Rector’s Address

Annual Meeting 2009

          I typically begin my remarks with the annual meeting joke.  In the past it has been an anecdote with a humorous religious theme, but this year it comes from one of my second-grade friends.  What did the zero say to the eight?  “Nice belt!” In addition to being clever at the expense of numbers (and who doesn’t appreciate mathematic one-up-man ship), the joke suggests that it is our nature to see the world from a very personal perspective.  We tend to make assumptions based on our own experience and sense of truth.  The zero sees the eight and thinks, "Oh he must be just like me, with a body like mine.  This is a shape I know and am comfortable with therefore that fellow must have done something to alter his natural state.”  One wonders what the eight thinks.

          Seeing and reacting to the world from a personal and comfortable perspective seems an apt description for 2009.  By all accounts, it was a year of global hardship.  Most of the world suffered economic downturns and financial constraint.  Most of the world worried about falling stock prices and job reduction.  Many nights, CNN brought us more bad news.  When money is tight, people worry.  Financial apprehension, increased crime, warfare abroad, terrorism hovering in the wind… 2009 has been an uneasy time.  And in anxious periods folk generally react in predictable ways.  They hunker down and respond from a place of caution.  They hold tightly to traditions and patterns they know.  They surround themselves with comfort.  I don’t know for sure, but I’m curious, did the sale of sushi drop this year and was macaroni and cheese consumed in record numbers?

          Psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, geopolitical analysts, military strategists all confirm, when human beings are under threat, they react from their fight or flight impulse. In anxious times, people assess the danger and determine their best line of defense.  If they perceive they are stronger in body, mind or spirit than the foe, they press forward.  If they intuit that they are likely to be overwhelmed by the opposition, they flee.  They retreat to a place of perceived safety.  Typically if the scope of the peril is unknown, humans will opt for withdrawal.  They will turn inward rather than advance.  This impulse is shared throughout the animal kingdom.  Birds, lizards and even ever persistent gnats repeat this pattern. 

          This year, many families, governments, businesses and churches responded to worldly worries in this way.  Not confident that they had the skills and resources to maneuver in a changing economic climate, folk embraced the known and status quo.  In all areas, they operated from a place of minimum risk.  I think St. Mark’s also adopted this response.  I believe unease about money and all that means in our lives affected our sense of mission and significantly impacted our vision.  When we look over our time together, where we put our energy, how we spent our dollars, how we allotted our time and focus, it seems 2009 was a year of staying steady.  In the reports we’ve shared, in the membership numbers, the financials and the committee summaries, you heard our customary routine data.  We held steady.  We stayed the course.  We neither gained nor lost ground.  We gave up no significant programs nor did we take on any formidable initiatives.  In a challenging time, we responded in known, comfortable ways.

          Now, some would say that marks a successful year.  In a scary period, we kept the doors open, people honored their commitment to both the operating budget and the capital campaign, and people got out of pajamas on Sunday morning and came to worship.  We fed hungry people and found ways to warmly welcome new folk who drove up the hill.  Church leaders completed their tasks with due diligence, and members seemed reasonably appreciative.  Given the givens, we come out of 2009 in good shape.  We have been blessed.  I appreciate this reality.  I celebrate but I am also troubled. 

          I am reminded of Jesus’ parable of the talents, the proverbial gold coins.  A nobleman has concerns elsewhere and calls his servants to him before he leaves.  He gives one servant 5 coins, another 2, and to the third servant he gives 1 coin.  He tells them to look after the resources, the gifts, the blessings if you will.  The first two servants invest the money.  They grow what was given them.  The third man is worried about the coming times, possible risks, unknown and unforeseen circumstances.  He worries about change and so he holds close what was given to him and makes a comfortable choice.  He doesn’t lose the blessing nor does he grow it.  He stays still and steady.  The nobleman returns and asks for an accounting.  The first servant showed real increase.  The second showed good increase.  The nobleman is well- pleased.  The third man is not so lucky.  His timidity and reservation is seen as an insult.  He was given a charge and the means to carry it out and he rejected the opportunity.  His defense, “in these uncertain times I protected and held on to what you set before me,” is not accepted. In this parable and in many others, Jesus says clearly and pointedly, God expects us to move from comfort to mission.

