Scriptures: Malachi 4:1-2a; Psalm 98; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13; Luke 21:5-19
23 Pentecost November 16, 2025
The Rev Kathryn Snelling, Deacon
I just finished reading a novel. It’s by Jan Karon and it’s one of the Mitford novels.
The latest in a long series of novels about Fr. Timothy Kavanaugh.
And this one is titled MY BELOVED
The book begins in November and Fr. Tim is putting together his Christmas list.
He asks his wife, Cynthia, what she would like for Christmas and she answers him. I want a letter. She wants a love letter —- or a cardigan with pockets.
At first, he’s not really sure she’s serious about this letter but finds out that, yes, that is what she really has her heart set on.
So he gets inspired and writes a letter —- pours his heart into it, and puts it in an envelope, seals it, and on the envelope addresses it to, Beloved.
Now the two of them love poetry, and one of their favorite authors has a brand new book out. So Fr. Tim goes to the local bookstore and they happen to have a copy and so he buys it, takes it home and tucks the letter inside the book. Then he wraps it in his favorite green wrapping paper, but no bow and no tag; planning to add it later.
He sets it on his little antique desk. But, then he’s called away for an emergency visit to someone in the hospital and hurries off.
Meantime, his housekeeper, Puny, comes to do the cleaning and brings with her, her twin boys, Timmy and Tommy
When she’s ready to go, she asked Tommy to pick up her cleaning gear that she left sitting on the desk
Unbeknownst to her, Tommy blindfold his twin brother Timmy, and has him clear off the desk, which he does, sweeping the cleaning gear and the book off into a toilet paper box.
The box gets delivered to Puny’s mother Esther, who discovers the book, takes it out and in puzzlement opens it, and the letter falls out and so she opens it, but when she starts reading, realizes this wasn’t written for her as Ray, her husband, would never write like this. So she tucks it all back together very carefully and stuffs it in another box and this box gets delivered to someone else in the community and so it goes around, and round in community to a variety of folks, each being a little or a lot transformed and getting them thinking about who is their “beloved” and who loves them and family and relationships…. And that’s all I want to say in case you want to read it for yourself.
And as I was reading I kept thinking about our scriptures, and not just the ones that we have appointed for today, but all the scriptures—- how they have been circulating the world for thousands of years touching and transforming people's lives.
For they too are a love letter - from God, to all humanity and all of creation
And not just the warm fuzzy scriptures, but the tough ones too
Like some of the writings in the Old Testament, recording the history of a people, struggling to become a nation called apart to be a light to the world. And God, calling them back, time and time again through the prophets. To love as God loves them.
And the letters that we have from Paul, James, John, Peter —- leaders writing to the young church, encouraging,guiding, even sounding a bit scolding at times, but always with the goal of leading the church to a fuller understanding of God’s love for them and to help them live in the world as disciples of Jesus.
The Gospel writers show us Jesus, real and human, living in the world but not swayed or changed by the world. Living out his mission: to proclaim good news to the poor, release prisoners, restore sight to the blind and set the oppressed free.
And I liked what Bishop Mark wrote in his reflection in the Diocesian news. And since he said we can use his words anytime I shall. He writes:
“Jesus doesn’t always paint a serene portrait of what it means to live a faithful life committed to his way of love, his way of service, his way of justice and his way of self sacrifice for the life of the world.
In the passage from the gospel of Luke we heard today, Jesus tells it like it is: a life lived faithfully committed to Jesus, can put a person way out of sync with the rest of the world and out of favor with those who would prefer to live life as usual.
He keeps it real, but the core of the gospel is hope. The good news of Jesus is always hope. Yes, Jesus’ way of love is also the way of the cross. Yes, the way of Jesus can be hard; there is suffering, there is loss, there is sacrifice, there is death. BUT, there is hope, always hope. Jesus’s way of love, the way of the cross, is also the way of the resurrection.
There is an abiding narrative of loss, fear and helplessness in our churches these days. It is a narrative of shrinking numbers and a loss of resources, dying community. There is also a narrative of fear, conflict and helplessness in our nation and even in our world. While it is important for us to name the struggles, the challenges, the losses, and the fears that confront us - it is important to be honest and truthful about the narrative of life in this world. It is even more important that we remember that a narrative of grief and loss will not move us forward. For that we need a narrative of hope, and hope is the church's business.”
When Jesus says to consider times of crisis as an opportunity to testify, I believe that that is what he is talking about. We may never be asked to stand in front of those in seats of power and speak, but our actions testify to the hope of the Gospel.
In the recent crisis caused by the storms in western Alaska, the loss of income for federal employees, and resources for those in most need, crises in the past and those yet to come; the church, Jesus’s body in this world, meets them in a spirit of hope.
Finishing with Bishop Mark’s words:
“Hope is the narrative that moves the church forward, that moves life forward, that moves us forward. Let us set our hope on Christ and we shall never hope in vain.”
Amen