Pilgrim's Way

Pastor’s Annual Report, A.D. 2014 A

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  AMEN.

I will remember the Year of Our Lord 2013 as one in which the line between my professional life as your pastor and my personal life as a husband and father became hard to distinguish. With my wife returning to fulltime ministry (and then some) as well as the addition of a third small child to our household, schedules have become—well, let’s say “adventurous”. I know that many families here at St. Peter’s either have or once had a household full of small children, as well as careers that kept mommy and daddy passing kids off like the baton in a relay race. You understand where we’re coming from.

Nowhere did the personal and professional blend so profoundly for me as they did in my pilgrimage to the Holy Land. You may recall that last February—a full year now!—I was selected for a 10-day pilgrimage to Israel, all expenses paid by the charitable works of the Knights Templar. This was a true pilgrimage, not a vacation. I filled a 160-page journal with madly scribbled notes, and my camera’s flash drive with 1,500 photographs. And those were just the photos that I kept. Our shortest days were 12 hours long, and we hiked for miles each morning and afternoon. During the course of those 10 days we visited more than 70 holy sites, and I learned more in less than a fortnight than I’d learned in four years of seminary. It was truly a life-altering experience, and I yearn for the opportunity to go back.

Ministry takes on an entirely different hue after pilgrimage. Obscure places and towns in the Bible aren’t random names anymore. I can see them; I understand their topography. When I read about the Sermon on the Mount, the miracles of Jesus, the Last Supper, the Via Dolorosa, it all fits together in my head in ways that would’ve been impossible had I not actually walked in the very footsteps of Jesus Christ. Christmas means something different when you’ve been to the shepherds’ fields outside of Bethlehem, and to the cave in which Christ was born under the Church of the Nativity. And Holy Week! Who can describe what it’s like to stand upon Calvary and touch the site of Jesus’ Crucifixion? Who can remain unchanged at Easter when you yourself have risen from Jesus’ tomb?

In changing my reading of the Bible, the pilgrimage has inevitably changed my preaching and the way in which I teach. The Old and New Testaments exhibit a newly discovered unity of which I only caught glimpses before. The congregation can attest to my newfound emphasis on Christianity as a deeply Jewish faith. I’ve spoken for hours in formal presentations, and for months in Confirmation and in sermons, upon what I learned in Israel. It was a highlight of my professional and devotional life.

The personal and professional also blurred in the spring, when an untended prayer candle burned down a chunk of our house and we ended up homeless for a month. I can honestly say that we have a newfound appreciation for those uprooted by accident and natural disaster. And it can be humbling indeed to have a roof over one’s head solely by the grace and generosity of good people. Charity means one thing in the giving, but another in the receiving.

I also resolved this year not to neglect the unexpected blessings wrought upon us by good fortune. Remember that Harley Davidson that I won last year in the Ronald MacDonald House Ride’s raffle? I’ll let you in on a not-so-well-kept secret: I didn’t even buy tickets for that raffle. Ever since we moved here, well-nigh six years ago now, our city undertaker has given me a book of raffle tickets as a Christmas gift. Who knew how they would pay off six months later! Anyway, I learned to ride that 750 lb. monster. Let me tell you, your pastor stepped well outside his comfort zone when, in his mid-30s, he took the Minnesota Motorcycle Road Safety Course and earned his motorcycle license by the skin of his teeth (and some skin off his knees). Thank God for crash bars. But it was worth it: the residents of the Elders Home had been giving me a rough time for not riding it around town for everyone to enjoy!

Last year my Annual Report focused upon all the wonderful activity happening at St. Peter’s: new projects, new worship services, new ministries, new adventures. And 2013 was every bit as transformative for our parish as 2012 had been. But for me, 2013 has primarily taught me how our lives at home, at work, and at worship cannot cleanly be separated. They intertwine and reinforce each other, making up a whole stronger than the sum of its parts. I have had new adventures and new opportunities to learn; I hope that my attempts to share these with my brothers and sisters in Christ have shown through. But it has also been a year of things that have humbled me and made me more deeply thankful for the kindness of my fellow Christians. I thank God for St. Peter’s, and all that the Spirit does amongst this community. I thank God for you.