Perhaps this year April flowers bring May showers?? Hard to know. It’s reasonable and good to hope for flowers from here on out. It seems we’re rolling out of one month and into the next with signs of new life pushing us like a gradual but firm stern wind filling the spinnakers of the ship that is us, the church. In the last month or so we were able to take the first steps towards returning to in-person worship. At 25% of capacity, masked and socially distanced worship still feels far from what it was, but nearer then it’s been in over a year. It is a sign of hope to have had the experience of the Good Friday Selah service carry us through those solemn and sacred moments, centering us in such a way as to make the Easter empty tomb a triumphant surprise. And what a joyful thing it is to hear many voices praying and reciting psalms in unison with vim and vigor in that wonderfully resonate space. It’s hard to know where this wind will carry our ship while we are still at sea, but while we remain on this journey together let us revel in it. Few have wanted to get to the other side, disembark and retire the sails more than me. Now that we see land in sight that urge is stronger than ever. Yet there is still a significant distance to cover between where we are and the safe harbor to which we are headed. The last mile is often the longest mile and the finish line doesn’t always return us to the place we started. But we sail on knowing that Christ is the captain of our ship, leading us to the place he knows we need to be, to see with his eyes what he would have us to see.
As we sail on with Christ we do so in faith and hope in the One who raised Jesus from the dead. This resurrection life is at the center of our being as a people. Things that are cast down God has a way of raising up. Summer festival, a celebrated and life-giving community ministry, went on hold in 2020 and seemed still as good as dead in 2021, but by grace God is raising it up in ways we could not have predicted. Festival will not happen this year in the usual way, but an unexpected gift will make it possible to spread festival blessings abroad in new ways. As the church struggled with internet speed and reliability in an online and “virtual” covid year, any improvements seemed to be a “virtual” impossibility. Previous research into this issue told us so. But by God’s grace a new cable on the church’s property was found, making a much needed upgrade possible. Even our technology is being raised up!
​As this Easter journey continues into the month of May it inevitably leads right to Pentecost. Easter and Pentecost go hand in hand, because the promise of Pentecost says that which God has raised up God is also able sustain, strengthen, and send out as a blessing into the world. May you be blessed as you see signs of resurrection in your midst and all around in this season of new life. May you be supported by the Spirit through this almost-but-not-yet part of the journey and know that God’s love and strength are powerfully with you.May you be blessed as you see signs of resurrection in your midst and all around in this season of new life. May you be supported by the Spirit through this almost-but-not-yet part of the journey and know that God’s love and strength are powerfully with you.
May you be blessed as you see signs of resurrection in your midst and all around in this season of new life. May you be supported by the Spirit through this almost-but-not-yet part of the journey and know that God’s love and strength are powerfully with you.
Yours In Christ,
Drew+