Dear Marsh Chapel Community,
Some big measures of the ice of contagion and the snow of infection and the wind of COVID have diminished. For this we are thankful, and mindful, too of the actual and metaphorical powers of masks, of vaccinations, of protocols for distance. The national pause for Memorial Day last week, including many memorials near and far, brought a sign of such diminution, if not the entire absence of cold and wind and the lingering feelings of ice and snow.
At our doorstep now the mystery of natural growth awaits us. Some of faith and preaching is about the nature of ministry and some is about the ministry of nature and some is about both. We are on the threshold of a new season, a season of natural growth. Growth is a mystery. All manner of growth is a mystery. Ministry in and through this natural mystery is its own kind of mystery.
Somehow, together, we have weathered a hard and bitter fourteen months. Somehow, together, we have done something hard together. How shall we think of this? What may we most want to remember, or not to forget, about this shared drama and trauma? What has this hard, cold, shattering, shared experience taught us? When someone stops you on the street, or over a meal, or on the church door step and asks, ‘What is your COVID story?’, how will you start off, and what will you say? What is the first thing that comes to mind, and how will you put it? I invite you to tell me, or someone, sometime. Te invito.
In this newsletter you will find an outline of our summer sermon series on Mark. I am grateful to our colleagues and guests for their willingness to bring us the gospel, week by week.
We also invite you to attend our 8:00 a.m. Sunday June 6 morning prayer service on Marsh Plaza. If you can and would like to attend, granted all the usual protocols and safety requirements, please let Heidi know at hrf@bu.edu. Our best wishes to one and all!
Grace and peace,
Bob
Dean, Marsh Chapel
Professor, New Testament and Pastoral Theology
Chaplain to the University, Office of Religious Life
Boston University
