Dear Friends,
When I look out my window I still see banks of high icy snow, but when I step outside it is so much warmer than it was a few weeks ago. Then I look at my calendar and I see the amazing words: Spring! Yes, soon this hard cold winter will be over and Spring in Maine will have arrived. No more snow? Well, that might be asking a bit much. I’m sure we will still see a few more flakes softly falling. But we are entering the next Maine season: Mud Season. Pot holes, frost heaves, sand everywhere, mud.
It seems to be theologically correct to experience Mud Season during Lent. Why?
Well, during Lent we are asked to take time out to think of Jesus’ life. We read the stories maybe a bit more carefully, just as we walk a bit more carefully around puddles. With warmer days we hear bird song, we learn a few brave robins have returned, we see grouse, Canadian geese and our feeders fill with feathered (and furry) critters. A few have been on “winter break” some place down South. Music is in the air. We read scriptures of Jesus’ stories, his love for others, healings, teachings and these stories stay with us; we hold them in our hearts. Many times we see our world “mirrors” many of the hard times people endured when Jesus walked the earth.
Palm Sunday is almost here and with it joy and celebration. There’s a sudden up lifting of our spirits, like when we see something green: snow drops, crocus pop up through the yellow grass, on protected South sides of our homes and barns, those places where snow has finally thawed and dribbled away.
Palm Sunday so filled with light.
Then the roller coaster (like driving over our winter worn roads) of Holy Week – a week when we closely follow, like the disciples of long ago, the first Last Supper, Jesus in the garden alone praying, the arrest, the trial and horror of the whipping and crown of thorns; friends running away, one friend denying he even knew Jesus, and of course, the darkest of days, Good Friday. Most of us have heard this story ever since we were children and yet it never fails to hurt. It never fails to make us catch our breaths. It never fails to make us stop and think and hopefully pray.
Some of us see Jesus’ last week as not a distant, tucked in a Bible story, to be told once a year, but a week filled with images of those living in 2009, those who may be in our towns, and even members of our own family.
As we walk this Mud Season Holy week, I pray, and encourage everyone, to take time out and look for those around us, who need Jesus’ love and I hope that in some small way you will “bring” Jesus’ love to them through acts of kindness. Then come Easter morning as you sing those old and new wonderful hymns of Joy! You may remember someone you helped and truly feel joyful for the gift you gave.
Happy Spring! And if you find your path taking you to Ellsworth some Sunday morning around 11:00, please stop in. I know you will be welcomed not a stranger but as a friend.
May God Bless,
Pastor Susan Yaruta-Young
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