Sunday, September 12, 2021

I remember when. . . I remember where I was when I heard/learned that . . .

How might you complete one of those sentences? It may come from a memory that is personal, or one that is communal. The images, sounds and feelings you recall may make you smile and your heart warm, or may bring you back to a deep ache. Our collective memories are shaped by age, where we’ve lived, cultural and life experiences, etc. These are passed down to the generations that follow.

This week, as we remember the 20th anniversary of 9/11, many of us recall when and where we were on that day. There is also a growing number of young people who have no living memory of that day, but are shaped through ours, and learn from them.

This Sunday, in worship, we spend some time in the Book of Genesis with the story of Joseph, his brothers and their father. To say this was a complicated relationship would be an understatement. There was great harm and tragedy, but also opportunity for reconnecting. This week and next, our Jewish siblings celebrate the High Holy Days. This includes Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, which is recognized as the holiest day of the year. We all are invited to consider the importance of remembering, repenting and approaching forgiveness and reconciliation as entering into new relationship.

In our time of worship, we will also share inspiring music including hymns and musical offerings from our Sanctuary Singers (accompanied by Matthew Wachtman), a children’s moment (with Mary Beth and Rodney Long), prayer and reflection (led by Brenda Bailey-Hughes), and a sharing of the scripture passage from Cooper Tucker and Rodney Long, based on based on Genesis 50:15-21. The sermon title is “Living Into and Beyond our Remembering”.

If you have been part of the St. Mark’s community for decades, or will be joining us for the first time, we look forward to connecting with those of you here in-person or joining on the live stream at 10:30am this Sunday!

Sunday, September 5, 2021

Early each morning, while it is still quite dark at this time of year, I walk our dogs. There is a quiet stillness, occasionally punctuated by the sounds of birds I cannot identify calling from the nearby woods. And of course, there is wildlife: creatures who have become accustomed to humans settling in their terrain…rabbits, deer, sometimes coyotes and occasionally, a fox. When I see a fox, I am reminded of a poem from Mary Oliver, who writes about walking on the dunes when she came across a red fox sleeping under a pine tree. She concludes that poem with these words:

So I stood on the pale, peach-colored sand, watching the fox as it opened like a flower, and I began softly, to pick among the vast assortment of words that it should run again and again across the page that you again and again should shiver with praise.

“Shiver with praise.” For people of faith, praise is at the core of who we are. God “inhabits our praises,” says the psalmist. Praise, rightly practiced, takes us from places of boredom and discontent, and helps construct a world in which we live in love and wonder. Praise takes our breath away as we sense the deep goodness, the captivating beauty and the graceful truth of the Divine Love. Praise helps us trust the goodness of life.

But what happens when we misplace our praise? What can we do when we cannot find that part of us which easily welcomes wonder when she presents herself? The hymn writer says, “Let the Amen sounds from God’s people again.” But how can the Amen be readily spoken or sung when other realities are making themselves known: discord, despair, hate and injustice? How can we praise then?

We’ll talk about this on Sunday in worship. The sermon is titled “Finding Our Amen,” arising from Psalm 146, which will be read by Jeff Fender. Patrick Conklin, accompanied by Matthew Wachtman, will sing a solo. We’ll sing hymns, have a moment for children, and pray together. We’ll also celebrate Levi Fender’s accomplishment in becoming an Eagle Scout, and receive him as a church member.

If you have been part of the St. Mark’s community for decades, or will be joining us for the first time, we look forward to connecting with those of you here or on the live stream at www.smumc.church at 10:30am this Sunday!

Sunday, August 29, 2021

During the seventh inning stretch at many baseball parks, those in attendance sing “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”. This became a deeply loved tradition at Wrigley Field in Chicago when former television announcer Harry Caray brought his own unique flair to the moment. Since his death, each game a different famous guest singer leads the crowds. One of the more memorable singers was Mike Ditka, who at the time was the rough and rowdy coach of the Chicago Bears. He arrived late to the booth, and was out of breath when he began. When he sang, he did so at a rapid, breathless pace, easily racing past the organist who was desperately trying to keep up. In music, in life, and in faith, tempo matters.

