The calendar for April this year provides a powerful theological unfolding of the Gospel message. We begin the month firmly within Lent. In fact, it is deep into Lent, far enough that we are tired of the Lenten gloom and repentance. It can begin to feel like drudgery, as if our distance from God could not be greater. This is indeed an apt description of spiritual life apart from the Holy Spirit, adrift on our own and struggling to find a glimmer of hope.
The second Sunday this April begins with a new flurry of hope. We raise our branches and proclaim, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” Jesus enters Jerusalem, and we get the burst of excitement that he will bring change to the world, and even change us. Yet it does not unfold the way we expect. Soon the cheers turn to shouts of “Crucify!” The brief surge of hope turns to deep sorrow as we move to recalling Jesus’ arrest, trial, and crucifixion. This sorrow moves through Holy Week, gathering for Maundy Thursday and Good Friday to again here of the Last Supper, Jesus in Gethsemane, and the despair of the cross. Our own spiritual quests are shown to be hopeless.
Yet we gather the third Sunday of April for the Feast of the Resurrection, Easter Sunday. We arrive to hear the Good News: Jesus lives, God is with us, and our lives are changed in ways we could never have expected. Christ does not simply change things and make them a little better; Christ revolutionizes everything. In Christ there is a new creation of which we are made part. It is a time of celebration for the goodness of God!
Then the fourth and final Sunday we return to church, full of new hope. Meanwhile, outside of church circles, Earth Day is celebrated a few days before, on April 22. At St. Matthew, we will transfer that event to April 27 for our Earth Sunday. The day is a day to remember that because we are freed by grace in Christ, we are able to focus our energies not on ourselves but on care for those around us, including all life on Earth. We live out our lives as Earth Days, days to extend our care to the creation that so needs protection.
In this calendar, we move from our own sin and despair to hope in human expectations to deeper despair, then on to a more intense hope through God’s new creation, and then on to living out our lives called by God to be God’s people in God’s good creation. This truly is a summary of the process of our spiritual journey becoming a life calling in response to God.