Community News

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A Chance to Grow and Thrive

Every spring, the Horticultural Society at River Farm hosts a native plant sale. The first of these that I experienced came at a perfect moment to have a disproportionate effect on my life. We had not been living in Alexandria very long, and I was coming to terms with the fact that my yard is less than ideal for tomatoes, which was my plant of choice before our move. With all of the chatter about local plants, a war I was beginning to wage on the wisteria that was killing our trees, and a desire to grow something fun, I was interested to see what I could learn and get from the native plant sale, just a few blocks away from our home. The biggest variable that drove me to the sale was my two year old son’s recent procurement of a riding electric John Deere tractor complete with a trailer. The weather was terrible that morning, and a long line of cars began to form to grab the few spaces that were not giant puddles, and I could not resist the temptation to have my son drive past them all on his tractor to load up that tiny trailer with whatever plants we could find. It was hilarious.

Why recognize the Virgin Mary as a Saint

Episcopalians have saints. You might already know that or you might not. Either way, like St. Luke himself, we recognize and celebrate many saints throughout the year. There are martyrs, holy women, holy men, and doctors (theologians) of the faith who we have canonized over 2000 years of Christianity. There is value in recognizing saints in this world, who despite their brokenness, found ways to follow and serve God in ways which can be an example for us.

Clutter

Since my wife’s cancer diagnosis, our house has been filled with extra clutter. Historically, clutter has been an issue that my wife and I have a habit of aggressively resolving. You might think our clutter issue is due to the vulnerable nature our of circumstance, and that housework is simply not getting done. The case is actually quite the opposite. When she began her treatment, the troops were mustered, and we have more help than we have ever had at our home. Nearly every day there is someone at our home to lend an extra hand with childcare and cleaning the home. This extra help is an outward and visible sign of the love our family, friends and thoughtful neighbors have for us, and so is the clutter.

Welcome, Hip-Hop, and Baptism

I want to build off what Father Nick wrote about in last week’s newsletter, partly because I love hip-hop and partly because I have been watching the show Atlanta in my spare time. Atlanta, created by Donald Glover, on the surface, is a show about the career of a hip-hop artist – from struggling to start his career, all the way to post-stardom. But what the show is really about is a group of people starting their life on the bottom of the socio-economic ladder because of history, politics, geography and so many other factors. It is about how they navigate the world as African Americans, in spaces that are for them and spaces that are against them.

Welcome to the Table

In 2015, I met up with my three best friends in Alabama to go backpacking for a couple of nights. The trip was great, and that is a whole story within itself, but I want to talk to you about the trip back. I carpooled with a friend, who lived close by at the time, and he insisted that I listen to Hamilton, the extremely popular musical that was exploding into the mainstream. I told him that I didn’t really care for musicals, but he insisted. To my shock, I was completely enthralled before the end of the first act, and we were both in tears by the conclusion of this masterpiece. When I got back from the trip, I was obsessed. I was so obsessed that I annoyed my wife to the point that she refused to listen to it. It took waiting until she was trapped in a car with me for a road trip (much like I was that fateful day in Alabama) for me to compel her to listen to it all of the way through, and like me she was immediately taken away with the narrative. We cried all the way through the production at the Kennedy Center a few years later, and we still find ourselves singing the songs from the musical.

Hope Found in Growing Potatoes

Two Sundays in a row, we have had Gospel lessons having to do with soil. Two parables back-to-back of Jesus having to do with the ground and farming. Last week, we heard the well-known parable of the seeds and the various soil. And next week we will hear about the weeds growing alongside wheat and what is to be should be done about it. I love this because I am a gardener. I have a little vegetable garden that I tend to with my wife, which brings us great joy.

