Thoughts for the Week
Week of March 25:

This is a little something new for the home page here at St. Mark’s.  Each week, or perhaps more often, we want
to keep in touch with you, and to help keep you in touch with what God is up to around us.  Nothing too profound,
but something down to earth and real—that’s all any of us can ask.

I started sneezing last week. A lot, at least for a while. That is what happens sometimes, when something changes
in the air.  The right pollen blows into town, and “KERCHEW!!!”—your schnozz responds with deep and
‘spiritual’ sensitivity.  Not comfortably, but direct and attention-getting.

I wonder if Christ’s Resurrection isn’t a bit like that.  If you are in the vicinity of a Resurrection, and you don’t have
much sense that things have changed—that life is not normal—what does that suggest?  Some will say it means that
nothing changed, that it’s all just a pleasant fairy tale; we should just grit our teeth and keep soldiering on, or grab
whatever fun we can while it lasts.  

But maybe those who say these things are just wrapped in their own little bubble, not daring to sniff the rich, sweet
air that pours from an empty tomb.  Don’t be afraid of the air outside.  New life is worth a sneeze or two.
Week of March 31-- PRAYING IN FAMILIES

Sometimes the littlest things open up whole new worlds inside us and around us.

I’ve been putting off hanging pictures around the house ever since we moved three months ago.  Finally Betty got
fed up waiting on it, and starting setting out all the old family pictures in the one cupboard we hadn’t filled up with
books.  Shelf above shelf, there were the children and parents, grandparents and cousins, living and dead, back for
four or five generations—a mountain of memories. (We’ve been collecting family pictures for long time.)

It came pounding home to me as I stood before these images, that who I am is very much a part and a product of
who these folks have been.  I never knew some of them—before my time—and some, a few, I knew I didn’t much
like to be around for long.  But they really are part of me, and I of them.

Despite all the illusions we terribly independent, autonomous, “I’d-rather-do-it-myself-thank-you-very-much”
moderns cultivate, we really are part of something bigger than ourselves.  Something we didn’t choose, that will last
much longer than our passing watch.  We need that.  We are that.

For many cultures, home is built around a place where the ancestors are venerated, with ritual and with love.  It
used to be much more common for families to gather together around a family altar or a family Bible for prayer
together each day.  We need not just a quick food-blessing, but the real deal, honoring the Father through the Son,
in the Spirit and the company of more than those we can see and touch and those we can’t.  Is it time to recover
that for you and yours?  We are in this together.  Don’t lose touch with that.  
Week of April 7--ARE WE PRAYING YET?

Perhaps you know the story of the lady on the cruise ship that had collided with another vessel?  Amid the
confusion and noise on deck, she grabs hold of an officer (who is a little busy) and asks what is wrong and what
should she do?  “Ma’am I don’t know yet, but I think it would be a good time to pray,” says he.  “O my God!” she
replied, “it’s not as bad as all that, is it?”

I wonder if that isn’t where many of us are about prayer and, frankly, God?  If God is to you a desperate last
resort when all other devices have been tried and failed, some interesting things are happening in your soul.  God is
for you an occasional and optional resource, rather than your source of being.  God is a tool in your kit, your
instrument rather than your Father, friend and guide.  

If you accept that kind of impoverishment, having been offered constant deep communion with the one who made
and redeemed us, well then—if you are lucky—most things in life will be impending catastrophes.  After all, you
need a sinking ship to get in touch with what’s important, if you choose to live that way.

There is a better way.  Grow closer to the one whose you are, to become who you truly are.  We discover
ourselves in the reflection of prayer, one of the deepest gifts of the greatest of Givers.  Let God bless you in your
prayers.  And say one for me…
Thought for the Week: 4/14/08--TAX DAY

I suppose we might think of this time of year as the Feast of Rendering Unto Caesar.  I don’t find many of us
rejoicing in the feast.  Maybe we should.

I understand the reluctance, certainly—this year more than ever.  With every generosity and good deal, we have to
keep in mind the little IRS collection bag man standing at our elbow and pass over his share.  So this is Passover
too.  

