Rector’s Ramblings – January 23, 2025

Wow. That was a fun couple of days! Snow on St. Simons for the second time! Ok, so it was mostly ice, but it still allowed for the creation of icemen (the colder, harder cousins of snowmen). I actually had to go digging around in the garage to find my ice scraper and snow brush, impressing even myself when I successfully located them. I saw lots of pictures of folks out enjoying the snow, some for the first time ever. My youngest, for example, has not seen snowfall like this before, or at least since she was tiny, meaning it’s not much of a memory. This week’s snowfall was memorable, to say the least.

The other side of the coin, however, was how difficult the last two days have been. Like so many in our community, we lost power. Ours went off at 3 am on Wednesday morning and just came on at this writing mid-afternoon Thursday. Well, it’s sort of on. It’s been flickering on and off for two hours, just frequently enough that the HVAC system can only get started blowing warm air before it shuts off and goes through its reset procedures. It’s still sub-60 degrees at home. Despite growing up and living part of my adult life in the North, I’ve never had to endure an extended power outage when it’s freezing outside. I can’t say I enjoyed it. We’ve done summer outages, even the days-long variety, on several occasions, which are much easier to manage.

As unpleasant as it was for those of us who went without power (and some still don’t have it back), I still feel incredibly blessed. We had proper clothing to allow us to layer up inside. We had plenty of blankets we could hide under. Although it wouldn’t start for five hours, we have a generator that finally turned over and ran without a problem for the next twenty-six hours straight. That allowed us to run a small space heater – just enough to keep the temps in the 50s downstairs. We also have a solar generator and all the rechargeable electronics to keep us connected and the room lit in the darkness. We’ve even learned that our fiber internet service works when powerlines are damaged, so long as we plug it into the generator. Perhaps the biggest blessing is that we have tents that we could set up in the living room to sleep in, with efficient sleeping bags inside them, which allowed us to preserve body heat and have a decent night’s sleep despite the cold temperatures in the house.

I contrast that experience with the experiences of so many of the people I spent a few hours with on Tuesday. As you probably saw from our emails this week, our friends and neighbors at St. Athanasius opened their doors to the unhoused in our community as a warm daytime shelter. This allowed dozens of people to get off the street when the Well shifted their hours to overnight to ensure those same folks had a place to sleep during these bitter nights. For all that the Episcopal Church has gotten some bad press in the last week, both in a Brunswick News-run opinion piece last weekend and then in some of the political responses to the inaugural prayer service, it is worth noting that a large part – almost all – of the community response to those on the street offering day shelter has come from Episcopalians, along with some other mainline denomination faithful, too.

There is a lot going on in Christendom these days that I won’t address head-on in this rambling, but I will note a growing conflict about what “true Christianity” looks like. Being a Christian is not a monolithic vocation. It has always looked different for different groups of people as long as people have followed Jesus Christ. Some think the chief concern of the church is salvation and faith, shifting in the West over the last two centuries away from faith in The Word, Jesus, God’s son, as the primary differentiator and more towards faith in the bible as the inerrant Word of God. For others, the focus on living as Jesus lived is primary – following the teaching from Matthew 25 in which Jesus singles out care for the vulnerable and the needy as the chief sorting tool when final judgment comes. We may accuse each other of leaning too far one way or the other. Still, there has always been, and always will be, a need for authentic Christian faith to capture both elements of discipleship (not to include inerrancy, which Anglicans don’t profess).

I am so grateful to all those who have been able to lend a hand at St. Athanasius these last few days and those who will help St. Mark’s when they open their doors tomorrow. I saw members of this parish talking with folks who have virtually nothing, lifting their spirits and loving them despite apparent differences. We also had members of this parish making and taking food, beverages, snacks, and more to comfort those who needed it most this week. I watched a volunteer lovingly bandage the ankle of a woman bit by a stray dog. I was moved by the graciousness of those who received this care, frequently thanking anyone they could for the kindness and compassion that can be all too rare for those who live on the streets.

Beyond those who were able to assist firsthand, I also know how many in this parish support the work that we do in the community in so many other ways. Supporting Christ Church’s mission and ministry in any way allows us to send a few emails, make a few calls, and know that we will have all that we need and more to address a need. So I am grateful for all of us who stand next to one another in service and who kneel alongside each other in prayer; those of us who sing along with the hymns in church and break bread together in our parish hall; I’m grateful for a community of faithful followers who are doing their best to understand how they can live out the salvation that has been offered to all of us, building God’s kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.

Give thanks for homes and blankets, heaters and generators, for one another, and for the merciful love of God that is so strong it was manifest in Jesus’ humanity and divinity. Give thanks to those who can open doors to those without doors and those who can keep our electricity on and restore it when it goes out. Give thanks to the people you see when you come to church and the strangers who smile when we’re out and about. There’s much to give thanks for. God is good, my friends, so very good.

Tom+

Almighty and most merciful God, we remember before you
all poor and neglected persons whom it would be easy for us
to forget: the homeless and the destitute, the old and the sick,
and all who have none to care for them. Help us to heal those
who are broken in body or spirit, and to turn their sorrow
into joy. Grant this, Father, for the love of your Son, who for
our sake became poor, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.