Monday Ministerial Musings

By Rev. Mark William Ennis

2023 Blog #22

May 29, 2023

A Memorial Day Tribute To Kenneth Kizer

Today is Memorial Day. I will, of course, be attending the wreath-laying ceremony at town hall and will be marching in the town Memorial Day Parade. Of course, our family will gather for a picnic later. I do hope that no one wishes me a “Happy Memorial Day.” “Happy” and “Memorial Day” somehow do not seem to go together. Yes, I understand that this day is the unofficial beginning of summer and that is something to enjoy. But Memorial Day is really about remembering those in our military who have died defending our nation.

I always feel guilty on Memorial Day. I feel a bit of responsibility for the death of my Godfather. He did not die until 1980 but he began to walk toward his death when he suffered PTSD during World War II. He was in a construction battalion (CB) and built many of the structures for our military on Guam Island. He had a break down during his service and spent the end of the war in a military hospital psychiatric ward and never fully recovered from his break down.

I remember him mostly after his retirement. He was a bright man who taught me a lot but mostly lived in a small apartment with his wife, my Godmother, and rarely went outside. Uncle Kenny had virtually no social life, lamented the poverty of his childhood, and doing astrological star charts, convinced that none of us had any choices in life. Any issues a person had, he believed, was written in the stars and a person had no real control over one’s life.

During my high school and college years, as he aged, his depression deepened, his hopelessness worsened, and his drinking became worse. During those years he stopped doing self-care and he became something of a recluse. After my college graduation and one month before I started seminary he couldn’t endure the pain of living anymore. He waiting until my Godmother was out shopping and he hung himself in his apartment.

After his suicide he was out of pain but the family pain was severe. The summer after my college graduation I was so busy with my own life that I didn’t make much time for him. I was getting ready for Seminary and as engaged to be married. I was looking forward to the years ahead and forgot and neglected my Godfather who was in so much pain.

To this day I wonder how many years Uncle Kenny would have lived had I visited him that summer. Would he have found a reason to live if I had not focused so much on my own life at the expense of seeing him? I’ll never know the answers to these questions but I know that I would not be asking these questions if I had taken the time to see him and take care of him.

I plead with everyone reading this to not make the same mistake that I made. Let us never get so wrapped up in our own lives that we neglect those in pain, especially those who suffer because of the effects of their military service. Even as we remember those who were killed in service, let us care for those who lived through service but suffer from it.

#ReformedChurchInAmerica                                 #PastorMarkAuthor            

#BergenCounty                                                        #BergenfieldNJ

#MemorialDay                                                          #VeteranServices

To read more of Pastor Mark’s writings, please look at his website:

www.pastormarkauthor.com

Monday Ministerial Musings

By Rev. Mark William Ennis

2023 Blog #21

May 22, 2023

A  Spiritual Legacy

This weekend I had the joy of attending the graduation ceremony for New Brunswick Theological Seminary. It was a true joy to attend graduation. I haven’t attended graduation there in a few years. For several years it was remote because of COVID. Now  graduation is back and it is a wonderful place to celebrate new, young ministers and to catch up with old friends and colleagues.

Graduation is back but with a new an interesting twist: it was held at the Methodist Church in New Brunswick. With the expanded programs at the seminary, there are more graduates, and more families. The seminary chapel is not large enough to hold that many guests. The Methodist church was more than adequate in size and extended families were able to attend and enjoy the graduation.

Besides simply enjoying the graduation, there were two other factors that made this event more special for me. The first was that Leah was in an honor class. She graduated from New Brunswick Seminary ten years ago. The second was that the Methodist Church where Pam’s family grew up. It was a homecoming for her.

Pam’s Mother grew up in New Brunswick and she attended this church with Pam’s Grandmother, Grandfather and her Uncle Jim. Uncle Jim remembers, as a child, walking along the top of the communion rail. Pam’s Mom, Janet, was the older child and the “good girl.” She stayed in church, taught Sunday School and eventually became the lay-leader of the youth group.

