Looking Forward to Spring

I've lived in Alaska for almost 8 years now but the changing of the seasons still fascinate me. Until we moved up in 2008, I had lived all my life in the Philippines where the only seasons are wet (rainy) and dry (summer). We had none of the changing of the colors and the subsequent shedding of leaves in autumn. We didn't have snow and winter although the temperatures did get a relatively cooler. One could say that we lived in an eternal hybrid season of spring and summer. 

One of the things that I continue to marvel about, because I've never seen it before coming to Alaska, is the budding of the trees. After "dying" in the fall and remaining "dead" all winter, the trees are beginning to show signs of new life, of resurrection, if you may. So fascinated am I with this cycle of death and new life that I have probably written an article or preached a sermon about it every year for the past 8 years! It is such a great metaphor for our lives as Christian disciples, individually and corporately as communities of faith.

Science tells us that the shedding of leaves is necessary for a tree's continued existence, to survive the cold and dark winter and thrive again in the future spring and summer. As the temperatures drop and the sunlight decreases, the trees adapt by cutting off "food supply" to the leaves. The stems and trunks would likely survive the freezing temperatures but not the leaves. The shedding of leaves is a survival mechanism. Winter, to a tree, is a season of survival that precedes a season of growth and new life.

This past weekend East Anchorage United Methodist Church celebrated their 50th anniversary. 50 years of life and ministry! I was honored to be invited to preach at their anniversary service on Sunday and join them in celebrating the myriad of ways in the past 50 years that they have lived out their mission: "In the name of Jesus Christ, Carry the light!"

On June 5th, East Anchorage UMC will be celebrating their final worship service as a congregation. Early this year, seeing the "temperatures drop and the sunlight decreasing" in their life as a congregation, they voted to discontinue. This action of discontinuance will be formalized by a vote at Annual Conference. In some ways, it is a necessary shedding of leaves, a necessary winter, a necessary dying, so that new life might emerge.

Last week, on the days leading to EAUMC's anniversary celebration, I spent time with key people, "walking the neighborhood" and looking at demographics and maps. It was a great time of deep conversation, dreaming and discerning what God is calling us to birth in this neighborhood in East Anchorage. And the dreaming and discerning goes on...

I look forward to the day when buds will again emerge. I look forward to the new thing that God is going birth in this space and place. And I am excited and look forward to the ways that the Spirit of God may be calling you and me to be part of that!

Your fellow disciple,
Carlo