One of the first resource books I bought for my office library when I started here at Salem all those years ago was The Handbook of the Christian Year by Hoyt L. Hickman, et al. (later revised to The New Handbook of the Christian Year a few years later). Since the UCC Book of Worship hadn’t come out yet, this resource was a helpful guide to navigating the church year for this greenhorn pastor back in the day. One of the more helpful bits of advice that the book gave came in the section about Advent and Christmas, where it stated (in so many words) that the pace of worship activities in Advent shouldn’t be so hurried and jam-packed that we head to the finish line at Christmas Day ready to collapse. What was said about Advent/Christmas I found applied to Lent/Easter, as well: leave something in the tank for Eastertide.
I think that we’ve managed to do that this year, so far. Even after a well-planned Lenten season, we still have some things left to bring out during the Great Fifty Days of Easter. Of course, there is Easter day (with its two services of worship and a breakfast scheduled in between), but beyond that we will have a service that features the choirs of Salem and St. Peter’s UCC, Kiel, plus various instrumental music, here, at Salem on April 21st at 10:00 a.m. If you’re a fan of any kind of church music, you’ll definitely not want to miss this worship service. On May 5th we will be conducting the rite of Confirmation for our third-year class, which gives each of us an opportunity to reflect on our own baptismal promises and our journeys of faith. It’s an important day in the life of the church.
These days after Easter give us the chance to bask in the good news of the resurrection. May our preparation during the days of Lent carry us through the next stage of the journey.
Shalom aleichem—Peace be with you.
Rev. Jim Hoppert
