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Pastor's Notes

The United Methodist Web site for worship says: “The Christian Calendar this year offers up the shortest Ordinary Time after Epiphany in our lifetimes.”  The time between epiphany (remembering the star and the Magi) and Ash-Wednesday (the beginning of Lent) is very brief this year which means Easter comes early (March 23). So more than in other years, Christmas, New Years and Lent can be a head spinning blur. Having just finished a flurry of college football bowl games, I remember several post-game interviews with winning coaches, and they were asked, “How does winning tonight feel to you”?  Their response was usually, “I don’t know how I feel. It has all happened so fast. The reality hasn’t sunk in yet.”  That may be a description of us this season. We move from one event to the next so quickly, “It hasn’t sunk in yet.”  I want to slow down and remember, the beauty of a   Christmas-Eve service, the tree filled with gifts for families, the supplies purchased through UMCOR for homes, bee keeping and food for children, the celebration of the light of the world, the three king’s cakes and the slower time that lies before me when I can reflect on my own life and the life of the world that I live in. In Jewish worship, the gathered welcome the      Sabbath into their worship area as we would invite a person to come in to our sanctuary and sit with us.  “Welcome, Sabbath, take a seat with us.”  I open the door to welcome Lent into my life or  better, Lent invites me into its life.