Hello, church,
As I write this at home on Friday morning, it is snowing! I look out the window into a strange mix: a white dusting of snow on daffodil blossoms; hummingbird pumping away at the feeder; white chimney smoke rising from the house across the river, white snowflakes drifting down.
A United Methodist minister who I've mentioned to you before, Steve Garnaas-Holmes, writes:
"We are ready for spring to come, but it comes in fits and starts. As a little girl once said, 'I've figured out the seasons. It goes summer, autumn, winter, spring, winter, spring, winter, spring.' Of course all the seasons do that...We notice it most in spring because we long so deeply for renewal.
Sunday is Palm Sunday, and as Jesus enters Jerusalem we'll celebrate him as a king, shouting praise. But before the service is over we'll be shouting, 'Crucify him!' Winter, spring, winter.... We are saved, but we are still working out our salvation. We are one with God and with all Creation, but we trust our oneness only in fits and starts. We who are made new still long for renewal. We believe; God help our unbelief."
Holy Week begins this Sunday. Like all the disciples in the gospel stories, we will follow Jesus "in fits and starts." Winter, spring, winter, spring...
And preparations for Holy Week are underway everywhere I look around the church. Choirs are rehearsing, office copy machines are humming, plastic eggs are being filled for the children's Easter "eggstravaganza"...
Last week our Boy Scout Troop #312 took the Christmas trees that were collected in January and recycled them into wood chips that they then spread on church grounds. (There's a parable in there somewhere. I think of the palm branches we burn each year to make ashes for Ash Wednesday...)
Last weekend, too, thirteen children of the Hehn family worked with their dad, Rich, to clean and polish the sanctuary. (Another parable about making space, lovingly preparing our church home for this holiest week of the Christian year.) As they say, "Many Hehns make light work." Thank you, Hehn family! And now the incense of Murphy's Oil Soap is in the air.
Come to church this week and wave palm branches hailing Christ's entry into Jerusalem---and if you can, bring a jacket or coat to line his pathway, to be donated afterward to Cocoon House, serving homeless youth in Snohomish County (cocoon...another image for Holy Week! )
And I hope you will plan to come again on Maundy Thursday for hand or foot-washing and Communion, and on Good Friday for Schubert's "Mass in G" and the shrouding of the cross. In this way you can fully experience the unfolding drama of Holy Week, which mirrors not only our own discipleship in fits and starts---winter, spring, winter----but the amazing constancy of God's love.
Deep blessings,
Pastor Kathlyn
