HPC Midweek Update - September 26, 2018

From the Pastor's Desk

Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth. (Psalm 124:8)

These words come at the end of our Old Testament passage for this weekend. While Christ is giving us a very stern reminder about the life of faith, the lectionary offers us this passage as a different kind of reminder.

The full passage speaks of being protected from enemies - something that happened quite often for the people of Israel. It speaks of how our life is a gift because God is with us. God is an ever-present help.

The place you may have heard the verse above is probably not where you are thinking about. It is at times when we come to church seeking comfort and sustenance, filled with sighs too deep for words. The place you have likely heard these words before is at a funeral.

One of the options, that many of us use when planning these services, is to forgo a traditional call to worship and instead to use several "sentences of scripture" - snippets and snapshots of our faith that come through specific verses from the sacred text. These have been chosen carefully by wise liturgy scholars who ensure that we do not take anything out of context by using only one or two verses. But what I have found is that at times of deepest stress, sometimes all we can do is to hold onto those short, sweet, strong promises of God. We need them. They keep us going... Read More