Welcome to Hyattstown Christian Church!

We’re glad you’re here! Rev. Santos will be providing a new Blog Entry each month. Note that the January 2021 date is the date this page was created.

From Pastor Santos, February 24, 2026

Sometimes, we just don’t get it. This happens in all parts of our lives, including our spiritual journey. The Bible tells us that Jesus privately explained to his disciples more than once that his journey to Jerusalem was absolutely necessary. However, the disciples tried to persuade him not to go.

Most of Jesus’ ministry took place around the shores of Capernaum. We know he would travel to Jerusalem to celebrate the major Jewish holidays for a few days. As his ministry grew, the religious leaders based in Jerusalem became increasingly hostile toward Jesus and his followers. So, after three years of intense ministry, returning to Jerusalem meant facing real danger and even death. It’s no wonder the disciples didn’t understand—common sense was certainly on their side, not Jesus’.

From the disciples’ point of view, going to Jerusalem meant everything was coming to an end. But from God’s perspective, the situation looked completely different. It’s remarkable how easily common sense can conflict with faith. Think about what common sense would have told Abraham and Sarah about having a child at nearly 100 years old. Imagine what it said to Moses as he stood before a burning bush, or to Mary, the mother of Jesus, when she was called to become a mother in the most unexpected way.

So, as Jesus and his disciples made their way to Jerusalem, they went against all conventional wisdom. Why not join them on this journey? I invite you to quiet your common sense and face what lies ahead. Let’s be present in Jerusalem with Jesus and the twelve original disciples—to witness, to wait, and to discover how sometimes common sense isn’t as reliable as we think.

Comments, thoughts? I would love to hear them!Fe

From Pastor Santos, January 26, 2026

There are pains and there are Pains. There are sadnesses and there are Sadnesses. Just like that, with a capital letter. Any physical pain is terrible, but when the pain is in your emotions, it is simply inhuman. It goes beyond our strength, because the pain overpowers hope and the horizon is lost in the darkness of the heart. It is precisely at that moment when one comes to the sad conclusion that “everything is over.”

All of us, sooner or later, will face moments like this. When that moment comes, no words can do justice to the magnitude of the sadness. The best tool is to cry; but there are still times when the anguish is so great that it doesn’t even leave room for tears.

It comforts me to know that Jesus knows what that bitterness is like. It was right there in Gethsemane. Ahead lay Jerusalem, and there, Calvary and the cross. He thought about turning back, but there are decisions in life that can’t be undone, and right there was our Lord: at the great crossroads that his pain placed before him.

Despite this awful anguish, anguish that almost killed him even before the cross itself, Jesus chose to go on out of love. Out of love for you and out of love for me. It was your name and mine, engraved on his heart from eternity, that made him continue on his path.

On the other hand, it gives me strength to know that Jesus understands me when pain and anguish make my heart their dwelling. He knows. He knows what it’s like to have a broken heart, because he felt it. There is nothing about me that I cannot confide in him. He understands like no one else.

Comments, thoughts? I would love to hear them!

From Pastor Santos, November 22, 2025

I find just fascinating how Jesus, along his whole life was providing new meanings, new paradigms, different perspectives to the known things. Jesus provided new and unsuspected meanings for everything along his life. Even from his very beginnings. His birth provided a completely new sight of what clean and unclean was. Jesus’ new meanings were certainly rooted in the Law of the Lord, the Torah, but providing a completely different approach.

Let’s remember, it was to a small group of shepherds that the angelical host gave the first Christmas concert ever. The shepherds were not only the first responders to the flock but actually the continuous responders. Because of their duties, they were not able to follow all the cleaning rites that the Torah established. For them, for those, for such called unclean, the angel said: “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord”. For unto you…

On that same night and also on that same spirit, a new meaning, a new paradigm of what the sacredness of an altar showed up. An altar is any place where Jesus finds a place to get in and stay, and certainly that includes a manger. When Jesus is present any place is transformed into an altar. The pestilence of everything that can be find in an animal pen is transformed in the place where the divine promises show its fulfillment. New meaning, new paradigm, new perspective…

Because all of the above, let’s always be in advent mode. Because, the Lord is always showing us a new way to face things, let’s get ready for our eyes are yet to see.

