Rev. Reed Lee Pedersen's
I recently had a confirmand tell me that March is his least favorite month. Being in the Midwest, March is a month that never seems to figure out whether it wishes to be spring or winter. The confirmand hated that he never knew if his birthday would be full of snow or if his birthday would be seventy degrees and sunny. As someone who has lived his whole life in Iowa and Illinois I get the frustrations of March. (Also, my birthday is April 7 and I have seen snow on it before. No fun!) Why can’t the month of March just pick a temperature!? Life is a lot like the month of March. Sometimes it is nice and warm. A good breeze in the air refreshes all our senses. Perhaps you have received acknowledgement for your work, or perhaps you have had the chance to relax with friends and family. Whatever makes you happy is like the warm part of March. Then there is that snow that piles on our cars and on our lives: more work, more things to get to and to get done, less appreciation, less time to be with family and friends, no sunshine to brighten up the day, and no matter how much caffeine we possibly consume there is no energy left in our bodies. That is the tiring, cold, and cloudy part of March. Interesting enough, when Jesus commissioned his disciples in Matthew 28 he did not promise them sunshine and rainbows. He did not promise them a nice warm spring breeze at their backs. (There are actually plenty of places in Scripture that promise the opposite for those who follow Christ.) When Christ tells the disciples to go and make disciples and to baptize them in the name of the Triune God he gives them a different promise. “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matt 28:20b) In the midst of the madness of March (sports pun INTENDED) we can really get caught up in the frustration that it isn’t fully summer yet. When life is hard or not going the way we want it to we can get down and frustrated about the warm breezes that seem to happen in the lives of others instead of our own. Well guess what? Life is a temperate March. You will have good warm spring-feeling moments. You will have bad cold winter-feeling moments. That is life. No matter how cold and grimy or warm and sunny life gets, Christ will be there always, to the end! Sometimes Christ will have a parka for us to keep us warm when life seems cold and bitter. Sometimes Christ will be the one handing us our flip-flops when life is going warm and breezy. Either way, Christ is with you. We may want March to pick a temperature already. We may wish to know whether it will just snow already or if the sun will shine, but Christ has decided to pick both. I am reminded of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians: 7 But each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it is said, “When he ascended on high he made captivity itself a captive; he gave gifts to his people.” 9 (When it says, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is the same one who ascended far above all the heavens, so that he might fill all things.) (Ephesians 4:7-10) Christ descended to death and hell and he ascended into heaven “so that he might fill all things”. Because of this, Christ is with you in your ups and your downs. When life is hell on earth and when it is truly joyful (do not forget the crazy times when it is sometimes both simultaneously), Jesus will be with you. That is a promise. That is the gift of grace which can only be recognized in Christ Jesus. Point to Ponder:
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AuthorPastor Reed is a first call pastor at Augustana Lutheran Church in Andover, Illinois. Archives
July 2019
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