May 2024

Pastor’s Note and Intro to Knox News:

Students while preparing for exams are also looking back, not just through their notes, but at the friendships that have kept them afloat. Maybe they are also recalling teachers, coaches, instructors, advisors that reminded them of their worth and sparked their curiosity.

On Sunday we honored those 80 and better here at John Knox. I looked around the room in deep appreciation for those who have shaped this congregation and those who have recently joined having shaped other congregations. As they have shaped faith in others, I wondered who shaped their faith.

Many in our community have experienced transitions in jobs and before taking leave, they have looked back at the people who made the work meaningful.

And many of us have said goodbye to loved ones who dwell with God in glory. Part of our grief is to remember the influence they had on us and the gifts they entrusted to us.

A poem toward the back of Knox News by Kate Bowler references flying buttresses. They are engineered as support beams to provide lateral support for a fragile wall. And sometimes they are made extra fancy. Kate notes that when you’re not able to be quite so tall and strong, maybe you need some flying buttresses, pillars who hold you up, who teach you how to grow or apologize or forgive or calm down. Or show you something that looks like honesty or intimacy. Those who remind you who you are and that you’re loved. The people who look at you and see you for exactly who you are and not just what happened to you.

I’m grateful we are together to hold each other up and be held.

Tom