Last Sunday I spoke about the difference between emotional and spiritual states. In a world where feelings are taken seriously we tend to mix-up our emotional and spiritual realities. Our emotional state is the current experience of how we feel. Our spiritual state has nothing to do with feelings or emotion, it is determined solely by the condition of our relationship with God. Relationship with God is a short-cut way of saying our alignment with the essence of what really matters in our lives. If you want to know more about what I mean, go to stmartinsprov.org/sermons.
St Paul offered two tests for measuring our spiritual vitality. Can we allow ourselves to be part of community -something greater than ourselves, and do we engage with our individual calling, that which makes our contribution distinctive, bringing our skills, passion, and resources to the building up of the community?
For so many of us our membership of the community of faith has become perfunctory and at times can mean little more to us than belonging by habit to a club or association. This is not always our fault. It can be just the way life is at times. Yet, no matter how exuberant or lackluster we feel about church, I have yet to meet a person who is not spiritually hungry for something more.
The theme of the Gospel for this coming Sunday is the bread from heaven, the bread that satisfies our spiritual hunger (John 6:35, 41-51). Is our community a place where we can expect to eat the bread of heaven? Is St Martin's a place where we can begin to distinguish between our emotional wants and moods and our spiritual needs? It can be only if we invest ourselves in its life.
This fall we are participating in the program RenewalWorks. The program begins around September 12th with an online survey running over three weeks, for which we need a minimum of 60% of member response for the results to be meaningful. Don't worry if you are not online survey savvy, our leadership team will assist you to complete the survey!
What do we expect the survey results to tell us? We expect to learn about what each of us needs in order to deeper our sense of fulfillment and increase our spiritual vitality. The findings will form the basis for planning how we as a community can better support and serve our individual spiritual needs and make a bigger impact in the world around us.
Much of what we long for is not more happiness, but a more vital sense of purpose and connection beyond ourselves. We find what we need as a community of seekers journeying together is to become a community where transformation is an everyday experience. We long not only for personal transformation; we also long to become transformed as a community, fit to carry out the mission of the Church. The Book of Common Prayer tells us that the mission of the Church is to pray, worship, proclaim the Gospel, and promote justice, peace, and love (Pg. 854BCP). Through whom does the Church carry out its mission? The Church carries out its mission through the ministry of all its members, i.e. you and me.
Let's get ready for RenewalWorks, and see you in church at 9am or 5:30pm, this Sunday.
Mark+ | 
