A Hopeful Future

When this congregation called me to be an Associate Pastor in 2015, I thought that nothing could top the feeling of joy and gratitude I felt in that moment. You all proved me wrong on August 30th. I am so incredibly humbled and honored to be able to lead this wonderful congregation as your new Senior Pastor. It’s a privilege I couldn’t have imagined five years ago. And yet, I have embraced this with all my trust in God’s grace.

I have a lot of hopes for St. Mark Lutheran Church. I always have. Some of those hopes are things I can have some control over, but the vast majority are up to you as you decide how you want to live into the gospel which frees us all. My most immediate hope is that we can make it through to the other side of this pandemic with confidence, unity, and good health. I am so grateful for a church council that has been wise and considerate as we navigate the unknown. When we do return to the sanctuary on Sunday mornings, normal will have a new meaning, and it will be up to all of us to adjust to that new world and find comfort once again through in-person worship.

A quick word on that. The council and I decided on Tuesday night to extend our drive-in worship services through November 1st. On November 8th, our plan is to return inside for services at 8:00am, 9:30am, and 11:00am. We will need to have capacity limits according to state and county guidelines, but the 9:30 service will be streamed live on YouTube. More details will be coming shortly, and as with everything else in our lives this year, this plan is subject to change.

In the long run, I hope that St. Mark continues to engage with the community around us, both in our neighborhood and in our city. It says a lot that your pastors have rarely needed to be hands-on with outreach ministries because so many of you are quick to share the love of God through service to our neighbors. My greatest hope is that St. Mark continues to be a congregation known for its generosity to the community, as more and more members find ways to share God’s unshakable love in a turbulent world.

In a similar way, I hope that the abundance of land in our care might be transformed into a welcoming and inspiring outdoor refuge for our community. This has been a hope that a good number of you have had since long before my time. For many people, the promise of God’s love is most evident in God’s wonderful creation. We have a tremendous opportunity to use what God has given us to provide a blessed corner of that creation for both our members and our neighbors.

I hope that St. Mark continues to grow as a place where families and children can feel welcome and vital to our life together. I have heard countless stories about the good that our preschool did to foster this sort of atmosphere. With that era in the past, we continue to find new ways to be a church that shows God’s grace to the youngest among us. I am grateful that we have staff and volunteers who have the passion and skill to do this well.

Lastly, I hope that this pandemic has taught each of us that we can be the church wherever we go, and that neither distance nor time can keep God’s love away. I hope you remain curious and eager in your faith, whether you are at a pub or your own backyard. I hope that the promise of resurrection might sustain you in good days and bad. And I hope that God will continue to unite us as the Body of Christ made evident in the people of St. Mark Lutheran Church.

With confidence in the work of the Spirit,

Pastor Chad McKenna

God's Relentless Pursuit for Workers in the Kingdom

The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who when out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. - Matthew 20.1

The Men’s Bible study resumed this week with a study of Matthew chapter 20. The chapter opens with this familiar parable of the laborers in the vineyard. We often remember it for its punch at the end when the workers are paid in reverse order of when they were hired and all are given the usual daily wage. It was the wage agreed upon by those early morning workers for a day’s work and the payment given for even the eleventh-hour workers so that they would have sufficiency to meet their needs. It’s a parable of justice and grace.

However, I don’t think we often pay close enough attention to the behavior of the landowner in this parable. This landowner goes out early seeking workers for his vineyard. This is to be expected. But then this landowner keeps going every few hours in search of more laborers for his vineyard. At nine and noon, three and five the landowner goes out again and again hiring workers.

If I put on my business hat for a moment, I have to wonder if this landowner is incredibly bad at knowing how many people to hire for the work that needs to be done. But human resource management is not the problem for this landowner.

The landowner is relentlessly in search of workers to go out into the vineyard. There is plenty of work to be done and the landowner will always have room for more workers who will each receive the wage they cannot earn.

Can you believe it? It is simply never too late in the day for this landowner to go out seeking more workers. Even at the eleventh-hour workers are being sent out into the vineyard.

Perhaps there have been times in our lives when God’s grace has found us at the eleventh-hour, surprising, unexpected, and abundant.

The good news for us is God’s continued pursuit for workers in God’s own vineyard. The surprise is in the payments which all turn out to be the same, sure. But also, in our God who spends the whole day getting laborers for the vineyard and giving us along with all the workers in the vineyard the joy of work in the kingdom of God.

Together we as the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America are known at the “God’s Work. Our Hands.” church. All our hands are needed in the vineyard of God’s kingdom. God has called you to this work and through you is calling others to join in tending this vineyard.

God is never done seeking out new workers. Our joy is in the labor for we have already received the grace we cannot earn.

Peace,

Pastor Robert Franek

Interim Associate Pastor

We are the Body of Christ

Today’s article is adapted from Pastor Chad’s sermon on August 30th.

On Sunday, we celebrated communion together for the first time since March 8th. Like everything these days, it was anything but normal. Who would have known, when we reluctantly closed the building six months ago, that the world would change so drastically?

When we celebrate communion right, it should do two things. First, this meal of bread and wine grants us that forgiveness which God has already given. It is more than mere food or a simple reminder. It is Christ, fully present, given for you. You may have noticed that on Sunday one of the elements was missing. To be frank, CDC guidelines and other factors kept all of us from partaking in the wine. While the Lutheran Church has always advocated for the availability of both the bread and wine, God's mercy is still fully present when you can only have one part. The benefit is not restricted by our own human limitations. We can trust in God's power to be fully present in the bread or wine alone.  When allergies or dietary restrictions or the logistics of a drive-in worship service during an ongoing pandemic keep us from sharing in one part of the meal, God still feeds us. It may not be ideal. I know that for many of us it was quite strange to only share in the wafer. And yet, Christ is still present giving life and salvation to us all.

The second thing this meal does is to unify us as the Body of Christ. This is a meal we share together, after all. If it were simply about personal devotion, you could host a one-serving communion feast whenever you wanted. I suppose Christ’s mercy would still be present even then, but you shouldn’t have to pull this meal out of your own pantry. It shouldn’t be you who has to pick up a bottle of wine at the store or add a loaf of bread to your next grocery delivery, just to receive God’s mercy in this meal. This is a feast, with an open invitation for all to come and be fed.

When communion is brought to folks who are bound to their home or hospital bed, it is an extension of the meal we share together on Sunday morning. We can always do a better job to ensure that meal is, in fact, extended to those who need it. If you would like one of us pastors to bring the feast to you in these strange times, please let us know.

Communion done right is forgiveness freely and equally distributed. It unites us in our common need and sustains us with our common food. As the Apostle Paul says, we “are the Body of Christ and individually members of it.” We are fed so that we might feed others. We are forgiven so that we might bring forgiveness and salvation to a world in desperate need of Christ’s healing love. That is why we gather for communion as often as we can. I pray that this pandemic continues to cease, so that we have more and more opportunity to share this meal in health and grace.

Peace,       

Pastor Chad McKenna