Comments, thoughts? I would love to hear them!

From Pastor Santos, October 23, 2025

Lately, I have been reflecting on Psalm 46. It is a favorite for so many brothers and sisters. This particular song of confidence is very honest. The psalm begins numbering some of the potential causes that could be very fearful. The psalmist does not deny such moments. And there he goes: It is fearful when…

The earth is removed
The mountains are carried into the midst of the sea.
The waters roar and get troubled

In other words, all sort of cosmos disarray: earthquakes, storms, floods, even a tsunami.

Ancient peoples understood all of these natural phenomena as forces of chaos. As such, they convey an anxiety that the world is slipping out of control. Even more, if we remember the creation stories from Genesis, chaos is YHWH’s archenemy. The creation was the evidence that God won the war against the chaos. Well, the psalmist is confessing that difficult moments can come, can show up without any invite. Unwanted moments, stressful moments, chaotic moments, fearful moments.

In a like manner, the psalmist also numbers the reasons not to be fearful.

God is our refuge. Feeling like without a place to go in a moment of crisis? Fear not, we do have a place to go. God is our refuge!
God is our strength. Feeling too tired to keep going? The unwanted moments have taken more time and a lot more effort than expected? Feeling really close to surrender and say the famous “whatever”? God is our strength!
God is a very present help in trouble. Feeling that there is nobody wanting to help or actually helping? Are you under the impression that every door that you knock is a waste of time? God is very present help in trouble!

Comments, thoughts? I would love to hear them!

From Pastor Santos, September 21, 2025

Probably, the most frequent question I received as a minister is related in one way or the other, to the concept of faith. Usually, when we try to define it, we go to the book of Hebrews (Hebrews 11).

The text offers a list of impressive faith’s driven action and results: “some by faith quenched the flames of fire and escaped death by the edge of the sword. Their weakness was turned to strength. They became strong in battle and put whole armies to flight.” Interestingly, likewise says the following: “but by faith, others were tortured, refusing to turn from God in order to be set free. They placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection. Some were jeered at, and their backs were cut open with whips. Others were chained in prisons. Some died by stoning, some were sawed in half, and others were killed with the sword. Some went about wearing skins of sheep and goats, destitute, afflicted, tormented”.

And once again, the question pops: what then is faith? Once, after a very heated theological symposium (and this story has traveled all around the world and likely suffered some light variations) where all sort of complicated terms and concepts were discussed, a young guy that was there trying to receive strength in his journey of faith but who ended even more confused, went to the keynote speaker, the well-known theologian Karl Barth and said, “I am a lot more confused now than when I came here. Is anything I can know for sure?” Barth answered him quoting a beloved and well-known song: “Jesus loves me this I know”.

And that’s the core of our faith. Along the struggles of life, despite of serious heavy heart moments, above of big disappointments, beyond our current circumstance, Jesus loves us. That’s what we really need to know. We will figure out the rest as we continue our journey.

Comments, thoughts? I would love to hear them!

From Pastor Santos, August 31, 2025

Probably one of the better known and most recited psalms is psalm 23. Some people call it the Shepherd’s psalm. That name comes from its first verse: “The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want”.

I’m wondering however, if it would be better to ask, “What do I lack of?” in the sense of “What really matters that I do not have?” What, at the hour of death, would I dare not lack? I don’t believe the answer would be a better IPhone or a nice vacation at Bora-Bora. Although I’m in a close need to a new cell phone and I would love to spend a nice weekend in Bora-Bora. The most valuable things, the important ones are definitely not the ones that are designed to bring more comfort to our lives. The most important things are most likely invisible to the eye: truth, justice, freedom, love…

I realize however, that even above those priceless things, the one and only thing that can cause us to say, “there is something I do want,” or “there is something I do need”: and that is God. Nothing else. Just the Lord, the Lord who is a good shepherd to his sheep is what my soul deeply needs.

