A message from the Interim Rector

PROMISE #2 - June 10, 2026

Week after week in the Summer and into the Fall, our scriptures on Sunday focus us on our baptismal promises.  Last week you may remember that baptismal promise #1 was to be faithful in the study of scripture, in prayer and in the breaking of bread.  It is about our personal prayer life, our everyday choices to be faithful to God, and our corporate worship where we hear scripture, pray together and gather at God’s table to be fed with Christ’s body and blood.  We do all this in order to be able to fulfill the other baptismal vows we have made.

So a short reflection on baptismal promise #2.  “Will you persevere in resisting evil, and, whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?”  That is a heavy promise, but we don’t do this alone, because our answer is, “I will, with God’s help”.  I will do this.  I will persevere and when I do fall short of my promise, I tell God that I need help and God will guide me into a new path; and if necessary, God will help me find a way to make amends if I have hurt or caused pain to another.

Baptismal promise #2 is often the one we think is the most difficult for us on our Christian journey because it seems so easy to just focus on our own needs to the detriment of others.  Most of the time we are not in the “deep end of evil purposes”; instead, we are on that uphill climb where it is sometimes easier to overlook a minor unkind thing or moral choice because no one will ever know.  Perhaps it is simply a matter of not doing anything when we see a moral injustice or tell a small white lie for our own benefit.  No matter the size or magnitude of our sinful choices, God stands ready to forgive us and gives us courage through the Holy Spirit to try again.  You may be surprised to consider that nowhere in scripture does Jesus seem to say there is a limit on the number of times God will forgive us; and no where does Jesus say that one sin is more significant than another.  All of us stand within God’s grace and mercy and all of us are forgiven.

How might you persevere in resisting evil?  What is God calling you to see in yourself and in others?  Whatever you hear God saying, remember that God is with us in our challenges to live a faithful life; and so we say, “I will, with God’s help”.

Yours in Christ’s service, Mother Pat+

Give Yourself to God - June 3, 2026

Sometimes people get confused about why we come to worship.  People seem to confuse right living with being a Christian.  Has anyone ever said to you, “I don’t go to church, but I do try to do right and to live a good life, to help people when I can; and isn’t that what the Christian faith is mostly about?”

What do you think?  Is that what the Christian faith is about?  Right living?  Doing good?  Well, the quick answer is NO.  No, that is not what the Christian faith is all about.  The Christian faith is not about us at all.  The Christian faith is not about our deeds or even our very good actions.  It is about God.  The Christian faith is about offering our worship to God.  It is about awe before God, it is about God’s love for us even when we don’t deserve it.  William Willimon, a retired Methodist Bishop, puts it this way, “Before it is anything we do, the Christian faith is about something God does, a gift, self-giving, revelation.  To reduce this faith to the merely moral, to boil down this uncontainable fire to the essentially ethical, is to demean it.  Try to lasso a wave, go hold a burning coal in your hands, put out to sea in the middle of a hurricane - that’s closer to the Christian faith than the merely moral.” (Pulpit Resource, vol 34, #1, pg40)

So, don’t confuse right living with being a Christian.  Don’t confuse moral actions with being faithful.  God as revealed in Jesus Christ is the central focus of our faith.  What we believe about God is what makes us Christians.  Our desire to live a life modeled on the life of Christ flows from our focus on God, not on ourselves.  A faithful Christian life is not accomplished by our self will and determination.  A faithful life is one focused on God who through the power of the Holy Spirit equips us to live a life following the example of Christ whose obedience and love saved us from eternal death.

Yes, we are to live a moral and ethical life but those “good deeds which we may do” are the result of our living a life focused on God.  Worship is central to the Christian life and faith because it turns our attention to God.  Being part of a faith community is critical to our Christian life and faith, because it keeps us from being self-centered and the community holds us accountable for our choices.  So don’t neglect worship, study and prayer, for it is God who is to be the focus of our lives.  This is the essence of our first baptismal promise.  Do you remember the words?  “Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in the prayers?  And we answered, “I will with God’s help”. (BCP 304)

Don’t take God’s love for granted just because God will always love you.  Offer back to God the only gifts that you truly have to offer - your love, your worship, your life.                      

Mother Pat+