'Rhythms'
I Was Thinking…
Rhythms are important in life. In Georgia we are people of seasonal rhythms. Our location on God’s earth allows us to experience all four seasons in distinct and unique ways. Spring is springing all around us. The season is changing…the storms remind us of seasonal rhythms.
The church has its rhythms. Advent through Pentecost are the seasons of the Christian year. It can’t be overstated that this Easter Sunday was unlike any other. There was a very odd rhythm for all of us who are Easter people use to gathering with crowds of other Easter people to celebrate and worship a resurrected Lord Jesus.
My fear now is that the next few weeks will be more of a ‘let down’ than usual. When our human nature climbs the hill to a great celebration there is usually a ‘let down’ of ‘whew, it’s over…but then, what’s next’. Most of us UM Clergy types have a rhythm of taking some retreat time to re-create after a busy Lenten season culminating in Easter/Resurrection Sunday. What will it be like this year? Most of us will retreat, if we retreat at all, in our ‘sheltering in place’. Will our rhythm of ‘let down’ be deeper because of the ‘what’s next’ question? Or will there be a ‘let down’ at all?
My suspicion is that we are growing in weariness over this ‘sheltering in place’ stuff and we will find ourselves even more ‘stir crazy’ as Easter Sunday 2020 moves further and further into our rear-view mirror. I want to be aware of any deepening weariness and wider stirring of craziness within myself. I also feel a nudge to check on my colleagues, you and yours, to make sure we don’t become too disenchanted and thus find a rhythm of discouragement and depression beginning to consume our soul. I invite you to help me by checking in on each other, your families and your friends. “Don’t grow weary in well doing” were the Apostle Paul’s words of wisdom to those early believers as they were learning new faith rhythms.
I imagine the followers of Jesus were caught between their rhythms of faith and fear during that first ‘Easter Season’. Those days after his resurrection and the days approaching his ascension must have been a mixed bag of emotions and reactions. As people of faith, we know the end of their season of uncertainty…but they didn’t know yet.
What is it that we don’t know…yet? A lot, I think. But the one who sees what we aren’t yet able to see…is alive! They thought they had killed him…shut him up…won the battle…secured their power…and squelched a movement. They were wrong! He wasn’t dead. It was they who were ‘dead wrong’! He Arose.
So, help me remember in these days of potential ‘let down’ that the one who knows all the endings to all the stories is alive and well. And that is enough!
Rhythms are important in life…The fun in our present set of circumstances called COVID-19 is that God is birthing some new rhythms in me…how about you?
Always Thinking…
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