Grateful for You

Dear Friends,

Happy Thanksgiving!

At the beginning of his letter to the Philippians, St. Paul wrote this:

I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. (Philippians 1:3-6)

I remember going over that line in Greek class and thinking, “Oh, that’s a nice sentiment! How lovely!” Twenty years later though, those words hit differently — especially as I write this brief epistle to my own church.

I do thank God for you, every day. I do pray with joy. In you I feel like I have the most wonderful partners in the work of the gospel. And I am confident that God’s work at St. Andrew’s is only beginning. I am so very thankful for St. Andrew’s. God could have called me and my family to many places. Our hearts are full that he has called us here.

I know that not everyone’s day today will be a perfect Norman Rockwell Thanksgiving image. The food won’t turn out right, cross words will get said, someone will be missing at the table…sometimes the holiday on which we stuff ourselves ends up reminding us of our empty places. O Lord Jesus!

Yet it is precisely to a world full of people with empty places that Jesus comes. Jesus feeds our emptiness. He gives us true bread from heaven to assuage our hunger and living water that we may never thirst again — and he gives us the Church to make those gifts real in one another’s lives.

Speaking of the Church, don’t forget our St. Andrew’s Black Friday specials this week: We’ll be giving away coffee and donut holes to the first 1,000 people through the door. Wafers are 1/2 off their regular price of $0. We’re also running long-term specials on God’s grace — it’s free.

Happy Thanksgiving! See you Sunday.

In Christ,
Fr. Andrew