Greetings everyone!
Thank you to our Council President, Courtney Wing, for writing this reflection the past couple of weeks. I found them refreshing, witty, and faithful in how to navigate this time.
My time away on vacation was refreshing. Time with family. Cooked a brisket on my new grill. Practiced using allaboutbirds.org to call Painted Buntings (amazing colors!) Trimmed my mom's trees with my brother. Cut some cedar. Fished. Lots of movies at home with family. Worked in the garage and garden. Did a bit of stargazing and astrophotography. I like to use my hands on vacation...its relaxing to me.
I suppose the technical term for what I do when given ample time is "putter around." Maybe this is my definition of sabbath.
For the past couple of weeks, we have had guest preachers. I have received feedback that some things said were too political. I encourage you to visit with me when what you hear stirs something up in you (from me or others). Maybe its the Spirit at work. When someone is proclaiming a word that doesn't sit well...ask yourself, "I wonder what Pastor V thinks?" and give me a call. You've called me among you to reflect theologically on life and our world. I invite you to read the Thursday
email from June 11th, where I offer some notes on the role of sermons.
Things I took away from the past couple weeks of preaching:
July 5, Pastor Judith Spindt from our synod office preached on yokes and being "prisoners of hope"...what she called "two images of life with God." She notes that God sets us free to be prisoners of hope...and highlighted the 50, 40, and 10 year anniversaries of ways people have been set free in the life of our church for women, women of color, and LGBTQUIA+ folks. The part of her message that is still working on me is,
"being yoked to Jesus...is being beaconed and led by God's own Spirit into a new future, so we can live and work in hope even though all things haven't been made new."
Pastor Paul Blom preached last Sunday. He dug into stories of his planting past with his family. I also remember setting string lines to make straight rows with my parent and grandparents. He emphasized that the farmer in the parable of the sower does not plant each seed carefully in rows, efficiently using his resources.
The farmer carelessly casts seed everywhere, excessively, some might say wastefully. Yet, the sower is an image of God...one who spreads grace everywhere, never holding back God's grace from anyone. This is good news for us all, who are a mix of all the soils in the parable, who are also called to cast seed.
The next couple of Sundays we will have more guest preachers. Pastor Kara Stewart this coming Sunday and Bishop Sue Briner on July 26. I am doing this with the encouragement of council so that I can spend some intentional time planning for the fall with preaching and worship...a fall that will certainly look different than any other. All Committees are looking at their calendars for the fall, and I will be working with them to develop a plan by the beginning of August for what our life together will look like the rest of the year. What might we continue to do as planned? What needs adapting? What might we want to let rest this season? What is the role of Grace Groups for the fall? Big conversations, but my hope is having a plan will give us a guiding purpose and light in an uncertain time. I am looking at updating our website to be more useful for a changing world. Building Committee is hard at work to get us to ground breaking. We are so close. A sub-team of the building committee is looking at our larger master plan and how we can put our facilities and outdoor space to better use for worship and small groups.
2020 has been a year like none we can recall. COVID has stripped away the layers of what we thought church was, to help us see the core of how we live our faith...loving God through loving neighbor...rooted in God's love for us in Jesus on the cross. Loving God and neighbor is what our purpose statement is all about - "Together, BOLDLY living and sharing God's grace with all."
So, good folks of St. Peter's, let us not be afraid of uncertainty, but be about casting grace like the sower and seeing what happens. In a time when the way forward is not clear, let us remember we are yoked to Christ...and that is enough to confidently step forward anytime.
Peace,
Pastor Vanicek
