Jack Hardaway
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Most of us have joked about how painful, and difficult 2020 was.
“What next?” was the refrain, followed by a comical litany of how things could get worse, like a comet colliding with earth.
But, from the perspective of the Gospel, the Grace of God has flourished. It has been a year of tremendous opportunities for ministry, to reach out to a hurting world, to bring a different vision of the world, a different example of being human, a long Lent of repentance, reflection and reaching out.
It has been a year where many have been radicalized by a constant diet of fear, hate, rage and suspicion. Many have lost touch with the things that keep their hearts and minds together. Many have simply unraveled in isolation under the barrage of darkness. Our inner disorder has been acting out in an outward disorder.
It has also been a year where the vision of God has become clearer, of being a people radicalized not by lies and suspicion, but by love. Radicalized by love. That is a good description of Grace Church. No matter what, we love. Because, no matter what, God’s love has touched us, and changed us.
We have been caught up like fish in the disciples’ nets, fishing for people, like in the gospel lesson today, rescued from a dark sea. Or like Jonah, swallowed up by the great fish, and spat up on the shore to do the hard work of ministry, repentance, and reconciliation in an unpleasant land.
The disciples of Jesus were called in the midst of ordinary full lives to cast the vision of the Good News of God. Grace has done that this past year. We have been faithful ministers of word, and sacrament, of reaching out to the poor, and to those in pain. We have done our part in facing the pandemic, carrying the weight of many other churches that have not. That is the way of the cross, the way of grace.
We started 2020 on an incredibly strong note, riding a growing wave of five years of increasing vitality and growth. That has carried us through this past year, and pushed into this new year.
Thank you to everyone who has given and prayed and reach out, endured patiently, who have loved, and loved, and loved. Much thanks for the vestry, and especially Lee Hancock, for calm steadfastness. Much thanks to John Woodson for navigating us into the strange new world of video live streaming, a rough ride, but we seem to be almost all there. It’s been like refitting a ship while it has already set sail in a storm. Thanks to the whole parish for the flexibility of constantly changing Sunday worship as we adapted to the constantly changing tides of circumstance.
2021 begins on a strong note with the strong finish of 2020 giving us a boost. But there are signs of fraying. 20% of those who pledged last year haven’t pledged this year, and we have not been able to coordinate an effective follow up to that many people. I suspect that most are so overwhelmed with the details of this past year that they are not even aware that they forgot to pledge. Some have hearts that are discouraged. Some have reduced circumstances.
We hold all those in deep prayer whose lives are distracted, hearts are wounded, and whose circumstance reduced.
The 2021 budget projects a tremendous deficit, which we have more than enough reserve funds to meet. Our hope is that the missing pledges will slowly come in as people catch up with the details of life and the habits of the soul, that the wounded hearts will heal, and the reduced circumstance will become reversals of fortune.
There is simply much that is unknown as we sail into this year, which makes budgeting and fund raising, and community growing a challenge. But it is a challenge that Grace can and will meet with the panache, the humor, the love, and the devotion that has always been God’s grace to this parish.
Thank you again, for riding out the storm, for casting the wide net of the gospel, bringing God’s love that really is love to the stormy sea. The Gospel abounds! 2021 here we come!
Lift up your hearts!
Much Love,
Fr. Jack