What next? What now?

From The Pastor’s Desk—

Two of the biggest celebrations of the Christian year are Christmas and Easter. Some pastors even use the term “C+E” to refer to members of the community we only see on those two days. The world around us obliges: with Christmas decorations creeping onto store shelves during the waning days of Summer, and Easter candy seamlessly replacing the hearts and roses of Valentine's Day.

Despite the push of commerce to move on to the next big thing, within the church both Christmas and Easter are each defined with a period of preparation (Advent and Lent, respectively), but also with a period of acknowledgment and reflection, following. Christmas gives way to the season of Epiphany, and Easter continues through the season of Eastertide, which culminates in Pentecost: the “birthday” of Christ’s church.

During the 50 days leading up to Pentecost (which literally means “50th day”) our scripture lessons follow the disciples as they make sense of a world made new by the miracle of Easter. They meet the risen Christ, they learn, they preach, they teach; they feed the hungry and their community grows. They begin to understand themselves as the ones that Jesus has entrusted with carrying on the proclamation of God’s Good News.

May we here at First Congregational use this Eastertide season in a similar way: may we take this time to discern where God is calling us, what we are being asked to do, and begin, and share. Christians are people of the Resurrection: our lives are defined by our faith that nothing, not even death, can separate us from the love of God. Eastertide is our time to reflect on the ways that magnificent promise is asking us to live in new ways, to try new things. Summer will soon be upon us, then Autumn, then Winter again. May we pause, now, to appreciate this season in its time: may we listen for the voice of God, still speaking.

—Pastor Jon