Pastor's Message

"Jesus... saw a man named Matthew sitting by the customs house, and He said to him, follow me. And he got up and followed Him." (Matthew 9/9).

"Follow me." Few other words capture the true meaning of what it means to be a Christian more than these two words with which Jesus called His disciples. And just as Jesus invited the apostles to follow Him, in the same way He invites each of us.

And when He states: "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life" (John 14/6). He offers us the opportunity to discover meaning, fulfillment and the way to deal with the mystery of our journey through life.

Christ invites us to set out on our journey with the assurance that He will not fail us, and that we need only to allow ourselves to be guided by the Holy Spirit. This is how we continue to grow into the fullness of the life of Christ, for only Christ can fill the emptiness within us. With the pervasive influence of the technological worldview, and the materialism from which it springs, it is not surprising that many people have become increasingly uneasy with the form of their traditional beliefs and worship. Nevertheless, there remains in most people an unfulfilled sense of something greater in life that goes beyond the boundaries of one's daily existence and which alone gives meaning to life. Each of us cries out for meaning which will allow us to reach our potential and fulfillment as a person. And it is the meaning that is contained in the message of Christ that gives to each of us the opportunity to reach our own potential and find the depest possible fulfillment and meaning in life.

We need to develop, by reading and reflecting on the Scriptures, the sense of our lives as a journey - the sense of our lives as a spiritual pilgrimage. When we see life in terms of a journey, we avoid the pessimistic notion that "Life is nothing but ..." - nothing but work - nothing but hardship - nothing but disappointment, and so on. Such a view is unable to see that above and beyond one's little world there is the drama of creation - the drama of transformation, and the drama of redemption through Christ. When we see our lives as a spiritual journey, we avoid falling into the state of those who call themselves Christians, but merely pay homage to a set of teachings and give lip service to externals and rituals. But the real Christian way is to internalize the message of Christ, so that we live it out in our own journey.

Faith reveals our lives as journeys - as adventures into the reality of the Kingdom of God that is within us and all around us, and for which the visible world and all its realities are meant to be symbols and clues. And by following these clues to the Kingdom of God, our journey will truly be a pilgrimage toward a goal, rather than aimless wandering through life. All through the New Testament, the Christian is being asked to choose and to begin a process of change and development. An example of this is when Jesus called Peter and Andrew as they were fishing. "And He said to them, 'Follow me and I will make you fishers of men'. And they left their nets at once and followed Him" (Matthew 4/19). And because they followed Him, their lives changed in a way that they could never have imagined.

Christ continually reaches out to each of us and offers us opportunities to respond. But we need to listen to His invitation - an invitation that almost always comes to us through the events and circumstances in our lves, and through the people with whom we associate. It may seem a risky task to follow Him and to put all our confidence in Him, but it is the only way, for this is the only path to the attainment of our human destiny.