It is Spring

It is spring in Western New York, and no matter how many times we have lived through it, we always have to remind ourselves that spring is not summer.  It is the promise of summer, not its fulfillment. One day t-shirts and shorts are in order, the next long pants and a jacket,

We also have to remember that it rains this time of year and this rain is, actually, not just a nuisance, but essential for the creation around us to thrive in the coming months.

I am struck this spring by the many different shades of green as I look out my study window. The trees on the hillside must be every possible color of green there is, a veritable 64-count Crayola box of greens.  Then there is the deep greens of the lawns on the street below, and the fields I noticed driving to church yesterday "over the hill," as we say, from one river valley where we live and another where our family is located, along with our church, and many things with which we are involved. This other valley is the valley of my birth.

On the church's calendar it is a Rogation Day. Historically, the three days before Ascension Day (this Thursday) are days of special prayer for the creation, for the spring plantings, and for our stewardship of it all. Almost no one observes them any more, unfortunately. They are a great way to pause at the beginning of the explosion of creation we are just beginning to experience thus far this year. The creation may be under siege (and I, for one, believe it is), but it insists on dazzling us with new life and beauty.

The institutional church is so obsessed with its own shortcomings these days, and afraid for its future, that we are losing our primary purpose--to shout glory and discover and pronounce God's blessing on every living thing. We have the words, we need to take them off the shelf, blow off the dust and sing them anew.

Glorify the Lord, all you works of the Lord...
Glorify the Lord, every shower of rain and fall of dew, all winds and fires and heat...
Glorify the Lord, O mountains and hills, and all that grows upon the earth...
Glorify the Lord, O beasts of the wild, and all you flocks and herds...
O men and women everywhere, glorify the Lord...