PJ’s Page –
The incredible gift of the ordinary! Glory comes streaming from the table of daily life.
~Macrina Wiederkehr
In this season you have and will continue to hear from me and from others among this community of faith about the deep gift of rest. Rest in God. Rest in God’s creation. And rest with one another. Rest that creates space for deepening relationships with all three: God, Creation, and Community.
The incredible gift of the ordinary is what we intend to rest in as this season unfolds.
It is in the ordinary that life actually unfolds and happens. This is often what I tell couples as they prepare for a wedding. The grand celebration that is the wedding is followed by the incredible gift of each ordinary day and each ordinary task. The doing of the dishes and the making of the coffee and the leaving home for work or play and the returning again.
Hellos and goodbyes contain the incredible gift of both joy and sadness. If a goodbye is unwelcome or unexpected, it can be and feel much more complicated than one we were preparing for. In this season of travel, my prayer is that your Hellos would be joyous and your Goodbyes, even if they feel tender, would be full of gratitude.
Speaking of Hellos and Goodbyes…For two years we have been preparing for the day when we will send Vicar Laura and Kate off to serve God’s church in another place. It has been our task together, to help Laura find out what it means to be a pastor. What it means to lead worship, teach Sunday School and Confirmation and Adult Forums, visit people, conduct funerals and weddings and baptisms, make plans and then change them. And hasn’t it been an incredible gift of time?
It seems like just yesterday that we said Hello and Welcome and now we are preparing to say Goodbye and Godspeed.
More details around Laura and Kate’s farewell will be forthcoming, so please be sure to watch for that in Mid Week Updates and in the Bulletin Announcements.
Beloved, you are each incredible gifts: gifts to this congregation, to your own communities, and to this pastor. May this season of rest be filled with incredible gifts in which you find encouragement and delight.
Faithfully,
Pastor Julie+