Pastor's Letter - March

Pastor’s Letter
March, 2020

Grace and Peace to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen!

I fielded a phone call on Sunday afternoon. It was an old friend, and I wasn't expecting to hear from him.

"Brian, did you see what they did to the Phanatic?" I had heard the news last week that the Philadelphia Phillies were debuting a new design for their mascot, the Phillie Phanatic. They were going to show off this design for the first time at their Spring Training opening. I had something else going on that afternoon, so I had not seen it.

My friend was livid. You would have thought that they had just traded away Bryce Harper for a middle relief pitcher or something. While I was talking with him, I went online to see the picture for myself.

For one thing, they shifted the Phanatic's center of gravity. His large belly had shifted back to his behind. His snout was shorter. The eyelids were now a star shape. The blue accents over his eyes and on his tail were now much brighter. Oh, and now there were these scale-like attachments lining the bottom of both arms.

It was still unmistakeably the Phillie Phanatic. The green fur is still there. The eyes remain the same. The snout is still there, though it is shorter. But if you are a traditionalist, like my friend, you might be upset too.

But it's just a mascot. My favorite mascot, but still a mascot.

I think sometimes we really focus on things that are trivial. And it might be the mascot of my favorite team, and I might have more than one plush version of said mascot, but this whole thing is trivial.

Now, understand, there's some real debate about this- for instance, the Phillies as an organization are in a lawsuit with the creators of the original Phanatic suit, hence the redesign, and they went a cheap route about obtaining the rights years ago and are now paying the price- but it's still a mascot for a sports team.

We are now on our Lenten journey by the time you are reading this. And Lent inspires us to look at the meat of our faith- things that really matter- and then do something about it. As such, during this season, we get gospel lessons full of Jesus' teachings. The Gospel of the first Sunday in Lent will deal with Jesus' wilderness temptation, which compels us to think about how we are tempted. We will see Jesus teach Nicodemus, a Pharisee, as he sneaks to see Jesus by night. And in these stories, and so much more, we are challenged to overlook the minutiae of our lives and ask ourselves: what does God desire of us, especially if we consider ourselves disciples of Jesus Christ?

During Lent this year, you can join us on our Wednesday evening services in the Hegins Valley. This year we will be tracing Paul's footsteps, and we will find ourselves face to face with his teachings and dealings on his multiple missionary journeys. And on Sunday evenings at Benigna's Creek, you can join us as we discuss how the various faith traditions represented in this community understand Holy Communion.

I'll see you along the way!
-Pastor Brian