Letter from the Rector – October 26, 2025

Dear Friends of St. Paul’s,

The song echoed through camp as the campers lined up for Eucharist, each one receiving, then joining hands in a circle around the altar.

Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord.

They swayed gently, their voices overlapping, echoing one another with the words of Luke 18.

And God,

Will lift

You up,

Higher and higher.

Did I know what this meant as a child? As a teenager?

Do I truly understand what it means now?

Humble thyself in the sight of the Lord.

In Luke 18:9–14, Jesus tells of two people who go up to the temple to pray. One appears outwardly spiritual, doing all the right things, but full of arrogance and contempt for others. The other is painfully aware of having missed the mark, standing humbly before God.

Jesus asks: who was justified? Who was made right?

And God,

Will lift

You up.

God makes right not the one who appears righteous, but the one who humbles themselves before God—the one who doesn’t need to tear others down to lift themselves up.

It’s a tough piece of “Jesus wisdom” for a world that often seems to believe that might makes right. Humility doesn’t mean refusing to stand up for ourselves. It means doing so without standing on top of someone else.

And still, around campfires and sanctuaries alike, the song continues to echo—the wisdom of Luke 18 set to melody:

Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord,

And God will lift you up.

In faith, love, and service,

holly+