How quickly things change! Last month I wrote, enthusiastically, encouraging you to be ready to receive your new pastor starting on July 1st… now I almost feel like apologizing that you have to get used to having me as your pastor for another year. For me, this was completely unexpected, and it is a very rare event in our United Methodist appointment process for a retired pastor to be appointed back to the church they have been serving. I will be with you until the end of June 2022, but, strange as it may seem, I will have officially retired as of June 30, 2021.

The year ahead is going to be a great challenge for us all, and the redefinition of church needs for everyone to be involved. There is no going back to our pre-COVID pattern of church life. How does the church need to change and grow to be relevant to the world of 2022 and beyond? Everybody must accept a role in charting this future. I sometimes feel as though some people are waiting for me to tell them what they have to do next. Please stop waiting! Everyone needs to be redefining your ministry and how we work together as a congregation.

On the positive side, my continuing presence means that a new pastor won’t have to engage the transition from COVID shelter in place to a more open pattern of church life, hopefully with at least some in person worship sometime before the end of this year. The post-COVID church will look significantly different from the church both before COVID as well as during the pandemic.
The future St. Mark’s will continue to have the same commitment for mission and service beyond its four walls. It will also continue its great tradition of providing loving, supportive community for both its members and people beyond the church membership.

We’re still not sure what will happen with worship services. We will certainly have to continue online and on TV for the foreseeable future. When in-person worship will resume is not clear… and probably when it does happen, things will be different. For the foreseeable future there will be no hymn-singing or choral singing.

Some people are saying that they don’t want us to return to the sanctuary before everyone is able to do so, so that nobody is excluded. That may not be realistic, and it may be helpful for us to start small and build back to something approaching our pre-COVID attendance.

It is clear that our committees, teams and fellowship groups will be spending at least some of their future life on Zoom. UMW is blazing the trail for us all, having restored most of the programs and groups by sharing on Zoom.

We are not clear about when the church office will re-open. Staff job descriptions have changed, and it isn’t clear who will be staffing the office on a day-to-day basis, especially before our team of volunteers return to staffing the reception desk.

So… I need as much help as I can get. Please share ideas, but better still, offer to do the work needed to bring your ideas to reality. Proactive Christian commitment is needed at this moment of history. You are a team member not an observer.

As I said in last month’s article, I believe that St. Mark’s greatest years are still ahead of us. God is leading us into a future that will bring transformation to people’s lives, and to Sacramento and to our nation. So, please be in active prayer and reflection discerning where God is leading you and us.

May God bless us all on this great shared journey of ministry we call St. Mark’s.

–Pastor Alan

Not Politics

from Rev. Alan Jones, Pastor

There is much in the teaching of Jesus that warns against separating the life of faith from everyday community realities. Jesus warns people of faith against digging our heads into the sand and ignoring the world’s violence and immoralities. Clearly, the story of the Good Samaritan is a rebuke to the religious leaders of his time, who kept their noses firmly in the air, and kept as far away as they could from a suffering victim, who might complicate their religious norms.

Jesus invites us to engage the world where it really is. When Jesus says Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and to God what belongs to God, he is not saying that you should keep your civic life separate from your life of faith. No! Repeatedly Jesus challenges his followers to build a Kingdom of Heaven rooted in compassion and proactive relationship. The least of these are the priority of Jesus. Some scholars believe that this saying was a tongue in cheek comment by Jesus who taught that all life belongs to God, and Caesar is at least a distant second.

When the political process leads to violence and to abuse of poor people or minority groups, I am confident that Jesus would be in the front lines of protest. He wouldn’t be interested in who called themselves Republicans or Democrats, or whatever else; instead, he would be measuring each human being against God’s standards of compassion and justice.

