For the last three Sundays, we have been exploring the question of spiritual gifts, as discussed in 1 Corinthians chapters 12 and now 13. The overall theme has been unity of the Church. Paul warns that petty jealousies and hierarchies destroy the unity of the body of Christ. Apparently, some in Corinth had been claiming that their spiritual gifts ennobled them at the expense of others with what were looked down on as “lesser gifts.”
Putting this into context, in the reading before this one last week, Paul talks about spiritual gifts, and then promises to show us a “more excellent way:” the way of love in action. He first lists seven things that are lesser gifts than love: speaking in tongues, prophecy, wisdom, knowledge, faith (!), self-sacrifice through poverty, even self-sacrifice through martyrdom. Looking at Paul’s list, we see that is true in our own lives: prophecies are ignored, knowledge can be outlawed and lies become celebrated, wisdom can be drowned out by fear, faith can be misplaced in those unworthy, self-sacrifice can be an object of mockery. All these gifts, without love, turn to ashes. Love is both the truest expression of the gospel, but also requires the most dedication.
As we take stock of the year past, both in the world around us and in the life of this parish, it is good for us to reflect upon all of our gifts, and to remember all the gifts that being in this community at this time and place gives to each of us. It is also a perfect time, as we face this new year as a blank slate, for us to look for ways to offer new gifts in new ways, to the neighbors we are called to serve.
WORSHIP
Thanks to the miracles of modern medicine, we were finally restored to the gift of physical presence. We got to come out of COVID lockdown beginning in Lent, and made it to the end of the year before we had to take a pause out of love for each other in January. We continue to pray for all those affected by this ongoing pandemic, from medical staff to teachers to those isolated out of fear of this contagion. We pray—and we do our part to keep ourselves and others safe. That, too, is a gift of love.
We saw ministries related to worship come into their own. A Regathering Committee to deliberate about how to gather safely once it was possible— and each one of our committee members—Tom Allen, whom we do NOT appreciate enough, Chelsea Brewer, Chris Marsh, and Laura Limbaugh—all brought their expertise and then stepped up in leadership of the policies we have crafted. They deserve our deepest gratitude. God bless you, Tom, Chelsea, Chris, and Laura!
A revitalized Altar Guild led by Ruth Minster and handed over the Barb Hankemeyer. Usher training to involve COVID protocols thanks to Tom Allen’s organizational skills and Mary Jane Drake lending her vast experience. A corps of vaccinated readers who were willing to come and read as we inched toward regathering. New volunteers for the Broadcast team, and ever better broadcasts as we gained more fluency in this technology. The use of an FM transmitter to be able to gather in our cars.
We were finally able to gather for parts of Holy Week services, for the first time since 2019, and to create hybrid services. At Easter, we celebrated out first baptism in over a year; this spring we celebrated our first two weddings in a LONG time; this fall we had our first confirmation and reception in over a year; and throughout the year we held nine funerals bidding farewell to treasured members of our parish. We hosted the ordination of our incoming assistant rector, the Rev. Shug Goodlow, and finally had our Celebration of New Ministry. The return of the choir and bell choir under the brilliant leadership of Denise Marsh continued to create beautiful music.
FORMATION
Sherrie Algren continued her one-woman campaign to keep the youngest members of our parish engaged in learning about God despite being unable to attend in person due to a lack of vaccination for anyone under age 12, and finally 5. Sherrie creates and distributes packets of fun activities to our little ones each and every month, God bless her. The Rev. Shug began putting together a fascinating mix of adult formation opportunities, and even COVID could not stop the discussion as we pivoted to ZOOM when necessary. We also formed a discernment committee in the parish to help our beloved Loretta Go discern a possible call to Holy Orders which concluded with sending her on for further training.
OUTREACH
The big gift here was the start of a Laundry Love ministry passionately here in West County, spearheaded by Anne and Jim Fischer, despite 18 months of delays. This program is as much a gift to those who staff it as to those who avail themselves of the chance to do their laundry. Thank you for your embrace of this ministry-- so many of you who donate quarters, volunteer hours, or laundry detergent. We saw transition in leadership from Larry Cornelius to Mike Kelly for the Peace Meal project that we take turns in staffing at St. John’s Tower Grove. We had another bumper crop in the garden, thanks to John Lange and Scott Pattengill, that was used to feed the hungry. Jeanne King led another spiritually rewarding United Thank Offering campaign. And all this in the midst of a pandemic!
PASTORAL CARE and SPIRITUALITY
So many of you devote enormous energy and effort in caring for each other here at St. Martin’s—calling, sending cards, praying for each other with our three vibrant prayer ministries continuing on through the leadership of Linda Huheey, The Rev. Virginia Noel, and Daryl Norman. We hope to get to a place in this pandemic where we can safely send out our teams of Eucharistic visitors once again very soon. We also have lost both of the people who were doing our broadcasts of online compline twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays: Loretta Go and Gina Slobodzian, who has taken a new position that takes her out of state. I hope we all can wish these two amazing disciples well, and that some of you might feel called to step up to replace them in this beautiful ministry of prayer as night descends.
BUILDING and GROUNDS
Lincoln Drake continued his care of the physical plant, and he and Steve and Maggi Brunkhorst walked through the building when it was unoccupied to make sure that all was well. The capital campaign has saved us untold anxiety just by being there, available for use rather than having to pull money from our investment fund for capital goods, and that is a gift that we gave ourselves that keeps giving back to us.
