From the Interim Rector

 From the Interim Rector
Practice Resurrection !

Kentucky farmer-­‐poet Wendell Berry composed a poem that imagines how we might live Easter in our world of cold calculation, where tensions of profit-­‐loss, success-­‐failure hold sway.
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So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world…
Ask the questions that have no answers…
Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable.Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts…
Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.
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Spending time daily with Berry’s verses could make for fruitful Eastertide observance. Imagine taking a few minutes each morning to envision how, that day, as Easter’s Great Fifty Days move
toward Pentecost, you could “do something that won’t compute,” along Berry’s playfully jagged
lines. One of my challenges with such practice is to keep perspective on the past by not letting
what’s been hold me back from what can be. Considering “all the facts” may reduce risk, even minimize loss and failure. But to be creative “like the fox”—sniff out new territory—takes freedom
to explore and experiment, to make “more tracks than necessary,” including “some in the wrong direction.”

If you participated in any of your rector search committee’s “Holy Trinity 101” learning opportunities earlier this Easter season, you may appreciate how the same balance applies now in our
life as a congregation. Through this parish assessment stage of the search process, we reflect on past and present to learn, and we project future possibilities to grow. Keeping perspective and
considering all the facts, yet also sniffing out new territory and taking the freedom to
explore and experiment—even at the risk of making tracks in the wrong direction—it’s all vital through this interim time.

Jesus’ disciples, after all, made lots of tracks in the wrong direction as they trudged with him toward Jerusalem and the cross. As St. John tells their story, the turning point came Easter night
(20:19-­‐29). Jesus, risen from death, appeared among them as they huddled in fear of powers-­‐that-­‐be. He promised, “Peace be with you.” And they realized this stranger was he only after “he showed them his hands and his side” still bearing crucifixion wounds. He was recognizable yet somehow new. His past remained part of him even as his resurrection freed him.

Then he freed them. By breathing the Holy Spirit on them, he transformed them from disciples (learners) into apostles (those sent)—and out he sent them to make more tracks than ever. In time they ventured to the ends of the known world sharing resurrection news: God’s promise of life in its fullest, no matter what’s been.

Through this month and the summer ahead your rector search committee’s aim is the same. They’ll make tracks to seek out your thoughts and ideas, hopes and fears, dreams and imaginings for the congregation Holy Trinity is and can be—so the vestry can better know what kind of leader to call. And, so in years to come, you as a congregation can all the more joyfully do as the poet urges: Love the Lord. Love the world. Laugh. Practice resurrection.
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– Tom Kryder-­‐Reid
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[Note: if you would like to see other messages from the Interim Rector, check in recent issues of the Triad.  And if you would like to leave a personal message for Tom, send him an email to: tomkryderreid@gmail.com