This Week from Mitch

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I hope and pray that you are well and that you continue to have a Happy Easter. A funny thing happened at our Finance Committee meeting yesterday. As a greeting, I said "Happy Easter" and got a polite chuckle from the room. The sentiment was clearly that Easter is over. That said, it is a very catholic tradition to celebrate the 50 days between Easter and the day of Pentecost. I sometimes wonder why we, the church, are so good at honoring the season of Lent but not so good at honoring the entire season of Easter. I suspect there are multiple reasons. Sadly, one reason is that for many of us, it is easier to focus on the negative things in our lives than to focus on our blessings. This thought, however, opens a theological wormhole that might be better served by a podcast than by this messenger.

A second reason is how busy everyone gets. Each year, I naively think that after Easter and Spring Break, things will slow down. They rarely do. For many of our families, spring sports for children ramp up, as do school plays and concerts. On top of this, in the life of the church, we have weddings at this time, and at least at St. Martin's this year, we will have a wave of baptisms. It is simply a busy time of year, so busy in fact that in our house we refer to the month of May as “Maycember”. In the busyness and the subsequent fatigue that comes from it, it's important to remember that sometimes the busyness of life is a blessing from God. Can you imagine a St. Martin's without baptisms? Without weddings? Without graduating seniors? What kind of church would we be? It's also something that, now that one child is out of the house, I realize goes by very, very quickly. You blink, and it’s gone. And so to our families, enjoy the activity of this season, and perhaps even see it as an Easter blessing, for in resurrection we were promised an abundant life in Christ, a season of celebration, and the blessings of tomorrow. May we give thanks for these things and so much more.

Peace,

Mitch