STAFFING
We added an assistant rector, the Rev. Shug Goodlow, with great joy, in late August, at long last. Janet Theiss continues to give her all to St. Martin’s in ways that too often fly under the radar, and she is a godsend. Kenny Harper continues to keep our building clean with attention to detail. Denise brings out the best in all the musicians who work with her. Volunteer staff include the Broadcast Team of Bill Scoopmire, Becky McCoy Brewer, Jim Fischer, Chris Marsh, and Scott Scoopmire, who is also our webmaster. They put in 15 or more man-hours of work for every broadcast. Scott has also just agreed to be our communications director, for which we are very grateful. Becky McCoy Brewer and Debra Mathews have worked hard to take large chunks of producing the Beacon off my hands, and it has been such a relief. Your staff have been stalwarts throughout this pandemic, and they deserve all the love and support we can give them.
FINANCIAL
St. Martin’s has had nearly a full year of being able to use our capital campaign funds for capital goods, and that helped keep us from running into red ink in our budgeting this year. The Legacy Endowment Fund continues to fund new ministry initiatives in the parish under the leadership of Greg Andersen and the promotion of the tireless Lincoln Drake. Page Andersen has performed her magic with the budget for the second straight year, and due to a second PPP loan and other happy circumstances, we managed to actually not pull any money from St. Martin’s Investment Fund. I am grateful to Mike Kelly for taking on chairmanship of the Annual Giving Campaign with all the complications of running such an endeavor in this time of uncertainty and flux.
However, our annual giving campaign remains half completed for the second year in a row at this point in the financial and calendar year. That just is not healthy nor realistic, not only from a financial standpoint but from a spiritual standpoint. It may be financially prudent to try to pay the least amount that you can for a car or a house, but it is absolutely no way to run a parish or a ministry.
I know we are all exhausted, and we are all distracted. But we absolutely need a bold commitment from each one of you who are able, so that we can anticipate the coming deficit. Because make no mistake, our financial commitments so far are half what our needed revenue must be with expenses cut to below the bone. Even if you have set up automatic payments—and thank you!—we need to have a card from you knowing that we can count on that level of funding throughout the year. As we move to making stewardship a year-round spiritual practice rather than a seasonal “chore,” I encourage each and every one of us to honestly enumerate how much having this community of faith means to each of us, and each of us doing our part to not only squeak by, but to have the funds to flourish as a witness to the abundant love of God in our communities.
It is at this point that I will repeat what I said last year: There is no deficit of fellowship here. There is no deficit of spirituality and faith here. There must be no deficit in our willingness to not just balance our budget but enable it to grow in discipleship areas that have been previously pruned back too far. We are called to do more things with fewer resources, and in a prolonged time of pandemic that takes an emotional and physical toll on all of us. Further, our constant financial constraints handcuff us from being Christ’s bold witness in the world around us.
What we spend money on in our lives is what we most value. It’s that simple, and that stark. Our giving to St. Martin’s —yours and mine—is a statement of the depth of our faith and our acknowledgement of our gratitude and our love. It is meant to be a gift, not a means of division. Our giving must NOT be about using money as a way to settle grievances, or expressing our displeasure or pleasure, a kind of carrot and stick contraption to get our own way. It’s not based on a profit-and loss calculation, on a measurement of how much we first get, a kind of “tip jar” philanthropy. Boldly, we must seek to embody the greatest gift of all—love—in ways that enable our witness to Christ to become ever more visible in a world thirsting for God’s presence made manifest through us.
We can do this. We just have to decide to let love lead us. Love, the greatest of all gifts.
As always, I remain deeply grateful for those of you who work tirelessly to keep this parish engaged in the world. Untold hundreds of hours go into making our worship and ministry possible in this time of COVID. I am so grateful to my husband, Bill Scoopmire, for all he does behind the scenes, programming our broadcasts, making the urns used by those who are interred in our columbarium, and being my pillar of strength who never thinks of sleeping in on a Sunday morning. He supports the long hours I put in by putting in many hours of his own-- and watching bloody action movies while I am hunched over a desk. He has the strength of ten men, due, no doubt, to his pure heart and strong coffee.
It always comes down to love, doesn’t it? Yes—always. Because if love is not the foundation of all we do, we are just a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
The ancient Greek philosophers held that only perfect things are eternal. And of the spiritual gifts, only love never ends; therefore, it is the greatest of the spiritual gifts. The most excellent way, then, is to put others first and to truly love them. This is how we love Jesus, by loving each other. This is how we are Christians. Anything else is mere fandom and empty show.
Love is God-made-visible for a world that cannot see God. Love pries open the cynical, selfish, stubbornly-squeezed-shut eyes of the world and makes God manifest. People are willing to do things in the name of love that they are far too self-conscious or terrified to do in the name of God—although that is exactly the same thing. 1 John 4:8 reminds us that God IS love. And thus- wham! That’s how God gets us; even as we try to hide from God or deny God, God sneaks in as love anyway.
As we look with hope toward the year that lies so freshly before us, we remember what we discussed last week. The time to act is always NOW, with each new breath is a new opportunity to do one small thing to change the world. I look forward to our best year yet—because we are joined together in faith, in hope, in charity—but the greatest of these is love.
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