How does the resurrection story influence our lives today? This is the big question around which I am organizing my thoughts this Eastertide. I talk about the resurrection story, because what we have is a story. We have the story of an event that reshaped the lives of the Jews and Gentiles who became the first generation of Christians. It was not just that the way they thought about their individual lives changed, but the way they lived in community changed. As these radical Christian communities spread around the Mediterranean Sea, the way they lived, shaped by the resurrection story began to change the then known world. To read or hear more about visit here. 

 

Our lives are influenced by story, and as I said on Sunday , we like to think that we choose our own stories to live by, but actually, unconsciously, stories we are not aware of, often choose us, and we may not always be comfortable with this when we become more aware of which stories are choosing us.

 

The resurrection story becomes real for us through our participation in communities where it is the primary story. So, belonging to a church has a deeper and richer meaning than belonging to the tennis club, because belonging to a church community connects us to a long tradition of experience that looks at the world in a particular way. As rector, I see how members of St. Martin's reinforce the influence of the resurrection story in one another through their participation is various aspects of our community life - its ministries and groups. In particular, women are well-served in this way through ministries like the knitting group and of course the thriving Women's Spirituality Group. Men are much less well- served, and so, one of the priorities for the coming post Easter year is to address the needs that men have to be in the company of men.

 

Male friendships, or the capacity for men to make mutual friendships is declining in our society. You might like to visit the recent NPR Hidden Brain podcast The Lonely American Man for a more in-depth exploration of this problem.

 

This coming Tuesday, the newly formed St. Martin's Men's Community (SMMC) is hosting a beer and pizza event for men of the parish and their friends in the wider community. In fact, any man who learns of this event is welcome, but it helps if St. Martin's men invite a friend. The event begins at the church at 6 pm and you can check the event link here.

 

The SMMC is modeled on the Anglican three legged stool. We have three strands of activity: we meet to eat, we meet to grow, we meet to serve, and we will talk more about what this looks like on Tuesday.

I hope to see you, and please guys, remember to RSVP to  Susan Esposito by close of day on Monday, so we have a rough reckoning of how much pizza and beer to get in.

See you in Church, this Sunday.

Mark+

St. Martin's May Breakfast!