Letter from the Pastor

Today is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week 2023. It starts with the   triumphal entry into Jerusalem and ends with the tragic death on Calvary.  In a sense, it is very strange that this week should be called “holy”.  As we walk through it – and I hope we all will – unfolding before our eyes will be a scene of     deception and dishonor, betrayal and denial, political expedience and religious corruption, all of which culminates in the greatest crime of all history – the death of God’s Son.  Judged by the scenery, this could easily be called anything […]

Most of us have experienced various kinds of encounters with God.  We have seen Him, for example, in the world of nature.  We have felt His presence under the breathtaking beauty of a starlit night.  We have almost read His signature in the lower righthand corner of a sunset.  We have heard His voice in the wind as it gently rustles the leaves of a tree. We have also met Him inside of our own hearts and minds.  We have felt His comforting presence in times of sorrow and His troubling presence in times of sin.  His image is indelibly […]

The accounts that we have of Jesus’ life make it abundantly clear that Jesus was a man of prayer.  The first thing he did after His baptism was pray.  The last thing that he did before His death was pray.  And in between, there are so many references to His personal prayer life.  For example, the gospel tells us that rising early in the morning, Jesus went off into a lonely place in the desert; there He was absorbed in prayer.”  The context in which that statement is made clearly indicates that Jesus did not use prayers as a substitute […]

I remember reading a story about a businessman in San Antonio, Texas, who parked his shiny new automobile outside a downtown bank and went inside. When he returned he found a little shoeshine boy examining the car in wide-eyed amazement. As he opened the door to get in, the little boy said, “Is this your car Mister?” “Yes, Son, it’s my car.” “Where did you get it?” the little boy wanted to know. So the man explained that the car had been given to him as a birthday present from his brother. “Wow said the little boy “I wish…” And […]

Jesus once asked His disciples, “Who do people say that I am?”  Peter, as was often the case, spoke for the group:  “You are the Messiah.” You and I can hear those words with little or no emotion; but to those first   disciples they were dramatic beyond measure.  From the beginning they had taught, hoped, even dared to believe that Jesus might be the long-awaited redeemer, spoken of by the prophets.  Now they were sure of it. Then, at that very point, Jesus began to teach them that He had to suffer, be rejected by His own people, and die.  […]