The Kindergartners in our class were taking turns walking on the water, and pulling their friends, (a parade of Simon Peter stand-ins) to safety and smiles inside the boat. Vacation Bible School has been a beautiful week of busy volunteers preparing early each morning, children arriving with their parents or grandparents just before 9 and then a whirlwind.

But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: “When he ascended on high, he took many captives and gave gifts to his people.” (What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Ephesians 4.7-13

Easter was less than two weeks away when Father Carl began work at New Covenant on April 1st 1993. Nothing like the running start of Holy Week to begin a new position. This Friday marks the 23rd anniversary of his ministry as our Rector, or Senior Pastor. It must have been quite a change for him and his family (Barb, Peter, AJ and Whitney) to move from the high skies of Colorado to the sunny humidity of Central Florida. Another still to transition from leading conferences and a national ministry to return to the local rhythms of parish life. Greater changes and challenges have come in the years since, blending joys and sorrows into the type of ministry that can only occur “in place”.

Easter makes a Christian. The events and accomplishments we celebrate each year in the life and work of Jesus distinguish followers of Jesus from adherents to every other leader or philosophy. Jesus makes Easter. Last week, Ivan and Felicita Sikha gave us an opportunity to experience the power and responsibility of story-ing as we imagine new ways to share good news with interested people around us. Followers of Jesus through the ages and around the world have taken time around Easter to tell again the story that makes all the difference. We want you to join us as we tell the story of Easter during the coming week.

Our journey through Lent begins on Ash Wednesday with our confession that things have not gone as they should. Maybe things didn’t go as we planned, or maybe our plans didn’t turn out as we imagined. “We have not loved God with our whole heart. We have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.” With the wreckage of these missed marks before us, the confession leads us to make a turn, a course correction, and go in a new direction. “We are truly sorry, and we humbly repent.” The scriptures this Sunday ask us to consider what we will do now. What comes after the confession that our internal GPS failed us, and that we have failed God and those around us?

Wedding photographers have an amazing task. They document both actions and feelings of a day in which multiple people with multiple tasks move around one another simultaneously with a single goal in mind. “I do”, say the happy couple. Click. Or, click, click, click, click, click, click. Click. Careful planning surely attends the planning of the photographer’s task list, as the images that every future bride and groom have seen in a movie’s happy ending or a bridal magazine are catalogued and sequenced.

Some neighborhoods are extraordinary at Christmas. Inside and out, homes and hearths mark the days leading up to Christmas. Some neighbors have more holiday light ambitions than the Home Owners Association ever anticipated. I embrace (and defend) the gaudier side of Christmas. I am (mostly) convinced that the incarnation of the Christ in great humility plausibly implies that we may welcome the use of plastic and tinsel in our preparations to celebrate the Feast of His birth.

Prayer is foundational to our life with God. Talking to God about our world, our friends, families and ourselves begins the conversation. Listening to God about our world, our friends, families and ourselves moves the conversation forward. Whether you have prayed for a lifetime or only occasionally, we hope you will join us this Fall for our church-wide study. The only thing Jesus' friends ever asked him to teach them was how to pray.

Circumstances change from time to time. In fact, our situation and circumstances seem to change all the time. Some changes are big, some more modest. Your toothpaste, your address, your insurance company, your hairstyle, your last name, your favorite tv show, your surprising job assignment, your child’s least favorite school subject, your newest passion, your latest disappointment. The list goes on and on because life goes on and on.

This past Sunday, we joined Gil and Linda Riley as they reaffirmed and renewed their wedding vows on their 50 year anniversary. Their children and grandchildren watched with us as we witnessed their re-commitment to one another for "another 50 years."