Dear Academy Family,
If ever my heart was laid bare for a community, it is now. The fact that we are ending a school year apart from one another’s physical presence was a situation I would have never thought possible, much less have planned for. It leaves me only prayerful for peace and charity to guard every heart as it never has before. And that prayer, like all of the rest, is impossible apart from Christ himself—the cornerstone of this blessed Academy family.
A reminder from Peter himself:
Come to him, a living stone, though rejected by mortals yet chosen and precious in God’s sight, and 5like living stones, let yourselves be built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6For it stands in scripture:
“See, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious; and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.’
So to that same ‘cornerstone’ community I turn in this final Nuntius, a group of people who typify the beautiful doctrine of the one holy catholic and apostolic Church in my mind: Jesus enters into a tribal world of divisions with the pure milk of his Gospel of sin-eradication and reconciliation. Into a world that prizes greed and bases friendships upon it, he declares that there is neither rich nor poor in the Kingdom of heaven. All are rich in Christ. Into a world that preys upon fear and instability, he declares peace, for we have NOTHING to fear in a Kingdom of perpetual joy. Into a world that places 20-foot walls around every difference that we can find, he brings Jericho destruction to those walls by saying, there is neither Jew nor Greek—but all are One in Christ. The church exists in part to show the foolishness of this world’s attempt at assuring you that the world would be a far better place if everyone was just like you. But you’re not the cornerstone—He is. Oh, there’s conformity in this world. It is conformity to a crucified Savior who said that the world’s system simply won’t do, for Jesus says, “I give myself for the life of the world.” And the difference is not your genius in joining arms with Jesus. The difference is mercy, mercy, mercy. Listen further to Peter: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.”
Seasons such as this show the rich practicality of theological reflection. And not just for priestly/headmaster types—I’m talking about my life as a husband, a dad, a home-owner, a tax-paying citizen; someone who has to pay his electric bill, fix the car, mow the grass, and say his prayers. There are moments of deep uncertainty—late at night on my front porch, when the simple reminder that in clinging to the life of Christ, I have actually seen the fullness of God—a fullness that helps this otherwise restless heart rest in the sweetness of knowing where the walls of True Love are. At other times—when doubting the essential goodness of life or of systems; or of the horrors of suffering and death, I find that the theological mysteries of the things like the Trinity, of redemption, of the blessed atonement, and of the dual-natures of Christ are of immediate help. Christ as the cornerstone keeps the sacred and precious lineaments of Christ in the midst of his people—clean, accessible, knowable, and sweet. Jesus is the very breath of comfort to my 4-year old who joins his prayers to my 6-year old as they ‘pray for the corona.’ I chance nothing in saying that God hears his prayers as readily as he hears my own. Nor do I chance anything in admitting that his own prayers have brought immediate clarity to the weeds of administration in which I daily walk. Believe in Him! You will not be put to shame!
You go with our blessing into these summer months. I can say with pride and with confidence—our teachers, by the grace of God, have done well by us. They have kept us on a trajectory of loving attention to children in a time of anxiety and fear. I cannot thank them enough.
You will hear from us this summer as we have prayerful plans to offer. We will offer a brief time of rest to all, and then we will hit the ground running with the same Gospel-fervor that has ever propelled us forward. The search for all that is True, Good, and Beautiful is not without work, but it is a work whose burden, unlike the world, is light. To Jesus we cling.
Ever festive,
Nate+