So here we are at Metro Beach again! The year has gone by fast and there have been ups and downs, births and deaths, joys and sorrows, excitement and boredom, love and laughter, fights and making up, surgeries and healings, broken toes and arms and legs with an occasional new hip or knee thrown in and the list goes on. We have all experienced the stuff of our lives this year and now we come together to rest, to pray, to laugh and to just enjoy one another. There are no meetings today. The homily will be short and the kiss of peace will be long. This is our Sabbath and it’s time to rest from the year’ struggles if only for a new hours.
Last Saturday, a wonderful group of energetic parishioners got up early on a Saturday morning and met to try and chisel out a new mission statement. It is much more difficult that I imagined because you have to describe this community in just a few words. Some of the words that kept coming up were diverse community, welcoming, service to neighborhood, followers of Jesus and most especially FAMILY. Many said they came and felt so welcomed, it was like coming home to family. That’s supposed to happen as we gather each week. We see the wonder of Christ in our midst in the compassion of one or the laughter of another or the innocence of a child or the perseverance of someone struggling with illness or the faith of a family in grief or the joy of a mother and father bringing their baby to the waters of Baptism. Yes, each week we have an opportunity to find a new reason to love each other. We are all broken people who often times hid our wounds from the world. Today we’re reminded that family doesn’t care about our broken parts, they love us because we’re family. We can show our wounds and not worry that we will be judged. So let’s remember that fact each week and especially today. Let’s get the grills going and get the burgers on. Let’s laugh and hug and tease each other (and may fight a little bit too) because that’s the stuff of families and that’s who we are at Nativity!!
Last Saturday, a wonderful group of energetic parishioners got up early on a Saturday morning and met to try and chisel out a new mission statement. It is much more difficult that I imagined because you have to describe this community in just a few words. Some of the words that kept coming up were diverse community, welcoming, service to neighborhood, followers of Jesus and most especially FAMILY. Many said they came and felt so welcomed, it was like coming home to family. That’s supposed to happen as we gather each week. We see the wonder of Christ in our midst in the compassion of one or the laughter of another or the innocence of a child or the perseverance of someone struggling with illness or the faith of a family in grief or the joy of a mother and father bringing their baby to the waters of Baptism. Yes, each week we have an opportunity to find a new reason to love each other. We are all broken people who often times hid our wounds from the world. Today we’re reminded that family doesn’t care about our broken parts, they love us because we’re family. We can show our wounds and not worry that we will be judged. So let’s remember that fact each week and especially today. Let’s get the grills going and get the burgers on. Let’s laugh and hug and tease each other (and may fight a little bit too) because that’s the stuff of families and that’s who we are at Nativity!!