Pine Street Pine Street Presbyterian Church
VOLUME 34 | ISSUE 3
Lenten Feast: Seven Deadly Sins and Forgiveness by Dr. Russell Sullivan, Pastor
Seven deadly sins? Well, I have to admit that talking about sin is not one of my favorite topics, and I have never relished the idea of pointing the finger at anyone and saying, “Thou art a sinner.” For one thing, my own failures and frailties accuse me too much. But it’s inescapable, I’m afraid. Someone once said the doctrine of sin is the only empirically verifiable teaching of our faith — just read the paper and listen to the news and you will find how pervasive sin is! What we do to each other and ourselves! We all fall short, travel down that road into self-centeredness, forget our neighbors, and misuse people. Where is our hope then? Lent is part of that journey of hope. Lent is an appropriate season in the church calendar to focus on the reality of sin because it is the season that calls us to repentance and to
remember God’s gift in Christ who frees us from sin that we might live into the bright and new life of resurrection. The list of seven deadly sins — pride, greed, envy, sloth, lust, gluttony, and anger — has been one way through the ages that the church has tried to get a handle on our sinful nature. My hope is that this series will help us to discover that God’s grace is sufficient in dealing with our sins. I will begin on Ash Wednesday and conclude the series on Good Friday (with a respite for Palm Sunday — I couldn’t find an eighth sin for that day!). Remember sin-talk is always grace-talk. Ultimately, our essential nature is not that we are sinners, but children of God, who are destined to be united with God in a life of joy and praise. Forgiveness is God’s means See FEAST on page 2
MAPS Begins the Spring Season by Tom Clark-Jones, Organist/Choirmaster
After refraining from programming in January and February, for concerns about weather which turned out to be well founded, Music at Pine Street continues the 2013 – 2014 season with two Lenten events. On March 21, Friday evening at 7:30 , Bill Carter and his PresbyBop Quartet return to Pine Street for the fourth season to observe a Lenten Vesper service we are calling “Lenten Blues.” The See MAPS on page 2
MARCH 1, 2014
INSIDE THIS ISSUE Session Notes. . . . . . . . . . . 2 Trustee Notes. . . . . . . . . . . . 3 DDB. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 March Calendar. . . . . . . . . . 5 March Scripture. . . . . . . . . . 6
March At A Glance Bagels & Belief . . . . . . . . . . . 2 MAPS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
PSL Deadline Articles, photos and items of interest for the April, 2014 issue of Pine Street Life are due by March 15, 2014. Please e-mail to Sue Black at BL3COL@aol.com