By Joe Beard, 11/10/24

- A reflection of continuing my support for the Episcopal Church of St. John the Baptist:

Continuing with our stewardship theme “Walk in Love”, I would like to share with you this morning my reasons for wanting to keep supporting our church- St. John the Baptist.

From the very beginning when my husband Roland and I first started to visit this church, we knew St. Johns was special.

The Love and kindness that was shown toward that was shown toward us we knew this was a place where we could continue to grow in our faith and serve God & the community we live in.

I learned that St. John’s is not only a place of worship but also a place where we can help each other to continue to “Walk in Love”.  And one of the ways that can helps us on our journey to walk in love, is by joining one of the many ministries that our church has to offer.

“I know many of you already many hats but there is always a space for another person” 😊

You can sign up for to participate as an Acolyte, a lay Eucharistic Minister, an Usher, or a Reader.

This is such an important part of stewardship, using the gifts that God has given us & with our time and talents, we will be able to have a better understanding of our faith and our journey to walk in love.

This seems like a simple message: Walk in Love, we just have to love people like Jesus did!

It may sound like a simple message, but sometimes it’s not easy to always follow the message.

This is where personally, I find my participation in these ministries that I have joined, to be very joyful.

It is when I am at church that I am recharged with God’s love.

And sometimes I really need to be filled back up again with God’s love!

Especially during this past election week.  We can read Bishop’s Rob’s post-election reflection and understand the difference of opinions that occurred between our friends, family, and neighbors. 

Worshiping together as a community and participating in one of our ministries, these actions can help guide us and give us the strength during difficult times.  We need to ask ourselves: how do we move forward when our journey to walk in love becomes difficult?

It’s when we are gathered at the altar and receive communion that we are strengthened.

It is when we receive the Body & Blood of Christ, we can sustain God’s love.

We can stand next to one another, put our differences aside and know that God fills us with his love.

We should also remember at the end of our service; we are asked to “Go in peace to love and serve the Lord”.

Here at St. Johns, we know that we can Walk in Love together, no matter how hard or difficult things can be.

This is what the journey to walk in love is all about.

Amen