A pastor friend recently shared with me the story of a parishioner asking to meet with her in person. The woman was in her late seventies and an active lay person in her UM congregation. Imagine the pastor’s shock when the woman began by saying that everything the pastor was teaching was a lie, and that the QAnon movement is God’s voice speaking to the American people. QAnon is a wide-ranging, completely unfounded conspiracy theory that says that President Trump is waging a secret war against elite Satan-worshipping pedophiles in government, business and the media. Donald Trump is the Savior who will lead the nation to a day of reckoning called the storm, where prominent people such as former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton will be arrested and executed. It is an extremist group that has increasingly infiltrated some parts of mainstream conservative opinion.

Not everyone who was in the mob on January 6th was a violent extremist. Some probably were people of goodwill who thought they were part of a movement for social change. But, instead, they were part of an insurrection that has done terrible damage to individuals and the democratic republic that we all love.

1. I want to invite every St. Mark’s member to do two things:
   Do everything you can to educate yourself about the activities of White Supremacy groups in our nation and in our region. These include QAnon, The Golden State Skinheads, The Proud Boys of Northern California and the Boogaloo Boys. These are just some of the hate groups with a terrorist agenda that were in the crowd at the nation’s Capitol on January 6th, the Feast of the Epiphany. Members of these groups are organized and live in our neighborhoods. As people of faith we must stand firmly against these movements and provide alternative information to those who are influenced by hate group thinking.
2. Do everything you can to look deep in your own soul and explore the many ways in which we all collaborate with structures and ways of being that do damage to poor and Black, Indigenous communities and all People of Color. Some of us, last Spring, began reading White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo. It is an excellent resource. Another good option is How to be An Anti-Racist by Ibram X. Kendi. Maybe you might start a small group of friends reading together with a commitment to ask the hard questions and push beyond normal behaviors.

Love of God and Love of neighbor are two sides of the same coin. The church needs to be proactive in bringing healing to our nation and our region. These are very dangerous days for many in our communities, including people of faith. Our voices are needed. Remember that The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing. (E. Burke/J.S. Mill)

There is much to be done, and the people of the St. Mark’s community are called to be proactive.

-Pastor Alan

Gratitude Myths

I have been pondering the concept of GRATITUDE.  Recently, there was a lecture on Gratitude given by Dr. Robert Emmons, a professor and researcher at U.C. Davis who has scientifically studied gratitude for many years.   In doing some research on the topic of gratitude, I found an article by Dr. Emmons on debunking 5 myths regarding gratitude.  It’s important to avoid minimizing the power of gratitude in our daily lives.  Gratitude can impact our health and over all well being.

5 Myths of Gratitude – Dr. Robert Emmons

1. Gratitude leads to complacency

There is a claim that if you are grateful, you are not going to be motivated to challenge the way things are or improve things.  

Studies suggest the opposite is true.  Gratitude leads to a sense of purpose and a desire to  more to reach goals.  In a study where participants recorded five things for which they were grateful for once a week, the group made 20% more progress toward their goals than the control group.  Other research has demonstrated that gratitude inspires behavior such as generosity, compassion, and charitable gifts.  This is not suggestive of passivity.  

2. Gratitude is just a naïve form of positive thinking

The claim is that gratitude is just about thinking nice thoughts and expecting good things, ignoring the negativity, pain, and suffering in life.

The studies done on gratitude find that it’s more complex than that.  Gratitude is about receiving a benefit and giving credit to others besides oneself for that benefit.  Gratitude can be very difficult to experience because it requires a recognition of dependence on others – and that’s not always positive.  It can be difficult to become a good receiver of the support and generosity of others.  Most people give more easily than they receive.  

Gratitude can also stir up related feelings of indebtedness and obligation.  If I have gratitude for something you provided me, I have to take care of that thing – I might even have to reciprocate at some future time.  That can be perceived negatively and cause feelings of discomfort.  The studies confirm this.  When people are grateful, they aren’t necessarily free of negative emotions and they don’t necessarily have less anxiety, tension, or unhappiness.  

The practicing of gratitude magnifies positive feelings more than it reduces negative feelings.  If it was just positive thinking, or just a form of denial, you’d experience no negative thoughts or feelings when you’re keeping a gratitude journal, for instance.  But, in fact, people do.