          So dear friends, the question before us in assessing this year in our church is did the Lord bless us well and did we respond in kind?  Well, as to the blessings, we have 13-plus acres given to us 125 years ago.  We have three buildings and no debt.  We have an endowment to cover the upkeep of our grounds and help pay for a designated priest.  We are located in a thriving, growing community.  We are not surrounded by plant closings and industries leaving us for foreign markets.  We have a healthy, young, educated congregation unlike many aging dwindling churches.  We have a competent, motivated and energetic staff.  We have resources at the diocesan level to help us design any program we can imagine.  We have a streamlined budget which we manage proactively.  In an economic downturn, we lost very very few jobs or members due to employment changes.  When we needed to redirect our staff focus, candidates appeared with requisite skills.  It would appear God has given us ample resources.  He has blessed us well.  Our response was measured and adequate.  Was it sufficient?  Did we honor the blessings God sent us in ways that pleased him? 

          My conscience says no or at least not enough.  I fear the Giver expected a more substantial return on his investment.  I fear we missed an opportunity to advance our mission and be a beacon on the hill especially in a time when light is so wanted.  In 2009 we were adequate and comfortable, but we were not powerful or extraordinary and God wants more from us.  He gave us his Son.  His Son gave us the church.  These gifts, his Son and the church are meant to be used to transform the world.  The work of the church, the purpose of St. Mark’s is not to be a gathering place of solace and coziness only.  A church is not like a community center, a drop in area for nice people and cute kids.  A church may certainly relish and use fun and fellowship to empower and equip folk for world renovation, but it is the demolition and recreation that is the legitimate objective of the church.  Christ gave us the body gathered to tear down and overcome the broken world we inhabit and replace it with a reality made in the image of God.  Through the church, by the good minds, hearts and hands of faithful people, we become mighty, extraordinary agents of change. 

          Church is not a place for duck and cover.  Church is where we come for the best the world has to offer in character development, ethics, self awareness, historical human truths, instruction into the mind and will of God Almighty.  Church is where we come to be elevated and reconnected to our intended state of being as strong valiant agents for good.  Church should be and can be the center where enduring truth is discovered and powerful love is derived.  Churches are meant to be palaces for the human soul.  In every room, something important and beautiful awaits.  Churches have large doors for a reason.  They open wide to invite many in and they swing again to send folk clothed in the full armor of God to fashion the world anew with justice and mercy, hope and compassion.  

          In 2009, we overlooked our surroundings.  We got comfortable rather than empowered.  We might do things differently next year.  Our Christian Formation team has already realigned its program.  Its leaders say they will commit to a program of substantive instruction, and they ask that you commit your children and yourselves to the lessons they offer.  In response to concerns about our music program we have the talent, energy and flexibility of Abby Ginnetti to steer a new course.  Those who appreciate the gift of song in our worship now need to commit some of their time and energy to the choir options she offered.

          To support their spiritual development and sense of godliness, we’ve hired a youth minister for our teens.  Matt Addington comes to us as a seminary-trained, experienced mentor in the faith.  Now, parents need to help our youth clear their schedules and come for this important work.  In early January, your new vestry will go on a working retreat to formulate goals and set priorities for our mission.  We’ll ask these key questions: how we will invest our talents, the gold, copper, and human ones in ways that best glorify God?  How will we lead and equip our members to bring in our common vision to build community as we live the way of Christ?

          2010 is a pivotal year for St. Mark’s.  It will be a year when we establish our identity for the foreseeable future.  Is this body like the stewards who recognize God’s blessings and heed his call to increase his investment by growth and quality?  Or is this body like the third servant who accepts the blessings, holds them close and makes himself easy in his mind?  Our answer has serious consequences.  One determination keeps us where we are, warm, friendly and comfortable, the other requires greater imagination and energy and a commitment to a grand but demanding notion.  Everyone who calls St. Mark’s their church home has a stake in the answer.  As your rector, your priest and pastor, I ask that over the next 5 weeks you think about and pray about who you honestly want to be as the body of Christ gathered at St. Mark’s.  After your discernment, speak, write, call your vestry and let them know your thoughts.  Their names and numbers are included in the annual report.  Pray and then tell your leaders where you want to go and what you will and won’t do to get there.  We’ll chart the resulting course.  We’ll offer it to the glory and pleasure of God and then we’ll set out.

          God bless your discernment.  God bless you and God bless St. Mark’s this day and each one in her future.

Respectfully submitted,

The Reverend Sarah D. Hollar, Rector