Pastor's Letter - May

Just a warning: I talk about superhero movies in this month's letter. But stay with me- I really have a point to make here!

The newest Avengers film, entitled Avengers: Endgame opens the end of this month. It will have already happened by the time you are reading this. In case you were worried about the royalties of the actors and directors, please know that this film is projected to make millions, if not more than a billion dollars worldwide. This should tell you that we value entertainment a little too much in our world.

Now, the big speculation is that one of the big characters, like Captain America or Iron Man, will die. Having read the comic books when I was a kid, these characters and death aren't unfamiliar with each other. I have read a number of times where Captain America, who is supposed to be a World War II soldier who has a special serum that does things like make him super strong and age very slowly, dies.

And he always comes back.

Now, we know that likely a major character will die because the actors that play them are only young enough to play them for so long. Tony Stark, who is Iron Man, is played by Robert Downey, Jr. Robert Downey Jr. is now in his 50's, and he is playing a character who has been in his 30's ever since he was introduced in the early sixties. Comic book characters generally don't age. The actors that play them, however, are very much mortal, even if they do try to hide that fact with plastic surgery.

I think about that and I wonder if that's because we don't like to face mortality in our entertainment because it reminds us of our own mortality. I think we do all kinds of mental tricks with ourselves to somehow put aside the sobering fact that all of us have a limited time here on earth.

Yet we Christians are Easter people. We shouldn't have to fear death or our mortality. Ultimately, because of Christ and God's love for God's people displayed perfectly on the cross, we will live after this earthly life. As Paul writes, "this mortal nature must put on immortality."

We do all kinds of things to wrestle with our earthly mortality. Some people chase immortality in all kinds of ways. People buy the naming rights to concert halls, people do things for name recognition, people chase fame, and a part of this is a flawed pursuit of immortality.

We don't have to worry. It's already there for us. Death has been defeated. Christ has won, and all of us along with him!

So as your pastor, I challenge you to go out and live fearlessly. Go and dream big for the sake of the Gospel and take risks for the sake of the Gospel. God is calling you and me both to live relentlessly in pursuing the working out of God's will in the world today.

See you along the way,

Pastor Brian

Guest UserMay 31, 2019

Pastor's Letter - May

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