In the calendar, we are about to celebrate Pentecost on June 8th, and then we will enter the season of the majority of the Christian year, the season known as Ordinary Time. Although it is not the most creatively named, it is a time intentionally focused on growth in the Christian Walk (which, incidentally, is why the liturgical color is green). Intentionality is something we at First Presbyterian Church have been leaning into over the last several years. We invited consultants to help guide our efforts as we put our shoulders to the plow and renewed our mission, our vision, our values, and goals. We’ve been starting new things and redoubling efforts to be an inter-generational, outward focused, inwardly stable, vibrant faith community and center of activity for our neighborhood. All the energy and vitality we’ve been experiencing is the fruit of that intentionality.
I recently came across a story from the Benedictine sister, Joan Chittister, about the founder of monasticism, Benedict of Nursa. The story goes like this:
One day Benedict was working in the fields when one of the local farmers came running to the monastery carrying the dead body of his only son. Beside himself with grief, the father begged Benedict to bring his son back to life. Benedict was reluctant even to try. “Stand back, Brothers,” he said to the monastics there. “Only the Holy Fathers, liturgical the Apostles, raise from the dead.” The message was clear: our work is to be mindful, perhaps, but our work is not to be miracle workers. And then Benedict asked the question that gives us pause. “Why,” he said to the distraught farmer, “are you trying to avoid what befalls us all?” Death, he implied starkly, is a part of life. But the farmer would not relent. This boy was his past and his future, the center of his world. Enraged, he swore at Benedict and refused to leave until Benedict did what he could to reverse his life’s tragedy. And Benedict understood. He threw himself down beside the boy, prayed his heart out, and the boy stirred to life again. It is a story of human suffering and human response that is repeated every day of our lives. The implications are clear: It is not our job to work miracles, but it is our task to try.
We at First Presbyterian Church don’t need to be miracle workers either, but we do need to be intentional about trying. We can’t solve every problem that the central bench of Ogden has; doing so would be overwhelming. We are, however, seeking to be intentional about discerning where it is that God is calling us to put our efforts. That’s why we continue the work of Strategic Planning to help us live into our mission and vision. That’s why we’re creating a Facilities Master Plan - evaluating the strengths and needs of our neighborhood and doing the work of assessing the condition of our current facilities so we can create a proactive maintenance schedule rather than deferring maintenance and reacting to emergencies when they arise. You most likely won’t see any of this on Sunday morning, but who we are and what we do is much more than what happens one day a week. This is the intentional work being done in the background to help us be a more faithful community of Jesus following difference makers, engaged in being agents of God’s healing of the world.
Pastor Jon