Romans 1:1-7

THE LETTER OF PAUL TO THERomans
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures, the gospel concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for the sake of his name, including yourselves who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,
 To all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints:
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Today's reading is typical of Paul's introductions to the letters he wrote to communities that he helped found and form. The difference here is that the church in Rome is not a community that Paul had actually visited or helped to found. 

Paul believed that the radical claim of "Jesus is Lord" was a direct and necessary challenge to the Roman claim that "Caesar is Lord". This is critical to Paul in claiming that Jesus was indeed equal and co-eternal with the God of the Jews. For Paul it logically follows that every power and principality is subject to the kingship of Jesus and that the coming of the Kingdom of God is the central and ultimate truth to which all of creation toward which the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus points.

Paul begins laying the groundwork for his project of full inclusion of all people in the mission of God or missio Dei represented by Jesus ongoing work in the world through the witness and struggles of the fulfillment of God's plan for the world proclaimed in the person of Jesus and his ongoing ministry in and to the world.

20 August 2018
 
Dear St. Mark’s Community,
 
Over the past several weeks we have concentrated on the Letter to the Ephesians in our Bible Study and Preaching. The Cliff’s Notes version has been Paul’s (?) message to a church seeking to find its voice in a new apostolic age. That basically means this church is being directed by the author of the letter to get clear about what the Good News (Gospel) of God in Christ is and how to go about sharing this Gospel with the people among whom the community lives, moves and has its being.  I have been concentrating on this basic call of and to community as a model for how we might be called to discern and articulate our call to mission and ministry at St. Mark’s.
 
In his contemporary American Opera, Porgy and Bess, George Gershwin famously wrote perhaps the work’s most famous song, “Summertime (and the Living is Easy)”. In a number of ways the American Church has patterned its first leg of Ordinary Time (the Season after Pentecost) along similar lines. September is often viewed as the beginning of the ‘program year’ in the church. Life at St. Mark’s is no different in many ways and profoundly different in another. Summertime is often viewed as a sort of ‘holding pattern’ in the church. That is, a time of waiting for the ‘real work’ of ministry to begin again.
 
The ‘program year’ is often viewed as the time when ministries ramp up for another year in the life of a congregation. For any number of parishes this means more of the same with a sprinkling of new initiatives and responses to the needs of the congregation and the community it has been called to serve and in which it has been commissioned to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”[1]
 
The basic story of Porgy and Bess is of Porgy, a disabled African-American street beggar living in the slums of Charleston, South Carolina and his efforts to save Bess from the clutches of her principal exploiters, Crown, a violent and possessive lover and Sportin’ Life, Bess’s drug dealer. It seems to me there are important parallels for our common life at St. Mark’s.
 
Like Porgy, we have obvious and seemingly insurmountable challenges to the mission to which we have been called. Also like Porgy, we are bound not to let those limitations keep us from serving as agents of good in the lives of those we have been called to seek and serve in our community.
Despite ups and downs, barriers and obstacles, Porgy persists in his mission to save Bess in spite of his limitations and the underdog and apparently futile nature of his commitment to seeing Bess freed from the clutches of the relationships that threaten to destroy her life.
 
We too are called to persist in the work we have been given to do in being the incarnation of the Body of Christ in Hampton, the Peninsula, the Commonwealth, the nation and the world.
 
To be sure, there are problems with the depiction of African American life as written by composer George, lyricist Ira Gershwin and DuBose Heyward (the author of the story upon which Porgy and Bess is based). That being said I believe that we can learn from Porgy’s tenacious pursuit of one whom he loves and the noble and enduring aims he has in seeking the redemption of Bess despite her troubles and somewhat dubious life choices.
 
In the days, weeks and months to come it is my fervent prayer that we, like Porgy, pursue the work we have been given to do without fear of the damage it may do to our reputation and with the steadfast belief in the power of love to set free captives like Bess and those who are like her.
 
 
--Padre Warren +
 
 


[1] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Mt 28:19–20). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

21 June 2018
 
Dear St. Mark’s Folks:
 
There are two common sayings in Twelve Step Spirituality that I believe can help guide us as we do the work of discernment about how St. Mark’s will continue to live out is mission and ministry in the uncertainty that faces us and, frankly, faces an increasing number of congregations in many different traditions. Those two sayings are:

• Take it Easy

And,

• First Things First

Simply put we often need to silence the inner dialogue before we can hear and see clearly what lies before us. When we get some clarity it is then time for us to move forward and take our next steps and repeat the process. If we can commit to that practice, I believe we will have taken major steps toward becoming more representative of “The Beloved Community” than we are already here at St. Mark’s.
 
These two sayings are invitations to the traditional Biblical practices of Sabbath-keeping (3 Six days shall work be done; but the seventh day is a Sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation; you shall do no work: it is a Sabbath to the Lord throughout your settlements. [1])and pilgrimage or sojourn (3 Sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you, for to you and to your offspring I will give all these lands, and I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father.[2])
 
Today officially marks the beginning of summer. As George Gershwin famously put it in his masterpiece Porgy & Bess, it’s ‘summer time and the living is easy.’ It is a wonderful sentiment that often is elusive and seems more like a dream than a declaration of how things truly are.
 
Summer is a time when we tend to slow down a bit and relax. Many of us are planning getaways for various lengths of time. The children are out of school and the rhythm of life changes for any number of reasons. We have more time to savor the sun. The warmth of the earth nurtures the growth of local (or even our own garden’s) produce that often bursts upon our taste buds and helps us connect with the earth that we can often take for granted.
 
This is also the time in our liturgical calendar where we can get lulled into a bit of a trance by the hazy, lazy days of ‘Ordinary Time’ once we turn the corner of Pentecost (often right around Memorial Day) and move into that ‘long, green season’ in the church.
 
There is certainly a place, actually even a commandment, to support this sort of slowing down, it’s called Sabbath keeping and is quickly becoming a lost practice in our lives. Sadly, sometimes the church is no different.
 
I shared with the vestry the other night that clergy are not immune to the seduction of busy-ness as a measure of our worth. Sabbath, true Sabbath, does not come easy to us. Doing nothing is often equated with ‘wasting’ time. The reality is that we cannot and should not be perpetual motion machines.
 
That being said, Sabbath cannot be a substitute for action in response to the Gospel.
 
We are currently in a season in the Lectionary when we will read a great deal of Mark’s Gospel. I would say there’s some providence in that given our circumstances and that Mark is our patron.
 
As this ‘long, green season’ unfolds I would bring your attention to the rhythm of Jesus’ ministry. Particularly in Mark Jesus alternates between withdrawal (often for prayer alone) and active ministry (feeding, teaching, preaching, healing). As I have mentioned to before these are complimentary and necessary partners in the work of ministry in general and particularly in a season of discernment around questions related to vision, mission and direction for both individuals and congregations.
 
While this summer will be a time for us to live together into our new schedule of worship, formation and fellowship (Sabbath-keeping) it will also be a time that we will need to gather to share honestly about the big questions facing about finance, resources and facilities (navigating the pilgrim’s way). I hope and pray that you all will dedicate time to both Sabbath and discernment as the summer unfolds and we seek clarity on what God’s vision is for St. Mark’s.

May our rest and Sabbath give us strength and clarity for the holy sojourn ahead of us.

---Warren +

[1] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. (1989). (Le 23:3). Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers.
[2] The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ge 26:3). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.