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From The Pastor

October 4, 2019 by Rev. John Hartman

From the Pastor

I remember growing up in the church and singing that old children’s song, — “Deep and wide, deep and wide, there’s a fountain flowing deep and wide.” It got me to thinking this week, doesn’t it seem that today our lives are a lot wider than they are deep? In other words, one of the plagues in our lives today is that of “shallowness” – superficiality. We go from one distraction to the next. I heard someone say that today people have the attention span of a squirrel on a triple cappuccino. Shortly after Robin Williams death, one news anchor had as his lead-in, “And now we have the perfect tribute to Robin Williams, and it’s only one minute long.” We scroll through the internet, clicking from one website to the next. Or, we get our news from USA Today (I do like their multi-colored pie charts and bar graphs), which has been described as “the paper for those of us who don’t have time for the in-depth analysis of cable news television.”

This Sunday, we are going deeper, to explore the depths of where Jesus went as described in the Apostles’ Creed. We say, that he was “crucified, dead and buried.” We also say, “on the third day he rose again from the dead.” So, what was happening in-between those two signature events of Jesus Christ? What happened on “Holy Saturday?” Actually, the power of Holy Saturday comes when you live it from back to front, – when you don’t know how things turn out, when you immerse yourself in the heart-ripping horror of Good Friday and the utter hopelessness of Saturday, — when God lies among the dying and the dead. In the middle of the Apostles’ Creed there appears a succession of passive verbs: I believe in Jesus Christ who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, who was born of the Virgin Mary, suffered, was crucified, was buried. But now comes this one active verb; Jesus does something. It says, “He descended into Hell.” On Friday Jesus was nailed to the cross. We know that on Sunday God raised him from the tomb. Where was Jesus on Saturday? Here it is: “He descended into Hell.” That is what we are going to be talking about this Sunday, October 6, which is also World Communion Sunday. And, as always, I hope you will join us for worship at either 8:00 A.M. or 10:30 A.M.

Pastor John

Quote of the Week

“Unity is necessary to the outpouring of the Spirit of God. If you have 120 volts of electricity coming into your house but you have broken wiring, you may turn on the switch, but nothing works – no lights come on, the stove doesn’t warm, the radio doesn’t turn on. Why? Because you have broken wiring. The power is ready to do its work…, but where there is broken wiring, there is no power. Unity is necessary among the children of God if we are going to know the flow of power…to see God do His wonders.” A.W. Tozer

Aiden Wilson Tozer was an American Christian pastor, author, magazine editor, and spiritual mentor. For his work, he received two honorary doctoral degrees.