Your Work Is Holy

Rev. Bobby Musengwa 

Transitional General Presbyter 

"If you love me, you will keep my commandments." — John 14:15

This Sunday's Gospel from John 14 reminds us that love, as Jesus speaks of it, is not primarily a feeling — it is a way of acting. 

The Greek word John uses, ἀγάπη (agapē), describes love that moves outward in deliberate giving, love that can be lived even when emotion alone might falter. 

It is the only kind of love that can be commanded, because it is defined not by how we feel, but by what we do.

And our congregations at Mission Presbytery do it beautifully.

We see it when our congregations accompany immigrants navigating uncertain, fearful paths, offering presence and advocacy when it is most needed. 

We see it when congregations gather food every Sunday to replenish the local food pantry.

We see it when congregations feed their hungry neighbors every week even with meager resources stretched to meet the needs of God’s people.

We see it when congregations build wheelchair ramps to make homes accessible for

homeowners who use wheelchairs.

We see it in the team that traveled to Guatemala to install solar panels and stoves for indigenous communities — people who stood alongside neighbors they had never met, in the spirit of the Paraclete Jesus promises: one who is "called alongside" the powerless to intercede and serve. 

We see it when a church rallies around a family whose breadwinner has lost their job — bringing meals, paying bills, showing up — love made visible in the most practical and holy of ways. 

In fact, one of the people who went to Guatemala once experienced this love, when their family was destitute due to a sudden job loss, and the church rallied around them in their hour of need. 

This is Matthew 25 in action. 

We see it in the quiet text, the phone call, the knock on the door that says simply: I was thinking of you.

And we in the Presbytery office see it too. 

The cards, letters, and emails you send to encourage us remind us that we are not alone in this work — that the same Spirit who Jesus promises will not leave us orphaned is active and present in this community, every single day.

The Paraclete — the one called alongside — is not only a divine promise for the future. 

In Mission Presbytery, a Matthew 25 Presbytery, that Spirit is already at work, in you.

Your work is holy.

Thanks be to God.

Your fellow servant of the Lord,

Bobby