From the Pastor’s Heart

April 2024

 

Frederick Buechner writes this about Palm Sunday:  “Despair and hope travel the road to Jerusalem together, as they travel every road we take—despair at what in our madness we are bringing down on our own heads, and hope in him who travels the road with us and for us, and who is the only one of us all who is not mad.”

Making our way through life, we experience mixed emotions—angst considering devastating current events of

violence, war,  starvation, international unrest, and political chaos;  hope meditating on the promise of a new Jerusalem,

a new earth without sickness, pain, death or sin.  

Konrad Adenauer, German chancellor, told Billy Graham, “If Jesus Christ is not alive, then I see no hope

for this world.” Imagining what it would be like were there no resurrection,  Paul wrote “If Christ has not been raised,

then our preaching amounts to nothing and your faith is futile, you are still in your sins, and those who have died with faith

in Christ have perished.” (1 Corinthians 15:14-18 MLB)  It’s like saying, “Suppose the sun did not rise tomorrow, then what?

There would be only darkness and confusion and despair. But the sun has come up, and we walk in the light without fear.”

 

Jesus does indeed travel the road of life with us. He made a promise we do well to remember—“I am with  you

all the days until the end of the age”  (Matthew 28:20).  And God is for us, so even death cannot separate us from his love (Romans

8:31, 38). 

 

Years ago, someone gave me a piece of newspaper with these anonymous words:  “Refuse to be discouraged by the

many signs that planet earth is the insane asylum of the solar system.” Sometimes I wonder.

 

C.S. Lewis wrote of the trilemma—Jesus is either a lunatic, liar, or Lord. Considering his teachings, life and love, we call him Lord.  Reflecting on the condition of our world and our own heart, one question remains to be answered—Is Jesus Christ “the only one of us all who is not mad”?