Crowning May

Pastor’s Epistle—May, A.D. 2017 A

May and June. Soft syllables, gentle names for the two best months in the garden year: cool, misty mornings gently burned away with a warming spring sun, followed by breezy afternoons and chilly nights. The discussion of philosophy is over; it's time for work to begin.
—Peter Loewer  

The world's favorite season is the spring.
All things seem possible in May.
—Edwin Way Teale

May is one of my very favorite months. It’s light, it’s breezy, it’s joyful and fun. Flowers and lawns alike are sprouting; grills and bonfires tinge the evening air with wafts of delicious smoke. As darkness wanes, children play out in the yard deep into the night. The winds and rains, not yet as brutal as they tend to grow later in the summer, have a refreshing bite to them. And the sky is alive with clouds.

May has no one single overarching holiday in popular imagination, but a host of minor ones all strung together. May Day, the first of the month, is a welcome to warmer weather. Those of a Gaelic bent call it Beltane, when herdsmen would drive their flocks between bonfires both to bless and to fumigate them. May baskets would be left anonymously on neighbor’s porches, and a Queen of May—the Virgin Mary, in the churches—would be crowned with flowers. Even the full May moon is the Flower Moon.

‘Tis the season for graduations as well, another sort of new life. On the first Sunday in May, St Peter’s will be blessing the quilts made by our Piecemakers ministry, some of which will be wrapped about our graduating high school seniors as their parents, along with the entire congregation, pray a blessing upon them at their entry into adulthood. That Wednesday, May 10th, will be our celebratory Graduates and Confirmands Dinner, both for our seniors and for those receiving the Rite of Confirmation later in the month.

The second Sunday of May is Mother’s Day, for which I assume we all have plans. That week also celebrates Sts Brendan and Alcuin, as well as Syttende Mai (for the Norse, of course). The third Sunday, May 21st, is both our Confirmation Sunday and Rogation Sunday. For the former, we’ll be welcoming those who have completed three years of Confirmation instruction into full membership within the ELCA; for the latter, we’ll be processing about the parish grounds, beating the bounds with brooms and reciting the Great Litany. Bring a broom from home, along with seeds and tools and earth to bless. It’s all good fun.

Most importantly, however, May is the month of Easter. The festival of Our Lord’s Resurrection has never been a single-day affair, mind you, but an entire 50 day season, culminating in Pentecost first thing in June. It is as though Creation herself proclaims her Maker’s Resurrection, bringing forth new life and light and warmth to revive us after winter’s long slumber. Amidst the movies, the marriages, and the marigolds—all the merriments of May—let us rejoice most of all that Christ is Risen. He is Risen indeed! Alleluia! And our Easter joy is bright.

In the Name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.