April 2012 Banner article
About this time every year I find myself wondering if spring will ever come. The long grey days and persistent slow drizzle seem to go on forever. I think depressing thoughts like… This is the year that summer will not come. This is the year that the trees will not have new leaves and will remain barren forever. This is the year that the pasture grass will not grow. It will be forever grey, damp and 48 degrees. And then a nice-ish day with temperatures in the mid 50’s and a bit of hazy sun shows up and I, like everyone else run outside to dig, or trim, or plant. One lousy day of acceptable weather and I am conned into believing that at last spring is here…and then it rains, blows and turns grey again and I am convinced that spring will never come. I am a person without hope.
To keep hope alive, many ancient peoples had communal rites, ceremonies and festivals, meant to entice and convince the gods and goddesses of nature and fertility to continue the cycle of the seasons, crop growth and human pregnancy. The people’s offerings, prayers and sacrifices were to convince the gods that they, the people, were worthy of survival. If the people’s efforts were not good enough then they ran the risk of angering the gods and their very existence. It was relationship between humans and gods based on human effort and doing the right thing to please the gods so that the gods would deliver to the people what was need to both sustain life and assure survival.
Many Christian expressions of faith are not far from this same ancient fear and as a result many Christians ask, “What do I need to do?” “Have I done enough to be saved?” “Am I good enough to get into heaven?” “Have I saved a soul for Jesus and therefore earned the right to salvation for myself?” And even though our expression is more self-focus than tribal or group focused, we have not come far in our journey of hope.
For many Easter is the group ritual that ushers in spring. This harbinger of spring is full of “Happy Easter Bunny Baskets”, colored eggs, frilly new dresses, perhaps a hat and everything pastel. We know that once the Easter baskets come out spring cannot be far away.
But Easter is so much more than a cultural symbol of spring. Easter is the reverse of that ancient understanding that we need to DO SOMETHING TO SAVE OURSELVES. It turns out that in the incarnation, life, ministry, death by crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, GOD IS THE ONE WHO ACTS to save our souls. In Jesus we see the “face” of God, and we see, not a fickle God making demands upon us to make the right move, but a God who loves us beyond measure and offers us a new way of being in the world. God’s gift of salvation through Jesus Christ is just that…a gift. No work required. No perfect worship…mandatory. No good deeds, large or small are enough…for none are demanded. God is the one who saves us from our sin by dying on the cross. God is the one who tells us that there is always hope of new life and that death has been overcome by the cross.
That is how God made it…new life each spring whether or not we want to believe it; new beginnings, in any season, after a long grey period of self-doubt and miss-steps.
So, once again we gather this Holy Week as God’s people to walk the path that Jesus walked for our sake. We gather all week long to remember, observe, ponder, acknowledge our sin of self-focus, and to give thanks for the gift of forgiveness, grace and new life.
Yesterday I noticed the slight hint of green in the branches of the trees, the daffodils pushing up out of the ground, the lilac buds swelling and the grass beginning to lengthen.
God’s promise of new life is good and I don’t even have to do anything to make it happen. All I have to do is drink in this new life. Thanks be to God our Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer. Thanks be to the God of Life.
Blessings,
Pastor Nina
When I was a little girl I collected dolls. My father frequently traveled abroad for his job and he always brought me back a small doll from the countries he visited. As a result, I had a nice little collection of foreign dolls.
At Christmas I always wanted another doll. One year I just had to have a bride doll. Another year I was fixated on a ballerina.
In early December I would begin getting ready for Christmas by cleaning out my doll collection. I went through dolls, had funerals for any “broken, beyond repair” small friends, went through the doll clothes I had made (scraps of cloth cut into tunics and tied with a string) and tossed the stray single sock or shoe. I then wiped down all three bookcase shelves, put everything back nice and neat in my 10 year old fashion and made sure that there was space for the much anticipated new doll I was going to find under the tree on Christmas morning. I always excitedly anticipated the new.
Today, I am not much different. As Advent surrounds us with warm candle light on dark, long days, I like to take some time and clean house, so to speak. I examine my life, discard the old useless stuff that keeps me from drawing near to my God and wipe down the shelves of my life…and make room and anticipate the new.
How will Jesus surprise me today? Where will I see him working through others? How will he show up in my work, my play and my rest?
If my life is too cluttered with Holiday busy-ness instead of Christmas Holy-ness then I might miss the promises of God. When I find the days becoming more about the obligations and less about the Holy and the mystery then I know it is time for me to clear off those shelves of my life of unnecessary stuff, both physical and psychological and make room for God to surprise me and fill me with wonder at the miracle of a baby in a manger.
~Pastor Nina
