Letter from the Pastor

I read an old story about a New Englander and his son who were fishing in the Atlantic, off the coast of Maine.  They had been at it all day, and the sun was sinking low in the west.  A storm was moving in and the waves were building higher.  The boy, partly afraid of the storm and partly tired and hungry, was ready to go home.  He said to his dad, “Papa, right now mother is probably  praying for our safe return.”  The father understood and said with a smile, “You’re right; I’ll hold the rudder while you run […]

Heartbreak always presupposes love.  Others can stir our resentment, kindle our wrath, cause inconvenience, bring disappointment; but the only person who can break our heart is the person we love.  All of which says that love is indeed a risky business.  It makes us vulnerable.  And God has chosen to take that kind of a gamble with you and me. To be estranged from, lonely for, out of fellowship with the one you love, that is a basic element of sorrow.  You don’t go in sacred scripture until you run into that – the loneliness of God.  The book of […]

It is uncomfortable to admit that we sin.  It is much easier to admit that we make mistakes, or are weak, or do not live up to our expectations of ourselves.  It is easy to carry around feelings of guilt.  We try to avoid confronting ourselves with the fact that we willfully and deliberately sin, that we do things that are wrong in the eyes of God.  We find it very hard to admit that some of the things we want to do and actually do are against God’s commands to us and therefore are sins. One of the insidious […]

Years ago, a man named John Edwin Daniels sought to inscribe his name in history by establishing a world record for long-distance walking.  His goal was to hike from the lower tip of Baja, California to the northern end of Maine.  The journey required ten months and he completed it on schedule.  When he arrived at his destination, newsmen and radio microphones were waiting to record his impressions upon completion of his well-publicized trip.  The announcer who conducted the interview asked: “Mr. Daniels, you have walked over 4,000 miles.  Tell us, during these past ten months what was your greatest […]

Good human relationships are based on mutual respect, mutual trust and mutual need.  This is true of husbands and wives, parents and children, employers and employees, friend and friend.  It is true even of our relationship with Jesus. This truth, as strange as it may seem, is clearly indicated all through the New Testament.  One such example is the feast we celebrate today – the baptism of Jesus.  It was crowned with divine approval.  But it was also accomplished by human hands.  Jesus was baptized but it was done by a man – John the Baptist.  John, at first, was […]