Let the Weather Connect you to Christ

Dear Friends,

Thanks be to God for some slightly cooler weather! I’ve been surprised a little this summer by just how much the heat has gotten to me, not just in the sense of being physically warm, but in the way it’s gotten to my mood. I guess if the worst case climate warming models are correct, we’re all going to be really put out with each other six months out of the year.

But more theologically, have you thought recently about how Jesus must have thought on some sweltering summer days climbing up the hills around Galilee? Do you think he ever looked fruitlessly for a spot of shade to rest and thought that maybe it would have been better to choose whoever lived in San Diego as a people for himself? Part of what it means for Jesus Christ to be Son of God incarnate is that God made himself subject to the heat and to cold, to food poisoning, to stubbed toes, to mosquitoes, to rude neighbors. It’s one more way of seeing the great humility of the incarnation, of the Son’s becoming one of us.

With the heat being so dominant, this has been one of those summers that reminds us how much we are affected by our environment. That’s something Jesus knew too. I’m not sure knowing that Jesus experienced 104 degrees and sweltering humidity too makes it any more fun, but at least for me it reminds me that all of life, even the unpleasant parts, are within what it means to be truly human, made ever more in Christ’s image.

That said, thank you Lord for the cool front!

In Christ,
Fr. Andrew