The writer of the Letter of James, believed by many scholars to be one of the earliest writings in the New Testament, agreed. “Let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness.” As “emotional intelligence” theorists tell us, when our brain speeds ahead, we get caught up in reactive process, typically fight or flight.

There is no one right tempo for faith. But in a world in which we stay too busy, and in a culture that is increasingly angry, perhaps one of the gifts of grace would be to find a way to slow down. Perhaps our music can help us reflect, and to attentively engage our friends and neighbors.

We’ll talk about that in worship on Sunday. The sermon is titled “The Tempo of Grace”, and flows from James 1:17-27, which will be read by Cooper Tucker. The Sanctuary Singers, accompanied by Matthew Wachtman, will present the anthem. We’ll have a moment for children, hymns and prayers. We will also have a blessing for our new sanctuary piano.

If you have been part of the St. Mark’s community for decades, or will be joining us for the first time, we look forward to connecting with those of you here or on the live stream at www.smumc.church at 10:30am this Sunday!

Sunday, August 22, 2021

They’re back! If you ventured out of your home this week onto State Road 46 or drove near the vicinity of the Indiana University Bloomington campus, you realized that students have returned. Of course, a large percentage of them have never been here before, and many are attending other schools than IU. But they all have something in common: they are travelers on a journey, literally and metaphorically moving from one place to another. They are redefining relationships with family and familiar friends, and are forging new connections, some of whom will be a part of their forever community. They are finding new places to sleep, new businesses to patronize, new establishments to frequent, and new communities of faith in which to worship and service. They are, in effect, pilgrims. They share a continuing journey in search of a better and more whole life. They do not do this alone.

In a sense, we are all pilgrims. We have those places we call home, and that True North in our spirits that calls us to our deeper home. But we also realize that we find ourselves, sometimes knowingly and sometimes not, in difficult and unexpected spiritual and emotional places. These are the places we visit, sometimes for very long periods of time. Part of the skill of pilgrimage is the ability to strengthen ourselves when we become weak and discouraged on the journey.

Many scholars believe that Psalm 84 is the song of a pilgrim, one who was on the difficult path to Jerusalem for one of the three large festivals. The singer begins, “How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the Lord.” The weary pilgrim is sustained in the journey by song, by the community of travelers, and by the vision of the place where God dwells.

For those of us weary from pandemic, from society’s tensions, and from the difficulties of our own spiritual walk, this psalm speaks with power. The sermon Sunday arises from Psalm 84, and is titled “Good News for Weary Pilgrims.” The Scripture will be read by Marlen Rust, and we will have hymns, prayers and a time for children. The Sanctuary Singers, under the direction of Gerry Sousa, and accompanied by Matthew Wachtman, will sing “How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place” from Brahms’ A German Requiem. And we will have a time of consecration and dedication for the Chancel Accessibility Ramp.

If you have been part of the St. Mark’s community for decades, or will be joining us for the first time, we look forward to connecting with those of you here or on the live stream at www.smumc.church at 10:30am this Sunday!

Sunday, July 11, 2021

In her poem “In the Storm”, Mary Oliver invites us into a snowstorm in which birds, of various feathers, come together and shelter each other in the midst of the tumult. She notes some may find this hard to believe. Yet, she writes,

“Belief isn't always easy. But this much I have learned, if not enough else— to live with my eyes open.” (Oliver, 2006)

Oliver then muses about miracles, and invites us to consider kindness as a miracle. This Sunday, we enter into a familiar story of Jesus and a few disciples out in a boat during a strong storm. Jesus remains asleep. Filled with fear, the disciples call out to him and he stills the storm. We will spend some time this week considering how this story might invite us to consider the role fear, belief and the sense of miracle in our lives as individuals and community.

