Letter from the Pastor

One of the most obvious facts about our world today is fragmentation, separation, people, as it were, divided into separate, warring and competing groups.  This tragic condition prevails at almost every level of life.  We can observe it on a national and international scale.  How many borders are there in our world that are watched on both sides by guards carrying guns?  A carefully watched border can mean only one thing: the nations on either side are divided.  They do not trust each other. Today our own nation is fighting the war on terrorism.  Hundreds of thousands of our young […]

When Harry Truman was president of the United States, his daughter, Margaret, was aspiring to a career in opera.  The music critics had written some rather discouraging things about her future in that particular field.  Finally, she went to a specialist for an assessment of her chances to become an opera star.  After several days of evaluation, the specialist gave her opinion.  She said to Miss Truman, “You have a beautiful voice.  It is big enough and rich enough for opera.  The problem is with your ear.  And because of your ear, you will never attain greatness.” Maybe that same […]

I suppose there are times when everyone longs to recapture the carefree innocence and joy of childhood.  We wish that for just one day we could shake off the burdensome responsibilities of adult life and put our feet under Dad’s table once more.  Admittedly, this emotion carries with it an element of escapism, but it is not necessarily all bad. There are, of course, some characteristics of childhood that we should outgrow and leave behind forever.  Such childish traits as impatience and a total self-centeredness have no place in adult life.  But there are certain basic elements of childhood that […]

To most people the word tragedy denotes some terrible happenings – a plane crash, a grinding automobile accident, a catastrophic disease, a flood.  The possibilities are endless, and each of these happenings can be accurately defined as tragic.  But tragedy has another meaning.  It can also denote something good that could have happened and should have happened but did not. This understanding of tragedy should remind us that the power of God most often awaits the cooperation of people.  And the tragedy is that most of us are unaware of it.  In our generation, we need to understand how the […]

In one of our gospels, Jesus is quoted as saying, “On this rock I will build my Church, and the jaws of death shall not prevail against it.” When Jesus made that statement, the Church was just beginning.  It was very small and seemingly insignificant.  But now it reaches around the world and plays a vital role in the lives of millions of people.  Enemies have tried and still try to stop it, but they have failed.   Despite opposition from without and weaknesses from within, the Church has lived and flourished across the centuries. The words of Jesus have come […]