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Rector's ramblings - june 2005
Have you ever noticed that the forty days from Easter to the Ascension seem to pass much more quickly than the 40 days of Lent? I suppose we should conclude that time spent in discipline and introspection seems longer than time spent celebrating! Now we enter the season of Sundays after Pentecost which this year will take half a year until Advent begins the Church year all over again.
This might be a good time to remind us all that church life is not just about holidays and the preparation for them although Christmas and Easter were so close this year it might seem that way. Rather our Christian life together is better seen as one centered in living for and in Christ each day. It is a life which assumes confidence that each day’s challenges can be met no matter how severe or for that matter how dull they might be. Life “in” Christ is dynamic, that is, it expects change, growth, discovery while seeking to make right decisions, finding truth, deepening our faith, and enjoying love, peace, and even a quiet tranquility within us as we go through each day.
This approach to life is what Jesus came to tell us, show us, and even live for us. He empowered us as on Pentecost with the gift of Holy Spirit to do the same in our lives and he did for us and thereby effect change for the better in this world. In the Sundays ahead we will hear in the scripture readings the stories he used to guide us, the healings he performed to restore us, the teachings he gave to show us, and the miracles he used to convince us that he could be believed and followed.
His earliest disciples understood all this to mean that they were to gather each week to read the scriptures and tell the gospel story to those who had not yet heard it and to break the bread and share the cup as he had commanded. Weekly worship began for Christians the week after Easter and has never stopped. Jesus knew we needed one another and thereby created a community in his name. He knew we would lift each other up wherein need, give for the support of others less fortunate, and live more closely to his call when bounded together in his love worshipping regularly at his Altar.
It might be wise to notice that while Jesus spoke at times to large crowds most of the time he worked one on one in small settings where lives were permanently changed by him. We should look for him to do that same for us-sometimes when we least expect it.
Please take seriously your weekly worship in the weeks ahead even though programs have ended and things seem to have slowed down. An answer, an opportunity, a vision, a truth, a way, even a life may be found while you pray at the feet of Jesus in the beauty of holiness on a quiet summer morn.
May you be blessed and refreshed in the Summer days ahead.
Thomas T. Parke
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