Having been away from the house for three full weeks, we had some “opening” of the house upon our return. When we are going to be away for more than a few days, we turn off water heaters, raise the temperature on the thermostats, and try to unplug anything that’s not essential. We also clean out cupboards and the refrigerator, too, making sure that things that could spoil in our absence don’t become an issue. Regardless, it is not uncommon to go to the pantry and get something and discover that it has gone stale in the intervening days or weeks.
Surprisingly, we didn’t have too much that falls into that category this time around. The miracle of preservatives ensured that several dry foods, well-sealed, survived the time away without incident. There are few things worse, in my culinary world, than getting a cracker out of a box and getting that mushy, stale crumble instead of a flavorful crunch. Sometimes it’s enough to make you want to spit it out instead of finishing the chew and swallowing!
Food is not all that goes stale. Sometimes life, work, vocation, hobbies, and many other things can become stale over time, too. It’s often not an immediate process, but more of a long term gradual process as environmental factors in our lives work on things. This is one of the reasons why this recent trip to the Holy Land was so wonderful. I wouldn’t say I had sense a staleness in my ministry or in my preaching, per se, but continuing formation is as essential for priests, as it is for many vocations. There are a number of jobs that benefit from, if not require, continuing education and opportunities for growth. Mine is one of them.
Each year, our clergy are given two weeks of continuing education leave from the parish as part of the expectations of our ministry. Some of it can be saved up and used for longer or more in depth opportunities, like an advanced degree, or it can be used each year as it comes available. All of our programmatic positions include continuing education leave. This trip to the Holy Land is the most formal, and certainly most intensive, continuing education leave I’ve taken in my six years at Christ Church. I’ve used it for conferences, General Convention, a CREDO wellness retreat, and a few others, but I haven’t worked a “continuing education” plan the way my mentors have encouraged me to. At some point I’ll pursue a Doctor of Ministry, but the timing hasn’t been right.
This trip, however, was an intense time of formation on several fronts. The historic learning about the environs of Jesus’ ministry was fascinating, even as the modern landscape doesn’t always reflect what things looked like two thousand years ago. Other aspects have been preserved for the entire period since Jesus’ days. It helps bring much of what I’ve read and studied into focus in a way that is hard to express, yet palpable all the same. The peacemaking aspect of this trip was also deeply instructive, as I think about my role as teacher and prophet in the 21stCentury with Glynn County as my context. Such work will continue to influence my efforts to serve the wider parish in which I serve, with the classical understanding of a parish being more than the property or the members of a congregation, but the local community in which a parish is centered. Sometimes, clergy and parishes alike forget that their priests are not chaplains, called only to serve those who fill out pledge cards or get newsletters. Ours is a ministry to God’s people wherever they are, seeking justice in our communities, and professing the love of Jesus to any and all through a variety of means. In this context, again, this trip was inspirational.
To be clear, this trip to the Holy Land and Jordan was not a vacation! It was packed with learning and reflection for twelve hours almost every day for its duration. That means I returned from it exhausted, but certainly not stale. Quite the contrary. It was inevitable that my first sermon back would include reflection on something from my trip, as this past Sunday’s Trinity Sunday sermon did. As one person reflected, as they greeted me after church, “If that’s the kind of sermon you give after time away, we should send you away more often!” That is why we send our clergy and ministers away. And I’m grateful for it.
Thank you to Christ Church, as an institution, which allows us time and space and resources for such formation. Thank you to our leaders, lay and staff, who pick up responsibilities while I am away. Thank you to parishioners, who understand our need to have such opportunities and graciously wish us well in sendoff and warmly welcome us home after we return. This most recent trip has been transformative, and I am deeply grateful to each of you, and to the God who continues to call me into fresh places of ministry and devotion. Nothing stale here at all.
Tom+
Take my lips, O Lord, and speak through them; take our minds and think with them. Take our hearts and set them on fire; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.