Comments, thoughts? I would love to hear them!

From Pastor Santos, July 27, 2025

Probably we all are very familiar with what we call “The Lord’s Prayer”. It came out as a response to some disciples’ request to Jesus: “Lord, teach us how to pray as John the Baptist taught his own disciples”. This is a strange request. Let’s remind that Jesus and his disciples were Jewish. The Jewish have a strong tradition of prayer. Their day begins with prayer, with some of what is called the Hallelujah psalms and ends with the “Night Rest Prayer” including some additional prayers in between So, the Jewish know about prayer; it is part of their lives. Then, what they really want?

We know that Jesus truly believed and practiced prayer as a spiritual discipline. Even after very long days of work, he wanted to be by himself just in the company of whom he called his Father. So, it was not that Jesus’ disciples did not know how to pray, it seems like they want to do it as Jesus himself prayed. In other words, seems to say the disciples, when we approach the Almighty what are the important things, what are the things that we should be focusing on. Teach us, Jesus!

If so, then I think it is a great request. Although I’m a firm believer that everything that is in your heart is a matter of prayer, it seems like in addition to that we need to rediscover the things that we cannot afford to let out; what I call the right things.

Jesus always referred to God as his father. Obviously, to some people with sad and troublesome relations with their own father, refer to God as father could be very painful. I’m sure that if Jesus referred to God as a mother, the same thing would happen.

Calling God as Father mainly tells us how Jesus’ relationship with his own earthly father was. Some of us feel comfortable with the metaphor of God as father. Some others would prefer the metaphor of God as mother. I think that what Jesus was suggesting is to approach God as a child who is asking for safe company and secure and loving arms; despite if it is father, despite if it is mother, despite if it is grandpa or an auntie. When you come to God’s presence you can feel secure, loved and protected.

Comments, thoughts? I would love to hear them!

From Pastor Santos, June 23, 2025

Celebrations are part of life. To celebrate means that something brings us joy and happiness. Perhaps we celebrate so much that, at times, we lose sight of what the celebration truly represents. Celebrating implies that we have reached a goal, that there is progress, that we have successfully navigated the journey, and that the other shore no longer seems so distant.

God has always been a God who invites us to celebrate. By doing so, we acknowledge that there has been triumph and that today we have something that we lacked yesterday. During this journey, God Himself has become a companion, and undoubtedly, His grace and goodwill are what enabled us to attain what we once lacked.

Indeed, God invited His people to have multiple celebrations, to hold feasts for what the land produced. Today, each of us has various reasons to celebrate. Certainly, reaching the end of the day is one of them. Up until now, the Lord has helped us, and without a doubt, the certainty that He will continue to walk alongside us is yet another reason for joy and blessing.

Comments, thoughts? I would love to hear them!

From Pastor Santos, May 23, 2025

Nicodemus, the man who met Jesus in the middle of the night, arrived and began the conversation shooting some sort of arrogant statement: “we know…” and when Nicodemus attempted to manipulate the conversation with all his knowledge, Jesus responded with his first metaphor: “…unless one is born again cannot see the kingdom of God”. That was more than enough to take Nicodemus out of balance. Just picture him: “Wait, what, uh?… Born again; how can you do that?”

As Nicodemus was recovering from that first metaphor, came the second, the big one, actually my very favorite, the one that I would like to have a word with you about: “…the wind blows from where it wishes and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.”

“The wind blows…” There is a little secret here for a better understanding of this narration. The gospels were written in the Greek language. It was not in king James’ English. / In Greek (the original language of the gospels), the word for wind, is exactly the same word for Spirit. The Greek term is pneuma. So, for the reader, this is us, what we have here is a game of words. We read, “the wind blows from where it wishes…” but the writer that loved these glorious words’ games intended that we understand: “the Spirit blows from where it wishes and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.” The Spirit blows…

Fascinating, isn’t it? In this encounter, Jesus challenges Nicodemus to move from theory to practice, from knowledge to faith, from curiosity to commitment. Maybe the same thing is happening today. What if the holy Pneuma is also trying to guide us to the same: to move from theory to practice, from knowledge to faith, from doubt to affirmation, from curiosity to commitment. Of course, there are uncertainties on the way and in the way; nevertheless, we better continue walking forward with the certainty that the Lord also walks with us.

