Message from the Pastor
Grace and Peace be to you from Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
One of the hardest things for me to do is to look in the mirror. This might be due to personal issues of my past, being picked on for my looks and size. But, I do think looking in the mirror can be threatening at times. Especially if you notice a blemish, or see the effects of aging. Whether it is from a fear of seeming vain or other issues, looking in the mirror at ourselves is frowned upon. This way of self-reflection could be a reason why many have strayed from traditional religions and faiths. Could it be that these new churches and faiths do not uplift liturgically the study of self reflection? This type of self-reflection is not a time to uplift our egos and psychic. It is more of a time to see our limitations, shortcomings, fallibilities, thinking about the mistakes we have made, our flaws and what can we do to make the world and ourselves better.
We are soon approaching another observance of Lent. This time in our church is an exact contradiction to those self-help books and the "feel good" theology that permeates our culture today. This is a time for you, me, all of us to look in the mirror. For us to understand that "we are dust, and to dust we shall return" and that we are not perfect; we have physical and emotional scares to look at. But it is not a time for us to look at our short-comings and get depressed. Actually, it is a time for us to see the need for God in our daily lives.
Like in the movie, 'Moonstruck' when the character played. by Cher slaps the person yelling them to "snap out of it". Lent is a time to reflect giving the power of the Holy Spirit to snap us out of the false pretensions we place in our lives. To help us get back to what is most important in our lives and the need for God's presence in order for us to get there.
When we move into Lent, we focus on the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We focus on Christ's saving grace. We need this time to look at ourselves. We need to look in the mirror. We need to focus on why our Lord and Savior had to die for us. This moves us to confess our sins and accept that we are not perfect, how we can be part of the problems and part of the solutions in spreading the gospel. We pray that our Lord may have mercy upon us.
There is an old song that states "Let there be peace on earth and may it begin with me". May the Holy Spirit guide our reflections together knowing of the ultimate sacrifice in
Jesus Christ.
Peace,
Pastor Brian
