To Live Again or to Live Anew?
I went to get my first injection of the vaccine this afternoon and as I walked up to the HEB in Kingwood, I had to do a double take as I recognized another Holy Spiriter coming from having just gotten his shot. It was surprising and joyful to get to share this moment! I reflected all morning on the implications of receiving the vaccine. It occurred to me that getting vaccinated not only promised to guard my own health, but more importantly promotes the possibility of keeping others from getting sick and moving us closer to being able to do all the wonderful things we usually share but have missed at Holy Spirit. While Easter and the finish to our spring will still look different than years past, we are taking steps that will ultimately help us to be ready to come back together.
Blooming From Brown
I was outside talking to a friend recently and realized how brown everything is. The freeze really did a number on our plants! She had heard someone say that we should be prepared for things to be ugly for a little while. I thought of this as I stepped out into a sunny and crisp beautiful day this morning. I have already begun seeing buds of new life on plants that looked anything but alive a week ago. Lent often strikes me in a similar way. This fallow period of waiting and listening can seem like a period when much is uncertain, and everything seems like it will be ugly for a while. Further, as we have surpassed the one-year mark on the pandemic, we may be wondering if last year’s Lent ever actually ended! BUT, glimpses of resurrection are showing up all around us.
The Dynamic Life of Faith
This week, our Vestry met for the first time since the Annual Parrish Meeting, and we elected our new wardens. I am quite happy to officially share that Elizabeth Bremner is Holy Spirit’s Senior Warden and Curt Martin is our Junior Warden! The sharing of leadership between clergy and laity is one of the cornerstones of the polity of the Episcopal Church. While we have varying responsibilities, it is such a pleasure to serve a church that shares the ministry of caring for God’s community in this time and place. This Saturday will evidence another occasion of shared leadership as the Diocese of Texas will convene for Diocesan Council. Please pray for our church as we attempt to gather hundreds of delegates virtually, and especially pray for Sandy, Jon, Jordan, Tiffany, Korey, and myself as we participate!
Sharing Power, Goods, and Connection
It is a very uncomfortable thing to be powerless. It isn’t healthy to be dehydrated. Losing connectivity creates terrible isolation. To lose all of these in the midst of a hard freeze has been challenging to say the least. These are just a few things I have been reflecting on these last few days as I have tried to stay warm and as I prayed continually for you all to stay safe.
Time and Time Again
It is time to dig out those jackets as the weather has finally begun to feel a bit like winter in Houston. I always find joy in the shifting of the seasons. When we experience a Houston cold snap, I am nostalgic of long ago bundled up experiences and I get excited about what lay ahead. I find the same is true of liturgical seasons. The green vestments which were so exciting to don in early January have become normalized and as Korey and I pulled out the purple Lenten paraments I was reminded of the many past Ash Wednesdays of my faith journey. Demarcation creates awareness. This will be the last first time we will do something virtually as a church community since we transitioned to virtual worship a few weeks into Lent last year.
Looking Behind and Ahead in Hope
It is hard to believe that once we worship virtually on Ash Wednesday, we will have experienced all the major special observances of our liturgical year online. I can’t say that virtual services have gotten easier or feel more normal. I can say that I continue to pray for all of you daily. Many of you have gotten your first vaccine shot and I am so very hopeful that as we move towards the summer, we will begin to see normalcy on the horizon.
The Assurance of Caring Love
In the last six weeks since my family experienced the tragic loss of Sarah’s parents, I’ve heard from so many people, a great many of whom I haven’t spoken with in quite some time. We have been given food, gift cards, Christmas presents, flowers, magnolia trees (seriously, real ones that I planted a couple of weeks ago) and so much more. We even got a delivery of cookies from my favorite cookie shop of all time located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. To say we have been showered with care and prayer would be an understatement. But there is one gift that I have been trying to put my finger on…
The Promise of Never Missing Out
When God called out three times “Samuel, Samuel!”, as we heard in our first reading this past week, it was almost comical that Samuel kept believing that it was Eli calling him. Finally, by the third time, the old man realized that it must be God that was calling out to the boy. Following Eli’s instruction, Samuel was prepared the fourth time that God called and the scripture says “Now the Lord came and stood there, calling as before, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ And Samuel said, ‘Speak, for your servant is listening.’” I love the image of our persistent God coming and standing there and repeatedly calling out to the boy who was to become God’s prophet. The strong persistence of God’s call is encouraging and comforting.
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