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Dear Holy Cross family,

I pray that you are safe, well and are finding ways to be at peace with the situation we find ourselves in during these turbulent days. I also hope that you realize it is for times like these that God has given us the gift of faith.

I am writing to ask for your prayers and help. As we are not meeting we have no way of collecting our Sunday offering which is our largest source of revenue, I would ask you to prayerfully consider either donating via:

Our website at http://holycrossnj.com/donate/ (Please consider setting up a recurring donation by setting up a PayPal account if you don’t already have one)

Or, by mailing at check to Holy Cross 639 Mountain Ave. Springfield NJ 07081

Your support at this time will go a long way to helping us make a difference in the lives of those whom we serve by providing them with the hope of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I realize that many are frightened for their economic future and others like us will have a dramatic loss of revenue. We are not asking you to consider sharing what you do not actually have but only out of that which you do.

The principle of tithing is that you share a percentage, if you have less then you give less. I do hope that whatever you give is given freely and lifts your spirit by being an act of hope that we will be the church we are called by God to be.

We at Holy Cross are here for you, we can listen, pray and find ways to help so together we may endure the challenge set before us. In these days of social distancing we are trying to keep our community engaged in the following ways:

1.  Our elders are reaching out to congregation members daily

2. I can be reached at his direct extension 973-379-4525 x204 and at pastork@holycrossnj.org at all times.

3. Worship Sunday 10 AM via Facebook Live at https://www.facebook.com/HolyCrossNJ/

4. Recorded YouTube Video and Audio File posted Sunday after worship at http://holycrossnj.com/blog/

5. Wednesday Noon Prayers and Meditation via Facebook Live at the above address.

6. Wednesday Evening Bible Study 7:30 PM  https://us04web.zoom.us/j/453894977 or dial in +1 929 436 2866 US (New York) Meeting ID: 453 894 977

Finally, I thought these words from the Apostle Paul were helpful to me. 

Yes, everything is for your sake, so that grace, as it extends to more and more people, may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God. So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all measure, because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:15-18 (NRSV) 

Stay safe, be blessed and keep the Faith,

Pastor Knecht

Lent 2020 Our Beautiful Savior

Perhaps my favorite traditional hymn is Beautiful Savior. I must admit that it may be so meaningful to me because it is simple, easy to memorize and easy to sing. The first verse goes:

Beautiful Savior, King of Creation,
Son of God and Son of Man!
Truly I'd love Thee, Truly I'd serve Thee,
Light of my soul, my Joy, my Crown

The unknown writer makes direct and astonishing claims about Jesus. Jesus is King of all in the universe and is the son of God as well as humanity. These are what a Christian theologian would call credal formulas, they make a statement of what the community believes about God.  This is why I am using this simple song to frame our study together as a congregation this lent.  Lent was originally a time in the early church where new believers would be instructed to prepare for their baptism. The core of that instruction is found in the church's creeds. The hymn Beautiful Savior focuses on the most basic aspect of those creeds, which is that Jesus is Lord.  

Lord of My Life 

The stanza continues "truly I'd love thee, truly I'd serve thee". The hymn does not just make a claim about Jesus, it lays an imperative upon the believer.  It echoes the call Martin Luther made to the church when he explained the first of the Ten Commandments. "We are to fear, love and trust God above all things."  This is exactly how I like to frame Lent. It is our annual period of re-commitment to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We begin with Ash Wednesday reminding us of our own mortality and sinfulness, and we end with Good Friday where Jesus conquers those two things on the cross. 

The goal of the season is to remind ourselves to place God above all things once again. We set the time apart to do this, so that we make sure that we will do it.  If we don't schedule it, the cares of the world, the lure of wealth, the attraction of attention or seduction of self-absorption will crowd out what little space remains for our God in our lives.  If we neglect God we neglect life, so taking time to be with God means embracing a life of purpose, meaning, and peace.  Therefore, our practices effect God less than they do us. They have been given by the Holy Spirit for our benefit. 

Savior of All 

Jesus is the only hope we have when we look at the reality of the world we live in today. The second stanza makes the claim that Jesus is above nature. Nature worship is very common among people of all times and places in part because to the beauty God endowed it. The hymn writer continues. 

Fair are the meadows, Fair are the woodlands,

Robed in flowers of blooming spring;

Jesus is fairer, Jesus is purer;

He makes our sorrowing spirit sing  

God's creation is indeed beautiful, but like human beings it has been subjected to sin and brokenness (see Romans 8). All one needs to do is see the headlines in one's news feed to see that this is true.  To depend upon nature to heal us is to put our trust in something mortal like us.To place our hope in Jesus is to hold out for God's healing. The third stanza will continue to show how Jesus is more powerful than the heavens, while the last stanza states: 

Beautiful Savior, Lord of the nations,

Son of God and Son of Man!

Glory and honor, Praise, adoration,

Now and forevermore be Thine!

As Lord of the nations, Jesus is more powerful than any human structure. In my lifetime, which is an historical blink of an eye, I have seen many things that were thought to be permanent come and go. Much of the distress I see in the lives of those whom I serve comes from the fact that jobs, institutions and ways of life thought to be stable were found to be remarkably fragile.  The concept of "disruption" is the contemporary darling of business schools and economists, what is that but the breaking down of that which people formally relied upon. It is why we must re-commit to our faith in the eternal, so we may have strength to help each other deal with the present. 

This Lent we are making an active call to love Christ above all things, and that be doing so we may serve and follow him no matter how uncertain life may seem to be. It is my hope that we can all confess with the apostle Paul "for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him." 2 Timothy 1:12 (NRSV) 

Be blessed

Pastor Knecht