In our time of worship, we will also share inspiring music including hymns and musical offerings from our Sanctuary Singers (accompanied by Ilze Akerbergs), solo by Stephanie Conklin, a children’s moment, prayer and reflection, and a reading of the scripture passage based on Mark 4:35-41 by Connie Shakalis. The sermon title is “Asking For A Miracle, And Unexpected Grace Appears”. If you have been part of the St. Mark’s community for decades, or will be joining us for the first time, we look forward to connecting with those of you here in-person or on the live stream at 10:30am this Sunday.

(Oliver, Mary. Thirst. Beacon Press, 2006.)

Sunday, July 4, 2021

In 1940, Thomas Wolfe’s novel, You Can’t Go Home Again, was published (posthumously). It is the story of a man named George Webber who has written a widely acclaimed book about his family and hometown. The trouble is, when he does go back to that town, he discovers that unlike others who loved his book, the citizens of his home town hate it, and are offended at his portrayal of them. In the book, Webber names his discovery: "You can't go back home to your family, back home to your childhood ... back home to a young man's dreams of glory and of fame ... back home to places in the country, back home to the old forms and systems of things which once seemed everlasting but which are changing all the time – back home to the escapes of Time and Memory."

Once Jesus returned to his hometown, and the reports of his teaching and healing ministry had preceded him. The folks from Nazareth, his hometown, can’t quite figure this out. They know him as the carpenter, as the son of Mary, and as part of a collection of siblings. Nothing that they have known of him has prepared them for this new understanding of Jesus. Mark says that they take offense at him. Jesus, reflecting on this less than welcoming reception, said, “Prophets are not without honor except in their hometown.”

This is a striking observation. Could it mean that a certain kind of familiarity with Jesus, or anyone, can prevent one from accepting new light? And if so, what does that mean for those of us who through decades of Christian teaching are very “familiar” with Jesus? For that matter, what can that mean for this country, celebrating its birthday this week, in which Christianity is a widely “familiar” faith tradition, but there exist such widely divergent opinions about what Jesus is calling us to do?

We’ll talk about this on Sunday morning. The sermon is titled, “A Case of Mistaken Familiarity,” arising from Mark 6: 1-13. In the service, we’ll share hymns, pray and have a moment for children. And the Sanctuary Singers, accompanied by Ilze Akerbergs, will lead us musically.

If you have been part of the St. Mark’s community for decades, or will be joining us for the first time, we look forward to connecting with those of you here or on the live stream at 10:30am this Sunday. You can find the livestream link at www.smumc.church. There also is an intimate Service of Holy Communion in the SMUMC Library at 8:30 AM.

Sunday, June 27, 2021

At Wrigley Field in Chicago, where the Cubs play baseball, there used to be a little opening in the exterior of the ball park near right field, a hole in the wall, where you could see a bit of the actual ball field. (I think recent developments have taken this away.) It was interesting to watch children, and some adults, strain at this small opening to see what they could of what was happening inside the stadium. They were, literally, on the outside looking in.

That happens to us. Those of us who have had bumpy professional rides can look at those with well-established careers and wonder that that must be like. Some who hope to be in relationships look at couples who seem to be doing well, and wish for something like that for themselves. Those who long to be fully welcomed into church, but have been either ignored or shunned for varieties of reasons, know exactly what this is like to be on the outside of the church’s embrace. And those who have dreamt of justice for themselves but are routinely denied a full seat at the table know all too well what it is like to be on the “outside” looking in.

The biblical passage for Sunday includes a story of one such person. (Actually, there are two stories in the passage, but we’ll address that on Sunday.) In this story, a woman has been suffering from a long-term malady that is not only physically depleting, but keeps her from being able to worship. She is considered ritually ‘unclean’. In the story, even though she is in the midst of a large crowd, she is on the outside looking in at the possibility of living a restored life. And so, believing that she can be healed if she would only touch the hem of Jesus’ garment, she does so. Jesus notices this connection, and calls out for whomever has touched him to reveal themselves. Trembling, the woman identifies herself. Jesus commends her for her faith. Her story is a witness that God longed for us all to be “inside”, not “outside”. This faith has made her whole.

