Eucharist.

 
By God’s mercy and grace, we are at a point where we can publicly gather together in person, and offer our thanksgiving to the Lord for His victory over death! A joy beyond all joys! 

By this point, many of you have received various emails from the parish council, and myself explaining our Protocols and Procedures (of which there are a few) , as well as the request to notify us of what services you would like to attend. So, as not to sound like a broken record, I won’t repeat them beyond offering my thanksgiving for everyone’s patience, flexibility, and willingness to do whatever it takes to participate in the divine banquet that is offered to us. 

The last three months have been a profound trial for us as Christians. Some of the elements that defined us, (Sunday services and the Eucharist) were no longer elements we could use to help identify us. Besides living as Christians in our daily life with joy for Christ, we are also called to worship in our Church.  We have been truly strangers in a strange world with only memories of Church life to bring comfort. Thankfully we were able to stream services on the internet (and still will be), but even this was somehow a faint image of what we had grown up around; family and friends and those who would become family and friends in Christ.  Truly a  community. 

Yet during this time of separation, we all continued on, never wavering from faith in Christ. Donations were still made, on Sunday mornings we were in our Sunday best, and gathered around computers or phones for an internet church service. You kept in contact with your other brothers and sisters in Christ, seeking to reach out and connect with church friends, and most of all prayed, and prayed for this day when the memory of what we used to do as a parish (offer the  Eucharistic- literally thanksgiving)  would be realized in the Eucharist!

We would not be here today if you had retreated to your homes and waited for something to happen like the release of a new TV episode or sequel in a book series.  We are here today, because all of our congregation never lost sight that we are the Church and never forgot your baptism into Christ. In the same way that Israel never forgot it was “a people holy to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession” (Det. 7:6), when they were in exile, or scattered throughout the Roman Empire:  you have not forgotten that you are also “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that you may proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.” (1 Pet 2:9). 

For this, I will always joyfully offer my thanksgiving to the Lord of Glory with all my heart, soul and mind. 

As we begin this new era, let us look past the isolation and separation from friends and family, services and sacraments, but rather remember the Lord’s providential love that purified us like “silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times” (Ps. 12:6)… that made us better Christians. Glory to God!