Rector’s Ramblings – May 30, 2024

It’s been a week of parades and circles. First, it was the massive circle that was made up of Glynn County High School graduates looping around the field at the stadium to collect their diplomas. Donna and I were so proud to watch Eva collect her diploma, with her neck draped with various honors and recognitions. That circle around the field was filled with many memories from kindergarten through her senior year. All the emotions, all the homework, all the last-minute projects, the tears, the joy, the hard work – a massive sense of accomplishment for her, but in a weird way for us as parents, too. Not in the sense of taking credit for all her hard work and excellence but in realizing that we took the same journey and viewing it from a different angle. It was a great evening, to say the least.

Then it was the parade and the circle of car races, with two great races the same weekend: The Indy 500, which was fabulous and exciting, and the Monaco Grand Prix, which was the most boring Formula One race I’ve ever seen. It was indeed a parade, and that’s not a good thing for a race. The massive oval that is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway is simply immense, and yet, no matter how fast the cars go, they end up where they started. Yes, that’s the point, of course, seeing how fast one can return to where they started.

The other circles of the last week have been the spiritual kind, preparing for three funerals in five days. That circle is a little different than the kind we race on, although one of the readings for Beth Varn’s service reminds us that life is a bit like running a race. Unlike racing, we try to make the loop from birth to death as slowly as possible. Some, like Jane Rives, live a long life (she was a few months shy of 100), while others are gone from our sight all too quickly. Nonetheless, we end up where we started, ultimately, in the arms of the God who creates us, recreates us, and makes us new in the resurrection life promised to us. I can only imagine the parade of sorts that greets us as we reunite with God and our loved ones who wait for our arrival.

Life is full of parades and circles, moments of excitement and moments of boredom, moments of accomplishment and moments of struggle, moments of assurance and moments of doubt, wrong turns and things that turn us around, moments of starting again, and moments of completion. Every journey is different, and every journey shares two things in common: One, that we’re on it or a part of it in some way, such as spectating, and two, that God journeys with us. For example, I now know firsthand the combination of excitement and worry as we send our firstborn out into the world, although I know she’ll be circling back regularly on breaks. This, too, is a new journey for us and her, but God’s got us all in the palm of God’s hand for the duration. Whether we’re in the parade, making the loop, or watching as others march in formation or complete laps, we give thanks for God’s goodness and promise of God’s love.  

Tom+

Thinking of circles reminds me of the Second Song of Isaiah, one of the regular morning prayer canticles, which describes the circle of God’s goodness:  

For as rain and snow fall from the heavens
    and return not again, but water the earth, 
Bringing forth life and giving growth, 
    seed for sowing and bread for eating, 
So is my word that goes forth from my mouth;
    it will not return to me empty; 
But it will accomplish that which I have purposed,
    and prosper in that for which I sent it.