Adventures... - April 2017 from "The Quincy Quill"
In the
bulb, there is a flower, in the seed, an apple tree;
In
cocoons, a hidden promise: butterflies will soon be free!
In the
cold and snow of winter there’s a spring that waits to be,
Unrevealed
until its season, something God alone can see.
(Hymn
of Promise, v. 1, UMH 707)
Natalie
Sleeth’s “Hymn of Promise” is a beloved hymn by many with its themes of new
life, hope, and resurrection. It is
often sung for memorial services and during the Easter season because of these
themes of new life, hope, and resurrection.
Dr. Michael Hawn, who recently retired as professor of church music at
Perkins School of Theology, writes that “Hymn of Promise”
was
written at a time when the author states that she was "pondering the ideas
of life, death, spring and winter, Good Friday and Easter, and the whole
reawakening of the world that happens every spring." Inspired by a T.S.
Eliot line, the germ of the hymn grew from the idea "in our end is our
beginning," the phase that begins the third stanza of the hymn.[1]
As
I write this latest installment of Adventures,
the line from this hymn, “in the cold and snow of winter, there’s a spring
that waits to be” has been running through my mind these last few weeks. Until the middle of March, it seems like we
have been in the midst of a long winter that did not want to let up, casting
some doubt if we may see Spring. But
amidst the long winter, I keep reminding myself to be patient and that we have
to wait until something is unrevealed in its proper season. It’s just like Ecclesiastes 3, in which there
is a season and time for everything. But
now, our waiting is paying off, as the daffodils are blooming and other flowers
are beginning to emerge from their bulbs.
Before long, our mountain valley will be a lush, green carpet and we’ll
begin seeing the trees and wildflowers blossom (although may not always be nice
for the allergies).
Spring
is oftentimes a time of renewal when the earth comes alive again. The snow on the higher peaks will soon be
gone and melt into our many lakes and streams, plus those of us with fish fever
will be looking forward to visiting some of those lakes soon. At the same time, as Easter rolls around each
Spring, we are also reminded of Jesus’s resurrection and the new hope and life
that Easter can bring. We use the time
of Lent to prepare our hearts, bodies, and minds for Easter by dying to old
ways of life, old ways that might be destructive and prevent us from becoming closer
to God and living life to the fullest.
Like Bishop Karen Oliveto of the Rocky Mountain/Yellowstone conferences
said one time in a sermon, “you have to go through Good Friday to get to
Easter,” just as we need to get through winter in order to reach Spring.
Easter
is a season of resurrection and new life and as we have also been living our
baptismal calling. The baptisms that
would occur on Easter in the early church were a symbol of new life and new
birth, as each of the three times candidates were immersed was like dying to an
old aspect of life before rising from the water, being anointed in oil, then
dressed in white to symbolize the purity and new life. As we prepare to enter into the Easter season
and live into the resurrection, what are you doing to renew your spirits and to
give you a new sense of life this Easter season?
As
we live into this coming season of resurrection and new hope, let’s keep our
eyes and ears open around us to the many signs that we see, thanking and
praising God for the Springtime after the cold and snow of winter, thanking and
praising God for the new life around us and for the new life that we get to
experience in our own lives at Easter.
Peace
& Blessings,
Pastor Andrew
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