Friends,

The St. Luke’s vestry has a tradition that I have not seen in another Episcopal Church. In addition to opening our meetings with prayer and concluding the meeting with the Lord’s Prayer, we also offer the vestry a chance to share a spiritual reflection. I am consistently amazed at the spiritual depth of our Church. Several years ago, when we were still meeting online because of COVID, Matt Harding played a trumpet piece as his devotion, and the group was deeply moved. The music itself spoke for itself. When possible and when the member of the vestry consents, I would like to start sharing these devotions with you. Last month, I shared James Reily’s devotion, and this month, I share Megan Costilow’s devotion. These messages feed my soul, and I hope they feed yours as well.

-Nick

Yesterday, it got up to about 85 degrees outside, so naturally, I spent my evening standing over a hot stove making a big pot of gumbo.

Gumbo is usually more of a cool-weather food. It’s hot in temperature, hot in spice, and not exactly what most people crave on a warm spring day. But sometimes you just miss home, and when that happens, you do what you have to do.

As I stood there stirring the pot, I got to thinking that a good gumbo has something to teach us about vestry work.

A good gumbo depends on different ingredients. The onions, celery, bell pepper, okra, seasoning (use Tony’s or it’s a bust), meat (your choice – any will do), rice, and roux all bring something different. They don’t stop being what they are, but together they make something much richer than they could on their own.

That feels a lot like this room. We all bring different backgrounds, opinions, gifts, and ways of seeing things. And St. Luke’s needs all of them. The strength of this vestry comes from the fact that we are not all the same ingredient.

The other thing about gumbo is that you cannot rush it. You cannot hurry a roux. If you turn the heat up too high, you don’t make it cook faster. You just burn it and its trash at that point.

A lot of church work is that way too. Trust takes time. Good decisions take time. Ministry takes time. Maybe that’s why presidents get a 4-year appointment or the vestry gets 3. Big work takes big time. Sometimes we just gotta let things simmer.

Now, I can be patient with things I love. I’ll stir a roux forever. I’ll spend all day fussing over tomato plants. But this weekend, my fishing rod got so tangled up I was ready to give up and ship the whole thing back to Mississippi for my daddy to fix.

Then Janey, my wife, who does not even fish, sat down with a YouTube video and quietly untangled the whole mess. It was weird. But it was much appreciated.

That reminded me that sometimes one person’s patience runs out right where another person’s gift begins.

So as we look at our agenda today, I hope we can remember both lessons. Let’s be grateful for all the different gifts around this table, and let’s trust the slow work. When something gets tangled, we don’t have to fix it alone. The gift we need might already be sitting right beside us.

-Megan Costilow