My deepest prayerful hope for us as we live into this plan for mission and ministry is that we would have a revival of our faith and a re-focus on Christ as the cornerstone of our church. As we reconnect may we also reshape our lives by the power of the Holy Spirit.
In the place of intimations of divinity and immortality, this apprentice priest experienced the all-too-human emotions of vanity, vulnerability, and insecurity. Yet we have a parable here about the Call process and the ministry to which all of us have been called by our baptism. Ever since the Word became flesh, it is in the very vanity, vulnerability, and insecurity of human life that Call processes and ministry take place. The stuff of our humanity is where the Holy Spirit digs in, with wisdom and direction.
At the next Church Council Meeting a major item on the agenda will be receiving, discussing and adopting a final draft of the Strategic Plan, Implementation Process, and Implementation Team. We will then share this plan and implementation process with the entire congregation in a variety of communication platforms and opportunities for in-person and zoom discussion.
Last month there was a crisis in Park Ridge at the Bristol Court Apartments. Within a day of the fire, St Luke’s teamed with another Park Ridge Church and the local authorities to put together a clothing drive. An email went out to the congregation to donate within the next 24 hours to make an immediate impact in our community. And WOW, did people respond, both within the congregation and within the community.
The pastoral message this week will be a video which I made for both of the Saint Luke\St. Luke’s congregations together. As most of you know I am the interim pastor at both Saint Luke, Chicago and St. Luke’s, Park Ridge. We share common holy space every Thursday at noon when we have our online Bible Study. I want to share holy space about outreach to and with older adults (like me!) in my video to both beloved St. Luke communities.
Sunday was special. I arrived early and saw the care and love and work that went into providing a beautiful outdoor worship experience for St. Luke’s. The altar guild moved the flowers and elements to set up the altar at the front steps of the church for communion. The musicians practiced, working with the organ and a keyboard to produce the sound of God’s praise for the outside congregation. People carried chairs, set up the parking to leave space for children to roam, set up the welcome table in front of the office door. The sound system was checked out. The table for ice cream floats was prepared. People new to our congregation were welcomed. The intergenerational worshippers formed clusters of conversation and welcome. So many hands making this liturgy truly “the work of the people of God.”
Death is too much with us. War in Ukraine and Ethiopia and elsewhere on the globe. Mass shootings almost every day. Death invading our personal circle of friends, acquaintances, loved ones. Our own reminders that we are mortal, with death waiting for all of us. I am sharing a remembrance from long ago which may help us put death in the perspective of our faith.
This past weekend I was in Cleveland with my family at the memorial for my nephew Peter. He struggled with bi-polar illness and took his life. His parents were courageous in sharing those details and were a huge comfort to many who struggle with mental health issues and their loved ones. In today’s video I will share words of comfort and hope for all who are touched by this illness. What Chuck and Helene (my sister) said to so many is this: we see you. God sees you. Jesus has you.
Beloved in Christ. We all have moments which are beyond words, especially when tragedy happens, when loved ones die. Our extended family is experiencing such a moment as we heard of the death of my nephew Peter this morning.
It should come as no surprise our listening season revealed a very diverse congregation with a multiplicity of viewpoints, needs, hopes, fears, and dreams. How our church will emerge from the pandemic was a repeated context in our conversations, spoken with both hope and fear. We were able to discern seven major themes, each of the themes holding a continuum of responses in what we believe is a dynamic tension.