From the Rector

Dear Friends in Christ,

As we wait to hear the results of the election and wonder what our future looks like it seems a moment to ponder something I think is deeply true - the nation would be a better place if Christians could heed the promise we make to seek and serve Christ in all people, loving our neighbor as ourselves.

To seek and serve Christ in all people would necessarily change our priorities. We would find the deep courage necessary to undo unjust systems, to eliminate hunger and poverty, to welcome with joy those who come to our shores looking for a new life and new hope. Seeking and serving Christ would mean that we could not look at any person and think they are less than us or deserve cruelty or neglect.

To seek and serve Christ in all persons is about who we are as much as it is about who they are. Seeking Christ in all persons has to begin with delving into our own hearts and seeking Christ there. Do we find there the One who is quick to love? Do we find, enthroned there, the Prince of Peace? Do we find there the Christ of pierced hands who calls us to forgive our enemies? Do we find the one who feeds the 5,000, welcomes the little ones, stands by those who are condemned, casts out evil, and speaks the truth in all things?

If we find that Christ in ourselves we then must serve him. We must serve the Christ in our hearts who calls us away from vain fears and selfish anger. We must serve the Christ who is calling us out into the wilds of human need and spiritual chaos — into the heart of where we will find those who will despise and revile us.

Serving that Christ is a awful thing. I mean that in both the old and the new sense of that word. It is awful because it means giving up so much of what we think matters — our vanity, need to be right, and desire to be liked. It is awful in the older sense (awe-full) because to serve that Christ might just mean that we discover who it is that has been speaking in our deepest soul all along. To find that voice must and always will be a thing of awe — full of beauty.

That is the deep voice the world needs right now. It needs Christians who both can calm the storm but also who name the things which destroy the body and cripple the soul in our world — the voice that names sin and calls for repentance. That repentance is the first step toward re-discovering the Christ within us and serving him. Where have we given in to the many, many temptations that divide us from God and from one another? Where have we stepped away from the Way of Love and given into the Way of Fear and Cruelty?

Seeking and serving Christ in all persons and loving our neighbor as ourselves must begin with an honest and deep engagement with our own heart. The world needs hearts that are full of the love of Jesus and ready to love, firm in the knowledge that nothing can separate us from the love of God. That confidence is just the thing we need to find Christ in our heart and serve him in our lives.

Yours in Christ,

Fr Robert