Love

Friends,

In lieu of my normal devotion, I thought I would give you some bits of important news, and the text of an especially good devotion that was offered by James Reily at the beginning of the last vestry meeting.

-Nick

 

Farewell Kyle Munroe

Kyle Munroe is a student at Virginia Theological Seminary and as the school year comes to end, so does his time with us! This is his last Sunday, and we will have some parting gifts for him. Kyle has been incredibly faithful and devoted to St. Luke’s. He has a strong drive to do effective ministry, and his earnest approach gives me hope in the future of the Church. I encourage you to come this Sunday so you can thank him for his selfless ministry!

 

(Almost) Farewell to Sue Bentley

Sue has been our Parish Administrator for eleven years, and she is retiring effective April 30th! We are going to celebrate her ministry on Sunday May 3rd at the morning services and then at a reception following the 10:00 am service. Sue has been my go-to expert on all things St. Luke’s since I arrived, and it will feel bizarre without her here!  We will hire a replacement for the admin position very soon. We are re-structuring the staff, and the new admin will have a different job description, but they will still function as the central nervous system of the congregation. Everything is in transition right now, and I would like to humbly suggest that you leave non-urgent matters for the new admin once they get spun-up, and to focus and expressing your gratitude for Sue’s amazing ministry!

 

New Ministry Coordinator

Did you know that we have an endowment at St. Luke’s? It is an incredible gift, and when it was set up, it was stipulated that it could only be spent on very specific things, one of them being starting new ministries. There is so much potential to grow the ministries of St. Luke’s, and we have many great ideas floating around and very little time to make them happen. I approached the endowment committee, proposed an idea, and I am thrilled it is coming to fruition. Using funds from the endowment we going to hire a temporary employee who will work thirty hours a week for six months, and their only job will be to get new ministries off the ground. The largest project will be a parent’s morning out program that we hope to have running by late summer or early fall. Standby for more information soon!

 

Junior Warden, James Reily’s Devotion from the Vestry Meeting on April 19, 2026

Last Friday the astronauts from Artemis II splashed down after the historic trip around the moon that started with a launch some of you may have watched live during our final Lenten burger night.

 

This trip mirrored one taken by Apollo 8 astronauts in 1968 an incredibly tumultuous year in our history. That was the year of the funeral for Robert F Kennedy, the assassination of Marting Luther King Jr. the nomination of Richard Nixon by the GOP as their next presidential candidate. That was also the year of the Tet Offensive, the lowest point of the Vietnam War, the year that Walter Cronkite told us the war was unwinnable. 

 

In contrast, the message from the astronauts that year was overwhelmingly positive. In the face of humanity's (indeed all of earth's) seeming insignificance compared with the void of space, they turned to their religious tradition and love. This type of feeling among astronauts, as their perspective ascends literally and figuratively above the day-to-day squabbles of earth, is so prevalent it has a name: "the overview effect."

 

Just last week during that Artemis mission we saw an example of this. One of the Artemis astronauts, Victor Glover's statement shares this perspective. As they rounded the backside of the moon and it was about to cover all things important to him and indeed all of us; the site of all empires, nations, discoveries, tragedies, celebrations, victories, defeats, lives, and deaths of all humans ever save his three crewmates he stated, "Thank you to all of you for allowing us the immense privilege to be on this journey together; it's quite amazing... as we continue to unlock the mysteries of the cosmos, I would like to remind you of one of the most important mysteries there on Earth, and that is love. Christ said, in response to what was the greatest command, that it was to love God with all that you are, and he also, being a great teacher, said the second is equal to it and that is 'to love your neighbor as yourself.' And so, as we prepare to go out of radio communication, we're still going to feel your love from Earth and to all of you down there on Earth and around Earth, we love you, from the Moon."

 

While I don't think I will ever experience the overview effect for myself, I think we all experience the same result of that effect at our most precious moments here at St. Lukes, namely love for our creator, love for our fellow men and women. And that is why we serve on the vestry and do the other things to make this place what it is, to nurture the seed growing in this Parish, in this community. To love the lord God and to love one another as ourselves.

