Dear Church Family,
Mysteriously and somewhat humorously, the beginning of my message to you last week was lost! And I promise, they would have made more sense of the pictures and word of greeting that I shared from parishioner, Duncan Hardy.
So let’s try again! I’ve reposted Duncan’s pictures and word of greeting below. Here’s what I originally wrote by way of introduction: One of the reasons I love being your priest is that I get a front row seat to the stories God is writing in and through each of your lives. Even more than this, I get to help amplify those stories so that our whole church community can be edified by them.
A while back I invited you to share with me bits and pieces of your travels and adventures this summer. I thought it would be a fun way of staying connected to one another during this season. One of the responses I was delighted to receive was from Duncan Hardy. Duncan (DPhil, FRHistS) is an Associate Professor of History at UCF just down the road from us. This summer he is doing some extended research in Germany. And he sent the following update (complete with pictures!). Thank you Duncan!!
“Hello from Germany…During weekends I’ve been visiting a lot of medieval churches and museums. Thought you might enjoy this 1000-year-old bishop’s chasuble from the cathedral treasury of Osnabrück. The other photo is a lovely carving of St. Anne teaching the Virgin Mary to read as a little girl, from about 1400 (Paderborn Diocesan Museum) – the Christian tradition has always emphasized the spiritual authority and education of women, even if only patchily! – Duncan Hardy”
Duncan, like so many of you, is a wonderful example of the Biblical truth that much of the work in the Kingdom of God DOES NOT take place in “church” with people wearing clergy collars. Instead, in the words of one scholar echoing Martin Luther’s theology of Vocation:
“Christians do not have to be called to the mission field or the ministry or the work of evangelism to serve God, though many are; nor does the Christian life necessarily involve some kind of constant mystical experience. Rather, the Christian life is to be lived in vocation, in the seemingly ordinary walks of life that take up nearly all of the hours of our day. The Christian life is to be lived out in our family, our work, our community, and our church. Such things seem mundane, but this is because of our blindness. Actually, God is present in them — and in us — in a mighty, hidden, way.”
Gene Edward Veith, God at Work: Your Christian Vocation in All of Life. Crossway Books, 2011. p.157-158.
People of God: In your work and play, in your laughter and tears, in all the mundane aspects of your life this summer, may the eyes of your faith be opened to see God at work through You and through US together. Amen!
Fr. Josh Bales