Today was the Madison Marathon. Other than a great deal of confusion leading up to the day concerning access on W. Washington (turns out, there wasn’t any), the Marathon had relatively little impact on Grace. Oh, numbers were down, of course, because people couldn’t get to church. And people were late because of the struggle with parking, traffic pattern, and crowds. And there was the noise, of course. But it was a good day. We blessed the new coolers and freezers in the Food Pantry. There were visitors, as well as a few St. Andrew’s folk who couldn’t get there from downtown.

And the epistle reading was appropriate for the occasion:

Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. (Romans 5:1-5).