In his Maundy Thursday homily, Quauhtli challenged us to look for ways to serve those around us during and after the pandemic.
Incarnation, you have done just that.
Between Palm Sunday and Easter, at a time when many of you are facing an uncertain financial future, you gave generously to the work of Abara Frontiers along the border. This week Incarnation will send over $5,800 to Abara, an incredible amount for a church of our size! Thank you for giving so generously as Abara provides desperately needed food and medical supplies to shelters and detention centers along the Texas-Mexico border.
And your generosity doesn't end there. You are acting as the hands and feet of Jesus in so many ways:
Worship
You're inviting friends and family far and near to our online services on Sundays and throughout the week. Some of these visitors do not have a church home and are establishing new rhythms of worship for the first time. As a small church, we always get excited about visitors (perhaps overly so? We've mobbed more than one of you with excessive friendliness!). But now we greet visitors with a deepened sense of purpose. People are lonely and anxious, spiritually hungry, facing their mortality, and asking big questions. It's a privilege to provide space for communal worship in this time, so please keep inviting!
Welcome
You're donating blood, providing groceries for RILA clients, delivering fabric and seeds and bread and cake and soup and masks, writing letters and birthday cards, calling and texting and checking in, hosting Power Point parties and happy hours and craft nights and discussion groups, and simply providing so many ways of extending welcome amidst social distance.
Wonder
You've transformed the chapel sidewalk into a place of prayer and pilgrimage: first by walking and praying through the Stations of the Cross, and later by transforming it into a colorful resurrection garden. Thank you for providing this gift of sacred space and public beauty to our neighbors. My continued prayer is that as neighbors walk this sidewalk (it gets a LOT of foot traffic!), it becomes a place of encounter with the risen Jesus.
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Incarnation, you are bending the knee, taking the towel, and washing the feet of others. You are loving your neighbors. You are praying for the vulnerable. You are jumping into action at the first opportunity to serve. You are practicing a holy generosity with your lives, and it is a humbling gift to be one of your pastors.