What the Summer Brings…

The Season of Pentecost doesn’t have to be “Ordinary”.

Here we are into the month of June with the long months of  Pentecost looming.  I don’t know about you, but I get a little weary of the “green” that will adorn the church for the next 24 weeks.  As you know, the Pentecost season is also known as “Ordinary Time.”  The English name translates the Latin term as Tempus per annum (literally "time through the year"). Ordinary Time comprises the periods which do not fall under the seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent, or Easter and which follow Epiphany and Pentecost. The weeks in Ordinary Time are numbered, although two Sundays are named for the feast they commemorate, such as Trinity Sunday (first Sunday after Pentecost) and the Feast of Christ the King (last Sunday in O.T.). 

The question I’ve been struggling with these last few weeks is how do we keep up the excitement and momentum around St. Luke’s this summer and keep our focus trained on mission and church growth? Ordinary Time can be just that—ordinary! Who doesn’t want to take some time off from church too, right?  I write this knowing that most of you will travel this summer and I will be on vacation for most of the month of July, and as a new rector I worry about leaving you (I will miss you!) and placing our common tasks on hold. 

When I’m gone you won’t have to worry.  You will be left in good clergy-supply hands. The Rev. Susan Allison-Hatch and the Rev. Bertie Pearson will take good care on their respective Wednesday and Sunday mornings.  In case you’re interested in our summer vacation plans, the Corsello family will be in Colorado.  When we finally sold our house in Richmond this spring, we were able to invest the equity in a small stone cabin outside of Buena Vista.  It is quite rustic—no indoor shower and no internet connection! Now that I think of it, perhaps you should pray for my sanity. Yet, when I need my reality/pampering fix, Aspen is just a 70- mile drive over the Continental Divide.  However, the cabin is quite beautiful and sits at the confluence of two streams on   national park service land.  The cabin does have a  land-line telephone so I’ll be able to call Melissa and Paul and check in often.

Now, back to the matter at hand.  How do we celebrate the true meaning of Pentecost while claiming it as our own day after day?  One way to do it is to think of  Pentecost as it is described in the Acts of the Apostles as “The Act of the Holy Spirit.”  The same “wind” that blew in the beginning (Genesis 1: 1-2) was blowing in a mighty way on the day of Pentecost too. God’s word was creating when the eleven disciples worshipped on Pentecost morning, and it is creating with us too!  We have to hold on to it and let it blow open our front doors to new life.  We have to trust that the Spirit is taking care of this parish while we’re away; that ideas and  ministries are being created. 

So you see, this was no Ordinary Time and we are  certainly not living in an Ordinary Time. We are the living fulfillment of the long promise of God. God’s word is being heard at St. Luke’s. God’s spirit is being shared at St. Luke’s, and God’s communion is being brought into existence among us here and now!  Just because it is summer and many of us will travel and be away, it doesn’t mean that our hearts are far from home.  Please pray for our parish.  Pray for our members, both those known and  unknown. Invite your friends and colleagues to come and workshop with us.  Evangelize! Witness! Share your stories! And keep coming to church!

Faithfully,
+ Dana