April newsletter

Is it just me, or does Lent always seem to drag on for more than just the prescribed forty days? Maybe it’s just the weather. After weeks of snow-covered ground and sub-zero temperatures, I know I ought to appreciate that at least it isn’t so terribly cold, that we are able to travel more safely, and that we are not at high risk for flooding. But still, it’s hard to get enthusiastic about gray skies, dreary forecasts, and snow that is no longer enough to make the yard look pretty again.

I don’t think it’s entirely an accident that we always hit this time of year during Lent. This is the season when, more than any other time of year, we look to the cross. Understandably, reflection on Jesus’ death and what it means for us can get a little gloomy. But without Jesus’ death, we wouldn’t have Jesus’ resurrection—so we spend a little time in the shadow of the cross, year after year, just when the skies are the grayest and the weather least encouraging.

If that were all that Lent was about, it would be unbearable, crazy, pointless. The cross, out of context, would be too terrible for prolonged contemplation. But even as we hear again the story of Jesus’ suffering and death, we never quite forget that Easter is just around the corner! We know that this death, this cross, leads not just to the tomb but to the empty tomb, not just to the grave but to glorious new life, for Jesus and for all of us, the people he came to save.

Every year, then, the whole of creation echoes that great story—descending to the grave in winter, and rising again to new life each spring. Death, first—and then, always, resurrection. Those of us who are privileged to live with regular seasons get to see this acted out each year, as winter inevitably gives way to spring—not as soon as we would like it, sometimes, but always, in the end, it comes.

So, yes, it’s a little gloomy for the moment. But it won’t always be. This, too, will end. Easter is coming!

~Pastor Sarah