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Dear Friends in Christ,
The world in which we live today is becoming a more challenging place for Christians. A new mindset, a new worldview has slowly but surely been gaining influence in our country, having a major impact on the ways that Americans think and speak and act. It seems as if everything is relative. One person's right is another person's wrong, and vice versa. The thought is that truth is in the mind of the believer. What is true for me might not be true for you, but that's alright. We simply strive to accept each other for who we are, respect each other's beliefs and celebrate our diversity. At the same time, as I have been mentioning in sermons for some time now, the world is coming to us. With massive immigration to the United States, people from all kinds of racial, ethnic and religious backgrounds are becoming our neighbors. Our nation, which once had a vast majority of its people declaring themselves to be Christian, is far more diverse in expression of religious belief. Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists are moving to our country in large numbers. All this adds up to the fact that there are many religious voices calling for our attention and calling for our belief. As American Christians we certainly respect the right of others to practice their faith as they choose, after all, we have enjoyed this right fully since our country declared its independence in 1776, and since the Constitution was ratified in 1789. But that does not mean that we accept all religions and worldviews as being equally true and valid. In fact, as the society around us grows more and more diverse, that makes it of paramount importance for us that we hold to the truth of God's Word as it comes to us in the Bible. That makes it very important for us to grow in our knowledge of what God has to say to us in His Word so that we will be faithful in living as His people and effective in helping others to see Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Because of the instant availability of information through the internet, television, movies, radio and other sources of mass information, it is easy for Christians to be heavily influenced by the culture that surrounds us. With that in mind, this summer in the months of June and July, we will have a sermon series based on Jesus' Sermon on the Mount in Chapters 5, 6 and 7 of the Gospel According to St. Matthew. It has been said that the Sermon on the Mount presents Jesus' counter cultural movement for Christians. Obviously this has nothing to do with the often self-indulgent counter cultural movement of the 1960s and '70s. Rather, the Sermon on the Mount is Jesus' declaration of what Christian faith and living should be about that is virtually always counter to the culture of the day no matter when or where a person lives. So for the next two months, come to church on Sundays prepared to hear what the Lord has to say to us about what He would have us believe, and how He would have us live, that we might be His faithful people and His faithful servants and be a blessing to the world in which we live right now.
Sincerely yours in Christ, 
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