From the Pastor

February 2014

A short time ago, in a recent sermon, I got onto the theme of our Christian identity. More than once I used the phrase “who are you?”

Now when I do this, a certain song gets stuck in my head and I find myself singing “who are you” to myself for the rest of the day. On a day when I asked you to consider your Christian identity, it’s also a good idea that I spend some time doing the same thing. And the song stays with me while I think about that.

Now as we turn the corner from January into February our meditation will change from who to how. How are we to live out that identity, given to us at baptism?  Helping us this month will be the words of Jesus from Matthew’s version of the Sermon on the Mount.

For three of the four weeks of February we will hear that we can keep God’s commandments, do good things for people, go beyond the expectations of conventional charity, and to respond to evil with love and forgiveness. All of these ideas come to us from our Lord.

A long Epiphany season is helpful for us to dig deeper into how we will live out our calling as a disciple of Jesus Christ. Through our worship, and a lot of time spent in prayer, we can be prepared for our life of service, sharing Jesus’ love in word and deed. And it will help prepare us for the next season, Lent. More on that next month.

Clifton D. Eshbach,

Pastor