At a church building, the transition of heating and air-conditioning systems with the change of seasons can be a challenge.
I love October, but sometimes its cool mornings might require that we fire up a boiler, or two, or three at our church.
On the morning of Sunday, October 25 at Trinity United Methodist Church, I made a decision to turn on the boilers that serve the Sanctuary and Welcome Center. Thermostats in these large areas were reading 65 degrees.
To save pennies, I usually try to hold out to the first 32 degree morning before firing up a boiler in the building. Maybe my aging has made my HVAC heart softer for making the congregation feel comfortable on Sunday mornings.
The boilers fired properly. Within an hour the Sanctuary and the Welcome Center were losing their coolness.
That was not to be the case on the other side of the building.
Earlier in the week, I had turned on the boiler that provides heat for the Trinity Hall wing. That wing gets lots use by our congregation and community.
As I was coming into the building this morning, I noticed that the windows in the East Entrance stairwell were steamed up. True, it was cool outside, but not really cool enough to steam up those windows.
Curious, I made my way into the stairwell. I checked the door at the bottom of the stairs. This door leads into the mechanical room. The door was warm and moist to the touch. That door isn’t supposed to feel warm and moist.
When I opened the door, I could hear water spilling on to the hard concrete floor. The room was warm and steamy like a sauna.
With the lights on, I walked toward the hot water boiler. In the lower part of the ceiling, hot water was rapidly showering out from the middle section of a large pipe.
The water was spewing out from a link located between two mounted pumps. Quickly, my broken brain prodded me into action.
First, I shutdown the boiler, followed by turning off all the pumps in the room. Even turning off the pumps did not slow the shower of water.
Next, I shutdown the hot water heater and the single pump that distributes hot water into the wing.
I traced down the two shut off valves for the leaking pipe.
With an assist from an old, wobbly, wooden ladder, I attempted to turn those valves. Formed like a small steering wheel, I couldn’t budge either valve.
I moved some junk away from the spewing water. Next, I made sure that the water wasn’t going to intrude on anything electrical.
To remove the steamy air, I opened one of the doors that empties out into the freight well. I propped open the door to the mechanical room and the exterior door on the ground floor, and opened a window at the top of the stairwell.
I put in a call for service to our HVAC company.
While waiting for the technician to arrive, I let our senior pastor know what was taking place. I went back into the mechanical room and walked into the freight well.
Armed with a broom and a bucket, I cleaned out the leaf debris near the drain. Once that was clear, I started sweeping the water into the freight well drain.
The HVAC technician called me. He was working his way down Interstate 95. I explained the challenge to him. He was about twenty minutes out.
When he arrived, I walked him into the mechanical room. He double checked my findings with the shutoff valves.
Being younger and a lot stronger, he had no trouble in turning off the first valve. However, the second one was lots of trouble.
He described the valve as being seized up. Trying to find just the right angle for his tools to work, he finally found it. It took some minutes, but the valve started to turn.
Gradually, the water shower began to slow to a trickle out of the pipe.
With the soggy insulation cut away, I could see where the pipe expansion joint had failed.
We discussed a plan for further assessing the failed joint. He would notify the proper people in his company for this assessing on Monday morning.
I started to think about the people who would be using the building on Monday. This would mean communication to our staff and building users.
As the tech and I were preparing to leave the mechanical room, he commented how it seems that HVAC problems tend to appear at the most inconvenient time “on Sunday mornings.” I agreed with his assessment, and thanked him for letting me disrupt his Sunday morning.
The failed expansion joint was original to the construction of the building in 1986. An expansion joint is designed to absorb movement and vibration as chilled or hot water travels through HVAC piping.
I was appreciative of the forty years of continuous service from the expansion joint. Like my old body, parts of me are slowly wearing out too.
On some days, deep inside of me, I think to myself—this old building is wearing me out. How many more unpleasant mechanical surprises are lurking in places that the congregation never see?
I wonder if God and Jesus feel the same way as they look down upon this old world?
Are they quietly saying to themselves—this old world is wearing us out. In this old world today, how many more unpleasant human experiences will erupt and break our hearts?
From all my years working in large school buildings and this cantankerous old church, I learned it is impossible to satisfy each person’s individual human thermostat. Despite this fact, my old heart tries to make people comfortable.
And perhaps at the end of the day, whether it is a failed expansion joint or a human tragedy on the other side of the world, it comes down to our hearts. How will we respond?
Maybe up in heaven, God and Jesus are still hoping that our hearts will wake up and that we can figure out how to stop breaking their hearts and ours too.
On John Lennon’s first solo album is a song titled “Hold On.”
Under two minutes in length, this pretty little song has a simple reminder for us:
“Hold on world, world hold on, it’s gonna be alright, you’re gonna see the light. Oh, and when you’re one, really one, well, you get things done like they’ve never been done, so hold on.”
Like God and Jesus, I keep hoping this old world is going to see the light.
And when that happens, we’ll figure out the path for working together and getting things done.
Even when expansion joints fail on a Sunday morning, and the world headlines continuously reveal our shortcomings, I’m trying to hold on.
Despite my theological shortcomings, I do think about the Bible and wisdom from 1 Thessalonians Chapter 5. Verses 16 through 22 caught my attention.
“Rejoice always” it is tough to rejoice when an expansion joint fails and a school shooter ruins lives in Bend, Oregon.
I do “pray continuously”. Even in my bleakest moments with a crabby church building and an unsteady world, my prayers haven’t stopped.
I do attempt to “give thanks in all circumstances.” Maybe the failed expansion joint could have been worse. In Bend, Oregon if the shooter hadn’t been confronted, the results would have been even more tragic.
These verses also tell us to “reject every kind of evil” and “hold on to what is good.”
Around our world, I wonder if we are truly capable of rejecting every kind of evil? Have we lost the capacity to counter the evil in the world and in ourselves?
Is our inability to reject those evils, keeping us from seeing the light and finding the good in the world and ourselves?
That’s a lot to think about.
In truth, you, me, we, us are beyond the thinking stage.
We must find “what is good” and put that good into action.
The weary hearts of God and Jesus can’t take much more.
