wondered why the devisers of our lectionary readings edited them this way. But eventually, I got it. When you read these verses assigned for today, there’s one concept that stands out: Jesus’ compassion. The heart of this lesson is Verse 34: “As he went ashore, he saw a great crowd; and he had compassion for them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd; and he began to teach them many things.”
Jesus had compassion for the crowd because they were lost. Modern life isn’t so different. We are all doing our own things, going our own ways, and looking for that perfect green grass that will somehow render life perfect. Jesus’ compassionate response to this aimlessness was to teach. Likewise, we are called to share good news with people we know, to offer healing and redemption to those whose pain arouses compassion in us deep within Jesus invites us to invest in their lives by inviting them into our own, so we can teach them what Jesus taught. When we accept this invitation to discipleship, amazing, miraculous things happen. And the Kingdom of God grows.
Question of the Week: How is the Christian notion of compassion different from pity or empathy?
Faithfully,
Mark+
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY July 14, 2024
This week we heard the story of how John the Baptist came to be beheaded by Herod Antipas. In my experience, most preachers avoid this text because it’s legitimately gruesome. But at least one aspect of the account seems especially instructive for today.
There’s no prior indication that either Herod was especially motivated to commit the evil act with which we associate him. Still, he chose to do so. And why? The text tells us. When Herodias (Salome) asks for John’s head, the text says that Herod “was deeply grieved, yet out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he did not want to refuse her.” He was afraid of being embarrassed in front of his guests, even if it meant killing a man; a man whom Herod considered holy and righteous. His image in the eyes of his guests, his social companions, was more important than a person’s life.
We need to acknowledge that, as human beings, we have a strong instinct to want to belong. We are social creatures. We find security, physically and psychologically, in our identification with groups of other people. There’s nothing inherently wrong with this trait. It can bind us together in ways that can be extraordinarily positive. But it is also a vulnerability. It can lead us down the wrong path. This very human trait can be manipulated and exploited.
The remedy for this potential weakness is recognizing that our humanity, while “fearfully and wonderfully made” as the psalmist says, is not our primary source of identity. Our primary source of identity is as created beings, made in the image of our Creator. Our identity finds its wellspring in God and the values that God cares about. Those values are expressed most clearly in the teachings and the person of Jesus of Nazareth. As followers of Christ, our choices must be informed principally by how they reflect our grounding in gospel values: love of God and neighbor, justice, peace, respect, humility, and kindness.
Question of the Week: What tools do you use to keep you centered on the gospel message when more worldly influences are swirling all around?
Faithfully,
Mark+
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY July 7, 2024
In our Gospel lesson for this past Sunday, we read about the reaction of people in Jesus’ hometown to his teaching. Instead of being proud of one of their own, the text says, they “took offense at him.” Is this a surprising reaction? I don’t believe so. I think they were offended that “one of their own,” “Mary’s boy,” the boy they had seen running around the synagogue as a child, had the nerve to try and teach them new things; radical things like you should love your neighbor as yourself (which really wasn’t new). In effect, they were asking him, “Who do you think you are?”
I wonder how many of us have had similar experiences. Repeated and compelling encounters with the risen Christ will change not just our ideas, but who we are. Some of you will be confronted by people who are not ready for the “new you.” For example, when you point out that Jesus said things like, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it to me.” That’s not an especially popular idea right now. You may be challenged to account for this change in you and commanded to put down the tools you have acquired in favor of community or familial harmony.
Don’t do it. We are instructed to carry out our responsibilities with a confidence that originates directly from God. We must not flinch from utilizing the tools we have acquired to tell others about the transformational power of God’s love for individuals, our communities, and our world. And, even more importantly, through our open and unabashed use of them, we should encourage others to pick up those tools and use them for themselves. That is how we grow the kingdom.
Question of the Week: How do you respond when the change that your encounters with Christ have made in you brings you into conflict with the ideas in the world around you?
Faithfully,
Mark+
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY JUNE 30, 2024
On Sunday, we heard the story of the healing of Jairus’ daughter. Recall that Jairus sent word to Jesus to come while his daughter was still alive. However, by the time Jesus had arrived, the girl had died. When Jesus commented that she was not dead, only asleep, the people around laughed at him. If Jesus had listened to the naysayers, no one would have witnessed the miracle of Jairus’ daughter being restored to life. But he didn’t and they did.
One of the things this passage causes me to think about is the influence of naysayers. Our world is full of naysayers. You don’t have to go far to find people who will tell you what you’re doing isn’t worth doing and is probably doomed to failure anyway. But by focusing only on the negative, they block out any possibility of something different and better – even miraculous – happening.
