Pastoral Letter for Lent 2007

February 12, 2007

Dear Family,

            I received an email from a good friend Sunday afternoon.  It was a forward of an email a parishioner had sent him.  This is what the email said:

Dear Mike,

  Just a question. Why are so many services cancelled? Vespers is cancelled many times to hold social events. Now Communion is cancelled also for Boy Scouts! You preach about worship and religion being more important than than the social clubness of a church but you cater to the social club in this church. How is the Super Bowl more important than Vespers? How are the Boy Scouts more important than communion? Children’s practice is ever so much more important than Vespers. Bible Study is a once in a while event. Whenever there is nothing else in the way. The only service usually held all the time is the Main Worship service, when it's not replaced by a music concert. I don't go to this church to socialize. I have never gone to a church that puts so much emphasis on social gatherings and so little emphasis on Bible study or worship. We're going to look for a more Bible oriented church.

My friend’s response was nothing less than saintly.  Truth be told, as he responded in a reply, there was more than meets the eye to her complaints.  And while there is nothing at all wrong with a parishioner having concerns and complaints (not in the least!) there is something undeniably childish about the way this individual chose to bring her concerns to her pastor.  This is neither the biblical nor the loving way to present concerns to anyone, especially a pastor.  As my friend and I talked, we agreed there had to be something larger going on.  I reference this email because whenever I hear of something like this, I immediately think about St Michael’s and start to inventory our familial health. 

The Church is the Body of Christ.  The Body of Christ is made up of many members (read 1 Cor. 12:12-31).  In other words, we are family.  If we take the analogy of St Paul and we imagine that we make up various body parts, we can easily acknowledge in our own experience that when our head hurts, the entire body hurts.  When our back hurts, our entire body feels it.  Likewise, whenever any part of the Church hurts, it impacts the entire Body of Christ.  Like all families, we carry with us varying amounts of baggage.  We generally get along with most everyone, but we have problems with one or two.  Something was said a couple of years ago that still resonates and stirs our bones today.  Our feelings were hurt last week and we don’t know how to deal with it.  We don’t feel as if we received enough care or attention from our church family members or our priest.  These are natural, normal, family experiences.  But as a family, we are called to deal with these in a loving, Christ-like manner.

Please don’t misread this letter thus far.  There is not, to my knowledge, any major conflict going on in the parish or controversy at all, but when I read my friend’s email, I was quickly reminded that his email was indeed a catholic email, in that it is universal to the church.  The sad thing about that email was that all of his parishioner’s concerns could have (and should have) been dealt with much earlier through simple conversation.  But alas, it stayed with her and steamed and stewed until the top blew off and now she is looking for another church.  The Body of Christ hurts.  There are things within our Church Family and without that we keep inside.  Again, this is catholic, it is universal to the Church!  What separates the Church from all else in this matter is how we deal with conflict: internal and external.

Next Wednesday, February 21, is the beginning of Lent, Ash Wednesday.  We will have our usual Ash Wednesday Mass* after soup and sandwich at 6pm.  But this year we are going to do something new and ancient at the same time.  In the Orthodox Church they begin Great Lent on Sunday evening with Vespers.  This Sunday is called Forgiveness Sunday and during Vespers (akin to our Evening Prayer) there is a rite of mutual forgiveness.  Every person (including the priest) says to each other, “Forgive me, a sinner.”  After we have received the imposition of ashes and prayed the litany of penitence confessing our sins to God, we ask each of our brothers and sisters to forgive us and they ask us to forgive them with the simple plea “Forgive me, a sinner.”  The person responds “God forgives.”  It will be explained more in detail on Ash Wednesday, but the general movement will look something like this:  In place of the passing of the peace, I will stand behind the pulpit and invite the parish to forgive each other.  The persons in the front pews will come forward and I will greet the first person with “Forgive me, a sinner.”  They will respond “God forgives.”  They will then say to me “Forgive me, a sinner” and I will respond “God forgives” and we embrace.  That person moves to my right and stands next to me so the next person in line greets him/her after they greet me.  After each person greets me, they will greet each person in line until they themselves take a place in line so they can greet those in line behind them.  If it sounds complicated on paper, it will be simple and natural in living color. I cannot think of a better way to begin Lent.  I cannot think of a better way to strengthen the bonds of our relationships and to experience forgiveness and to let go of those things that we have kept deep inside of us.

            I realize this may sound strange and foreign, but I ask you to attend Ash Wednesday.  Let us have a holy Lent and let us begin by asking God and our neighbors to forgive us as we say each week, “forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”  Have you ever thought that our forgiveness from God is related to our willingness to forgive others (“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Matt. 6:14-15)?  It’s certainly something to meditate on.  As the Book of Common Prayer says:  I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy Word.

 

Yours,

Fr. Steve   

Shrove Tuesday: Pancake Supper with King Cakes (6pm)

Ash Wednesday: Soup and Sandwich, 6pm, Mass, 7pm