Mtr Taylor Devine 3/18

Dear Friends,

Last week I wrote my Daily Bread on today’s reading, oops! The passage has stuck with me, though, as I’ve had a chance to mull it over twice. A sleepy and mighty Jesus all in one moment! This “both and” has captivated me this past week.

Over the past few months one of my new roles as a part of serving as Associate for Intergenerational Ministries has been working with Fr Peter to expand the ranks of our Acolytes and Lectors to include many children and youth who have "aged up” during the pandemic! I've been surprised by how fun the short orientations are, we start with Daily Devotions for Individuals and Families on p. 137 in the BCP (a one page prayer), we talk through the Services and the various roles one might inhabit, and we make sure that robes fit and torches and crosses can be lifted comfortably. It has been a joy to see how vibrant the faith life of our youngest members is, as I watch their exploration and hear their observations. 

At our most recent orientation we talked a bit about how almost everything we do as those who serve at the Altar has two purposes: a practical one and a theological one. The torches or candlestick we carry were essential before electricity, in order to see! They also illuminate and point to the Cross, or the Gospel, and you could get really fancy and talk also about how they might signify the two natures of Christ, his human and divine nature. The subdeacon washes the hands of the celebrant before and after Communion. I imagine this has always had a practical element, washing off any debris before touching food that others will eat, but I also know from the prayers that accompany it that it is a prayerful cleansing before approaching the mysteries. At the end of Communion it is also an attempt to leave the holy pieces of Communion in their vessels rather than perhaps on whatever else I touch next. 

To me this “both” is the wisdom of the way of Jesus, the animating feature, that everything we do as Christians is both-an action and a prayer. We gather because we need each other, we are built for community, but it is also a commandment, a way we follow in the Jesus tradition. Being drawn together as the Church does something, lots of things! We are transformed by the hearing of the Lessons, the Gospel, the Creed, the Sermon, the Prayers, the musical Offering but also by the the senses and the shuffling of papers and the feel of the pew. We serve our neighbors because it is the right thing to do and it helps, and also because it is a holy outward visible sign of the love of God that we know. It’s always both.

This past Saturday I had a bookended day where it made sense to stay on Saint Philip’s campus for the several hours prior to a funeral. I don't always have the luxury of several hours to prepare on the day of a funeral but it was a gift to thank God for Bob’s life before the service with “both” – quiet prayer but also putting out signs, working with Sextons to get the audio loud enough but not too loud, placing bulletins and flowers. Our lives are often both, mundane and transcendent. On a day like Saturday I got to see both, the beginning of life, the wide eyes of questions from new Acolytes, the nervous trying on of a Cassock and Surplice and lifting a torch for the first time, and to honor the end, the eyes that know they are soon to close, the life that knows what's done is done, and is beginning their journey home. God incarnate, God-With-Us, God in the both - the divine and the human, Jesus both sleepy and powerful in the boat with his disciples, hallows our daily lives.

As we prepare for tonight’s Celebration and Fundraiser for Beloved in the Desert I am reminded of how much this is the work of young adult development as well. Beloved in the Desert Corps Members discover a lot about themselves and the world each year and they often learn these lessons poignantly: The world is broken and beautiful. The work of justice is thrilling and exhausting. The grace of God is light and heavy with responsibility. The life of community is critical and mundane. People are complicated but at the heart of it, beloved. Thanks be to God.

At each of these points in our lives, may we know ourselves beloved, too,

Mtr Taylor