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Two Sundays in a row, we have had Gospel lessons having to do with soil. Two parables back-to-back of Jesus having to do with the ground and farming. Last week, we heard the well-known parable of the seeds and the various soil. And next week we will hear about the weeds growing alongside wheat and what is to be should be done about it. I love this because I am a gardener. I have a little vegetable garden that I tend to with my wife, which brings us great joy.
We have an overabundance of pianos. Well, we had an overabundance of pianos. When I arrive in 2021 the Church was shut down, and everything was out of sorts, because no one was in the Church. The narthex was largely used for storage, and I did not get a chance to see how the space was normally used. Before things got going again, we started the parish hall renovation, and when we all got back together after the worst of the pandemic and the renovation was complete, no one really knew where everything was supposed to go. We slowly figured this out, but one piano never found a home. Our organist, Kate Weber-Petrova, told me that it was too nice to give away to just anyone, but it wasn’t nice enough to replace any of our other pianos. The piano needed a good home.
Last Sunday, I had the opportunity to serve without the guidance of Father Nick. And to be transparent with you all, I was nervous. Even though in my previous call, I had led worship by myself plenty of times, I was still nervous for this Sunday. I was nervous because I did not have Nick there to whisper directions to me, when I do not know what I am doing. I was nervous for leading all three services while in a walking boot (I sprained my ankle two weeks ago). And I was particularly nervous about the 9 a.m. outdoor service since it is a unique and different worship.
Despite it all, all three services were beautiful and worshipful. Even though I messed up here and there, it did not matter. It did not matter because worship is not about being perfect, just like the Christian life is not about trying to be perfect. Service should never be a production. And this past Sunday was a great example of that. Even though I know this. This is the advice I always give to acolytes, that we are not putting on a perfect production, so go ahead, it is okay to mess up, God still loves you.
Vacations are a pain, especially with little kids. We could easily take time off, and spend leisure time in our own homes, but you rarely hear about people taking these “staycations”. Instead, we feel compelled to get all stressed out over packing lists, travel logistics, motion sick toddlers and we often spending lots of money to be somewhere else. I love working on projects around the house, and more than once, I’ve wished to spend a week’s vacation at home to knock out that one big project; however, when the rubber hits the road, I would never forego my family’s annual trip to Lake Hiawassee in North Carolina. That lake in the mountains that no one seems to know about is part of our family’s DNA, and I am determined to make sure my children always think of that cabin on the lake as a sacred spot.
Two Sundays ago, I had the opportunity to visit a friend in Richmond for her last Sunday before heading off to Seminary. She has been a lay children’s minister for three years at this parish and during that time, discerned a call to priesthood.
This week St. Luke’s Adopt-a-Kindergartener program delivered 27 backpacks to Bucknell Elementary, and 10 to the United Community Early Learning Center. Teacher’s supplies, including paper towels, Kleenex and freezer bags, also were delivered to both schools.
Feast days in the Episcopal church are not when we have lots of food together, although, they can include food. Feast days are when we commemorate biblical or other historic events in our liturgy. On most Sundays, we celebrate the Feast of Jesus Christ. We hear this in our Eucharistic liturgy as we remember Christ’s life, death, and resurrection every Sunday. But there are special Sundays in the church calendar too. There are times when we recount a saint, a season, or a biblical event like Christmas or Easter. Some of these are major feasts and some lesser feasts. The church calendar is full of saints or events we can recognize in our daily prayers or reflections.
It has been a terrible couple of weeks. Let’s start with where we are now. My wife, Leandra, has breast cancer. It is going to be a trying year, but we feel certain that she will survive, and thoroughly kick cancer to the curb. About a year and half ago, Leandra noticed something, got it checked out, and was told it was nothing. When it changed a few months ago, she went back, and test after test came back inconclusive. This went on for weeks. Almost three weeks ago we received the call to tell us that her MRI shows that she almost certainly has cancer, and more invasive tests were needed to determine the kind. To add insult to injury, this was at the very beginning of our first couple’s trip together since the beginning of the pandemic. We are planning to go back to celebrate once treatment is over. For the past two weeks, we’ve been going to appointments for biopsies and more tests, and the news we’ve received on Monday was the best we could have hoped for. The dark cloud filled with “what-ifs” that has been following us has mostly dissipated. Now, we just need to do what we are told to do, persevere, and plan on growing old together.
