I’ve been feeling pretty nostalgic lately. It might be a mix of turning ten years old both in ministry and of being a parent. I know, I know, just getting started. But still.
Perhaps it’s also giving thanks for a season of ministry that is noticeably less pivoting and as overarchingly problematic as the pandemic. Not that there aren’t big challenges still before us, God knows there always are.
But it has felt different to plan and dream and build again as the Body of Christ. To vision and wonder and consider the mustard seeds God has put before us.
To be still and serene even, in the starting stages.
In meetings or over meals, in hospital rooms, or city hall, we gather to hear the seed of God’s word planting the ancient promises of God into the present. Into each heart and story. Into the meaning that we make of our lives. Into the neighborhoods we call home and the variety of vocations that we steward.
Both literally and parabolically. Isn’t all life parabolic?
See, naggingly nostalgic.
I’ve shared this recently with some folks (including Trinity’s Council), that I feel really blessed to continue to deepen my role in ministry and mission here. As one of your pastors and partners in ministry.
It hasn’t always been easy for me to settle into the greener pastures/spaces and mustards seeds that might develop and spread if I stay put. It was always both a little bit nerve-wracking and a little bit exciting to wonder if God would take me somewhere “out there” to serve or to “some other community” or to a “cool new role.”
But I’ve savored this renewed season of stability, this simmering time of settled peace.
Peace in place.
Some of that has been a mustard seed spreading from sabbatical, which has felt like a huge developmental leap for me in this department of discernment. Time to listen deeply to my heart, body, soul and mind—apart from the tyranny of the urgent.
That’s a huge credit to the kind of people of God here, the spiritual leaders (including PC and the staff) that continue to co-create and plant in parable and praise, and public proclamation.
I know it’s not always healthy or good to stick around or for things to spread, especially for too long. We gotta go where we grow, folks like to say.
But it’s often hard to know whether we are in the right place or the right job or the right region or whether we are in the right relationships, right here and right now. Even what “right” is.
That definitely sounds parabolic.
But what I am definitely sensing and grateful for in God’s summer of 2024 is sabbath moments and mustard seeds in the gift of staying still.
Of stretching in place. Of strengthening the existing scaffolding. Of seeing seedlings continue to sprout and spread.
To trust that God continues to sprout and inspire newness, even as we sleep, Jesus says.
Slowing us down in God’s love.
Celebrating Jesus’ stages of sabbath, stillness, strength and stability.
Pastor Peter