Comments, thoughts? I would love to hear them!

From Pastor Santos, April 21, 2025

We are just finishing Lent time. Lent time concludes joyfully and victoriously with the resurrection of the Lord. We usually are not particularly concerned about that season. That’s because we went through Lent knowing the end of the story. Nevertheless, it was quite different for Jesus first followers.

Let’s remember the story. Jesus’ disciples and hundreds of followers believed with all their minds and hearts that Jesus was God’s anointed for saving purposes (the messiah). First, it was Peter affirming “you are the Christ, son of the Living God” and sometime later, dozens hailed Jesus as the son of David who came to save them. “Hosana” were the chants.

Their hopes were crushed by Jesus’ arrest, legally dubious trials (yes more than one), tragic death, and burial. It was all over. Isn’t death the end of everything? Certainly it is, unless… unless the impossible happens. And it did happen! The Christ of God came back to life. The word impossible was humiliated and death was robbed of its final point forever. “Where, O death, is thy sting? Where, O grave, is your victory?” said the apostle Paul as he reflected on this. Or as Gloria Gaither taught us to sing: “because He lives all fear is gone, because I know He holds the future”.

We can be confident that the same power that raised Christ from the power of death is with us here and now. He’s with you, he’s with me, is with us all. The Christ of God, now alive, victorious and glorious, is at our side. The feet, once crucified on Golgotha, walk with us today throughout our journey.

The Lord is risen; the Lord is risen indeed!

Comments, thoughts? I would love to hear them!

From Pastor Santos, March 29, 2025

Life is full of ironies. The same thing happens in spiritual life. Many times, I call those spiritual ironies, “glorious ironies”. Don’t you think it is such a beautiful irony that the very first worshipers of the Lamb of God were shepherds? In a like manner, although some few decades after that, that Lamb of God was condemned to the tree of death (the cross), that tree of death was actually bringing life.

One of the very interesting passages of the New Testament, encloses one of those glorious ironic moments. According to Luke, the gospel writer, it was Sunday early morning. Jesus has been killed on the previous Friday. Two of Jesus’ disciples were getting out from Jerusalem likely to a town called Emmaus, not fully aware of the most recent (good) news. Their topic of conversation was Jesus himself, his deeds, his arrest and sad killing.

As they were talking, another pilgrim jointed them and their conversation. Glorious ironies! Guess who was the pilgrim joining their journey? The same one that they thought was dead; they did not even recognize him! Even more, the two disciples accused the Resurrected one to be an ignorant stranger when Jesus asked the two guys about the topic of the day: “Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in these days”?

It was not until after dinner, once Jesus was already gone, that the disciples realized that their company, the unknown pilgrim that never identified himself, was actually the center of their conversation.

And here comes another glorious irony, one that is so close to our daily life. Don’t you think that many times, we realize after a specific moment and not during the event itself that Jesus was with us? It does seem that the same Holy feet that once walked in Judea, today walk side by side ours in our daily journey. Want to know a bit more about the event I’m referring to? Take a look to Luke 24: 13-35

Comments, thoughts? I would love to hear them!

From Pastor Santos, March 4, 2025

I have been re-reading some particular passages of the Scriptures with special attention, some sort of spiritual appetizer for the Lent season. The passage of Jesus transfiguration on the top of a mountain as he was in the company of three of his disciples, is one of them. I have found fascination on Luke’s version (Luke 9: 28-36). I have been reading it like in an “enlarged Scriptural combo”: the transfiguration event, the passage that precedes it and the passage that follows it.

Luke appears to be teaching us something that initially we were not considering: Jesus’ true glory is attached to Jesus’ suffering and death. Not wanting to see this is exactly Peter’s initial position: to build a shelter at the top of the mountain and never wanting to go down. That cannot be. That would be our own glory but not Jesus’. “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed”, taught Jesus over and over again. What a fascinating way to show God’s glory: with rejection, suffering and death!

