Outreach Recognition: Proper 23B

On Sunday we’ll welcome over 20 special guests to Transfiguration. Well, “guest” may not be quite the right word to describe them. Better yet, partners, companions, friends. Because they are representatives of the many agencies we support as a church with our time, talent, and treasure. They are leaders of compassionate work that is happening out in our community all the time, work that we recognize as fundamentally serving the Kingdom of God. Which is why we walk with them, pray for them, and share with them from our resources – human, financial, and material.

This past week, several members of the staff worked with Outreach Committee Chair Linda Ayres to come up with as close to a “summary” of our outreach efforts as we can. It took many hours to compile, because there are lots of wonderful people acting in lots of faithful ways, and there have been lots of dollars raised and given by lots of generous people here at Transfiguration. In this “summary,” we have tried to list of all the grants given out to serve people, all the agencies with which we’ve partnered, and all the resource drives we’ve conducted in the past year. We may have accidentally left something off, and we could never fully quantify all the hours given by individual members of the church to serve people in need. Nevertheless, when you come on Sunday and look it over, I think you will be proud and amazed, just as I am.

It was former Archbishop of Canterbury William Temple (1881-1944, ABC 1942-1944), who said that “the church is the only society that exists for the benefit of those who are not its members.” Our mission as a church is not contained within the walls of our beautiful buildings. God is eager for the healing and flourishing of all creation, not only those who happen to have found our lovely campus. Which is why we partner with so many compassion-based agencies, and why we have embraced as our theme this fall the idea of building a longer table. While our community is open and welcoming, there remain far too many people whose lives would be forever changed if they were touched by the grace and mercy of Christ, and it is our hands that provide that touch.

I hope you will come on Sunday to help us welcome these guests to our 9:00 service, and pray in thanksgiving for the privilege we have at Transfiguration of supporting their work. I hope you’ll join me in celebrating all the time, talent, and treasure our church has given for the benefit of those who are not our members, for it is considerable. And I hope you will continue to prayerfully consider what you will give next year to God through Transfiguration, so that we can stretch the loving reach of our table even farther into the world.

See you this weekend.