The Tax Foundation (http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxfreedomday/) calculates that Tax Freedom Day is April 23
this year—the day that the “average American” stops working to pay taxes and can start working to pay his or her
own bills.  (This is, of course, hugely hypothetical, but it is fun to know we were set free from Pharoah’s yoke three
days earlier this year than last. . . not sure if that counts Leap Day.  In Texas we are a little earlier than average—
April 12 was Freedom Day.)

All Americans have the God-given right to complain about taxes.  And all Americans should have the sense to be
grateful that our republic still stands strong enough that we can vote the scoundrels out who vote our taxes if they
gouge us too hard or rake off too much for themselves.

But we who name the Risen Lord in this land have special reasons to rejoice.  We don’t have to worship the visage
that appears on our dollar bills.  Most of us come way too close to worshipping the little green paper slips, but we
are free to be reminded that the green stuff won’t make us happy or healthy or wise or holy.  It is not unimportant
to remember whose idea that was.

Render to Caesar (or Uncle Sam) these things that are Caesar’s, on which we see his image, and let them serve the
ends Caesar/Uncle legitimately serves.  But we are freer still—to know that the image in us and each of us is the
image of the one who truly sets us free.  We are freed by him not just from taxes, but from our own sins, and the
death of spirit and body they always lead to.  Easter is the true Freedom Day.  And it is every day.
Thought for the Week: 4/21/08--A WORLD IN PAIN

Earth Day has been around for about a generation now.  Anything you say about it is guaranteed to make
someone mad.  There are those who think it’s a farce, and there are those who think what it stands for is the
best substitute for the “failed old religions” of humankind on the planet today.  And there are plenty of folks
everywhere in between.

Like so much else, there is a world of opinion and much-contested assertions of fact.  How do we bring a bit of
light into such a puzzling morass of muddle?

Some things we who confess Jesus the Christ know not to do:  
    •        confusing the world (or ourselves) with God, and God with the world
    •        thinking the world as we know it is going to last forever
    •        believing we are in charge, or that everything is our fault, or that if we are just clever enough, we
    can fix everything
    •        confusing our desires, or opinions, or attitudes or preferences with objective reality, which can only
    be found by genuine, humble study of…. reality

Some things we ought to be able to contribute to the discussion:
    •        some conviction that the world really is God’s realm, his gift to us as his stewards, to enjoy and
    care for as accountable for our actions
    •        some humility about our wisdom, insight and ability
    •        some hope that, whatever the muddle and the mayhem, the providence of God is greater than our
    imaginations and even than our greed
    •        genuine dedication to making this world a better place not only for ourselves, or our nation, race or
    generation, but for all who are to come

Come Lord Jesus, and redeem this suffering world, and all of us in it.
Thought for the Week: 4/28/08—THE LEADERSHIP PARADOX

The only thing I know about leadership is that it’s a mystery.

Leaders who I have known that most people thought were “strong” led their folks to some of the worst decisions
I have ever seen.  Leaders who are not strong often find themselves running to catch up with their “followers”—
not a formula for the growth and success of the group.

One thing I am pretty confident about:  folks usually get the leaders they deserve, because they produce them.  I
find that a little scary, don’t you?  You want to understand yourself, look at the ones you pick for leaders,
models, guides!

If that’s true...  “uh, Houston, we may have a problem here….”  

A lot of what passes for leadership in our civilization (and our churches!) now looks more like hubris
(overweening pride) than service or self-sacrifice.  Top to bottom, we look as self-absorbed as any bunch of old
Roman potentates.  Not a good precedent, methinks.

We know how that story ends—“pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.”  Self-
absorption in leaders and people always cuts us off from reality about ourselves, and guides our choices toward
the easy and pleasurable rather than the costly and life-giving.

The mystery of leadership I see is that a good leader is less full of him or herself, or even in pride in their group.  
Real leadership is more full of the Spirit so focused on others (and the Other who made us) that it leads beyond
the present moment or problem and into a future richer with possibilities than anything we can imagine for
ourselves.  That is why leadership is a miracle, and why it leads to miracles.  Because it comes from the giver of
miracles.  

Pray for that now—for us, for America, and for the world.