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Dwelling in the Light

Friends,

One of Wednesday’s appointed scriptures was John 3:16-21 which reads:

“‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

‘Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgement, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.’”

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Easter: A Season for Prayer

Friends,

First and foremost, thank you for an amazing Holy Week and Easter Day. So much effort went into making these holy days feel meaningful and special. If you were one of the many who poured their labor into these days, thank you. If you helped fill our pews at one of the many services, thank you for joining us. The crowd on Sunday morning is something that will stick with me! I am taking a few days off to visit my siblings and will return to the office on Monday. We are lucky to have Jackie Pippin leading worship on Sunday as she is exceptional in all things priestly!

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Everything Has Changed

I write this to you on Monday of Holy Week while waiting in the lobby of a car dealership while the windshield of my car gets replaced. My insurance is covering the vast majority of the cost for which I am insanely thankful. I didn’t even realize that was something they would do! There is a grocery store nearby that seems to specialize the Ethiopian food. I walked there for lunch and on the way back, I was accosted by a pair of geese outside of a Porsche dealership. Throughout this whole experience, I have had to call people to have conversations about Holy Week and Easter preparations. I just assumed that everyone from the Ethiopian cashier to the mechanic, to the geese would all be mindful of the time we are living in. Don’t they see the gray world start to have pastel streaks of color that foreshadow the colorful eggs that will appear after Church on the Feast Day of the Resurrection of our Lord?

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Here We Go

Friends,

When we started this Lenten season, it was still insanely cold outside. Snowcrete was a relevant and hot topic. On the first day of Lent, we reminded each other of our shared mortality by spreading ashes on each other’s foreheads. It was beautiful and solemn. The children’s programming on the first Wednesday Burger Night was inside, and no one would have dreamed of taking kids out into the dark cold. Last night, parents and kids lingered well after the official ending of the program and enjoyed the light and warmth. Regardless of how we frame this season, it only starts off being about death but unambiguously ends teaching us about new life.

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Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.

Friends,

There are a lot of things to hold in tension when doing the business of church.

There’s building community. When we have burger nights, are people actually making an effort to meet new people? If not, what can do to help make those connections? Do people want to get to know new people? I hope so.

Who left a trash can in the kitchen sink? Seriously, I’m not upset in the slightest. I just want to know what happened so we can stop pondering this mystery.

People wonder why I don’t list “sermon” in the reusable bulletin. I wonder why people think I should when it’s pretty clear that’s what’s going on.

The leadership of the Church needs to figure out what we are going to do after Sue Bentley our parish admin retires on April 30th. That punch list needs to get done, and I need to figure out how and when I am going to do that.

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Thanks Sue!!

Friends,

When I receive really big news, I often feel a wave of emotion. While I am riding that wave of emotion, I prepare for action. What are the next steps? What are the potential outcomes? What are the risks and challenges? Worry, excitement and fear cause the wave of emotion to turn into a massive swell that can propel me forward at rapid speeds toward a shore, where surely, I will dramatically crash along with the wave that kept me moving.

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Our Resistance

The things that people post on social media baffle me.

In my formative years, the concept that the internet could be used by foreign governments to influence citizens of other countries was beyond comprehension. Now this is commonplace and a cost-effective means of weakening the enemy that you can’t afford to go to war with. My freshman year of college was the first year that Facebook was available, and it was only available to college students of select Universities. You could only register with e-mail addresses from those universities, and it was a scandal the following year when some High Schoolers managed to get on. In these golden years, the internet was mainly used for sharing videos of cats, and it was glorious.

