What a year it’s been! It feels like it was just yesterday that Katie and I (and Hank) pulled up to the rectory and began unloading and unpacking and making this place our new home. We were so warmly welcomed, and from the start I had (and still have) an overwhelming sense of being where God wants me to be.
As I think about the year, it splits into 2 chapters. From August – March, there were so many highlights, so many firsts. From TaDa! in October, to my first Christmastide, to my first baptisms and funerals, to my first boardgame night, and on and on. While I can reflect theologically or from a “system’s” perspective or what have you — the word that leaps to mind for the first 7 months is FUN! I had a blast. Working with Greg and the wonderful staff, getting to know the vestry, and getting to know so many of you — the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, and the others, but fun ought to be on that list as well.
Chapter 2 began abruptly. I was at Haute Coffee on Friday, March 13th when I realized that we would be cancelling church that Sunday. Everything began happening so quickly, including our response to it all. We made the transition quickly and nimbly, and not long into quarantine we experienced Holy Week as the strange and disorienting week that it was. And it felt vital and essential to me. It was in this period that I began to sense how much St. Anne’s means to each of us. There was an amazing Easter-burst of joy and connection: driveway chalking, Hope Rocks, midweek services, and all our small groups learning how to clamber over the foreign terrain called Zoom. As so much seemed uncertain, we learned about the things of which we could be certain. For me this church, and your eagerness to stay connected, and to care for another – this convinced me of the strength and goodness of Christian community, which, if it could show up and survive COVID, could outlast any challenge or hardship.
As COVID has afforded me more time for existential questioning (not sure if this is a good or bad thing!) I’ll find myself turning over the big questions in my mind — so what are we doing here, anyways? What is the church of 2020 trying to say? As I’ve been mulling over this, I’m reminded of Noah Evans’ sermon at my installation and his unforgettable image of the beavers that transformed the land out behind the church — by building dams to form ponds and trapping and removing silt so as to increase water quality, beavers (so we learned) change the ecosystem for countless species. It’s a long labor of love. And for me, that’s a great image of the church – a long labor of building and transforming the place where they are. What is the transformation? It’s the “building up of the body of Christ” — stick by stick, rock by rock. We show up, we serve, we lend a hand — in small and mundane ways — and we discover that the landscape (which includes our own hearts!) is being changed, and that more and more of Jesus’ life is shining through.
What is the church of 2020 trying to say? It’s that God has created you and all things good. You are cared for, loved, and wanted by God, and your destiny is to live in the overflowing joy of God’s being. As this love and joy permeates more and more of our community life, as we show up in whatever way we can, we are transforming the landscape — becoming more and more Christ’s body on earth, and thus letting his life show in our community.
It is a long labor of love, and I am grateful to have begun the journey with you.
Peace,
Garrett