Fr Robert Hendrickson

Dear Friends in Christ,

Today we open our service singing “On Jordan’s Bank” which tells of the proclamation of John the Baptist. He’s announcing the coming of the Lord — that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. It is, truly, Good News.

It makes me wonder what kind of herald I am these days. I don’t mean in sermons or writing or the like — I mean more in what I do and say from day to day. If someone happened to chat with me at some random moment of the day, would they get the sense that I live with some great hope?

We’re all pressed on by variants and the like. We’ve got one worry this day and another the next and it doesn’t seem to be getting much easier, does it?

So I guess the question becomes, who are we in the midst of this shared experience? If everyone is under the same sentence of uncertainty then what certainty might we share now to give them a sign of hope?

I don’t necessarily mean that you just start shouting the Good News at every passerby or at the person behind you in line at the bakery. They’d think you should be wearing a hair shirt and eating bugs or the like! But maybe I do mean something like it — maybe I’m hoping to find that reconnection to that deep sense that despite all that we stand in the midst of there is a larger, deeper, truer reality all around us too.

It is the Kingdom. It is at hand. It is full of God’s loving promise. It is worth sharing — even if folks might think us a bit mad for daring to hope.

Yours in Christ,

Fr Robert