There are moments in the life of a church that you can’t quite put into clean or easy words. Defining. Reflective. Moments that carry a significant weight that is difficult to name because it exists in the souls of the lives who have experienced this life together.
Over the past eight years, we have walked through a lot together. There were seasons early on, and especially through COVID, where everything felt like it was shifting all at once. Systems changed. People came and went. We said goodbye more times than we wanted to in a very short amount of time.
Then, slowly, something beautiful began to emerge. A rhythm that echoed that of the Shema: to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Also embedded in this new rhythm was that of the greatest of commandments to love your neighbor as yourself. The work of the Spirit was sweet and tender, creating a vibrant space ready for transformation that is brought about by love deeply rooted in Christ.
We found ourselves experiencing a steady beat of presence. Being all together in a way that felt cozy, familiar, and like we had all existed together since the very beginning of each represented life here.
We became a people who yearned to say yes. Yes to the Spirit. Yes to one another. Yes to the work of love in our neighborhood.
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The past several years have felt consistent, in the best way. Not stagnant, but steady growth in a way that only God truly knows. Not easy in a shallow sense, but lives marked by grace and trust. And a kind of shared life that felt both sacred and ordinary at the same time. Every detail beautifully lived together.
And now, we find ourselves in a tender shift. Russ, a member of this church since 1967, is preparing to move to be closer to family. And I have been mulling so much of this over in my heart and mind. It is not a final goodbye. But it is a real change. It is an atmospheric shift. The kind you feel, even if you cannot fully explain it.
And with that, I find myself grateful that we can and will feel it.
Because it means love has been lived deeply here at Schenectady Nazarene. It means relationships have mattered. It means this has never just been a place people attend, but a place where people belong to one another. As I frequently say about our neighbors: They are ours and we are theirs. We belong together.
There are two verses from the hymn “Blest Be the Tie That Binds” that keeps coming to my mind:
"v 1. Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love; The fellowship our spirit finds is like to that above. v 4. When we asunder part, it gives us inward pain; but we shall still be joined in heart and hope to meet again.”
The old familiar words are brought to life when living out days like we will in our celebratory dinner for Russ tomorrow. It is a moment to name and recognize the joy and faithfulness lived out, along with grieving the loss of our regular rhythms of life together. We are continuing a story that stretches back long before any one of us arrived, and will continue long after.
So we step into this next portion with gratitude, with tenderness, and with trust. May God reveal his steadfast love through a creative and magnificent cadence that continues to invite us into a flourishing transformed life.