Letting Go of the Intention

We have an overabundance of pianos. Well, we had an overabundance of pianos. When I arrive in 2021 the Church was shut down, and everything was out of sorts, because no one was in the Church. The narthex was largely used for storage, and I did not get a chance to see how the space was normally used. Before things got going again, we started the parish hall renovation, and when we all got back together after the worst of the pandemic and the renovation was complete, no one really knew where everything was supposed to go. We slowly figured this out, but one piano never found a home. Our organist, Kate Weber-Petrova, told me that it was too nice to give away to just anyone, but it wasn’t nice enough to replace any of our other pianos. The piano needed a good home.

Authentic and Messy Service to God

Last Sunday, I had the opportunity to serve without the guidance of Father Nick. And to be transparent with you all, I was nervous. Even though in my previous call, I had led worship by myself plenty of times, I was still nervous for this Sunday. I was nervous because I did not have Nick there to whisper directions to me, when I do not know what I am doing. I was nervous for leading all three services while in a walking boot (I sprained my ankle two weeks ago). And I was particularly nervous about the 9 a.m. outdoor service since it is a unique and different worship.

Despite it all, all three services were beautiful and worshipful. Even though I messed up here and there, it did not matter. It did not matter because worship is not about being perfect, just like the Christian life is not about trying to be perfect. Service should never be a production. And this past Sunday was a great example of that. Even though I know this. This is the advice I always give to acolytes, that we are not putting on a perfect production, so go ahead, it is okay to mess up, God still loves you.

Sacred Places

Vacations are a pain, especially with little kids. We could easily take time off, and spend leisure time in our own homes, but you rarely hear about people taking these “staycations”. Instead, we feel compelled to get all stressed out over packing lists, travel logistics, motion sick toddlers and we often spending lots of money to be somewhere else. I love working on projects around the house, and more than once, I’ve wished to spend a week’s vacation at home to knock out that one big project; however, when the rubber hits the road, I would never forego my family’s annual trip to Lake Hiawassee in North Carolina. That lake in the mountains that no one seems to know about is part of our family’s DNA, and I am determined to make sure my children always think of that cabin on the lake as a sacred spot.

Reflection on a Calling

Two Sundays ago, I had the opportunity to visit a friend in Richmond for her last Sunday before heading off to Seminary. She has been a lay children’s minister for three years at this parish and during that time, discerned a call to priesthood.

Adopt-a-Kindergartner Update

This week St. Luke’s Adopt-a-Kindergartener program delivered 27 backpacks to Bucknell Elementary, and 10 to the United Community Early Learning Center. Teacher’s supplies, including paper towels, Kleenex and freezer bags, also were delivered to both schools.

Juneteenth as a Feast Day

Feast days in the Episcopal church are not when we have lots of food together, although, they can include food. Feast days are when we commemorate biblical or other historic events in our liturgy. On most Sundays, we celebrate the Feast of Jesus Christ. We hear this in our Eucharistic liturgy as we remember Christ’s life, death, and resurrection every Sunday. But there are special Sundays in the church calendar too. There are times when we recount a saint, a season, or a biblical event like Christmas or Easter. Some of these are major feasts and some lesser feasts. The church calendar is full of saints or events we can recognize in our daily prayers or reflections.

Test of Strength

It has been a terrible couple of weeks. Let’s start with where we are now. My wife, Leandra, has breast cancer. It is going to be a trying year, but we feel certain that she will survive, and thoroughly kick cancer to the curb. About a year and half ago, Leandra noticed something, got it checked out, and was told it was nothing. When it changed a few months ago, she went back, and test after test came back inconclusive. This went on for weeks. Almost three weeks ago we received the call to tell us that her MRI shows that she almost certainly has cancer, and more invasive tests were needed to determine the kind. To add insult to injury, this was at the very beginning of our first couple’s trip together since the beginning of the pandemic. We are planning to go back to celebrate once treatment is over. For the past two weeks, we’ve been going to appointments for biopsies and more tests, and the news we’ve received on Monday was the best we could have hoped for. The dark cloud filled with “what-ifs” that has been following us has mostly dissipated. Now, we just need to do what we are told to do, persevere, and plan on growing old together.

