As I write this, I am aware that the famous astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has died at age 76. His mind explored the Universe although his body was extremely incapacitated by a form of the neurological disease ALS. It is strange that he dies on Albert Einstein’s birthday March 14!

These two gifted thinkers helped us better understand God’s immense and complex creation giving us more awareness of how things exist and the apparent direction the universe is headed toward! Yet, neither was any better than anyone else in explaining WHY we exist or what OUR ending means. For those answers, we are like the Greeks in John 12:20 who ask Phillip, “Sir, we would see Jesus.”

For we who believe and follow Jesus, we trust that life’s deepest and most meaningful questions find their answer in the mystery of “Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again.” And none of us are saved by knowledge. The great content of knowledge helps us but finally the core of life is to trust and to act upon that trust in love of God and neighbor.

It is most always a good thing to ask throughout the week, “Sir, I would see (hear, experience, serve) Jesus.” In this discipleship, we will find the Center of the Universe, the heart of the Cosmos, and…..ourselves. Jesus says in John 12:32, “If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people unto me.” That includes Greeks, Asians, Africans, Europeans, even all…..and you and me. Thanks be to God, Maker of Heaven and Earth!

See you in worship!

Pastor Barry