Holy Days

Pastor’s Epistle—June, A.D. 2015 B

A Different Sort of Holy Day

Are anyone else’s kids going through holiday withdrawal? No sooner had we packed away the Easter decorations than our children started asking if it were time for Halloween. One day the wind brought a light down of flower petals and dandelion puffs fluttering about, and our daughter squealed with glee. “Snow!” she cried. “It’s time for Christmas!”

I realize, of course, that warm weather brings its own unique celebrations, from Midsummer’s to Independence Day. But as far as kids are concerned, barbecue and even fireworks prove thin gruel next to the wonders of the Hallowtide and Christmastide. Certainly I could rattle off some of the summer saints on the liturgical calendar, for indeed there are some good ones coming up, but to little avail. Summer is different.

It’s a different sort of time, for both worship and home life. We cease the breathless rush from holiday to holiday and instead enter Ordinary Time, the season of the Church. This is the long green season between Pentecost and Advent, when we focus on the everyday life of faith. It’s a time of quiet wonders, of more leisurely contemplation. School is done. The days are long, the air warm. We look less often to the clock and more often to the clouds. Lakes beckon. Wood smoke wafts on the evening breeze. And God draws near to us in the silence, in the warmth, in the laughter of children chasing fireflies.

On the other hand, if you have younger children, or if your career proves especially busy in the summer season, any hope of leisurely respite may dissolve into the endless rigmarole of work, mowing, diapers, dishes, dog walking, yard maintenance, and the perpetually runny noses of allergic toddlers. This, too, is the everyday life of faith. God draws near us in the chaos, in the hectic humility that seems so far removed from holiness but is in fact so very close to Jesus.

A faith that is all wonders all the time would soon grow exhausting. For that matter, it would seem little connected to real life. The life of faith extends from Sunday’s pulpit and table out into every nook and cranny of our experience. It centers us in Christ amidst the humble things of home and community. It is not a time to skip Church and neglect worship, but to focus on extending our worship out to every day of the week. In the winter we bring wonders home, with a Christmas tree in every window. But in the summer God meets us in the everyday. He reminds us that the humble is holy to Him.

I hope this summer can be for you and yours a season of true leisure, of respite and rebirth that goes far beyond mere laziness. Take the time to let God seep into the simple things of everyday life. And if life doesn’t calm down for you this season, if summer proves as madcap as ever—well, Jesus knows what that’s like, too. Folks didn’t give Him much of a rest either. Sometimes the places we least expect to find God—in the routine, in the simple, even in the hectic—are exactly where He is closest to us.

God bless you in this season of life and light and warmth. In Jesus’ name. Amen.