When we open ourselves up to the presence and the action of God, we learn that there is more going on than meets the eye. We learn that what Jesus says about a situation may be a lot truer than what a naysaying crowd does or what conventional wisdom does. And if we start listening to what Jesus says, we’ll start wanting to go where Jesus goes and share in what Jesus does, and at that point, we will find ourselves in the resurrection business.
Question of the Week: Can you think of a time when naysayers tried to hold you back from something you knew you were called to do? If so, how did you respond?
Faithfully,
Mark+
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY JUNE 23, 2024
We all have storms in our lives, those things that batter and throw us around. And they can cause us to lose sight of the target. Just like the disciples, when those storms rage, instead of talking to God, we try to find our own solutions. I am not sure why, but instead of remembering everything we have learned about Jesus and proclaimed about God, we tend to turn to ourselves or those around us. We search for help in any number of ways instead of starting with the one who is already there.
But, friends, remember this: Jesus does not promise us that if we follow him our lives will be smooth sailing. Jesus promises that he will be with us to the end. Remember that Jesus is close by. We will endure storms. We will face difficulties in our lives. But we must remember that Jesus walks beside us. Just like the disciples, Jesus is in the boat with us. Jesus suffers through the storms with us. And Jesus assures us that God will always be present. Even when it feels like the boat is about to tip over, eventually the calm will come.
Question of the Week: Can you remember a time in which God helped calm a storm that was raging in your life?
Faithfully,
Mark+
PRIEST’S MESSAGE – SUNDAY JUNE 16, 2024
In our Gospel lesson from this past week, Jesus uses two parables to teach us about the nature of the kingdom of God. The first is a lesson about how the kingdom of God grows. And I think this is one of the most startling statements in all of Scripture: Jesus says that just as the earth produces of itself, automatically, so it is with God’s kingdom. If someone cares enough to plant the seed of the kingdom, that’s enough. Just put the kingdom out there in the world, Jesus says, even into this seriously messed up one we’re living in and it will come up a perfect kingdom all by itself…first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain.”
The second lesson suggests that, while our efforts to sow the seed of God’s kingdom may not always seem significant, the parable of the mustard seed promises that the smallest effort, the least kindness, perhaps a single invitation, or one word of mercy, or a solitary moment of grace can grow into something magnificent and wonderful. And, says Jesus, as the seed grows, the resulting mustard shrub “puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”
Question of the Week: What small seeds are you planting that God can use to change the world around you to accomplish God’s purposes?
Faithfully,
Mark+
Priest’s message – Sunday June 9, 2024
We can look at all of the wonderful and miraculous things that Jesus did in these first few chapters of Mark and say, “Well, isn’t that wonderful?” But that is absolutely not what the people in Jesus’ time thought. They thought Jesus was crazy. The people said, “He is gone out of mind.” And his mama and other family members came to get him. To restrain him if you can believe it.
Within this context, when I say “crazy,” I mean I don’t mean a mental health challenge. I mean when people say things we don’t like or they make us uncomfortable or they challenge long-held views or our notions of reality. In that sense, we might say, “Oh, those people are crazy.”
In a world consumed with violence, hate, and division – our gospel proclamation of love, especially loving those most different from us, is going to make some people say, just like those same people would have said about Jesus, “You know what: those Episcopalians aren’t playing with a full deck. Look who they socialize with. Look who that crowd from Advent invites to their church. They will want us to take our message of unconditional love and just go away. They’re crazy.”
Paul reminds us in First Corinthians, that the “wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.” So, you know, maybe we are crazy by human standards. Crazy because we believe that all people are beloved children of God – male or female, young or old, rich or poor, gay, straight, or transgendered, republican, democrat, or independent, conservative or liberal, immigrant or native-born. Crazy because we believe that the lonely, the hungry, the sick, the imprisoned, the oppressed, the poor, the addicted, and the depressed, are Christ himself, and we will see them, touch them, and love them. Crazy because we believe the love of Jesus Christ compels us to love one another, especially the people we don’t like.
If that’s what crazy looks like, then count me in. I want to be crazy like Jesus.
Question of the Week: What crazy thing are you willing to do this week to further the gospel?
Faithfully,
Mark+
Priest’s message – Sunday June 2, 2024
The Sabbath was in focus during our Gospel reading this past Sunday. Obviously, in Jesus’ time, sabbath regulations were a serious business. But Jesus also makes it very clear that “The sabbath was made for humankind, not humankind for the sabbath.”