Eventually the church hired a seminary student to help Janet run the youth group. This seminary student, Russ, came to help. Soon a romance began between Russ and Janet. Janet’s mother, wanted her daughter to marry a minister, made sure that she kept luring him into the home with freshly baked pies. Today’ social standards would forbid such a romance because of power imbalances, but in the 1950’s it was common for male seminarians to enter seminary as a single and find their spouse on a field assignment or in their first church.

As a girl, Pam would visit her Grandmother in New Brunswick during the summers and would, of course, go to church with her at the Methodist church. She spent a lot of time in that church and met many of her grandmother’s friends.

And so, this weekend, Leah was honored for having graduated ten years ago and she was honored in the church where her grandfather had his first seminary field assignment, her grandmother began doing youth ministry, where her mother attended summer worship. It is amazing how many blessings came from James and Irma Cooper worshiping at the Methodist Church in New Brunswick.

I couldn’t help but photographing Pam and Leah at the lectern of the church that is such a part of their spiritual heritage. After graduation we took a walk as well. We went just a few blocks from the church to the house where my mother in law and Uncle Jim grew up and where Irma and James raised their children. The house brought back memories for Pam.

And so, the Methodist church passed on a rich spiritual heritage to my family. I can’t help but wonder what blessings we will pass on by our church attendance and our bringing children to church. In generations, our good works may have the same compounded blessings. You never know how God might use a simple act as bringing a child to church.

#ReformedChurchInAmerica                                 #PastorMarkAuthor            

#BergenCounty                                                        #BergenfieldNJ

#NBTS                                                                       #Graduation

#UMC                                                                         #NewBrunswick

To read more of Pastor Mark’s writings, please look at his website:

www.pastormarkauthor.com

PastorMarkCast

In this week’s episode, Pastor Mark discusses his attendance at the graduation of New Brunswick Theological Seminary and his family’s relationship with the Methodist Church in which this graduation was held.

Pastor Mark is a Christian Pastor, author, blogger, and sometimes background actor. He brings all of his years of life experience to ask spiritual questions about the ordinary events of life.

Go to this link to hear the podcast: https://rss.com/podcasts/pastormarkchat/961458/

PastorMarkCast

In this week’s episode, Pastor Mark asks the people of faith to examine themselves and ask the hard question if our actions might become stumbling blocks to others who might be faithful if we led by example.

Pastor Mark is a Christian Pastor, author, blogger, and sometimes background actor. He brings all of his years of life experience to ask spiritual questions about the ordinary events of life.

Go to this link to hear the podcast: https://rss.com/podcasts/pastormarkchat/951338/

Monday Ministerial Musings

By Rev. Mark William Ennis

2023 Blog #20

May 15, 2023

Blocking Others

Recently I had a craving for Won Ton soup. I get food cravings every so often and they must be satisfied. I drove down to the local strip mall where I get my Won Ton Soup but I was unable to enter. A car in front of me was trying to enter but people standing and looking at some sight were precluding the flow of the traffic. It took a few minutes for me to become aware of what was happening. An unoccupied van was parked in a no-parking spot and preventing a tractor-trailer from driving where he was going. The tractor-trailer driver could not make the turn while the no-parking spot was occupied. The truck driver was irate and was making great use of his horn. Everyone wondered where the owner of the van was.

By the time I had parked and was in the Chinese restaurant to order my soup, the driver of the van had returned. Despite the horn blowing from the driver of the large truck, the van driver went about his job of bring cartons into a nearby store. He was so busy attending to his own work that he didn’t seem to care if he was impeding other people.

I can’t help but wonder how many times we get so busy with our own work, our own issues, our own perspectives that we fail to notice those around and, possibly, not even see or care about those around us. Do we impede others physically or even on their spiritual journeys?

A life-long Reformed Church member once told me that as a boy his faith was shaken when he was taught that true Christians do not smoke or drink alcohol. Later he saw the same elder who taught him this, smoking with a few other elders in town.