This Jesus of Nazareth who was ratified as God’s own Son, by God’s own voice, had and still have words of authority. “Listen to him” is what the Voice added; listen to him! The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed . Listen to him! Suffering is part of this equation, seems to be the resounding echo of the initial divine words!

When we considered the transfiguration passage, once Moses and Elijah disappeared, Luke says “when the disciples looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus”. The one that represented the Law and the one that represented the prophets, both disappeared, were no longer present and Jesus was standing! It seems like Luke, the gospel writer also wants to tell the reader, not only listen to Jesus, but also look at him. The Son of God is certainly what the Law and the Prophets wrote about and he is certainly above them, above the Law and above the Prophets.

That is particularly interesting, the suffering, the rejection and the death don’t disqualify Jesus to be the Messiah; actually, it is what validate him as the Messiah. Even more, suffering is part of thy glory. We cannot take one or the other; death and glory come together.

Comments, thoughts? I would love to hear them!

From Pastor Santos, February 17, 2025

The picture seemed extremely gloomy, from any way to look at it. There were the people of Israel right in the middle of the Crisis, yes, with capital C. They had just left Egypt in a glorious way and Pharaoh had just changed his mind, sending his army to put the people of Israel back into captivity. That was the picture in the rearguard. The situation ahead was just as critical: the Red Sea threatening as a monster. What to do? Where to go? There was no other way to look at it: the end had come.

The truth is that moments like that come to each of us. Moments of a total lack of alternatives which look like a huge dead-end. These are the moments where life seems to conspire against us and mockingly yells at us that we have failed and that everything is over for us.

When such circumstances come to us, let us remember that all is not really lost. God is greater, always greater than any of our crises. For those who have entrusted their lives to the God of life, surrender is not an alternative. Suddenly a miracle happened. The Red Sea itself was left open for the people to pass through. Later, just as Pharaoh’s chariots were in the middle of the road, the jaws of the Sea closed, leaving the pursuing army deadly enclosed within it.

In moments when the impossible surrenders to the will of God and the Red Sea that harasses us prostrates itself reverently before its Creator; when the unrighteous forces that haunt us suddenly cease to be, it is not just a great achievement. That is an Immense blessing, yes, with capital I.

Currently passing through your own Red Sea? If so, this is a story to keep handy: Exodus 14.

Comments; thoughts? I would love to hear them!

From Pastor Santos, January 21, 2025

Psalms are a mosaic of all human emotions and all of them are represented along the psaltery. Then, there are praises psalms, trust psalms, royal psalms and … imprecation psalms (those that curse) and also psalms of the dark night of the soul (the ones of total desperation). Fascinating! Each one of the psalms faithfully depicts the circumstances of each one of us; even here and now. When some can be in a victorious and joyous time, some others can be in distress or with low, really low levels of confidence. That’s the way it is. To believe that all who are a regular parishioner, never experiences moments of desolation and anguish, is not only a mistake, it’s a huge fallacy. Because we have walked with all those shoes in different moments of our life; the shoes of sadness, desolation or loneliness (or maybe we are wearing those shoes right now) we identify so well with the Psalms.

Allow me to make a confession. I am a natural born desperate. Yes, I’m a minister. Yes I wear a stole every Sunday morning as one of the symbols of the ministerial office and I am a natural born desperate. I just don’t have the waiting gene in my genetical package or at least, if I have it, it is severely damaged. Psalm 40, one of the all-times favorites, begins saying “I waited patiently for the Lord.” Well, in my Bible, the one that I study on a regular basis, I wrote the prefix “im” in front of the word patiently, so my Bible says, “impatiently I waited for the Lord.”!

Although I don’t feel too comfortable encouraging you to patiently wait. I certainly, however, can invite you to either patiently or impatiently keep waiting on the Lord!

Why don’t we wait together?
Comments; thoughts? I would love to hear them!

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