Clarify Our Community Engagement Causes!

The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel

Five years ago, the congregation engaged a process called “Nominate Your Causes” to discover what our community engagement priorities should be at St. Martin’s. Through a process of polling the congregation and conversations at Parish Forum, we landed squarely on three top priorities which would direct our community engagement efforts:

1. hunger
2. education
3. climate change

Read more about our progress on each of these causes in our Progress Report: 5 Years of Community Engagement. 

For the next four Sundays, the Community Engagement Committee is asking you to help us Clarify our Causes. The committee is committed to grounding our work in priorities set by the parish community.
 
What specific areas under these broad umbrella priorities would you like us to address with programming, organizing, action, and funding? For example under climate change, you could specify “gas mileage standards,” or “eliminate fracking” or “alternative energy sources.”


On Sunday, March 3 and Sunday, March 10 we will distribute a quick survey in the worship bulletin for you to use to make your suggestions. This survey is also available online. We will collect your suggestions and bring them back to the parish for further discussion and refinement at the March 24 Parish Forum. The March 31st Parish Forum will continue our parish discussion about the role of advocacy and social justice in our work. We have active, fun, and creative programs designed for both days.


Please join us and be a part of visioning the future of community engagement at St. Martin’s.


Blessings,
The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel
Rector



Links:
Progress Report: 5 Years of Community Engagement
Clarify our Causes survey

Over My Head

The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel

Swimming in the deep end was a rite of passage in my childhood. When could I swim well enough to slip under the floating line into the deep water where the big kids swam? On that special day when permission was given - when I graduated from the “guppy” swim class to be a “fish” - courage was summoned. Tiptoes pushed off into the mystery of swimming where I could sink twelve feet down. Confidence came from risking it. Comfort slowly followed as anxiety faded in the joy of play.

Moving into the deep end, getting in over my head, happens again and again in life. As a leader, I am not sure I am allowed to admit when I am over my head. But as a faith leader, over my head is just a fact of life. With God we are always in over our head. God is always drawing us into the deeper water of God’s mysterious inner life, so life in faith (i.e. trusting and living in Christ) will always return us to the status of beginner, learner, guppy.

One way I know that St. Martin’s is heading in the right direction is that I feel my competence challenged. I feel like I am in over my head. That is a good indication that we are in the realm of faith. Our Becoming Beloved Community work reminds me all the time that I am a beginner even though I have done anti-racism training for 20+ years. Dismantling the imprint our racist culture has put in my soul and psyche is a startlingly deep task.

In fact, I would like to suggest that the illusion of competence and confidence I carry as my “birthright” as a white male are products of unearned and unreflective privilege. So healing from racism for me will entail acknowledging this, and then risking incompetence and disorientation. Faith draws me into this in the hope that God’s will is to heal me and draw me into a more whole version of myself, stripped of the marks of sin.

Leadership means inviting you to go with me on this uncomfortable and disorientating journey of faith. You won’t be able to look to me for answers because I am in this struggle with you. We can, however, look to each other for goodwill, support, prayer, and compassion as we do some hard learning together.

Blessings,
The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel
Rector

Editor's Note: 
On Sunday, March 3 at our 9:15 a.m. parish forum is an opportunity for us all to discuss this journey together during "Talking Beloved Community" with our Becoming Beloved Community team. Read more here.

Before the Crisis

The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel

Mortality has a way of focusing our attention. Suffering, anguish, and crisis put daily distractions in perspective and focus our minds on what is essential. Most people seek out pastoral support in times of crisis. We are always here for you in that moment whatever time of day or whichever day of the week. Always make that call. We have the spiritual resources most needed in crisis - love, listening, compassion, prayer, community, and most importantly the presence of Christ in sacraments and in the midst of believing people. “Wherever two or three are gathered, I will be in the midst of you,” said Jesus.


In a sense we can be grateful for crisis and suffering when they encourage us to “wake up,” “seek help,” “go deeper,” and “depend on God.” On the other hand, I would like to advise all of us to engage our spiritual growth and development well before the moment of crisis hits. Imagine getting the horrible news that you have only months to live. Do you want to cram a lifetime of spiritual growth and development into those months when coping will be hard enough? The Good News teaches us that God will complete our healing on the other side of death. But, we will be better equipped to meet all our challenges on this side of mortality if we have embraced the learning and growing made available by grace each regular, normal day.

If I have learned one thing in 23 years of ministry it is that people who embrace the baptismal cycle of dying to self and rising to new life in Christ during their quotidian life are more prepared for the final instance of that cycle when death comes.

Perhaps it all depends on what you think the end game is. If you are only preparing for eternal life with God in the hereafter, perhaps you can leave your spiritual growth to the last minute. On the other hand, if your desire is to witness to the Gospel in this life - for your life, your love, your energy to radiate the life-shaping freedom of the Good News now - then we need to delve deeply into prayer, scripture, community, service, and intentional spiritual reflection daily.

The latter path requires virtues acquired through habit, through practice. Only through daily prayer, weekly study, steady service, and ongoing, faithful relationships do we build a heart attuned to what God is saying to us. Such a life of habitual approach to God both requires and builds up the virtues of endurance, perseverance, courage, and patience in us. These virtues bring a steadiness to our life that we desperately need in tumultuous and distracting times. Reacting to every provocation, chasing every fad, making every minute productive, chasing immediate gratification - these habits pull our souls apart, leaving us exhausted, fragmented, and ungrounded. The Good News is that we know a better way.

Blessings,
The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel
Rector

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Contact the clergy in crisis:

Rev. Jarrett Kerbel, rector
jkerbel@stmartinec.org | 215.247.7466 x101 | 215.704.5499 cell

Rev. Anne Thatcher, associate rector
athatcher@stmartinec.org | 215.247.7466 x105 | 509.876.1924 cell

Rev. Carol Duncan, deacon
carol.duncan8031@gmail.com | 330.705.4795 cell

Barbara Ballenger, associate for spiritual formation & care and postulant
bballenger@stmartinec.org | 215.247.7466 x102