Another young woman told me that she hasn’t been in church since she was in high-school. While preparing for a “Children’s Service” the pastor asked her if she was “stupid” because she stumbled over a word while reading scripture.

More than two decades ago at a church in New York State there was a child who was playing with his toys in church a bit too loudly. A long time church member screamed at the child about respecting God’s house. She made the child cry and later asked consistory to teach children proper decorum while being in church. As pastor, I asked the consistory which elder should speak to her about showing decorum by example. No one volunteered. The feeling was that we simply could not offend a long time member.

I wonder if the future faith of that child was adversely effected by the disrespect that the old time member showed by screaming at a child, not realizing that there were kinder and gentler ways of dealing with a noisy child.

Do the actions of us grownups who claim to be Christian cause a blockade to others seeking faith? We lament that our children don’t participate in houses of faith but how often do we ask ourselves why? It is easy to fall back on the excuses that “there are too many competing activities now.” Maybe it is time to look at ourselves.

When a young woman is called “stupid”, when a young man sees elders doing what they teach should not be done, when a little boy is screamed at in a place that he is told is sacred, maybe we are the problem to young people becoming faithful.

Let those of us in Faith communities be mindful of Jesus warning. He told us that if anyone caused harm to a little child it would be better for that person to have a millstone hung from his neck and cast into the sea. Have our actions hurt the faith of little children? If so, maybe we need to repent. Let us make sure that we don’t stand in the way of the faith of others, especially the faith of little children.

#ReformedChurchInAmerica                                 #PastorMarkAuthor            

#BergenCounty                                                        #BergenfieldNJ

#SanctuaryDeportment                                           #StumblingBlocks

#Leadingbyexample                                                #ChristianBehavior

To read more of Pastor Mark’s writings, please look at his website:

www.pastormarkauthor.com

PastorMarkCast

In this week’s episode, Pastor Mark compares and contrasts the coronation of Charles in England and a Regional Synod meeting of the Reformed Church in America and the allegiance that is given to King Jesus.

Pastor Mark is a Christian Pastor, author, blogger, and sometimes background actor. He brings all of his years of life experience to ask spiritual questions about the ordinary events of life.

Go to this link to hear the podcast: https://rss.com/podcasts/pastormarkchat/941703/

Monday Ministerial Musings

By Rev. Mark William Ennis

2023 Blog #19

May 8, 2023

The Story of Two Kings

On Saturday two celebrations of Kings were both held. One in a small rural area in lower New York State and the other in London. One was great publicized on news media outlets and the other was unknown to anyone outside of a very small circle of participants and interested people. One proclaimed that Charles was King of England while the other affirmed that God was the King of England and the rest of all creation as well.

I can’t help but wonder why we get so excited over the monarch of one particular nation when our enthusiasm for the King and owner of everything gets such a low level of excitement. Which is more important, the king of a small nation and a commonwealth that continues to shrink, or the creator of the universe whose power over creation goes beyond life in this world.

Charles is being proclaimed king of England because his mother, Queen Elizabeth died. By all accounts she was a wonderful and devout woman who was a blessing to this earth during her lifetime. She, however, did die and did not rise from the dead three days later. Likewise, Charles will someday die and he will not rise either. Citizens of England as well as the British Commonwealth pledged allegiance to Charles as they did to Elizabeth. They pledge allegiance to mortals.

On Saturday, the Regional Synod of the Mid-Atlantic’s of the Reformed Church in America met in Warwick, NY. This gathering celebrated the sovereignty of Jesus who did die but was also raised from the dead. I can’t help but wonder why so many people are willing to pledge allegiance to a mortal who will one day die and ignore the immortal one who died and rose again.

We all grew up with the Disney movies about royalty. I have heard many women tell me that they fantasized as children about being Disney princesses. One of the books that I most enjoyed as a child was Mark Twain’s “The Prince and the Pauper.” Some of my favorite literature to this day include the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy and the “Chronicles of Narnia.” These all have royal earthly people as main characters. At the end of the day, all of the royal characters die and their wealth and power means nothing.

