Here we go!

So. Today was awesome. This morning was an incredible way to bid a fond farewell to the good people of St. Peter’s Lutheran Church for a time. Blessed to baptize two beautiful young girls. Blessed to receive eleven new members into our church family. Blessed to gather with friends in fellowship (and bratwurst) at the church picnic. Blessed to hand over the reins of Word and Sacrament ministry to Pastor Hank Moody for the next twelve weeks. Blessed.

The day continued with an amazingly fun dance recital – Greta’s first one ever. Needless to say, I was a proud papa. Then, dinner with friends and neighbors and packing, packing, packing. Tomorrow we being the long drive to Peoria, sabbatical stop number one. The future is bright and the summer looks to be full of joy and adventure.

But today I find myself looking back as much as forward. As excited as I am for this time away and apart, it was bittersweet at St. Peter’s this morning. Much as I had been overcome with emotion while preparing the bulletin, especially the part where the congregation released me for a season, so was I overwhelmed today as I distributed Holy Communion to people who are both saints and friends (honestly, I was fine until Cassie and Suzanne launched into “Be Thou My Vision” on viola and piano, but once they started in I couldn’t speak!). But I know the people of St. Peter’s journey with us in love and prayer, just as our love and prayers will be with them during an amazing summer of ministry.

More than that, I take joy and find comfort in Jesus’ prayer to the Father in today’s text from John 17, in which Jesus prays “that they may be one, as we are one.” After all, in God’s gigantic church, the eternal dance of the divine crosses all boundaries. This includes the mileage that may come between us for a time. After all, if the boundary of death has been transgressed by the Son, what’s a few thousand miles?

And so here we go. Refreshement, renewal, restoration are waiting down the road. It will be good to be away. There are barnacles on the hull that need to be scraped off. There is rest that is required. There is learning to be done, faith to be deepened, adventure to be had. I know in faith, however, that even in our apartness we are together, for we are in Christ. And that’s a good place to be.