Here for good, or for a season - Rector's Rambling for February 24, 2019

This Sunday I give thanks as I complete my 18th year as your Rector.  It was on the last Sunday of February in 2001 that I celebrated the Holy Communion for you for the first time, and preached from the pulpit.  On that day I thanked God for bringing me here, and I continue to thank Him for this honor and privilege of being your priest.

It is remarkable to think of all that has happened here in the parish, the neighborhood, and the U.S. since my arrival.  Comerica Park had only been open a year and Ford Field was still under construction.  There had been a start of new housing across the freeway that dried up pretty quickly as the cost of new construction could not be upheld in the then depressed housing market around us.  If you had said then that in less than 20 years the changes would be so immense that housing prices would more than quadruple, new office space would be at a premium, and that a new multi-team arena would be constructed as close to us in the other direction as Comerica Park, we would not believe you.  But here we are in the midst of the renewal of Detroit, our front steps being half way between home plate and center ice.

The greater grace though has been the many people who have sat in our pews, lifted their voices in prayer, been baptized, united in holy Matrimony, confirmed, or come to pray for their beloved dead as the Church offers her prayers for their departure.

In many ways St. John’s, as an urban church, is a transient parish.  Of the 50 or so people who were attending members here when I arrived, only a dozen or so remain on our side of the veil.  Many more joined my first year here as other parishes had internal issues driving away more traditional believers.  But more so over the last 18 years, people have come and gone as they have moved to the area and then moved away, or come to be with us for a period of time while they discerned their faith or vocation, or took advantage of the pastoral care and sacramental offerings at a time of need in their lives, to then move on to other places.  We are grateful for those who stay and those who are here for a season, blessing us as we minister to them.

Bring on the gesimas! - Rector's Rambling for February 17, 2019

As human beings constrained to time and space, we are “calendar” people.  In other words, we are people who keep time.  The Church Year helps us to do that.  We started with Advent and then had Christmastide and Epiphanytide, and now have yet another new season, known as the Gesimas.

This is the Pre-Lenten season, which you can read more about in the teaching notes below.  We are using three weeks to ease into the full-on onslaught of Lent.

At first thought I would say that I don’t want to be scheduled, but in reality I crave having a set framework to work within.  The looseness of scheduling of pastoral needs and emergencies is guided by the firm scheduling of the Daily Offices and Daily Holy Communion Service.  Having the regularity of the later helps to form and inform the former.  I do that part of my vocation better because I am regular about prayer.

And even though life can be hectic, and unexpected surprises can throw one for a loop (like our flooded basement), the regularity of the calendar keeps me focused on the big picture, and well as all the little things contained in it.

The Pre-Lent, Lent, and Passiontide seasons are a perfect example of this.  We know that Easter is April 21 this year.  Ash Wednesday is March 6.  We have from now until Ash Wednesday to prepare for Lent, the first five weeks of Lent to be thorough about our devotion and self-evaluation, and then it gets ramped up another notch when we get into Passiontide (the two weeks before Easter).  And then we have the uber-intensity of the Sacrum Triduum (three Holy Days of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday) to take us to the finish line!

In the coming weeks the liturgy will reflect these different stages: purple vestments, disappearance at different stages of the “alleluias”, the Glory be to God on High, choir and server surplices and cottas, and flowers on the altar.  Eventually the “Gloria be to the Father…” goes away and we are faced with the starkness of those last days.  Be ready to follow along as we head toward the Resurrection!

TEACHING NOTES

Today we begin the “-gesima” Sundays and we should be looking forward 18 days to the coming of Lent.

The -gesimas are an approximation of the days to Easter.  Quinquagesima is exactly 50 days.  Sexagesima and Septuagesima approximately 60 and 70.  Quadragesima is now commonly known as the First Sunday in Lent, marking the official 40 day penitential season.

One way to prepare for the coming of Lent is to think about what disciplines and devotions we are considering taking on.  What are we “giving up” for Lent?  This is not necessarily something that is bad for us (those should perhaps be given up anyway), but even something enjoyable and good that we use as both an offering and an opportunity remind ourselves that we have control (by His grace) over our bodily impulses.  As I write, I am in the midst of weaning myself back off coffee.  Coffee in itself is not bad in moderation; but the last few years I have given it up as an offering and a reminder that I don’t need it.  Of course there are other things in my life that I will be giving up as well.

In addition to giving something up, I am piling up some books I would like to read as fodder for meditation, and am planning a few projects I want to do as both a discipline and devotion.  Both of these types of things not only build up discipline and devotion now, but can be things that carry over beyond Lent.

If you haven’t given Lent a thought yet, start thinking and praying now about what disciplines and devotions might be helpful in addition to the Church’s prescribed fasts (days of abstinence from flesh meat – Ash Wednesday, Good Friday, and all other Fridays in Lent) and devotions (weekly attendance at Church).

The flood at St. John's - Rector's Rambling for February 10, 2019

By now we are usually into the “gesima” Sundays, those weeks of Pre-Lent, where things start to change towards a more somber tone: purple vestments, loss of the “Glory be to God on High” at the end of Mass, etc.  But with Easter being so late this year (April 21), we get a reprieve for a bit longer to celebrate Epiphanytide. But this past Sunday we got a shocker when Tristan Williams opened the church and found an upstairs radiator had burst from the freeze/thaw cycle, and water had been pouring into the undercroft for an undetermined amount of time.  Thanks to the quick work of Tristan, being guided by phone by Pat Walter, the heating system water pump was shut off, and by 8:00 AM our plumber was on the scene and soon afterwards the carpet care folks were here to start vacuuming the standing water out of the church. On Monday, by instruction of the Church Insurance Company, we hired a mitigation company to begin drying out the wallboards, remove the damaged carpet, clean up the women’s bathroom which sustained ceiling damage from the water coming from above, and assess additional damage. Thank you to the many parishioners who pitched in last Sunday to get things off the floor so the water could begin to be drawn off the carpets, to Chris Golembiewski and Denise Yee who improvised a coffee hour in the chapel narthex, and to Dave Schafer for the follow up during the week with contractors (which he is also regularly doing with the ministry center renovation as well). It had been hoped that the ministry center renovation would be done before we moved out of the undercroft for its renovation, but now things are changing.  I want to thank you in advance for your flexibility and understanding as we shift around coffee hour, Sunday School, nursery, meetings and gatherings.  Thankfully, worship will go on, since it is the primary thing we do as members of the Body of Christ.