Yosemite And a Quote

As you can see, we worshipped on Sunday in an unspeakably beautiful, awe-inspiring cathedral, Yosemite National Forest and Park. Clear skies, few visitors to the park, and the stark beauty of the massive granite spires and peaks stunned and wooed us.

On Sunday evening we had a good conversation with some new friends about the challenge of sacrificial hospitality. We seemed to conclude that to welcome "the stranger" requires a willingness not only to gain information and a deeper knowledge of another person, but a willingness to give up something of our own security and comfort, trusting that as we welcome and love sacrificially, in God's economy, we become richer. It reminded me of something I'd read earlier Sunday morning.

"Sarah being barren (Genesis 11:30), the command to “go forth” placed before Abraham a difficult choice: he would either belong to his country, his culture, and his family and remain comfortably inconsequential or, risking everything, he would depart and become great—a blessing to “all the families of the earth” (Brueggemann 1977,15ff.). If he is to be a blessing he cannot stay; he must depart, cutting the ties that so profoundly defined him. The only guarantee that the venture will not make him wither away like an uprooted plant was the word of God, the naked promise of the divine “I” that inserted itself into his life so relentlessly and uncomfortably."

Miroslav Volf, Exclusion and Embrace

It's a great privilege to have this time to reflect and be renewed. We miss those dear to us but look forward to seeing many of you at Christmas.

Wishing you Advent peace and hope.