We’ll talk about what this means for all of us on Sunday in worship. The sermon is titled “On the Outside Looking In”, arising from Mark 5: 21-43. The passage will be read by Ceci Maron-Puntarelli and Tory Puntarelli. Music Leadership will be provided by the Sanctuary Singers, accompanied by Ilze Akerbergs, as they present the anthem “What Wondrous Love Is This?” There will be hymns, prayers and a moment for children.

If you have been part of the St. Mark’s community for decades, or will be joining us for the first time, we look forward to connecting with those of you here or on the live stream at 10:30am this Sunday at www.smumc.church.

Sunday, June 20, 2021

Five Small Stones

The message this week is entitled “Five Small Stones” and focuses on the Biblical story of David and Goliath. The key point of the message will be about facing situations that seem hopeless with faith and with the tools we already have at hand. The title comes from the five small stones that David picked up after refusing to wear a grown man’s armor (which didn’t fit him). Those stones, his familiar sling, and faith where what David took with him to meet the giant Goliath.

The message will also briefly touch on Juneteenth, Father’s Day, and Pride Month. The message will be delivered by Craig A. Stewart, a member of St. Mark’s UMC and a Certified Lay Speaker. Craig encourages those who are looking for ways to expand their faith and service to consider the Certified Lay Speaker program.

Certified Lay Speakers receive training that is useful to their own faith journeys while preparing them to serve in the Pulpit. (CLMs do not perform weddings, baptisms, or lead communion). Training includes six classes ranging from the history of governance in the UMC to very practical instruction and practice in preaching. More information is available at https://www.inumc.org/ministries/leadership-development/lay-leadership-development/lay-servant-ministries/certified-lay-speaker/ .

In our time of worship, we will share inspiring music including hymns and musical offerings from our Sanctuary Singers (accompanied by Ilze Akerbergs), a children’s moment with Mary Beth Morgan, prayer and reflection, and a reading of the scripture passage based on 1 Samuel 17:(1a, 4-11, 19-23) by Rev. John McFarland. The sermon title is “Five Small Stones”.

If you have been part of the St. Mark’s community for decades, or will be joining us for the first time, we look forward to connecting with those of you here or on the live stream at 10:30am this Sunday.

Sunday, June 13, 2021

Regardless of political affiliation, a memory many of us share from President Biden’s inauguration was the National Youth Poet Laureate, Amanda Gorman, reading her poem “The Hill We Climb”. The new National Youth Poet Laureate was announced last month. Alexandra Huynh, 18, is a second-generation Vietnamese American from Sacramento, CA. She will be starting college at Stanford. What would you guess that she plans for her major- English Literature? Writing? Actually, she plans to study Engineering. In an interview with the Associated Press (May 21, 2021), Huynh said “she hopes to challenge herself to think in ways she hasn’t before and work out ideas ‘across disciplines’.”

The scripture passage this Sunday comes from Mark 4:26-34 in which Jesus shares two parables. Parables are not simple stories with clear answers or direction. As Biblical scholar, Karoline Lewis notes, “Jesus tells parables not for explanation but for exploration. Not for answers but so as to engage the imagination. Not for certainties about faith but for discoveries about how faith works.” (https://www.workingpreacher.org June 7, 2015)

Sometimes we choose what might appear to be straight paths. Other times we veer from what is expected, or we may take another direction out of necessity. As we celebrate our graduates this Sunday, we also include in our prayers and support those whose paths have led them to working in the world, serving our country, volunteering or working with NGO’s or other non-profits, and those figuring out next steps.

In reality, we are all figuring out next steps. This Sunday, we consider what that might mean for us as individuals, a community of faith and a greater world. What might we learn from these parables? In our time of worship, we will share inspiring music including hymns and musical offerings from our Sanctuary Singers (accompanied by Ilze Akerbergs), a children’s moment, a Celebration and Blessing of Graduates, prayer and reflection, and a reading of the scripture passage based on Mark 4:26-34 read by Regan Theile. The sermon title is “The Grace of Our Ever Unfolding Stories”.