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Come Along With Me

Friends,

I feel like once in a blue moon there is a television show that is made for children that adults get into as well. When Leandra and I were dating we loved to watch episodes of Adventure Time, which follows a young boy named Finn in a surreal world named Ooo with his magical dog named Jake, who talks and is also his brother. The surface of the story is super frivolous, light-hearted and simple. However, when you pay attention to the background, it is clear there is a concurrent story. Glimpses here and there point to the true setting. The world in which they live with all the magic and fun exists in our world but in the distant future after a nuclear war. The narrative weaves in and out of seriousness. Characters that you once thought you knew become complex. Typically, villains do not remain villains. Redemption arches and regret abound, the characters are mortal and sometimes die, and the characters grow. When broaching impossibly hard topics it is often helpful to have a frivolous setting. When we found out that Leandra was pregnant, I began counting down the days until Andrew would be old enough to watch Adventure Tim with me.

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You are Seen

Friends,

I write this as I return from Paul Spring Retirement Community, where we do monthly services. The first service is for the general population. Nancy Morrissey is St. Luke’s unofficial representative at Paul Spring, and she always does such an amazing job of creating community and inviting people to Church. The little theater they put us in felt full in today’s service! The service is sacred, but most people go for Rev. Vanilla Bean, my dog, who always goes to Paul Spring wearing one of her hats. After that service we go to the memory care section and do a trivia game called “The Answer is Jesus!” (The answer to every question is indeed Jesus) and then celebrate a short service. A retired pediatrician with no family who is also a holocaust survivor, always comes. Even though she is non-verbal, she gets the most out of the service. She generally stands in front of me and insists on holding my hand when we bless the bread and wine.

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Preparing

Friends,

I am going to be out of town this Sunday! Ross Kane, a professor at Virginia Theological Seminary and all-around great guy is going to be covering for me. Kate Weber-Petrova (organist) and Sue Bentley (parish administrator) are also out of town. It appears that the three of us know enough to know that it’s good to take a break before we get into Lent at St. Luke’s. It is going to be a busy time. I hope you read my little blurb about Burger Nights, and why you should make getting to know your neighbor one of your Lenten disciplines. Before we get into the great craziness of the season, I want to emphasize the significance of the Bishop’s visit at the Easter Vigil on April 4th at 7:00 pm.

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Annual Report

Friends,

I am writing this annual report weeks after I intended to do so. The tremendous amount of ice and the subsequent creation of “snowcrete” all over our community has been a consuming issue. I feel as though the past week and a half has been abnormally busy, but I have accomplished very little of the tasks I would have been tackling if we were not faced with such abnormal weather.

In the short term, I want you to know that our Sunday worship has been profound for my spiritual life. I woke up to heavy snow on January 25th. I hope you got one of the many emphatic messages urging you not to come, even if you felt only slightly unsafe. A couple of people drove, and a dozen or so walked to worship. We live-streamed from my laptop. It was amateur, and it felt like family. At this time last week our parking lot looked like an ice-skating rink. Much effort was made to clear the ice, and locate salt, but our efforts were in vain. We knew that those in the congregation with heavy equipment were slammed with clearing roads and other areas, so we were hesitant to reach out. The call was made to cancel in-person worship and with great humility to start reaching out to those families. We were humbled with the rapid response we received from Rosemont Landscaping, and to our shock, by Saturday afternoon it was clear we could have worship in person. We had minimal music planned, no printed bulletins, but we invited people to join us anyways. I printed off 50 reading sheets, thinking that would suffice with the small crowd we would have. To my shock, the Church felt full! It was not up to our normal standard, but it felt like family.

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The World is Not Working the Way it Should: But I Have a Tractor that is Helping Just a Little Bit

Friends,

Before I try to tap into some meaningful touchy-feely stuff, here is the most important things you need to know:

First and foremost, know that the world is not working the way it should. We knew this going into the storm last Sunday, but this is to a significantly greater degree than I had imagined. Our strategy for plowing the parking lot made sense; however, we inadvertently created ideal conditions for making a thick layer of ice directly on the asphalt, and it is nearly impossible to get up. Snow plows do nothing, we have spread all the salt that we could find, and I even brought my little tractor down to try to break it up, and the parking lot is still very treacherous.

