Dateline Moscow

On Sunday August 3, I attended church at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Moscow, Idaho, where Robin Biffle officiated at her first service as rector of St. Mark’s. Robin is currently in the transitional deaconate, awaiting her priestly ordination in the coming months. The service was Morning Prayer with Holy Communion using reserved consecrated Sacrament, and Robin officiated at the communion.

The service started with cello duet, gorgeous music, gifted artists from the parish. The organist was a student from the university, also lovely music. The church felt homey to me, built along the same lines as St. Paul’s, with a center aisle, and with cross-ties that in this case were large beams of wood rather than metal rods. The side windows are leaded stained glass, rich wonderful colors, showing stories from the Gospels. The window nearest me showed the Annunciation, with Mary in a halo of stars, and the dove of the Holy Spirit descending with a golden spark in its beak. (I confess to a twinge of envy at the windows. They were great, and they even opened!)

Just before the start of the service, the Worship Leader led us in a little practice session for singing the canticles. Then the congregation followed along the Morning Prayer service pretty well, though it was clear that singing the canticles was unfamiliar to them (and to me). We did okay.

Robin wore a brightly colored stole with fish woven into the design, crosswise like the deacon she is. The Gospel lesson told the story of Jesus and the disciples feeding the 5,000 with only five loaves and two fish that the disciples had brought with them. What struck me most in the sermon was Robin’s emphasis on the transformation that occurs when we bring our gifts for the world to Jesus first. Jesus says, “You feed them,” which can be so easily interpreted, “Go on and take your resources--so obviously inadequate for the task at hand--and you feed them, all on our own.”

So easy to forget that he says, “Bring them to me.” The transformation takes place when he breaks the loaves and fishes. Then it turns out there’s plenty. More than enough.
I get caught when I try to act on my own, because, in fact, I don’t have enough, not anywhere near enough for the needs of the world, or my friends, or my family, or my husband, or even my own poor tired self. When I give my resources—my energy, my loaves and fishes—over to Jesus, and let love do its work, then mysteriously, the wellsprings open, and something surprising happens. It might not be that I feed people the way I imagined (or others imagined) they "ought" to be fed … it may be that something completely different occurs. But it turns out there is enough, and more than enough to go around.

Margaret D. McGee, author,
Sacred Attention: A Spiritual Practice for Finding God in the Moment
www.inthecourtyard.com