Ordinary Time as ordinary time

This past Sunday St. Luke’s had a wonderful celebration of Pentecost with our Ghanaian congregation including a love feast. It was a powerful image of what we celebrate on Pentecost, the birth of the Church, the whole Church in all its diversity and beauty. It was wonderful to intermingle with our siblings and experience a different culture, worship style, music, language and tasty food. This is part of experiencing the diverse beauty God has made the Church to be.

Us Christians

Friends,
I am so glad that we are not ‘those’ Christians. You know, the judgmental kind, or even worse, the ones who get a little too enthusiastic in worship. For that matter, I am overjoyed we are not ‘those’ Episcopalians. We have all of the tradition, but we don’t take ourselves too seriously. Clearly, we have this whole Church thing figured out, and we accomplished this just in time, because this Sunday is Pentecost!

A Theology of Place

It is good to be joining St. Luke’s for this coming year! It has been a fantastic first week getting to know the staff, engage in chapel with the kids, and a side quest on the roof of the church and the attic. There has been so much to do and learn. And I am only writing this on Tuesday, my second day in the office.

What is Your Calling?

We are getting to the tail end of an amazing program year at St. Luke’s. Much has changed since this time last year, and we have welcomed in many new faces into our community. St. Luke’s began to offer new events and tweaked old traditions in order to build bridges between our longtime members and the next generation. Some of the new things we tried may make another appearance next year, while others will go by the wayside, so we can continue to try on new ways of creating a faithful community. One of the long-term things we have decided to do are Ministry Fairs in the spring and in the fall.

Echos of Church in the World Around You

As I write this to you it is May the Fourth. Many of you are probably aware that Star Wars fans are interjecting “May the Fourth be with you” wherever possible. This is a play on the common greeting of the heroes of the franchise, “May the Force be with you”, and every year I get a kick out of the pun, and by the time May the Fifth comes along, I am ready for the joke to be over for another year, and thankful that Cinco de Mayo creates a hard stop to this annual tradition. For Episcopalians and other like-minded Christians, this season resonates with our commonly used phrase to begin a prayer, “The Lord be with you!” or how we begin the peace, “The Peace of the Lord be always with you!”

The World Changes & We do too

Dear St. Luke’s,

At this point, I think it is important to point out that I am a hypocrite. This should be no surprise. If we are honest with ourselves, we are all hypocrites at one point or another. The world changes, we do too, and sometimes we are flat out wrong and need to rethink our convictions.

It was not that long ago at the annual meeting that I told the congregation that I plan on keeping St. Luke’s a solo clergy parish for the foreseeable future. We’ve implemented creative and forward-thinking changes to the staff that have greatly improved the quality of our ministry, but we have the tremendously good problem that we are still struggling to keep up with our rate of growth. I knew that if we continued to grow at this rate, we’d have to re-visit the whole multiple priest thing, but I did not think we’d be here so soon.

Connecting to What is All Around

Did you know that poison ivy is so globally prolific that no one knows where it originated from? In the end it’s kind of a moot point, because we know it is a valuable plant for wildlife, but we’ll kill it anyways because of the rashes they give people. My hobby since I have moved to the area has been reclaiming a vacant lot behind our house, and I’ve learned to fend off all sorts of unwanted vines and plants, along with the omnipresent poison ivy. There is one that looks like it should be wisteria that covered everything, but it never developed the massive bunches of purple flowers. In the opposite corner a thorny plant that looks like blackberries was dominant but it only produced pathetic tiny tart berries. Cutting the vines, and ultimately pulling them down was a very satisfying chore. Clearing the pseudo-blackberries was a bit more difficult and often revealed trash piles that had been there for decades, and considering the high concentration of liquor and beer bottles, I’m guessing it was a favorite hideaway for partying teens in the 60’s or 70’s.