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Snow Policy: Church Ain’t Canceled…probably

Friends,

According to forecasts we will have between three and thirty inches of snow this coming Sunday, and I am pumped! Snow days are my favorite days. They are like an unexpected holiday that you couldn’t have planned for, and the only thing that must be done is to survive and enjoy the snow. If we do have a significant amount of snow, I plan to spend as much time as possible building snow forts with my boys, because that was my absolute favorite thing to do when I was their age.

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Patina

Friends,

Behind the altar are two sets of beautiful new benches, and if you pull those back there are four discreet doors that open if you give them a good push. The far right one houses materials for the Ghanian Church that uses our space on Sunday afternoons. The far left one houses things for my Day School Chapel services. Until this week, the contents of the middle two were a mystery to me, as I simply never took the time to open them up and peek inside. When I was going through some things with Susan Harris, who is currently one of the leads for the altar guild, we opened one of these and I found three beautiful crosses and a pair of brass candle sticks.

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Growing Together

Friends,

That was a weird year.

First, let me now specify. It was a profoundly weird year with domestic issues, politics, the government shutdown, the military, global affairs, assassinations, law enforcement, and what is happening with this whole Venezuela thing and those oil tankers?!?!

Very specifically, I am talking about our Church’s finances which have been dominating my attention against the backdrop of unexpected, bizarre and often tragic events. Our parish administrator, treasurers and finance committee generally have a supernatural knack for financial forecasting. Each month’s finances followed predictable trends, and our spending and income have generally been right in line with our estimates. They are genuinely weirdly good at this task. For the first time since I have been at St. Luke’s, things did not follow our forecasts, and we were looking at a grim financial situation at the beginning of December.

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St. Nicholas of Myra Saving Pickled Children and/or Drowning Sailors

Friends,

I am shamelessly using this article around Christmas time for the third year in a row. I think I am a fairly unique but ultimately mediocre writer, but I really like this bit I wrote about St. Nicholas. I think about St. Nicholas often. Not just because we share the same name, rather because I think it is fantastic that he is still remembered, and remembered for being kind and being a man of faith.

-Nick

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Money and the Church: Nuts and Bolts Addition

Friends,

On Monday at 11:30 the staff and I will be meeting at a restaurant where will have our little staff Christmas party and exchange white elephant gifts.

Those in attendance will be:

1.     Yours truly: last year my white elephant gift was a jar of Marmite, which I quite enjoy.

2.     Sue Bentley, our full-time parish administrator.

3.     Kate Weber-Petrova, our ¾ time organist/choirmaster.

4.     Stephanie Kaye, our ¼ time communications minister.

5.     Rachel DeMarco, our ½ time facilities manager.

6.     Genn DiFillippo, our full-time Day School Director (her position is funded by the Day School, but she’s an integral part of our church community).

7.     Ara Stephens and Laura Moss, our ¼ time interim Christian Education Ministers.

8.     Cecil Alan, our hourly sexton.

9.     Kyle Munroe, our seminarian whom we do not pay a salary.

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The End of Everything

Here is some prerequisite information:

·      The Church year is divided into season, which each season telling a different part of our story of salvation. Each season is represented by a different color that shows up on the altar hangings and on my stole (fancy churchy scarf). After Pentecost is the “season after Pentecost”, which just means this is where they stick all of the lessons that don’t neatly match the other seasons. Some call it “ordinary time”, and it is honestly my favorite season. It takes up just under half the calendar year and its color is green. After this season is Advent, which marks the beginning of the next liturgical year.

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Food From Furloughed Feds

Friends,

Last week a small group of volunteers mostly composed of St. Luke’s members were worked as federal employees and members of our outreach committee, filled three shopping carts up with the food and then packed fifty bags of groceries to hand out. We had an online sign-up where we invited anyone affected by the shutdown to sign up to receive some groceries. We threw in the extra bean soup mix from the pumpkin patch, and a church member donated some dog food as well. A few of us hung out for about three hours while people came to pick up their food on that Tuesday evening. Now that big push to do something to help those acutely affected is over, I am still processing everything we learned. Here are some of my take aways:

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