THE RECTOR'S REFLECTIONS, July 2007

My article for this month could be subtitled, “Another Tale From the Gym”. It's amazing what happens when the adrenalin and endorphins are working overtime in an early morning workout.

This one particular morning I've finished my time on the eliptical machine and I'm walking around the indoor track doing my cool down regimen. I'm doing 5 laps (= ½ mile) and I begin to realize there's a connection to the area and St. Bede's. Like our sanctuary, this sanctuary of fitness and health is surrounded by large windows.

It's also another of life's lessons. Stay in the proper lane, maintain pace and focus, allow the mind to wander and wonder. If you do this there's no telling what will pop into heart and soul.

This particular morning I'm doing all of the above. This is a morning after a night's heavy rainfall. I walk around the track the first time with no thought in mind. By the second tour around I notice out the window a small of pool of water. By lap three I'm aware the pool is stagnant and it's covering some vegetation which is undoubtedly trying to force its way above the water. It can't be content to sit there. After all it's green and vibrant. It doesn't need to be suffocated by the stagnant and still water. By lap four I realize the flora and fauna are going to win. The water will dry up. The vegetation will grow and fulfill its vocation to bring new beauty to the small part of God's Kingdom it is called to inhabit. It will be a viable contributor to the wondrous ecosystem that makes the world go ‘round.

By lap 5 I'm thinking how like the Church this scene outside the Genoveva Chavez Community Center can be. Like most institutions it seems there is always a struggle between the stagnation of the past that tries to suppress the growth of new life. There is that tendency in institutions, the Church included, to let the life giving water of the past become still while under it is new life, new energy, new creativity struggling to overcome the stillness.

The next phase of my program completed I return to the track for a three lap cool down. I also return to watching what I now call the resurrection struggle. I think this time it makes no difference if the struggle is on a wide or small scale. It's all the same. The wider Church is going through its seemingly never ending struggle over sexuality, scriptural interpretation and ownership of property. The local Church, in this case, St. Bede's is going through its own struggle of how to grow and expand. In both instances there is that still pool working against the change that is necessary for new life and new growth to take over and live out its vocation.

There is an irony in this process that is subtle and lies at the heart of all tension and struggle. Both elements are feeding the other. The water, even in its stagnation, is feeding the vegetation. The former can't survive without the latter. The green growth at the same time is accepting the nutrition and informing the water of its God given vocation to grow. At the same time as the vegetation is growing in its inevitable process of overcoming the water it is doing it gently and non violently. Eventually the water will give way to the vegetation. It's all part of the life cycle. Old life makes way for new life. Old structures make way for new structures.

Archbishop Rowan Williams points out in his book, Resurrection, Interpreting the Easter Gospel, (Pilgrim Press 1982/2002) how Jesus walks from the Tomb and into the community that crucified him and he does it in complete love, non violence and forgiveness (pages 2 and following). The scene outside the gym window is like that resurrection moment. There before my eyes is the interplay of nature in the drama of struggle, tension, gentleness, love and non violence. We have so much to learn from the theatre of nature. It has so much to teach us just as Jesus has so much to teach about the deep meanings of Resurrection.

Phase three of the workout ends and I return to the track for two final laps. I smile to myself. I remember Archbishop Desmond Tutu, “I read the book. We win in the end.” And I realize the wider Church will overcome her struggles. New life will happen. St. Bede's will rise. A new structure will happen. I'm just as certain of that as I am that the water will have given enough nutrients to the vegetation and the vegetation will rise up through the water and a whole new plant will be established.

In Peace
Fr. Richard

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© 2007 St. Bede’s Episcopal Church, Santa Fe, New Mexico