Dear siblings in Christ,
What a beautiful celebration we had this past Sunday! Our new class on the Book of Common Prayer was well-attended and energetically engaged-in, we welcomed 5 new members into our community during worship, and our annual meeting and potluck was an absolutely delightful way to celebrate what God has done in our midst, dream about the year to come, and get some practical church business done.
I was moved deeply by the many people who bore witness to God at work in the various aspects of our life together, and was especially touched by the word that our outgoing Senior Warden Donna Romack shared with us. You can watch the recording of the meeting here or read Donna’s word here.
Each and every one of you is a vital member of our community, and, as I put it in my sermon this past Sunday, we’ve been swept up into the counterintuitive revolution of Christ crucified: God’s wisdom that seems like foolishness; God’s power that seems like weakness. This “foolishness” and “weakness” is what will, in the end, save us all.
At the end of the sermon, I offered a modern “riff” on the Beatitudes that I hope will help us hear what Jesus is saying to us today.
Blessed are those whose wages stagnated a long time ago, and can’t keep up with inflation, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who gather in vigil to lament the kidnapping and killing of their neighbors and sing their resistance, for God’s comfort flows among them.
Blessed are those who are afraid to leave their houses because of the color of their skin, or the sounds of their names, or their places of birth. They will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who risk their lives to show up in the frigid cold to bear witness to oppression, to interrupt injustice. They are the hands and feet of Christ.
Blessed are the helpers, slain in their helping. God enfolds them into the arms of divine mercy and the blessed rest of everlasting peace.
Blessed are you who refuse the easy paths of distraction and despair, even though your nervous systems are fried, and you feel often at the end of your rope, who instead keep your eyes open, and allow your hearts to be touched, for you participate in the sufferings of Christ, and will know the resurrection of the dead.
Blessed are you when people revile you and belittle you for believing in the power of love, for doing justice, and loving mercy and walking humbly. Rejoice and be glad, for God is closer than you realize, and is sustaining you even now as you participate in the unshakable life God shares with us and all the saints.
Beloved, our resistance to evil and standing in solidarity with the vulnerable takes all kinds of shapes and forms, and involves all kinds of people doing all kinds of different work, but the core of our resistance to the world’s “might is right” political philosophy consists in the simplicity of doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God, despite the risks this now presents to us in our current political climate.
So as we wrestle with and discern how to find our lane and focus our actions in the warp and woof of our actual lives, let’s continue to lean into prayer and worship and celebration and lament together. God is sustaining us and leading us and working in us and through us. I’m so deeply grateful for each and every one of you.
Yours in Christ,
Fr. Ben
