From the Pastor

October 2009

And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue released, and he spoke plainly. Then Jesus ordered them to tell no one, but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it.
– Mark 7:35-36

“If you’d come today you could have reached the whole nation,
Israel in 4 B.C. had no mass communication.” - Jesus Christ Superstar

St. Ansgar Lutheran Church is now on Facebook! That’s right, if you participate on Facebook, you can now add St. Ansgar to your groups and participate in discussions, post photos or videos of churchy things, write comments on the wall, and be kept up to date daily with what’s going on at St. Ansgar. So far, we have fourteen members, and we’re hoping you’ll join us too.
I’m kind of excited about this newest foray of our church into the online world. Of course, I also hope you check out the website every once in a while (www.stansgar.ca). Special thanks to Rev. Steven Johnston who still keeps it updated for us even as far away as he is there in Brodhagen, Ontario. All of this is just another way of trying to help the community to effectively communicate with one another, along with the Sunday bulletin, monthly newsletter, and annual report. In some ways, Facebook is the very best of all these options because it doesn’t require the office to act as mediator between you and the group – just write on the wall or the discussion board and its there for all the members to see.

Still, I have to ask myself, if Jesus was here today, would he have a website or a Facebook group page? And the answer I keep coming up with is: no he wouldn’t.

Jesus, especially as portrayed in the Gospel according to Mark, is renowned for constantly saying to his disciples, or to those he has healed, "shhhh, don’t tell anyone." Biblical scholars call this the "messianic secret" and debate about why Jesus acted this way. We also read in Matthew where Jesus tells us that, when we give to charity "do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that your alms may be done in secret." And when we pray "go into your room and shut the door," and don’t make a big display of your piety.

All of this suggests to me that, not only would Jesus not have a website or a Facebook page, neither would he have a Sunday bulletin or a monthly newsletter. I don’t even think he’d have a church building, mailing address or phone number! Throughout the gospels Jesus shows constant disregard for the things we think are so necessary in order to do ministry. "Follow me," he said, "and let the dead bury their own dead," offending our sense of decent church etiquette.

Which is not to say that we should sell our building or stop putting energy into the newsletter, bulletin, website or Facebook group page; but it is to challenge us to remember that we have built and created these things, not for Jesus’ sake, but for our own. As Luther reminds us, when we pray "thy kingdom come," it comes without our prayer (or bulletin, or building), but we pray it anyway in the hope that it comes to us.

So, we do Facebook and newsletters and bulletins, we keep up the building and maintain our office equipment, we teach Sunday School, we worship in a particular style, and we have Coffee House for now, but always listening for and being aware of the Holy Spirit nudging us forward, challenging us and reminding us that, just because this is how we do church today, it isn’t necessarily how we’ll be doing it tomorrow. May God give us the courage to hear and heed this challenge of the Spirit.

Peace,
Pastor Brian