Letter from the Rector – July 30, 2026

Dear Good People of St. Paul’s,

In this week’s gospel, Jesus is grieving the murder of his cousin, John the Baptist by Herod. We might imagine he was grieving and he and the disciples might be scared that they may be next. They withdraw to a boat for some time away.

The crowds saw where he went and they hiked around the lake to meet him on the other side.

What was Jesus’s response when he was grieving and depleted the needy crowd following him? Did he ask the disciples to drop the anchor to stay in the middle of the lake? Did he take the long way to the other side of the lake?

The text says he had compassion on them. The Greek word for compassion is splagchnizomai. The word literally means guts or innards. Moved by his guts. That’s where those in Jesus’s day believed compassion came from, think “gut-punched” or “hit in the gut” or “spill your guts” to describe something intensely emotional.

Jesus was moved with compassion. Literally moved. By the inside.

Now the text is not saying to ignore when you are grieving and help others or tune out your feelings. It is honing in on Jesus’s ability to be moved even in the midst of his own suffering and grief and possible fear. Jesus and his disciples went to the edge of the lake and Jesus “cured their sick.”

I find it interesting that we in the West tend to separate our bodies from the conversation about our spiritual life. Yet, spirituality, at least the Christianity that we inherited from Jesus, deeply connects us with our bodies. We are moved with compassion, in our guts, when we see something that needs tending and we have the capacity and energy to do it.

For us in the West, how can we again trust our bodies to help us notice where God might be leading us? And, how do we do the discernment to know what is ours to do? We know we cannot do it all, there is too much. But we can do what God has called us to do, individually and together as a congregation. And when we do what is ours to do, using the discernment we receive from our bodies and from the Spirit, we work in our gifts, we work together so that no one has to do it all, and, by doing so, we prevent burnout.

May we, too, have compassion for those we meet and do the discernment to know what is ours to do in response to the needs we see around us.

In Faith, Love, and Service,

holly+