If you have been part of the St. Mark’s community for decades, or will be joining us for the first time, we look forward to connecting with those of you here or on the live stream at 10:30am this Sunday.

Sunday, June 6, 2021

Have you ever been in a cave? I remember a time many years ago when I took my children on a cave tour in Arkansas. To be honest, I don’t remember exactly where it was. Before we embarked on the tour, we were warned by the guides to take our jackets with us. Indeed, it was quite chilly most of the time we were underground, which was over an hour. At one point, they told us to hold on to each other and the rail, as we entered a large, darkened room. But it was only when the guide turned on the lights that we saw, to our astonishment, that we were in a room of incredible beauty and massive size. In a word, it was breathtaking. And I never expected to encounter such wonder in the mysterious place where we found ourselves.

Have you ever felt you were in a cave, in a spiritual sense? Joseph Campbell once said, “The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.” The quote can sound charming when you are speaking in the language of myth and metaphor. But when you are “living in the cave”, the spiritual place where you cannot see your hand in front of your face and you are not sure if you are going to make it, it’s a different matter. The urgent needs to breathe and survive can overwhelm the longing for beauty and the desire for inner peace. For us, the cave might be charged by grief, or guilt, or oppression or depression, but spiritual cave travelers can all dread the loss of light and the fear that the walls will start closing in.

The singer in Psalm 130 begins the song with the passionate prayer, “Out of the depths, I cry to you, O Lord.” The psalm has become the source of many songs of mourning, and has come to be called “De Profundis”, meaning, “out of the depths”. In the psalm, however, the singer moves from this broken place to a quest for forgiveness, and then to a place of waiting and trusting. By praying the prayer from the deep place, a sense of profound trust emerges. “With the Lord, there is steadfast love, and great power to redeem.”

The sermon on Sunday is titled, “The Grace of Bottoming Out”, and arises from Psalm 130. In the service, our Sanctuary Singers will be back live in the worship service. We’ll have a children’s moment, prayers and hymns. We hope you join us, either in person or on the live stream.

If you have been part of the St. Mark’s community for decades, or will be joining us for the first time, we look forward to connecting with you in person, if you have registered on Eventbrite, or on the live stream at 10:30am this Sunday.

Sunday, May 30, 2021

What song will you sing? For many of us, one of the greatest restrictions of the pandemic has been the need to refrain from singing together in public. So I asked on Facebook the other day, “What song have you most missed singing?” Or, perhaps better said, when we are able to be fully back together, and able to sing “lustily and with good courage, as Wesley said, what song will you most look forward to singing? The responses have been varied, and include “This is my Song,” “His Eye Is On the Sparrow,”, “In the Garden,” “If I Had a Hammer,” “How Great Thou Art,” several movements from Handel’s Messiah, and quite fittingly, “How Can I Keep From Singing?” Singing, and music in general, are inextricably linked to our lives and our faith. We are better versions of ourselves when we are engaging them.

What song will you sing? Emily Saliers, one of the members the folk rock duo, the Indigo Girls, sometimes collaborates with her father, Don Saliers, a musician and a theologian of worship. Together, they wrote A Song to Sing, A Life to Live: Reflections on Music as Spiritual Practice. In that book, Emily writes about her song, “She’s Saving Me,” which she wrote following the death of her adult sister Carrie. Speaking of the power of that song for her, she writes, “When I sing it, Carrie comes back to me, and Is with me. That is when I know that music can be a spiritual gift and that it has the power to bring to life those who have passed through death. So with music, I am never really alone.”

What song will you sing? In the sixth chapter of Isaiah, the prophet has a vision of God. In that vision, the Lord is exalted and being attended to by angels (seraphs) and they are saying the poetic line, which has entered into the musical tradition of the Church, “Holy, Holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts. The whole earth is full of God’s glory.” The passage concludes with a call from God for someone to be “go” out to prophesy to the people, and Isaiah responds, “Here am I. Send me.” But the passage begins with what some have believed to be a throwaway line. “In the year that King Uzziah died…” But it makes sense to read the statement as indicating a significant shift for Isaiah and God’s people. And in that complicated time of changing, the song about holy glory came to them. In these complicated days, what songs will we sing?

