From The Pastor’s Desk—
As I am writing this, we are preparing for a Nor’easter that Jen and I will miss. We are preparing to attend the SNEUCC Annual Meeting in Worcester, and amidst all the organizing and packing such a trip entails, we are also storing away lawn furniture, taking air conditioners out of windows, and all the other small preparations one makes before a significant storm
It is a little odd, though, to be preparing for a storm we will not fully experience. Here on the Outer Cape, we will be facing the worst of the storm: the strongest winds, the highest tidal fluctuations, the most rain. Where we will be, in Worcester, will also experience the wind and rain (if the tide makes it all the way to central MA, we are all in trouble); but, they will be blunted in comparison to what Wellfleet will experience.
This is an apt metaphor for how we understand the struggles our friends and neighbors face. On the surface, we all face similar challenges around loss, grief, families, careers, etc. However, our personal experiences are not fully cognate with what others live through. The events of our own lives can give us insight into, and sympathy with, what others experience, but it does not convey complete and total understanding. While we may understand what it means to lose a parent of a loved one, we can’t know the full extent of what that personal grief entails.
So, as we seek to support our friends and neighbors in the challenges they face, we do well to remember that our own expectations are incomplete, and that these opportunities to help are also opportunities to learn.
Another way we can learn about the similar, though not fully cognate, lives of clothes is through sharing a meal. Kathleen Norris once wrote of life in a Benedictine abbey that: the greatest threat to harmony in the abbey is that every man there had a mother that prepared potatoes differently. Or, to put it another way: comfort food tastes different in every home.
On Sunday October 4th (same day as the Blessing of the Animals!) we will celebrate World Communion Sunday. During worship we will celebrate communion with not only cubed bread, but also tortillas, naan, tej, and pastel de nata. This celebration reminds us that when we come to the Lord’s table, what is served may vary by tradition and region. However, there is but one table, one faith, one Lord. May we rejoice in the variety of gifts and traditions that we are able to celebrate at that table!
—Pastor Jon
