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Dear Parishioners,
It is fall again. A return to school, to structure, to discipline. Despite the joy the summer can bring, I’ve always enjoyed a return to a daily schedule that prepares me for the winter months ahead. Even as a summer baby who was born at the beach and whose favorite memories from childhood involve being in the water with my friends and eating on the beach towards the end of the day with my family, I always look forward to a comfortable return to the reliable schedule of fall.
And yet, it feels we’re also living in a time of such rapid change and uncertainty: political and social unrest, weather-related events constantly billed as unlike anything we’ve seen before, communal health concerns, financial scarcity, and more. How to find grounding amidst to much uncertainty? How to make sure I am rooted in something?
I walked with my wife inside Incarnation over ten years ago, newlyweds looking for a place to call home as we embarked on a journey and a new phase in our relationship. Years later, we have now baptized three children at the church, welcomed so many friends into our life, and created a lighthouse in the midst of a neighborhood we’ve called home for so many years in a city like no other in the world. Yes there in change all around us, but in New York City, on Madison Avenue, inside Incarnation, we have found a light that is always on, arms that are always open, questions always ready to be asked and a group of curious people always there to search for the answers.
So here we find ourselves, fall again, in our time of renewed structure and discipline that we look together as a community to commit ourselves to the abundance that sustains us as a people, to learn how our giving is so intricately woven into our receiving. This is a time to evaluate what we have, what we need, and what we are able to give back to the home that we share with each other, the home we invite our neighbors and friends to, the home we invite those hurting and in need to, and the home where we remember that we are all a part of something much bigger and have been blessed with an unfathomable gift of grace.
There are so many ways to think about how to commit yourself during the season of commitment - give what you can, stretch your goal of commitment, aim for the tithe - but perhaps a way to think about it is simply this: focus on your own abundance, on your own good fortunes, and focus on the strength you draw from the gift of Incarnation, and understand that you have been called on to truly reflect on what you have, what you need, and what is important. Having the ability to focus on this in itself is a gift. What we all learn here, and what we’re able to ultimately give back, will make our light shine brighter and warm us all as we root ourselves in our collective abundance.
Love,
Jedd
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