One year ago we were finalizing arrangements for our rental housing. We had moved some of our possessions to Washington and placed them in storage. Our camper was parked at our son’s home and had to be moved to storage because that home was in the process of being sold. Our son and his family were looking for a new home for them to purchase. The children were being homeschooled. There was a lot that was up in the air.

It seems natural, then, for us to look back at the year that has passed. A lot has happened. We sold our home. We moved into a rental 1,300 miles away from that home. Our son and his wife sold their home and moved to a farm 44 miles from that home. We settled into a new church home and ended up going back to work serving that church.

This fall, the kids are back in school. Today the two oldest begin their second week of school - four days this week instead of three. The youngest starts preschool on Friday. We have a very busy week at work with the official kick off of fall programs on Sunday.

We expected that the pandemic would have eased by now. We expected we would not need our face masks as much. We expected to be engaging in face-to-face church programs. Our expectations weren’t quite the way things worked out. According the Washington Post, there are twice as many people in the hospital in the United States as was the case a year ago. Doctors, nurses and other hospital workers are facing fatigue after crisis upon crisis. Some hospitals have erected tents for triage of people seeking health care. In some states governors are threatening school districts that impose mask mandates. Although there is a fully approved, safe and effective vaccine that is readily available, there are a lot of people who have chosen not to become vaccinated. Obtaining a vaccination and wearing face masks have become political issues with a sharp partisan divide.

The in gathering festival that we had planned for the church parking lot with appropriate distancing and face masks has been transformed into a Zoom event, with packets being delivered to families with children and storytellers, craft leaders, song leaders and others getting ready to provide a program for people who will be participating from home. Our church is worshiping online only with a maximum of ten leaders allowed in the sanctuary at a time.

It all feels very strange. Unlike a year ago, we are fully vaccinated. We have so far weathered the pandemic without being infected by the virus. Our health remains excellent and we are enjoying walking every day. Yesterday we walked for a couple of miles along the Skagit River which was lined with people fishing for pink salmon, while other family members played in the sand and gravel at water’s edge, wading into the water to cool themselves on a bright and sunny day. This part of Washington has a reputation for being a rainy place, but this has been an unusually dry summer and September is not a rainy time in this place. The weather is mostly bright and sunny.

We find ourselves saying over and over again, “We’re not in South Dakota anymore.” I guess we could also say, “We’re not in the early years of the 21st century any more.” 2020 and 2021 are turning out to be years that are very different from anything else we have experienced.

In theology the concept of transcendence. I don’t know if it is the case today, but when we were students in seminary, you could get into a multiple-hours-long debate about transcendence and immanence. God is by nature outside of the material universe - not bound by the laws of physics. And yet, God is also deeply engaged human affairs. For Christians, Jesus is both transcendent, in that Jesus was with God at the beginning of creation, yet became flesh and lived in a specific time and place. In this Christianity contrasts with Buddhism, where individuals are able to achieve existence in a formless realm that is beyond what is now apparent.

When we teach these concepts, however, we rarely use the technical vocabulary of seminary debates. Knowing that God is love, we simply talk about how love is not bound by time or place. The love of our ancestors remains with us even after they have died. God’s love can be simultaneously working in all places. The experience of God in one place does not diminish the experience of God in another. In Paul’s words, “Love never dies.”

There are many things about life that continue to surprise us. It isn’t just the continuing severity and dangerous nature of the Covid-19 pandemic with the Delta variant causing so much suffering and death. It isn’t just the extraordinary fear that is surrounding the back to school season. It isn’t just the dramatic changes that come with retirement and a move to a distant state. I’m continually surprised by the range of choices in the grocery store. I’m continually surprised by the news headlines each day. I’m continually surprised by my own emotions and reactions to the events of this life.

In seminary we might say, “The transcendent God is making all things new.” Despite millennia of history and generations of experience there are new discoveries every day. We are still learning what it means to be human in this universe. We are still questioning our place and the meaning of our lives. We are still learning and discovering new things every day.

So we face this fall with great hopefulness. It is nearly certain we we will have moved yet another time, this time a shorter distance, to a home closer to our son’s farm and closer to our church by Thanksgiving. Hopefully this move will be to a more permeant location so that moving doesn’t become a constant way of life for us. Hopefully more people will take advantage of vaccination and show more consideration to others so that we can turn the corner on this pandemic before another begins to sweep the world. Hopefully we will find ways to build community despite the limitations of life during a pandemic.

Hope springs eternal and Hope remains. May we continue to discover and dwell in the faith, hope and love that are ours.