Rector's Rambling: September '09

Rector’s Rambling- September 2009

Hope springs eternal, and with the start of a new school year, opportunities will abound at St. John’s for us to worship together, know God together, fellowship together, and proclaim in our words and by our actions the Good News that Jesus Saves! I hope you will take advantage of the opportunity to receive the body and blood of our Saviour at least once each week. The Faith teaches us that to receive the Holy Mysteries imputes to us an infusion of grace that is healing, and strengthening, and which unites us to God and each other. I would also invite you to attend one of our Bible studies regularly. The Bible is God’s roadmap for our lives, and as we prayerfully and humbly read, mark, and inwardly digest it, our lives are transformed more perfectly into the image of Christ. Plan on dining with friends this year as often as you can. Our Lord gave us an example of fellowship over food on many occasions, and we hope to serve breakfasts every month in order to know each other better, and to provide a friendly venue where acquaintances from outside our parish family might be welcomed into the fold. I’m told that plans are also afoot to add cappuccinos and lattes to our coffee bar this year during the Christian Education hour!
If you are blessed to have children in your life, I pray that you will bring them regularly to St. John’s for worship. Whether they are grandchildren, your own little ones, or friends from your neighborhood, bring them often and teach them by your example and by gentle direction how to worship God according to the received customs of Christ’s ancient, one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church. Attend their games and programs at school and their clubs, but teach them that there is a way of Christian worship which is dignified, communal, and intensely personal. It is a lesson which will transform their lives. It is true that the very young might not be able to sit through an entire service, and for them and their loved ones we are providing a cry room with closed circuit TV this year, but often we underestimate the ability of our children to pray, sing, listen, and give God the respect he is due from all of His creation. Jesus said, “suffer the little children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” Might we heed His call and introduce our children to the one who will keep them throughout this life and into eternity. It is the greatest gift we can give them. And as I ponder this truth, a serious aside occurs to me. Some people say that we must radically change the worship we have received from the Apostles and Martyrs in order to make it relevant to young people. I’ve never believed that, and have not found it to be true in my own life or those of my children. There is a comfort in the tremendous mystery of Divine Worship as we learn that we are not the center of the universe, and that we are called to participate in something that is older, and greater than ourselves. It remains to us to teach our Children why our worship transcends time and space, and to model for them how we as Reformed and Catholic Christians historically meet our God in Word and Sacrament.
May God bless you as this strangely cool and wet summer comes to a close. May He bless you with an abiding sense of the presence of the Holy Ghost in your life, with a clearer understanding of your own motives and needs, and with a sense of forgiveness and purpose that comes only from above. And may he fill your heart with that hope which springs eternal.. AMEN.

Pax Vobiscum,
Bill+