Love
Good morning. I pray you are well and are excited about the future of St. Peter’s. I am!
It’s been a wonderful first full week with you. We began Sunday with over 160 gathered for joyous worship and a lively reception. What delight! I am grateful for the time to continue to draw closer to you this week meeting with individuals, commissions, and committees and a Healing Eucharist on Wednesday (all are invited!). You are faithful, passionate, and eager to expand our ministry and to imagine new possibilities. Please reach out if you would like to meet for coffee, or simply conversation.
In tomorrow’s Gospel reading we encounter Jesus who asks Andrew and John, “What are you looking for?” This may be a question for us as well while we cast our gaze toward the future of St. Peter’s.
“What are you looking for?” A stronger faith? A welcoming presence? A deeper connection to one another? Greater impact in our neighborhoods? What is your deepest desire for our community and our neighbors in northern Virginia?
In his 1968 sermon, “The Drum Major Instinct” the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King proclaimed, “You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace, a soul generated by love. He had told his congregation that “I’d like for somebody to say that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to love somebody.”
Friends, at the heart of who we are and what we are looking for, is love. You have a servant’s heart, shaped by God’s love and grace. Let us continue to gather as a community with the energy and excitement we all experienced this past Sunday and continue to ask, “What are we looking for?” Together, we will discover how we can be God's love in the world.
I look forward to greeting you again tomorrow morning – Holy Eucharist at 8 a.m. and 10:15 a.m. Adult Forum and Acolyte Training at 9 a.m.
If you are not feeling well or traveling this weekend, join us online and drop me a note so that I can pray for you.
Blessings,
The Rev. Jenifer Gamber
Rector, St. Peter’s Episcopal Church