This past Sunday St. Luke’s had a wonderful celebration of Pentecost with our Ghanaian congregation including a love feast. It was a powerful image of what we celebrate on Pentecost, the birth of the Church, the whole Church in all its diversity and beauty. It was wonderful to intermingle with our siblings and experience a different culture, worship style, music, language and tasty food. This is part of experiencing the diverse beauty God has made the Church to be.
Friends,
I am so glad that we are not ‘those’ Christians. You know, the judgmental kind, or even worse, the ones who get a little too enthusiastic in worship. For that matter, I am overjoyed we are not ‘those’ Episcopalians. We have all of the tradition, but we don’t take ourselves too seriously. Clearly, we have this whole Church thing figured out, and we accomplished this just in time, because this Sunday is Pentecost!
It is good to be joining St. Luke’s for this coming year! It has been a fantastic first week getting to know the staff, engage in chapel with the kids, and a side quest on the roof of the church and the attic. There has been so much to do and learn. And I am only writing this on Tuesday, my second day in the office.
We are getting to the tail end of an amazing program year at St. Luke’s. Much has changed since this time last year, and we have welcomed in many new faces into our community. St. Luke’s began to offer new events and tweaked old traditions in order to build bridges between our longtime members and the next generation. Some of the new things we tried may make another appearance next year, while others will go by the wayside, so we can continue to try on new ways of creating a faithful community. One of the long-term things we have decided to do are Ministry Fairs in the spring and in the fall.
As I write this to you it is May the Fourth. Many of you are probably aware that Star Wars fans are interjecting “May the Fourth be with you” wherever possible. This is a play on the common greeting of the heroes of the franchise, “May the Force be with you”, and every year I get a kick out of the pun, and by the time May the Fifth comes along, I am ready for the joke to be over for another year, and thankful that Cinco de Mayo creates a hard stop to this annual tradition. For Episcopalians and other like-minded Christians, this season resonates with our commonly used phrase to begin a prayer, “The Lord be with you!” or how we begin the peace, “The Peace of the Lord be always with you!”
Dear St. Luke’s,
At this point, I think it is important to point out that I am a hypocrite. This should be no surprise. If we are honest with ourselves, we are all hypocrites at one point or another. The world changes, we do too, and sometimes we are flat out wrong and need to rethink our convictions.
It was not that long ago at the annual meeting that I told the congregation that I plan on keeping St. Luke’s a solo clergy parish for the foreseeable future. We’ve implemented creative and forward-thinking changes to the staff that have greatly improved the quality of our ministry, but we have the tremendously good problem that we are still struggling to keep up with our rate of growth. I knew that if we continued to grow at this rate, we’d have to re-visit the whole multiple priest thing, but I did not think we’d be here so soon.
Did you know that poison ivy is so globally prolific that no one knows where it originated from? In the end it’s kind of a moot point, because we know it is a valuable plant for wildlife, but we’ll kill it anyways because of the rashes they give people. My hobby since I have moved to the area has been reclaiming a vacant lot behind our house, and I’ve learned to fend off all sorts of unwanted vines and plants, along with the omnipresent poison ivy. There is one that looks like it should be wisteria that covered everything, but it never developed the massive bunches of purple flowers. In the opposite corner a thorny plant that looks like blackberries was dominant but it only produced pathetic tiny tart berries. Cutting the vines, and ultimately pulling them down was a very satisfying chore. Clearing the pseudo-blackberries was a bit more difficult and often revealed trash piles that had been there for decades, and considering the high concentration of liquor and beer bottles, I’m guessing it was a favorite hideaway for partying teens in the 60’s or 70’s.
Dear St. Luke’s,
So, these letters to you provide an opportunity to highlight some change happening in the Church, to help create excitement for some new program, or to thank people who have gone above and beyond. During slower times, sometimes I just talk about what’s on my mind, so don’t think too much into it if you don’t see an immediate connection. This week I have the good problem of having too much to talk about, so I am going to list of things that should be on your radar.