Who do we pledge allegiance to? Ourselves? Our prosperity? Capitalism? Our jobs? Our families? I hope we pledge allegiance to King Jesus and live in a way that gives Jesus great joy. Someday each of us will die. We will take nothing with us out of this world. Who and what we are aligned with will determine our futures in the next world. I hope and pray that all who are reading this will pledge allegiance to King Jesus so that your futures will be secure.

#ReformedChurchInAmerica                                 #PastorMarkAuthor            #BergenCounty                                           #BergenfieldNJ

                                      

To read more of Pastor Mark’s writings, please look at his website:

www.pastormarkauthor.com

PastorMarkCast

In this week’s episode, Pastor Mark looks gives his observations of a simply lesson portraited in Beauty and the Beast at Bergenfield High School.

Pastor Mark is a Christian Pastor, author, blogger, and sometimes background actor. He brings all of his years of life experience to ask spiritual questions about the ordinary events of life.

Go to this link to hear the podcast: https://rss.com/podcasts/pastormarkchat/931796/

Monday Ministerial Musings

By Rev. Mark William Ennis

2023 Blog #18

May 1, 2023

Bergenfield High School Beauty and the Beast

This past Friday evening I had the privilege of spending time at Bergenfield High School. I hadn’t been in the building for a while and it was a joy to be there once again. The occasion was the first musical production that the high school had performed in forty years. It was the Broadway version of Beauty and the Beast.

I have seen the animated Disney version of this story before. No one with kid my daughter’s ages could have avoided the Disney version of this. However, this is the first time that I have seen a stage version. It was magnificent.

Bergenfield High School showed an incredible amount of talent among its students. The singing, dancing, acting, costumes and music all showed an amount of professionalism that I have rarely seen in high school performances. The audience was in awe and enjoyed the performance tremendously. The story, however, was rather simple and one that we all would benefit from remembering.

A pompous prince becomes a beast because of his scorn and lack of hospitality toward someone that he looks down upon. Another pompous man does actions of violence when he can’t get what he wants and lures simple-minded followers to join him in acts of violence. Both of these men, who are full of themselves, do destructive actions because they are self-centered.

One man, the prince, is cursed by isolation but is eventually redeemed and the life-style that he once had is restored. The other, Gaston, comes to an untimely death from activities that he himself put into motion.

What caused the different endings for these two equally self-centered men? It was redeeming love. The prince, who became a beast, ultimately learned to love someone other than himself and this love of another, transformed him away from being a beast to becoming the man he had been, and was intended to be.

Oh, how valuable this simple lesson is for us whether or not we are in the community of faith. Self-centeredness causes pain and suffering to us, as well as to those around us. How we treat those around us effects our own well-being. Jesus said it best. He told us to love God first and to love our neighbors as much as we love ourselves. When we fail to do this we have taken the first steps toward becoming beasts ourselves.

I applaud the fine work of the students, staff and alumni of Bergenfield High School for the fine production that I saw and enjoyed. I do hope and pray that all who were in the audience learned the lesson of the performance and lives the lesson out in their daily lives. What a great community we will live in if we learn that lesson.

#ReformedChurchInAmerica                                 #PastorMarkAuthor            

#BergenCounty                                                        #BergenfieldNJ

#BergenfieldHighSchool                                         #BeautyandtheBeast

To read more of Pastor Mark’s writings, please look at his website:

www.pastormarkauthor.com

PastorMarkCast

In this week’s episode, Pastor Mark looks at the Irises that he planted in the parsonage garden and reflects on the tremendous spiritual legacy of New Brunswick Theological Seminary.

Pastor Mark is a Christian Pastor, author, blogger, and sometimes background actor. He brings all of his years of life experience to ask spiritual questions about the ordinary events of life.

Go to this link to hear the podcast: https://rss.com/podcasts/pastormarkchat/921706/