We’ll discuss this in worship on Sunday. This Sunday is “Trinity Sunday”, and the Isaiah passage is one of the suggested scriptures for the day. The sermon is titled “What Song Will You Sing?” and it arises from Isaiah 6: 1-8. The Sanctuary Singers, accompanied by Nara Lee, will lead us musically, and we will have hymns, prayers and a moment for children.

Whether you have been part of the St. Mark’s community for decades, or will be joining us for the first time, we look forward to connecting with those of you in person worship or on the live stream at 10:30am this Sunday.

Sunday, May 23, 2021

This Sunday, we celebrate Pentecost, the day in which disciples of Jesus receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is sometimes called the birthday of the Christian church. In this time of pandemic, birthdays have been experienced differently for many of us. Some have known lonely days, cherishing a card and note from a dear friend. Others have had safe and creative celebrations with car parades, signs and loud honking horns. Those with access to technology may have had the gift of presence with loved ones, from near and far away places, on Zoom.

In his book, The Cherry Log Sermons, Fred Craddock reminds us that, like birthday celebrations, there are also different versions of the story of Pentecost in the New Testament. The one in the Book of Acts (2:1-21) is more like a big and loud birthday celebration. The gift of the Holy Spirit comes as strong wind sweeps through the room where over 100 are gathered. In the Gospel of John (20:19-23), there is a more personal and intimate gathering with Jesus and some of those closest to him. Jesus comes to them, through a locked door, and greets them with the words “Peace be with you”. He breathes on them saying “Receive the Holy Spirit.” This gift is also given to us, even if we cannot logically comprehend or describe it in words. This Sunday, we will consider together what Pentecost might mean for us individually, and as a community, today.

In our time of worship, we will share inspiring music including hymns and musical offerings from our Sanctuary Singers (accompanied by Nara Lee) and our Bell Choir, a children’s moment, prayer and reflection, and a reading of the scripture passage based on Acts 2:1-21. The sermon title is “The Gift of Presence”.

If you have been part of the St. Mark’s community for decades, or will be joining us for the first time, we look forward to connecting with those of you here or on the live stream at 10:30am this Sunday.

Fred Craddock, "The Softer Side of Pentecost" in The Cherry Log Sermons (Westminster John Knox Press, 2001)

SUNDAY, MAY 16, 2021

“How long is the wait?” To the understandable chagrin of many restaurant owners and patrons, there was not a lot of dining out during the darkest days of the pandemic. But if you can remember those days “before,” when going out to eat was more common, there was one part of the experience many did not enjoy: the “wait”. It was the interval of time that ensued after we inquired from the host how long it would be before we could get a table, to the time we actually sat down and gave the staff our food orders. During that interval, we have a choice to make. We can either watch the clock, anxiously monitoring the time it takes for us to be served, or simply enjoy being the company of those at our table. It is a choice about what to do in the interval.

Much of life is lived in the interval, the time between promise and fulfillment, between diagnosis and recovery, between being lost and being found. The interval is what happens between the first day of class and the final exam, between “once upon a time” to “and now you know the rest of the story.” It can seem that the intensity of a new beginning and the longing for the clarity of a conclusion are the great moments of our lives. But most of our days are spent in the interval, trying to decide who we are, where we see the presence of God, and who are our deep friends.

Luke tells us that forty days after the resurrection, while meeting with the disciples, Jesus was “lifted up” and taken out of their sight. The Church has called this the Ascension, and with it there commences a ten day time of waiting for the Day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was experienced in power. And as the disciples stared upward as Jesus departed, they were asked by angelic messengers, “Why do you stand looking up toward heaven?” During the intervals of life and faith, we are called to discern where our attention should be directed, and what our waiting for the promised conclusion shall entail.

