This Week from Caitlyn

Dear Siblings in Christ,

Mitch is away this week in the frigid windy city of Chicago for some continuing education while the sun has finally come out down here. Pray for him, not just for the fruits of good study, but also that he may thaw when he gets back home. 

This Sunday, we celebrate the Feast of the Presentation, when the one-month-old Jesus is brought to the temple to be presented with the customary thank offering. Two old prophets come to coo over him, with the tenderness of two grandparents but also the conviction of street preachers. They declare to anyone who will listen that this is the Messiah, the Living God incarnate, who folks had drenched the walls of that temple in prayers longing for. At last, souls that have wandered for help can now rest because our helper has been revealed.

It is often said in mission and outreach work that by our service, we are revealing Christ to others. Where we show up to sort literal tons of donations shared by folks nation wide in the aftermath of a disaster, where we show up to clear the way for rebuilding to begin on a flooded street, where we become the hands bridging those who gave with those who receive, Christ's love is manifested. But I think as much as Christ is revealed to those who receive, he is also revealed to each of us when we, in our own bodies, do what Jesus did. Love how Jesus loved. Do what Jesus commands. When we act like Jesus, he reveals himself to us in new and real ways.

This Saturday begins Black History Month, and several of us will be going to the "My Name is Pauli Murray" documentary screening at the Nick. (If you can't make it, it is available to stream on Amazon Prime). Pauli Murray is celebrated in our calendar of saints every year. Saint Pauli is the one who, in her body, knew God as he is revealed in Jesus because she spent her whole life loving and fighting for the people Jesus loved. In her vocation as a lawyer bending the arc of justice toward inclusion of all people, regardless of race or sex, decades before the landmark decisions we think of; as a layperson organizing for the first ordinations of women in our church; and then as a priest revealing Christ's love on the altar and in the pulpit. 

May we remember that Christ is revealed to us in the scriptures, in the bread and the wine, and when we act like him and talk like him. As Bishop Curry often says, "If it does not look like LOVE, if it does not walk like LOVE, if it does not talk like LOVE, then it is not of Jesus. It is not of God." So as the old anthem commands us, "Lift every voice and sing" it out.

Faithfully,

Caitlyn