From The Pastor

The quotation from the great English preacher to the right of this article speaks to something we can often misunderstand. In this country especially there is a wide spread teaching that somehow or another we choose to follow Jesus and that our choice is the key which unlocks our salvation. This is profoundly wrong. Our salvation is not the product of anything you or I might or might not do. It is solely what Jesus has done for us that saves us.

During this Lenten period, especially, we should be reminded of what Jesus did for us. It was not a small thing. It was not an easy thing. It was not a painless thing. Indeed, what Jesus did for you and me was beyond the imagining of anyone whose heart is not moved by the Holy Spirit. For God Himself came down from heaven and became like you and me. God who had been spirit forever took on the confines of a body; a body whose muscles could get sore, a body which needed sleep and nourishment, a body which could be killed.

It’s beyond belief, except that it’s true. And having taken on that Body, He now could pay a ransom for our souls, a redemption of our sinful lives. We didn’t do this thing. We didn’t have to, God did it for us.

Christ has saved us, and to do so He made a sacrifice beyond any we can ever imagine.

During Lent it is our business to try to imagine this great gift of eternal life. It is our business to be concerned about what Jesus bore, that we who deserved the bearing might not. It is our business to focus on the Cross, not the empty Cross, but the Cross on which hangs the Body of the Son of God.

For it is there are the Cross in Jerusalem’s garbage dump that the most extraordinary thing in the history of the universe took place.

Lent is our business. We should make the most of the time.

Pr. Culler