We’ll talk about this in worship on Sunday morning, as the sermon is titled, “Living in the Interval”. The scripture for Sunday is Acts 11: 1-11, which will be read by Pam Vanzant. The Sanctuary Singers, accompanied by Nara Lee, will lead us musically. We will have a moment for children, prayers and hymns.

If you have been part of the St. Mark’s community for decades, or will be joining us for the first time, we look forward to connecting with you in person, if you have registered on Eventbrite, or on the live stream at 10:30am this Sunday.

SUNDAY, MAY 9, 2021

Arab-American poet Naomi Shihab Nye writes in her poem, “Red Brocade”,

“The Arabs used to say, ‘When a stranger appears at your door, feed him for three days before asking who he is, where he’s come from, where he’s headed. That way, he’ll have strength enough to answer. Or, by then you’ll be such good friends you don’t care.’”

What is friendship for a person of Christian faith? How do friendships come to be? Part discovery and part decision, friendship helps sustain, support and challenge us. It is practically sacramental, a means of grace that transforms life in ways we can barely put into language. Like trees, long standing friendships have many interior rings, and like those rings, a strong friendship will tell the story of crises we have weathered together. They are also witness to the strengths we share. And if we are willing, friendship can grow within relationships for folks who are just getting to know each other, because we recognize the living Christ in our newfound brothers and sisters. Such is the enduring and transforming power of Christian community.

Long years ago, I was attending a preaching workshop in which the facilitator told us that there were four questions that people asked when in crisis…either normal developmental crises or those that erupt when we least expect them. Those questions are: Who am I? What do I believe? What is my life about? Who are my friends? As I grow older, and certainly as we emerge from a pandemic, I sense that the question of friendship may be the most pivotal of the four. Moreover, in a day of paralyzing polarization, the grace of friendship may help us find a path through.

In Jesus’ last night with his disciples, during the long discourse at table that we find in the Gospel of John, Jesus said to the disciples, “I do not call you servants any longer…I have called you friends.” In worship on Sunday, we’ll reflect on that statement, and pay attention to where it takes us. The sermon is titled, “With Friends Like These: Holy Friendship and Spiritual Transformation.” The sermon flows from John 15: 9-17, which will be read by Jason and Zoe Peifer. The Sanctuary Singers, led by Nara Lee, will lead us musically, and there will be a moment for children, prayers and hymns.

If you have been part of the St. Mark’s community for decades, or will be joining us for the first time, we look forward to connecting with you in person (please register on Eventbrite) or on the live stream at 10:30am this Sunday.

Sunday, May 2, 2021

Last week, I drove to Kansas for a brief visit with my oldest son. I was two hours away when I heard, on the radio, that the jury had reached a verdict in the charges against Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd. It would still be awhile before the announcement of the verdict, and I decided to go into Topeka to the historic site commemorating Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 Supreme Court case that ruled racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional.

Next to that site is an incredible mural that covers the outside wall of a building. It tells the story of Brown v. Board, but in relationship to those who came before and those who are present now. Over 2,000 individuals, of all ages, were part of creating this mural, representing how we come along side one another.

In our liturgical year, we are between Easter and Pentecost. Our scripture reading this week (from John 14:15-21) reminds us that Jesus tried to prepare his disciples for his physical death and departure from this world. He tells them that he is not abandoning them. For, he will be sending another Advocate or Paraclete (the Holy Spirit), which can have the meaning “to come along side another.” Jesus did this in his time on earth, as does the Holy Spirit, and we are encouraged to do the same with one another.

In our time of worship, we will share inspiring music including hymns and musical offerings from our singers (accompanied by Nara Lee), a children’s moment, prayer and reflection, and the reading of the scripture passage based on John 14:15-21. The sermon title is “Whispers of Wisdom.”

If you have been part of the St. Mark’s community for decades, or will be joining us for the first time, we look forward to connecting with you on the live stream at 10:30am this Sunday.