Reflection 06/27/26
Dear parishioners,
I want to thank the many parishioners who have wished me well in my temporary assignment out west, and who have indicated how much they will look forward to my return. My experience over the years has been that the people of God who are already good and loving to one another often have a special graciousness reserved for priests. I really appreciate the various ways this is expressed.
Our first reading and Gospel this weekend reflect how this is part of the Christian understanding of what the relationship between people who are particularly set apart to serve God and the rest of God’s people ought to be like. We see in the first reading the graciousness of woman of Shunem, who provides a little room for the prophet Elisha whenever he visits the town. Elisha, feeling tremendous gratitude, asks her servant what could be done for her. Upon hearing of her desire for a son, Elisha, who has the power from God to do so, promises her a baby boy in the next year. In the Gospel, Jesus tells the apostles, “Whoever receives you receives Me, and whoever received Me receives the one who sent Me. Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous man’s reward. And whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because the little one is a disciple – amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.”
If we priests and deacons perform our ministries in a gracious and loving way, we are of course useless servants who are only doing what our Master has required of us. The sacraments we celebrate are a capability from God that we are called upon to share generously, and any human goodness we have from that ministry flows from God’s grace. However, that service is still a blessing to others, and God Himself regards gratitude for it and the support that His people show to the clergy as acts of reverence to Him. Clergy are meant to give without counting the cost, but the many letters of Paul and the gratitude he constantly shows to his brother and sister Christians for the support and kindness they offer him show how much God’s plan is to support His servants through His people. I see this mutual relationship as one of many reflections of how God wants us all to encourage and build up each other through such loving exchanges. I don’t have the direct power like the prophet Elisha, but I certainly do pray for the people of St. James and St. Elizabeth Ann that God may be generous with His grace and blessings to them. I have often told people over the years, “May God reward you for your kindness to me.” Jesus’ words today assure that He will certainly do just that for those who encourage and support the clergy. Knowing that the people who are there for me even just once will be blessed abundantly by God makes my tail wag! Praise God!
The other aspect of our readings is of course the challenge of living the Gospel: “Whoever does not take up his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” As St. Paul tells us in the second reading, we have been baptized into Jesus’ death so as to share abundantly in His resurrection. While baptism itself is a free and generous gift from God, our lives of love thereafter often continue to mortify our own senses of selfishness. That can stretch and chafe us sometimes. But when we set aside our own needs to love and help others because God loves them, we become more and more configured to Christ, more and more the best versions of ourselves that God wants to bless us to be. Love is its own reward. I have seen the people of these two parishes care for and support each other in so many ways over the past year. That flourishing connection with God and each other is what God wants for us, and is a foretaste of the blessed, loving communion we will all share through Christ in His kingdom. I look forward to returning to you all in September, God willing, to continue to experience the blessed work that the Holy Spirit is doing among us at St. James and St. Elizabeth Ann Parishes.
