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.
A number of years ago, I was at a leadership conference and the keynote speaker started with this question, “Are you a giver?” As the crowd took a collective sigh of exhaustion, the speaker again asked, “Are you a giver? I mean, a joyful giver?” He then began to unpack the statement.
When I am conversation with friends and family and many of you at St Luke’s I hear from you a weariness and a kind of spiritual tiredness as we, in fits and starts, come out of this pandemic. But it is about more that the pandemic. We are tired of this graceless public square in which we live, where there are so many lies paraded as vehement truth, such hostile daily encounters, such divisive politics, and so many echo chambers as we get our news and opinions. It is soul crushing and we are tired of it.
The Vision Team, our consultant and I, are in the midst of listening to over one hundred members of our congregation, community and neighboring Lutheran congregations, in a series of individual and group meetings. This past Sunday twelve of you participated in virtual and in-person group meetings. Several of our cabinets have engaged this listening process. If you would like to speak into this process with an individual meeting with a member of the listening team, please let Sylvia know in the office. I will be meeting in person with the Vision Team this coming Sunday as we continue to listen and gather insights and identify emerging themes and issues. In this blog entry I want to say a few words about the Easter contlext for this process.