April 2025 Pastoral Letter
With the morning still cool and the warmth of spring at the noon hour there are many ways in which this time of year is my true favorite. As I write it is the opening day of baseball season for my beloved lovable losers, the Pittsburgh Pirates. Fans of the best laid plans of mice and men can relate to what it is like to be at the beginning of a long march, when the wind of hope still blows, yet with the knowledge that this run will end up at the same place as it closed the season before. While this may be the destiny of my Paul Skenes’ led summer, the good news is that this is not the case for my other passion, which in good order comes first:
The Church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The world looks at us with disdain and with pity. They still repeat the mantra of the naysayers at the foot of the cross, “If He is the Son of God let Him save Himself...” as if our Savior has not fulfilled His promise to the disciples, that the grave could not and would not hold Him. However, we today find ourselves more like the disciples hidden in the room rather than the faithful ladies gone to visit with their hope. We believe the reports too often rather than verifying in our own hearts that truly joy has been found in the morning. Boldness is a witness of the assurance of faith given unto us by the very hand of the living God. If it is the case, and I can verify that it is, that believers live in a world where the prince of the power of the air is not only on the defensive, but has been most righteously defeated by the King of Kings, in whose army we serve. Confidence in the face of sure destruction can have its own glory. As the Irish Brigade come toward the stone wall at Marye’s Heights, in the midst of their being cut down from a force of 1,200 to less than 700 in a moment, the Georgians who opposed them would write after the battle of their respect for the true bravery of the New Yorkers before them.
Despite the ultimate result there is a good lesson to be learned from it, that regardless of how things looked in the moment there was the promise that history does not end in the dark valley. We who live on this side of the cross of Calvary can easily be drawn into a depressive state as we look at the world around us, and as it is. However, the good news that Christianity has for this earth is that the light has come, the sun has arisen in the morning, and the day before us is bright and blessed with opportunity. We are to be moving forward in this encouragement no matter what the unbelieving naysayers try and tell us as we live and have our being in Jesus Christ. It is part and parcel of faith to watch the creation differently from those who are blind in their sin. When our eyes see things through the spectacles of the Holy Spirit there is a radical change in our heart and soul where we come to the realization that not only do we win down here, but that we already have. It is for us to exist in peace of mind in the foundation of Christ’s victory which has come to us not in time so much as from before the creation itself. Our hope in a day of trial is in the providential hand of our God who is sovereign over all things. It is in this why when the world calls us names that we can smile for our Lord is truly ours.
Blessings in Christ,
Rev. Benjamin Glaser
Pastor, Bethany ARP Church