Dear Church Family,
Congratulations, you have made it through April 2020!
We are now a few days into May. The legendary composer Stephen Foster loved the month that follows April so much he wrote a song titled “The Merry, Merry Month of May.” He sang of being outdoors in the fields where “we chased the bees and plucked the flowers.” He goes on to mention the joys found in God’s creation and as the day ended “we went to rest with longing heart, for the comming (sic) of the bright day dawn.” Its bouncy tune guarantees an uplifting of one’s spirit.
I had never heard the tune before and enjoyed it more than once. However, I am duty bound to give you more reasons to enjoy this month – and indeed every month that can be merry even if it does not start with the letter “M.” (By the way, I have never heard of a song praising the virtues of the merry month of March.)
You can be merry for many reasons. Let me first give you what a government official in a western state recently declared, “And we know that only science and data and informed reasoning and confidence in ourselves is going to lift us out of this crisis.” These 24 words lack any reason for merriment. True joy must be based in fact not fantasy. In reverse order, our confidence must be in Christ alone and not self or the collective “ourselves.” Sin has marred the human thought process, so we must be wary of informed reasoning – both of the information and the way it is analyzed. Data is not neutral. One’s worldview – either based on the Bible or opposed to God – will determine how the data is used. While I am certainly not opposed to science, it must never be seen as a savior. The true and only Savior for the world remains Jesus.
Right there is our best reason to be merry. We sing “In Christ alone my hope is found” with heart-felt joy and confidence. That will lift us out of the ultimate crisis that we face and we undergird us during the virus crisis. Science, data, etc. will never do what Jesus has done. They cannot provide the redemptive work that He has accomplished at the cross. We celebrate that resurrection event every Lord’s Day.
So be merry, not just because it is May, but because your Savior is Jesus Christ!
With great hope,
Pastor Gillikin