That spring, in quick succession we experienced a number of life-defining events. I was approved for ordination in the UMC. I interviewed at a suburban Boston church for the role of associate pastor. I graduated seminary. I was ordained and I received a call from the District Superintendent saying the bishop was appointing me to Sudbury UMC. We prepared to move from our small studio apartment on the seminary campus to the four-bedroom parsonage on Drum Lane. I was told to expect some church people to show up at the seminary one Saturday morning in late June to help us move.
You did show up. There were at least five trucks and 20 people. Within two hours all our worldly possessions were packed in the trucks, driven the 20 miles west, unpacked and put onto shelves and into cabinets. The other students at the seminary snuck peeks out their windows and later told me they had never seen such a thing. Most expected to rent a trailer themselves, get a TripTik (remember those?) from AAA, and find their own way to their first appointment.
Over and over again, in the six years I served as the associate, you showed up for one another and for the community. You showed up for the youth when I asked for volunteers to go on work team weekends. You showed up for 7:30am Bible studies. You showed up for one another in covenant groups for years on end, as you met to talk about your lives, your children’s lives, books you might read together, and ideas you were working through. You showed up and together produced music to lift the rafters of the church and our spirits also. You showed up for difficult discussions about the best way to do ministry in our community and beyond. You showed up, sometimes in silence and usually carrying a prepared meal, when hard or terrible things happened. You showed up for games of rounders, for teaching Sunday School, for fixing the parsonage plumbing, for folding and sending the newsletter… You showed up.
This commitment to and habit of showing up for one another is a church’s superpower. This consistent presence and engaged caring for one another is the best living example and clearest reflection of God’s love for us. This season of Lent, let this be our continued aspiration in ministry: to find ways that we can show up for one another as God has always shown up for us.
-Avis Hoyt-O’Connor
Associate Pastor, Sudbury UMC, 1989-1995
Sudbury UMC Lenten Devotions 