So, gratitude isn’t just a nice, warm, fuzzy feeling.  It has responsibilities that go along with it and can make it difficult for people under certain circumstances.

3. Gratitude makes us too self-effacing

Some people assume that if I am grateful, I give credit to others for my own success. When I recognize the ways others have helped me, I risk overlooking my own hard work or natural abilities.

Research suggests that’s not the case. In one study, researchers administered a difficult test and told the participants that they could win money for doing well on the test. Then the participants received a helpful hint that would help them get a high score.  All the participants regarded the hint as helpful. But only those who felt personally responsible for their own score felt grateful for the hint. Gratitude was actually associated with a greater sense of personal control over one’s success.

Additional studies have supported this.   It’s not either I did this all myself or somebody else did it for me. Instead, grateful people recognize their own feats and abilities while also feeling gratitude toward the people who helped them along the way.

4. Gratitude isn’t possible—or appropriate—in the midst of adversity or suffering

Some argue that it’s impossible to be grateful in the midst of suffering. When life is going well, when there’s abundance then we can be grateful. But what about when we’re facing hard times?

When faced with adversity, gratitude helps us see the big picture and not feel overwhelmed by the setbacks in the moment. That attitude of gratitude can actually motivate us to tackle the challenges before us. Without a doubt, it can be hard to take this grateful perspective, but research suggests it is possible, and it is worth it

In a study done about 10 years ago, participants kept a gratitude journal over two weeks. Given that much of their lives involved intense discomfort and visits to pain clinics, would there be anything to be grateful for?  Not only did they find reasons to be grateful, but they also experienced significantly more positive emotions than a similar group not keeping a gratitude journal. The gratitude group also felt more optimistic about the upcoming week, felt more connected to others (even though many of them lived alone), and reported getting more sleep each night—an important indicator of overall health and well-being.

Science suggests we can cultivate or maintain an attitude of gratitude through hard times, and that we’ll be better for it.

5. You have to be religious to be grateful

The science regarding gratitude has shown that people can have a grateful disposition even if they’re not religious.   There is research that suggests that religious people might be more inclined to feel or practice gratitude, but they are not the only ones who score high on gratitude scales.

Among religious people, feeling grateful to God isn’t mutually exclusive with feeling grateful to other potential sources of goodness.  People who score high in gratitude are more likely to give credit to God than are people who score low in gratitude. But those grateful people are more likely to give credit across the board, meaning that they also give credit to other sources, such as other people, genetics, and hard work.

These five myths spring from a fundamental misconception about gratitude: that it is a simplistic emotion. But it is deceptively complicated.  Once we appreciate these complexities of gratitude, documented by years of scientific research, we are in a better position to enjoy all the strengths and goodness it can bring.

It Really Does Make a Difference!

The St. Mark’s Food Closet may be small, but it continues to help many food insecure in our area on a regular basis during this very challenging time. The week before Christmas, every one of our family groups received (in addition to the usual groceries), a box of holiday meal preparations – including a turkey (or rotisserie chicken and prepared side dishes for those without cooking facilities) which was greatly appreciated by all (see letter below from one of our former regulars). Thank you to UMW (Calexico) for the generous donation of enough turkeys to go around!

Also, thank you to those of you who continue to donate both groceries and money to the Food Closet on a regular basis. Even our neighbors have gotten in on the sharing, bringing both food and money donations to us. Unfortunately, we did not get the name of our neighbor who donated $200 worth of WinCo gift cards to hand out at the Food Closet – resulting in many happy, happy faces!! The Spiritual Life Center brought several bags of food recently.

(Letter from appreciative client:)

THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

We would like to thank you for all of your help feeding people. 
You made our holidays the Best.
We received our Stimulus check, 
so we would like to donate some to you to buy more food for your pantry! ($50!)

Thank you for your help,
 Jackie, Jim, Stacy (and kids)
 P.S. We may need to come back again in the future. But, right now we are good.

These stories really make all the work worth it!!

-Jane and Jim

St. Mark’s UMC