Yesterday was Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week, for the Western Church 1. With Easter comes the end of Lent and, I have to say, I’m ready for this season to end. I’ve said a number of times on this blog, as well as in my sermons, that this entire year has felt like an endless Lent. We had a day called “Easter,” the calendar claimed to change 2, and the seasons kept moving–but it was still Lent. So much so that when the season began again in 2021 the idea of “giving something up” for Lent made my insides twist–“giving up something” had been the theme of the entire previous year 3.
But, slow and steady, more and more folks from Central are completing their vaccinations. Masks will be with us for a while, as well as no-contact passing the peace 4, but I expect we will begin seeing faces again at worship. When I start seeing vaccinated people in the pews–laughing and smiling and doing life together–I’ll know this long Lent has come to an end and the season of Easter has begun at last. It probably won’t be this Sunday, as a number of folks haven’t completed their vaccination course yet, but soon.
New life will come, and I am so ready for it to arrive.
Painfully Hopeful 