I think one of our takeaways is that while tradition has its place, there are times when tradition must give way to compassion and meeting the needs of others. Tradition is useful if it helps us shape our ministry in a way that reflects God’s love. Tradition ceases to be useful when we serve tradition in and of itself rather than acting out of love towards others.
Another takeaway is that the sabbath is useful for Christians, too. God did not design us to spend our entire lives in economic activity. He gave us bodies that need a cycle of work and rest. Also, a day of rest is not necessarily a day to do nothing. We live busy lives and our weekdays are often frantic; we don’t often have time to do the good deeds we’d like to do – visiting a lonely relative, helping out a neighbor who needs some yard work done, visiting sick people in the hospital, and so on. These are all good ways of keeping a holy sabbath.
Question of the Week: How are you keeping a holy sabbath week-to-week?
Faithfully,
Mark+
Priest’s message – Sunday May 26, 2024
In my experience, the doctrine of the Trinity is hard for many of us to get our minds around. And many of us, I would suspect, allow our discomfort with the doctrine to lie quite undisturbed in the corners of our minds. But, when we do that, I think we miss an opportunity to appreciate something profound about the Trinity and us as human beings.
As Christians we believe that God is three-in-one, God’s nature is relationship. That implies that, being created in God’s image, we are created for relationships, too. The creativity and love that God experiences in the dance of the Trinity extends out into all of creation, and us. Paul talks about “adoption,” the process by which we become part of God’s “family.” Again, it’s about relationship.
The Trinity is a mystery that I cannot solve for us. I can only tell you that I find consolation, hope, and strength in knowing that God’s love draws me toward God’s self, and in the love of God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I can rest as God’s beloved adopted child. My prayer is that you can experience that love and consolation as well.
Question of the Week: How does an understanding of the Holy Spirit as relationship change, if at all, your notions of what it means to be in relationship with others?
Faithfully,
Mark+
Priest’s message – Sunday May 19, 2024
On Pentecost Sunday, we heard about the Holy Spirit descending like tongues of fire onto the gathered disciples. They were filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in tongues.
While some of us might not relate to that particular experience of the Spirit, we should remember what Jesus says elsewhere in John to Nicodemus: In Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus, he says, “The Spirit, or wind, blows where it chooses.”
Christians, whatever their affiliation, are spirit-filled people, whether we act like it or not, whether we feel it or not. The Holy Spirit blows to and fro in our lives, leading us in new directions. It is not subject to human manipulation; it is not subject to our desires and the limits we place on it.
And it’s not just a warm fuzzy feeling or an emotional high we get in worship. The Holy Spirit is more than that. It is more than us. And because of that it can be scary. It can loosen us from our safe moorings. But as Jesus tells his disciples in John, the Spirit is our Guide and Comforter, it is leading us forward into the future, into the truth.
Question of the Week: Where can you feel the Holy Spirit moving in your life today?
Faithfully,
Mark+
Priest’s message – Sunday May 12, 2024
In our Gospel reading this past Sunday, Jesus prayed for his disciples. It’s a long prayer and he touched on a few important themes. First, Jesus clarified that the core of the disciples’ identity was their belief that Jesus had come from God.
Jesus also clarified that, though the disciples were not products of the world, they were most assuredly in the world. He prayed to God the Father: “I am not asking you to take them out of the world….” Disciples must be in the world to serve as examples of a better way to live.
Finally, Jesus prays for the disciples to be one. “Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.” In these last moments before he is arrested, tried, executed, and resurrected, Jesus is praying for unity among the disciples, not for agreement on every subject, but for unity found in identity in Christ and forged in mutual respect, integrity, and an unwavering commitment to the Gospel message.
Question for the Week: How do you understand your identity in Christ to be linked with the necessity of unity in the Body of Christ?
Faithfully,
Mark+
Priest’s message – Sunday May 5, 2024
“You did not choose me,” Jesus said to his disciples in Sunday’s gospel reading, “but I chose you.” In doing so, he continued a long tradition of God choosing unlikely people for even more unlikely tasks: Joseph, Moses, Mary, Peter, and the countless others than we hear about in Scripture.
And, as his contemporary disciples, Jesus has chosen us, too. But chosen for what? It seems indisputable to me that the church is needed now more than ever to bring love, compassion, and hope to a world in which they are severely lacking. The question is how?
So the questions I would encourage us all to consider this week are:
“I know that Jesus has chosen me. But what has he chosen me for? How can I take the love of God that flows through me and apply it to the world in a way that impacts others for the better?”
Faithfully,
Mark+