Letter from the Pastor

Back in January of 1982, a plane crashed at National Airport in Washington D.C.  While  taking off during a snow storm, it lost altitude, bounced off a bridge and fell into the river.  In the aftermath of the tragedy, a helicopter was used to lift survivors from the icy water.  The rescue effort produced a number of heroes. One of the most memorable was a man in the water.  When the helicopter came for him, he waved it on to another survivor.  He did this, not once, but several times.  And when the helicopter came back the last time, it […]

In every normal person there is a longing to be somebody, to get somewhere, to amount to something.  In our first moments, we would like to be able to live our lives in such a fashion that at the end, those who know us best could look back and say, “He was a truly great man.  She was a truly great woman.”  Jesus Himself talked about a quality of life that can be called true greatness and calls us each day to this greatness.  But we need to look closer at what that truly means and what that kind of […]

The newspapers a few years ago carried the tragic story of a young high school student in Fort Worth, Texas who decided to play a game of Russian Roulette.  He took a .38 caliber revolver out of the glove compartment of a friend’s car, emptied all the bullets out of the chamber, put  only one back in, and gave it a spin.  Then he put the gun up to his temple, pulled the trigger, and fired it.   He died in a hospital a few hours later.  And I’m sure your reaction to that is essentially the same as mine.  For […]

The early church fathers said there were seven deadly sins.  High up on their list they placed the sin of anger.  In fact, it was second only to the sin of pride.  Today we need to ask ourselves, “What makes us angry?”  Think about the things that made you mad this past week.  What were they?  A car on the highway that cut into your lane?  A rude clerk at the department store?  Having to stand in line a little longer than you thought necessary?  A phone call that interrupted your evening meal from someone trying to sell you something […]

The early church fathers compiled a list of what they called “the seven deadly sins.” Number one on that list was the sin of pride.  I doubt that you and I would have done it that way.  We may recognize that pride is indeed a sin, but most of us would not think of it as the first and worst of the seven deadly sins.  Perhaps most of us could think of at least three sins that we  consider to be more serious than the sin of pride – murder, adultery and stealing. And is there not a sense in […]