Late Winter 2020
Dear Friends,
The season after Epiphany was long this year – not as long as it could have been, but still a season of light that seemed to go on, and on, and on... So Lent has arrived a little later than usual because Easter arrives late. Well, at least it seems as though they arrive late.
Easter, you may recall, is not a fixed date, as is Christmas, because it’s determined not by our calendar but by the lunar calendar; not by human time but creation's time – the Creator's time. So we are now in March, but are just now stepping into our Lenten journey.
The month of March has always confounded me – particularly up here in Maine. The days are getting longer and the late winter sun is warm, but the nights can turn bitter cold. The snow persists, everything seems gray and dead. Limbs and twigs dropped over the winter are scattered around the yard. I'm ready for Spring, but must wait, and my patience is tested. Lent is traditionally a time of testing, a time of reflection and renewal, self-examination and preparation. It’s a time of wanting and waiting, a time of giving up and taking on; a time when we walk with Jesus as he confronts the powerful and gathers in the lost.
In Lent – especially this Lent, we will walk with Jesus through the trials of Holy Week, a journey that invites us to see ourselves in the stories we know and love. Our worship series this Lent asks us to see ourselves in the big Story we share – to risk putting ourselves alongside Jesus: to take a stand for justice; to speak truth to power; to welcome the outcast and oppressed. We are asked to put ourselves on the line to create the just world God has envisioned for all creation. I urge you all – over these next weeks especially – to come worship with your church family.
I invite you to take advantage of this season of preparation and do the risky work of renewal – for ourselves, for our church, for this community, and for our world. And, as always, this Sunday is a really good Sunday to bring a friend!
See you in Church,
Brad
Dear Friends,
The season after Epiphany was long this year – not as long as it could have been, but still a season of light that seemed to go on, and on, and on... So Lent has arrived a little later than usual because Easter arrives late. Well, at least it seems as though they arrive late.
Easter, you may recall, is not a fixed date, as is Christmas, because it’s determined not by our calendar but by the lunar calendar; not by human time but creation's time – the Creator's time. So we are now in March, but are just now stepping into our Lenten journey.
The month of March has always confounded me – particularly up here in Maine. The days are getting longer and the late winter sun is warm, but the nights can turn bitter cold. The snow persists, everything seems gray and dead. Limbs and twigs dropped over the winter are scattered around the yard. I'm ready for Spring, but must wait, and my patience is tested. Lent is traditionally a time of testing, a time of reflection and renewal, self-examination and preparation. It’s a time of wanting and waiting, a time of giving up and taking on; a time when we walk with Jesus as he confronts the powerful and gathers in the lost.
In Lent – especially this Lent, we will walk with Jesus through the trials of Holy Week, a journey that invites us to see ourselves in the stories we know and love. Our worship series this Lent asks us to see ourselves in the big Story we share – to risk putting ourselves alongside Jesus: to take a stand for justice; to speak truth to power; to welcome the outcast and oppressed. We are asked to put ourselves on the line to create the just world God has envisioned for all creation. I urge you all – over these next weeks especially – to come worship with your church family.
I invite you to take advantage of this season of preparation and do the risky work of renewal – for ourselves, for our church, for this community, and for our world. And, as always, this Sunday is a really good Sunday to bring a friend!
See you in Church,
Brad