A CLOUD OF WITNESSES

Dear Friends in Christ:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.”  (Hebrews 12:1-2)

On the Sunday after the diocesan Jr. High Camp, these two verses from Hebrews concluded our second lesson. I had seen in my week as chaplain at the camp young people being transformed by God’s love as they experienced in the camp community. I also saw young people who were ready to go and be agents of transformation in the home communities. In my sermon, I spoke of my conviction that God was calling us to be witnesses to the young people of our parish, witnesses on fire with a commitment to working for justice in our world. My sermon, however, was not as powerful a proclamation of God’s power to transform our lives and our society as the presentation that was made between the two celebrations of the Eucharist. In Morrell Hall, we heard the testimonies of some of the young people and adults who had shared the ecumenical mission trip to Honduras in July.  To use the language of Hebrews, these young people and adults are “a cloud of witnesses” for all of us, encouraging us to “run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith….”

Elsewhere in this issue of The Apostle you will find the Honduras Mission Journal entries written by the young people and adults from this parish. (Copies of the entire Journal are available in the Parish Office and the Journal is posted on our Website, www.saintmatthiaseastaurora.org.) I hope you will read the Journal entries and find, as I have, encouragement for the work that God is calling all of us to do.

In a few weeks we will be celebrating the beginning of a new year of Sunday School and Sunday morning adult education. I hope all of us, even if we don’t have children or grandchildren in Sunday School, will be present for worship at 8 or 10 o’clock and the 9 o’clock opening celebration of Sunday, September 9. The following Sunday, I will begin teaching each Sunday at 9 in Morrell Hall a four-week course, Teach Us to Pray: Prayer Practices for Today’s World.  I hope that many of you will join me in deepening our life of prayer during these four weeks.

Your brother and priest,

 Daniel