Fr. Jacob's January 2016 Newsletter Message

East and West

For as the heavens are high above the earth,
so green is his steadfast love towards those who fear him.

As you read this I will be beginning my sabbatical. In early January I will be travelling a quarter of the way around the world from the Wild West to the Wild East. In other words, I'm visiting the Middle East.

As I prepare to leave for my pilgramage to Israel and glance at a few guide books, everything there seems different. The history, food, the cities, the languages. It's all about as far from Montana as I can imagine. For it was here that the Lord chose Israel to be his people. It was here that the Temple was granted. Here that the Kings ruled. Here that prophets came and here, into the small villages, and rural poverty of the Galilee that the Messiah came and lived and died and rose on the third day. A world that is so far from my life in Billings: going east thousands of miles in both distance and in cultures.

We can often feel trapped by our sins. As someone once said, before we sin the devil tells us that it doesn't matter and after we sin he tells us that it's unforgiveable. But it is all lies. For out of the mess and glory of the story of Israel, which finds its fulfilment in the coming of Jesus the Messiah, the Lord acts to put our sins away from us. The Lord has had compassion. Through Jesus transformative forgiveness is possible.

The worst human beings can do, forgiven and healed by Jesus' love on the Cross. The burden of your sins taken away from you and placed as distant from your life as you can possibly imagine. And suddenly it feels as if everything is different. There's a new world, and a new life is possible because you have been forgiven by God and your sins put away: a new language and culture of faith and love, a new community that is the church, a new and living relationship with the Lord who created you and infinitely loves you. A new start. A new freedom.

As 2016 begins I pray that you may know the love of God which unburdens you, who frees you by his forgiveness and puts your sins as distant from your life as you can imagine. For since you know the Lord loves you, you can turn again, and enter into that wonderful, strange land of his love, in which everything looks different, because you have been forgiven by the Lord.

as far as the east is from the west,
so far he removes our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion for his children,
so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him.

Please pray for me on my pilgramage, and be assured of my prayers for you as you journey here, ever deeper into the love of God,

Much Love,

Fr. Jacob