A Word From Our Visiting Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Henry N. Parsley, Jr.

Pentecost XVIV

Dear Friends in Christ,

This has turned out to be a most unusual time to be a “visiting” bishop. I am keenly aware that have not had many opportunities to visit the diocese in person since March. The pandemic has upended many plans. Zoom has been well used and immensely valuable, but I want to write to you on occasion in order to keep in touch, until we can be together again.

This is a stressful time for all of us. It was in early March that I first recall bumping elbows. Then most of us imagined that the emerging pandemic would be likely to last a matter of months, perhaps through summer. Now autumn leaves are beginning to fall and it appears that we still have a long way to go. What the media calls “virus fatigue” is setting in. We yearn to hug our friends, get out of the house, be in church, be off Zoom, and not be anxious 24/7.

We have been recently jolted again by the president and staff’s Covid diagnosis. This should remind us all of our common vulnerability and be yet another wake up call to be careful, wear our masks, and look out for those around us. Mask wearing when we are out and about and with others is not a sign of weakness - much less some kind of political statement. It is a sign of strength and one of the best ways that we can love one other during these challenging days.

In reflecting on all this, I have felt drawn to a favorite portion of the New Testament, II Corinthians, chapter 4, where Paul is especially transparent as he writes about the meaning of faith. He admits that it is difficult. He has just wonderfully stated the gospel assurance that we are being transformed into the image of Christ “from one degree of glory to another” [3:16]. Then he has to step back and confess that it is not all sweetness and light. The shadows and struggles of the world are always there. Life is fragile. We have the gospel treasure only “in earthen vessels.” To be a disciple involves sometimes being “afflicted, perplexed, struck down…always carrying in the body the death of Jesus,” he says. That’s reality.

Nevertheless, Paul twice declares, “we do not lose heart.” Because the Christ light is unvanquished. Because “even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day.” It is a matter of how we see things. People of faith are able to persevere even in the toughest of times because we “look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.” He urges us to look beyond any temporal circumstance to the far horizons of hope. What is seen can be pretty daunting at times. But what is eternal gives us unshakeable confidence. As the Little Prince liked to say, what is essential is invisible to the eye.

Paul is not naive. As someone once said, Christian faith never sings of rainbows without first riding out the storm. The Corinthians, to whom he is writing, had a charismatic, triumphal attitude that caused them to diminish the cross. It made them inflated and cocky, more-spiritual-than-thou. He reminds them that life in faith inevitably traverses the fragility and hardships of human existence, even as Christ had to walk the way of the cross. There is no detour to Easter.

Van Gogh once painted a person walking a long, twisting road. He has the artist’s distinctive big boots on his feet and a lantern in his hand. The sky is dark and spiky trees overhang. In the far distance is a farmhouse with a single candle burning in the window. It is only a sketch but it seems to me an evocative image of our faith journey. We may walk under threatening skies but we have the lantern of Christ beside us, long distance boots, and the glory ahead.

The sketch reminds me of the great Epiphany collect which prays “that no clouds of this mortal life may hide from us the light of that love which is immortal, and which you have manifested to us in your Son Jesus Christ.” That is a good prayer for these days.

As we grow weary in the midst of this pandemic, we need to take Paul’s counsel and not lose heart. It is difficult, yes, and will take a while. But, as good Dr. Fauci reminded your bishops on Zoom several weeks ago, the pandemic will end. We will get through it — as we journey in faith, care for one another, and remember the eternal things that shall endure.

A prison meditation by Dietrich Bonhoeffer includes these words, eloquently expressed in our hymn 695:
           By gracious powers so wonderfully sheltered,
           and confidently waiting come what may,
           we know that God is with us night and morning,
           and never fails to get us each new day.

           …when again in this same world
           you give us the joy we had, the brightness of your Sun,
           we shall remember all the days we lived through,
           and our whole life shall then be yours alone.

Keep the faith, dear friends, and may God bless you.

The Right Rev. Henry Nutt Parsley, Jr.

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