Dear Friends,
Despite last Sunday’s rain, we had a good crowd of folks at the newcomer brunch after the High Mass. Many thanks to Eddie Smith and the committee for putting that together! It’s always a joy to meet people who have recently found their way to Saint Mark’s, because, among other things, it’s a reminder of so much that is good and beautiful about this parish and about what God is doing here. These newcomers bring a lot of joy and excitement to our church, and I’m very grateful to have met them. Now the task for all of us is to continue welcoming them, helping them to make a home here and to find a way of serving others that honors their gifts, interests, and growing edges.
This year we have a lot of newcomers on the staff as well: not just our new Ministry Residents, but our Curate and myself, too. With so many new faces, I am relying, even more than usual, on the fact that religion is something we “catch” from each other, like language, culture, or the flu — more than it is something we learn from a book or on YouTube. It is a learned skill, a way of communicating, of inhabiting the world, in relationship with God and with other people: real people, right here, ahead of me on the way to the communion rail, next to me getting coffee after Mass, chopping onions together on Thursdays for the Saturday Soup Bowl. We learn the faith, we learn who we are, from one other. There is something limited about this: this community, in this place, at this time, is concrete, not imaginary; it has weaknesses and blind spots, strengths and opportunities. Yet the more we pray together, the more we uphold one another, the more we share with one another what we know and have learned of God’s goodness and mercy, the more we will be caught up in the vision that draws us all to the altar week by week and year by year.
How do we go from newcomer to right at home? There is no more effective recipe than faithfulness over time. Our newcomers are bringing us their faithfulness and their time, and we give ours to them in return. These gifts are deeply formative for all of us, and teach us the faith as Saint Mark’s has received it. God always meets our faithfulness with faithfulness of his own (God also meets our lack of faithfulness with his own faithfulness, but that’s a different sermon!). Together we grow in love and grace, and begin to reveal to the world something of the household of God.
Yours faithfully,
Fr. Sawicky
