Author: Church Office

I hope that you are feeling well and dealing well with this temporary new reality we must live in.

When I chose a photograph of just one person in our nave for the cover of the March newsletter, it was to be a visual reminder of Lent and our need to come before the cross of Christ. I had no idea that it would come to reflect the distancing that we are going through during the rest of March and now April.

In the past, when I have been in the nave, alone, I knew it was only temporary. Sunday would come and we would be together. Such is not the case in the COVID-19 world. While the news and the social restrictions appear to change daily, our unity in Christ remains. While we must keep following the well-publicized precautions, our unity in Christ remains. While our worry may cause great anxiety, our unity in Christ remains.

Continue to reach out to one another through the various electronic means we have. Your congregation continues to function, albeit at a reduced level. I hope you have been able to view the little worship liturgies we have been recording and posting on social media.

April 12 will come. But we will not be together in the nave raising the roof, celebrating resurrection. Easter will come. Resurrection will be celebrated. And resurrection oriented life will sustain, and will carry us to the end of this health emergency.

I’m looking ahead to that first Sunday when we are together. Whenever that day will be, we will use the time to celebrate Easter. What a day of celebration it will be. We’ll get to that day. With persistence and prayer, we’ll get there.

The peace of Christ be with you always!

Clifton D. Eshbach

Pastor

 

I hope that you are feeling well and dealing well with this temporary new reality we must live in.

When I chose a photograph of just one person in our nave for the cover of the March newsletter, it was to be a visual reminder of Lent and our need to come before the cross of Christ. I had no idea that it would come to reflect the distancing that we are going through during the rest of March and now April.

In the past, when I have been in the nave, alone, I knew it was only temporary. Sunday would come and we would be together. Such is not the case in the COVID-19 world. While the news and the social restrictions appear to change daily, our unity in Christ remains. While we must keep following the well-publicized precautions, our unity in Christ remains. While our worry may cause great anxiety, our unity in Christ remains.

Continue to reach out to one another through the various electronic means we have. Your congregation continues to function, albeit at a reduced level. I hope you have been able to view the little worship liturgies we have been recording and posting on social media.

April 12 will come. But we will not be together in the nave raising the roof, celebrating resurrection. Easter will come. Resurrection will be celebrated. And resurrection oriented life will sustain, and will carry us to the end of this health emergency.

I’m looking ahead to that first Sunday when we are together. Whenever that day will be, we will use the time to celebrate Easter. What a day of celebration it will be. We’ll get to that day. With persistence and prayer, we’ll get there.

The peace of Christ be with you always!

Clifton D. Eshbach

Pastor

 

With its emphasis on actions we can take during Lent; prayer, fasting and acts of charity, there is the temptation to think that the season is all about us. Well, I know, that you know, that that is not the case. It is all about Jesus. Yes, we are on this journey with him, but the work of salvation does not fall upon our shoulders (thank goodness) but upon the shoulders, hands, feet and side of Jesus.

Sticking with our theme of gospel hope, we are reminded over and over again that our hope is not misplaced. It is with Jesus. “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness…” says the hymn. The reference to the blood of Christ is the manner by which Jesus has made peace with the world. In his suffering love, Jesus has dealt with the power of death, and sent it packing.

Because of this, as Dr. Walter Brueggemann writes, “…we now who are baptized are welcome into his company and his work to be peacemakers in hard places, to refuse the way of anger and fear and hate and resentment, in order to enact a world of gratitude, generosity, and forgiveness.”

I invite you to dig deeper into the good news of Jesus in our worship during Lent; on Sunday and on Wednesday. Together we shall learn and sense the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Clifton D. Eshbach,

Pastor