My Dear People of St. Thomas,
This Sunday is the last Sunday of the season of Epiphany, the final Sunday before we begin our observance of Lent, our holy journey toward the passion, resurrection, and ascension. It’s on this day that we mark and consider the transfiguration of Christ, his journey up the mountain with Peter, James, and John (and all of us) to see and to witness a foretaste of the heavenly banquet to come!
Transformations like this are exciting, and scary because they are exactly that, journeys. Journeys that we enter into with open hearts and open minds are life-changing and world-changing. They change who we are, in ways big and small. We don’t know all the twists and turns, but we have some idea of the end point, the goal, and we trust and have faith that our God will lead us there, again, as always! And we, too, again, will be transfigured. I know we will!
As we are into the fourth week of our love-affair together, our transfiguration as a couple, St. Thomas, I invite you to come and hear about an initiative that we, me, and your Vestry, on your behalf, have embarked as part of our own transfiguration story. The Episcopal Church of St. Thomas the Apostle has agreed to be an alliance member (and the first religious-based organization) in the non-profit group 24HourDallas, an initiative of both for-profit and not-for-profit establishments that are working to bring justice and peace from the daylight hours of Dallas into the night.
There are going to be opportunities for us, as a congregation, to be involved in specific social justice initiatives that are going to have great impact on the lives of those in our community, those we see, and more importantly, those we don’t. It is in those cracks of not seeing that socio-economic injustice most often happens, and we are called to go into those places with Christ, and be Christ, to do the work of transfiguration, and to be transfigured ourselves.
So please come on Sunday, and be fed, so that you will be ready for the journey! Your presence will feed me!
With much love,
Fr. Christopher
