 Sometimes Later Is Better
Donna Braband
ELCA Assistant Director for Schools
The car was at the dealer recently
for servicing and I had to rely on public transportation to get me
around for a day. Out here in the ‘burbs, the bus on our route
comes along only about once an hour. Blessedly, a schedule with
each stop listed is published on the internet and I was able to
determine when I should head out the front door and stand at the
corner near my house by the designated bus stop. I got there a bit
later than I planned. The bus got there a bit later than planned.
All was well. Sometimes later is better because, oh, was it cold
that morning!
Lent comes late this year, just
about as late as it can possibly be. (I’d have to do some
astronomical math to be exact, but this year by the time Lent is
spent and Easter arrives we’ll be closer to May flowers than
not. Note, please, that it is astronomy that drives this, not
astrology, so I’m in good standing with the theologians in our
midst.) Which means that we will have to wait a bit longer to get
to Easter. It’s not that we want to get to Easter sooner, it’s
that we NEED to get to Easter.
Especially this year. For myself,
at least, this upcoming experience of Lent/Holy Week/Easter cycle
of seasons will be a cleansing experience. It will wash away the
spiritual and emotional debris hanging around from the war on
terror and the (at the time of this writing) impending
confrontation with Iraq. It will renew a faith staggered by
increasingly long lines at food pantries and shelters. It will
refresh a covenant besieged by an over-preoccupation with the
economy’s slumping performance. It will revitalize the call of
Baptism and the gentle nurturing of the Eucharist.
It will be difficult, because the
news is still filled with updates on the organized mayhem that is
modern warfare, because “you-know-who” is still on the loose,
because the world is shrouded with the ordinariness of death and
destruction. Difficult, but not impossible, because what we have
in this season of renewal is precisely the answer God desires us
to have.
“Return to God, with all your
heart, the Source of grace and mercy; Come, seek the tender
faithfulness of God” we sing before an altar draped in purple.
And not a moment too soon, for our salvation depends, as always,
on the mercy of God. And Lent, more than anything else, is a
busload of mercy waiting to gather us within and transport us to
where we most need to be—deep within God’s presence, so deep
we can hardly see anything but God. Our journey, we often say in
our congregation, is both “to” God and “with” God. It
doesn’t get any better than that this side of the Garden that is
heaven.
Donna Braband serves as Assistant
Director for Schools at ELCA Churchwide and can be reached by
email at dbraband@elca.org.
Back
to Index
|
