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"To Die is to Live"
One of my summer reads was a biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the clergyman killed by the Nazis near the end of WWII. Bonhoeffer believed that Jesus bid us to "come and die" - to risk everything, even our lives, for the sake of the Kingdom. He continues to burn bright because his life matched his words.
I thought about Bonhoeffer recently when I read a quote by Erick Erickson, (one of America's influential psychoanalysts), "Each of us has become our own favored children." He was concerned that each of us lives absorbed in ourselves. Self-centered, self-focused, self-obsessed. "It's all about me!"
The Bible has a word for this, it is called sin. Biblically, moving from self to God is called redemption. As the Israelites overthrew the oppression of Pharaoh and passed through the waters of the Red Sea to a promised land, so the waters of baptism symbolize for us that we pass through the waters of death into the hope of resurrection. We die to the old to be born to the new. Dead to self and alive to God.
Advent has begun. It is the season of preparation. May we continue to make room for the coming Christ; the self yields and God increases.
In faith,
Pastor Tim
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On Sunday, December 11, from 9:00 AM-12:30 PM, the We Care Pantry will be hosting an open house/stuff the pantry day. We invite you to see our new ministry pantry located in the FaithPlex across the parking lot from Faith Center. Please stop in to visit. In addition, we could use the following items: dried beans, rice, cereal, and canned tuna fish. These items and any other canned or non-perishable items would be a great help to the more than 800 people who are currently relying on food from the We Care Pantry.
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