February 23, 2022
Dear Friends,
We all operate according to a calendar. We organize our days, weeks, and years in some way to keep track of them and give them meaning and importance. But we seldom have just one calendar. For example, “the” calendar tells us it is Wednesday, February 23 today, almost the end of the shortest month. The sports calendar tells us that football season is over, soccer seasons will soon begin again, and March Madness is just around the corner. (The sports calendar, however, is not as helpful this year in telling us when Spring Training will start!) The Church calendar tells us it is almost Lent. And the Groundhog told us it will be winter for a while, and yesterday morning we woke up not seeing our shadow but snow. There are multiple calendars that each tell us how the very same day can represent something different. When our calendars overlap a great deal, life seems more full. And our church seems to be in one of those times right now. Here are some examples.
The COVID calendar: If you look at the cycles of this pandemic we are in, we have just experienced one of the most rapid and extreme increases in cases of the coronavirus in the two-year season of this pandemic. As we know too well, this led to a return of restrictions we thought were behind us. Now, in the past few weeks, we have seen just as rapid and extreme a decline in cases, which means we can begin to loosen those recent restrictions. So this Sunday we will have coffee hour in the fellowship hall with coffee. It means places like Covenant Shores are less restrictive and we can visit people, like Paul Smedberg, who have been isolated by this shutdown. Let us pray that more restrictions will be loosened soon.
The Liturgical Calendar. The church year is complicated because much of the year is based on a solar calendar, while Easter is based on a lunar calendar. Christmas is always December 25. But Easter moves according to the cycles of the moon, causing from Ash Wednesday to Lent though to Pentecost to change every year. So, Ash Wednesday is a week from today. Last year it was in February. Last year we had our Ash Wednesday service online. This year we will be in person and can pray, sing, and receive ashes together again. We also can contribute to our church’s spiritual life this Lent by suggesting a psalm to reflect on and providing something to help us reflect on that psalm from our perspective. See more details below.
This week’s calendar. We have our weekly opportunities to study scripture, pray, and worship together. But we also have opportunities to donate coats (and please, only coats) as well as to knit hats for our friends whom we feed each Saturday morning. For these people, this cold snap is more than an inconvenience, it can be debilitating or even deadly. This week we also have a seasonal opportunity, that is our “In the Bleak Midwinter” games to be held this Saturday at 7 pm. Though the weather may well make it feel like it is truly midwinter, the time to be had will be far from bleak. Details for all these opportunities are below.
Our church follows the seasons, holidays (literally “holy days”), and lectionary of the liturgical year common to most Protestant and Catholic Christians. When these are taken together, they create a spiritual journey for us as a church. Through Epiphany, we have journeyed with Jesus from Bethlehem through his ministry in Galilee and will conclude this journey Sunday with our Lord’s transfiguration. We then follow Jesus to Jerusalem and his passion there through Lent and Holy Week. And we will raise the Dome in celebration when we proclaim Christ’s resurrection Easter Sunday through Eastertide. Each of these seasons gives us a way of understanding and approaching our life of faith and our God through the various seasons of life. I pray that in worship, and in any other times you have during the week, you might reflect on your relationship with God, and how that shapes your understanding of your relationships with yourself and with others. May you grow in all three of these relationships, in whatever season you may find yourself.
With confidence in the God, we follow,
Pastor Todd
P.S. If you are not a member of First Covenant Church, stay tuned for information about an upcoming Membership Class this Spring. We would love to have you be a part of our church family.