Committing to Grow and Blossom
It is nearly the season of springtime, and the sun is beginning to reawaken the world. Roots stir and the sap runs upward in the trees, awakening buds not yet ready to send forth leaves. Beneath the ground, shoots begin to raise their heads. Seeds and bulbs uncurl, nearing the time when they shall spring forth.
We now find ourselves in the time of the Christian liturgical year known as Lent. For those following the Christian tradition, it’s a time for resting in contemplation and purification to renew the soul. Many people give up something as a sacrifice to recall the 40 days and nights Jesus spent in the desert fasting; testing himself in preparation for his final act of ministry.
Those 40 days of Lent recall an earlier story of the Jewish tradition. It is the Passover story, in which the Israelites spent 40 years in the desert. The Israelites themselves spent that time preparing to live as the people of God after they left Egypt. Slowly, they made their way to a land of their own; the land which is now known as Israel. In each story, Lent and Passover, this is a setting aside of time and space to make room for transformation. The rituals for this time remind us to commit to a new way of life and to a calling that will mean becoming courageously different than the everyday life of an Israelite enslaved under the Egyptian rule, or a Jew living a mundane life under Roman rule.
Making Space for Renewal
This momentary pause in our lives to fast and to refresh ourselves is like the pause beneath the earth when seeds must feed off of their stored energy, and the trees use the sweetness stored in sap to boost themselves into the new warmth of the springtime. For us, it is coming up on a full year since churches closed their doors and moved online, a year in which lives have changed, routines have been broken or put on hold indefinitely, and making plans seems harder to do than ever before. And yet, we remain committed to life, to living, and figuring out what comes next. As the Spring approaches, we feel once again, the promise of renewal, the call to reimagine our community, the growth of newly rooted dreams. We, too, are preparing ourselves for what is to come.
Where is Our Covenant?
In this month of March, in this time of Lent and of springtime, we imagine our lives anew, and examine the theme of commitment. We ask, to what do we commit ourselves? And we ask what or who is committed to us? We wonder, how will we be as a community after this time of change, and how will we become different from what we once were?
Let us covenant with one another
– The Rev. Dr. Rebecca Parker
to keep faith with the source of life
knowing that we are not our own,
earth made us.
…
Even when we have done all we can
and life is still broken,
there is a Universal Love
that has never broken faith with us
and never will.
This is the ground of our hope,
and the reason we can be bold in seeking to fulfill the promise.
Committing to Work Together
I have heard eagerness to be together in person, and I know that this is powerfully important to you. Rest assured that the staff, the Board, and everyone in leadership is longing for that day right alongside you. We are planning, with a Policy Team empowered last month by the Board, and we’re ready to put forth a draft Reopening Policy for the Board to consider at our upcoming meeting. Once that policy is approved, the Board will be reaching out to enact the policy.
We encourage you to let us know (if you haven’t already done so) what your capacity is for helping with the logistics of gathering for outdoor and eventually for indoor activities. We will need many helpers to make sure this can happen in new configurations. We’ll need people thinking about procedures for cleaning, how to make restrooms safely accessible, and ensuring the side yard can be approached by those who use walkers and wheelchairs for mobility. We will need you to sign up for teams if we want to be with one another in person again.
In the meantime, we pause to remember our covenants to one another. May we care for each other’s health and well-being, consider safety and inclusion, and we recall that no matter where we are, we are held in love, even before we can see the new blossoming and fruits of the coming Spring.
