August 19

Beloved families of Good Shepherd,

Peace be with you! This Sunday’s appointed Gospel reading from Matthew describes the moment Peter recognizes Jesus as Lord, the very being of Divine Love, when Jesus asks his disciples about his identity. Peter replies to Jesus: “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” Jesus praises Peter, stating that God in heaven revealed this truth to him. Jesus then confers Peter with special spiritual authority: ”You are Peter, a rock. This is the rock on which I will put together my church, a church so expansive with energy that not even the gates of hell will be able to keep it out.” (Matthew 16:18, The Message) Jesus knows God’s love to be the strongest, most healing force in the universe and entrusts Peter to impart the Gospel of His saving love through the building of His church.

I am in awe of Peter and the other apostles for their courage and grit in establishing the early church and persevering in the midst of violent opposition from the ruling authorities of their time. They gave God everything, even their lives in the end, to ensure that Christ’s saving love and Gospel teachings would be protected and passed on to future generations of the church.

Our current generation is approximately the sixty-sixth generation from the moment Peter confessed Jesus as Lord and began building the early apostolic church. The church all over the world continues to confess “Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the living God”, through the power of the Holy Spirit. When Fr. Hendree began serving as our rector eight years ago, he and our Vestry members prayerfully discerned five core values to guide the life of our faith community. The Spirit guided them to make our foundational core value “Jesus is Lord”, upon which our other core values follow. Fr. Hendree says, “everything we do in the church is founded on our belief that Jesus is Lord, and that his love is the most powerful force in the universe.” Learn more about Good Shepherd’s five CORE VALUES.

Jesus’ holy invitation to our generation is to continue the apostles’ hard work in building the church so that we can pass on the irreplaceable treasure of the Gospel to the next generation, our children. In his seminal book Will Our Children Have Faith?, Episcopal priest John Westerhoff says faith is “caught”, like a contagious energy. Westerhoff believes faith grows, much like the rings of a growing tree, as children observe and model how their parents and community members pray, handle grief, practice forgiveness, and love others. Children enthusiastically “catch” our Christian faith through intergenerational relationships, shared rituals, hearing the stories of our faith, and having a sense of belonging to the church.

As we joyfully profess “Jesus is Lord” in the life of our community, Good Shepherd seems to be growing into a church “so expansive with energy”, similar to the magnetic energy of the early apostolic church. The essential work of our generation is to continue building a strong and vibrant church for our children to catch the faith of Jesus and then pass it on to their children! If we do this important work, our children will be grounded in God’s love from an early age and our world will be transformed into a kinder place for all. Etty Hillesum, a young Jewish writer and mystic who died in Auschwitz Concentration Camp in 1943, never wavered in her belief in the power of God’s love to change the world: “I believe, childishly perhaps but stubbornly, that the earth will become more habitable again only through the love that the Jew Paul described to the citizens of Corinth in the thirteenth chapter of his first letter.” (from Hillesum’s diary, An Interrupted Life and Letters from Westerbork)

Good Shepherd families infuse a spirited energy of love, joy, and kindness into this community and enable the growth of our church! We are so grateful for your presence here. There are many ways for families to participate in the life of the church this fall through worship, formation, and outreach opportunities. Learn more HERE and check out our new Fall Engagement Brochure HERE.

We hope to see you this Sunday!

Many Blessings,

Patty