Behold! I Am Doing A New Thing

Dear Friends in Valhalla Parish—

I write to you on the eve of our Diocesan Synod, taking place on Saturday and Sunday afternoons this weekend. I write to you requesting your prayers for our deliberations, for the motions being considered, for wisdom in decision-making, and for a spirit of collaboration. 

The theme for this year's Synod is taken from Isaiah 43 in which God declares the intention to do a new thing in, with, and amongst the people of God. In the midst of their exile, in the midst of all that they have suffered, in the midst of the trials they have endured God is present. God is present, and declares: 

I am about to do a new thing;
   now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
   and rivers in the desert.

God is doing a new thing. That is what God is all about. Creation. Renewal. Abundance of Life. From the Spirit over the waters in the story of Creation to the call of Abram and Sarai, to the Freedom of the Exodus, through Exile, and the liberation God embodied in Jesus, this is what God is all about. Creation. Renewal. Abundance of Life. 

And yet, as we read through the scriptures—even this snippet from second Isaiah—we recognise that this path is not straightforward. It does not conform to expectations. And what's more, it is not always easy. It comes at a cost. Even so, God declares, Behold! I am doing a new thing!

On some level we know that this is true. And yet some days it is hard to believe. Where is God in the midst of this pandemic, we may ask. This week I found myself seeking God's presence when I heard news that a friend from seminary died. In his 40s. From cancer. Leaving a wife and two children behind. Leaving behind a lifetime of work for justice in the Appalachia region of the United States.

In the midst of the things of life—including loss and death—where is God to be found? God is always preparing the way. And we are called to pay attention. We do so in a process of holy listening. We listen to our hearts, through God's word spoken to us, as revealed in scripture and in the person of Jesus Christ. We listen to the cries and exclamations of our neighbours. We listen to the groaning of the Creation around us. We listen. With love and expectation, we listen. 

That is our job at Synod this weekend. To listen. To pay attention to the ways in which God is calling us into mission for the life of the world. We will do that as a diocese this weekend. Here in Valhalla Parish, this too is our own call. We are called to listen for the movement of the spirit. We are called to listen for the places in which our deep gladness as a community intersects with the world's hungers and needs. 

A few weeks ago many of us gathered to tend to the church property. Stairs were cleaned. Gardens were tended. Trees were pruned. We connected with one another. I met some of you for the first time. For me, this was a real highlight. It was a moment of deep gladness. I wonder if you felt that too. I wonder what you would say is the deep gladness of this parish community as it is expressed in New Denver, Castlegar, and all points in between. 

Our deep gladness, what we love, is often the place where God calls us to start. From this place, we are called to meet, to walk alongside, and to embrace our neighbours. We are called to respond to God as we embody self-giving love. We are called to respond to God as we tend to the earth—soil, plants, water, air, animals, and so on. 

As a parish we are in a phase of discernment. Where is God calling us? 

And here's where we start: with a sense of our deep gladness; a deep listening to God and our neighbours, as we seek to understand the needs before us; and then, we seek the places where those two things—our gladness and the world's hunger—meet. That is the place to which we are being called. 

It's not enough to know the world's hunger in the absence of our gladness. Nor is it enough to know what brings us life, in the absence of understanding the world's hunger. Our vocation as Christians, as congregations, as a parish, and as a diocese, is to embody God's love at the place where these two intersect. 

And so, I ask you to pray. I ask you to pray for the Diocese of Kootenay as Synod meets this weekend.

I ask you to pray for our parish in the coming days and weeks as we seek to find ways to discern the places where God is calling us. As we seek to listen and to respond to Holy Spirit in our midst, and the world that God so deeply loves. 

God is doing a new thing. In response, may we say "Speak Lord, your servants are listening."

Every Blessing,

Andrew Stephens-Rennie
Valhalla Parish Missioner