Dear St. Luke’s,
I am unbelievably thankful.
Two years ago, I celebrated my first Easter Vigil with you. Because of the pandemic, it was all outside, and I did not recognize most people. It was a joyful occasion, but everyone mostly kept their distance. There were a few baptisms, which were wonderful, and I felt thankful for the ability to be with you in person as we ushered in Easter. The next morning, we broadcasted the last service, and I went home feeling “done”. There was nothing pressing on my mind when I went home, and I enjoyed Easter Monday at home.
This year is different……
One of the things I love about how we do Church is our weird way of telling stories. You may have heard about the liturgical seasons, with the different themes, colors and whatnot. Call it what you will, but plainly, this is story telling. Every year, we tell the story of our salvation from Genesis 1 all the way through the birth of the Church at Pentecost and beyond. Every Sunday has a special name, with readings assigned that tell a little bit more of the story. If you get more into it, you can see that nearly every day has a saint assigned to it, along with scripture that exemplifies the Saint’s ministry. If you follow this calendar every year, you will learn about the history of the Church, and those who rose to the occasion in service of God and their neighbor. If you want to really get into it, there is a whole other system of reading scripture that is built around praying four times a day every day. I did this online during the height of the pandemic, and I loved it more than I thought I would.
Dear St. Luke’s,
The last two years have been a time of learning and growth for me, the vestry and for the Church, and we have a good problem on our hands. We are growing at a faster rate than we had planned and we are not able to adapt quickly enough. We could see our growth eventually plateau, and things could stabilize with our current staff as we establish our ministry rhythm. Or, we may find ourselves in a position where we need another clergy person for us to thrive in our ministry and avoid burn out with our staff. Personally, I am skeptical about parish ministry models with multiple clergy, but I may have to get over it and find a way of doing this with integrity.
The vestry and I have been working on fully understanding our financial situation, and I am continually impressed with knowledge, dedication and professionalism of the leadership in the Church. St. Luke’s has set aside reserves from previous year’s’ surpluses. This serves as a safety net in case of emergencies or shortfalls in the budget. The past two years we passed deficit budgets, but due to growth in the Church and limiting spending, we did not use these reserves. These funds were collected with the intention that they would go to pay for the operations of the Church, though there is no rule to limit what these funds can be used for. I believe we should spend them as they were intended to be spent.
In order to support the ministry of the Church, the vestry and I are exploring a pilot program that would consist of hiring an additional clergy person for one year. The purpose of the program would be to help us stabilize, and allow us to carry out initiatives and start new ministries that we would otherwise not have the time to do. This position would also allow us to discern whether we are a Church that would benefit from more than one priest. After the end date, the vestry will be able to look at what went well and what did not. If we decide that we are able to support a future clergy person from our pledged income, then we will have more experience to draw from on how to craft the position to fit our needs.
This position will be paid for completely by previous surpluses. We will not be asking you for additional money to pay for this position, and there will still be enough in reserve if we find ourselves in an emergency.
I am writing this to you, so you won’t be surprised if you hear about this pilot program idea. With that being said, don’t be surprised if nothing comes from this. We will not hire someone unless we believe they are a good fit, and there is a chance there won’t be any applicants. Either way, we hope that you keep us in prayer, and do not hesitate to reach out if you have any questions.
Blessings,
Nick
I often find pet peeves about worship to be a bit off-putting and universally silly, but like everyone else, I have them. You’ve probably heard me hint at a big one that I have in a few services. I absolutely cannot stand it when priests or whomever say, “please stand as you are able”. I HATE IT!! It is well intentioned, and I imagine that a lot of you are asking yourselves, “does he want people to be in pain and stand when it hurts them?” Absolutely not. My point of view is actually quite the opposite. I do not think Church, baseball games, or anywhere should be places where posture is dictated, even when there are norms. We stand during the Gospel, and kneel during the confession, but you do not need my permission or anyone else’s to do something different. If I start tacking on “as you are able” to everything then it implies that I have some sort of authority that I simply should not have.