Views from the Pews – Sunday, March 13 2022

Dear Friends,

Greetings!  May the Jesus of history and the Christ of faith become more and more real to you in your daily walk.

What is the one thing that every human being needs to know?  That somebody cares.

Persons in the helping professions seem all agreed that the search in life of many a human person is to find meaning and wholeness in life, for someone to whom he or she can turn to get a kind word, a reassuring look, even a touch of the elbow.  That search for someone to care has led many persons down the broad or often crooked path.

Leonard F. Hatfield of the Canadian Church, in his book “He cares” wrote the following:

“it is the privilege and responsibility of the Church to let the world know that God cares for the whole of life…  The laity are reminded that the contribution is all-important as the Church recognizes needs and opportunities for service, and seems to share the gospel by word and deed with the whole world.”

People need to be taught as the Gospel teaches, that in Christ, we have the supreme proof that God cares for all people. However, we must first learn for ourselves that there is one who cares for all our needs and will supply them according to his riches in glory –  Jesus the Christ,  and we can and must look and turn to Him.

As 1 Peter Chapter 5 verse 7 reminds us “casting all your cares upon Him, for he careth for you.”  Here we see Peter pointing to two different kinds of care according to Hatfield “The first is an anxiety which distracts and disturbs the mind; the second is a kind of supervising fostering care – a care that is the outcome of interest, regard, and love.”

That is how God is, to and for us, and we as his agents of his reconciling care and love must take this message in word and deed to a searching world.

Writes Hatfield “Because he cares, we, as members of his body, functioning like the senses of the body are sensitive to human and social needs of whatever kind, and have a concern for all the varied aspects of life.”

In a world of lost souls, of pain and grief, and especially now during this Pandemic, we need to become another’s burden and so fulfill the law of life.

Contributed!