1. How are you doing with whatever commitment you made for Lent this year? Have you followed some old traditions and “given something up”? Or are you trying my favorite Lenten discipline and “taking something on” during this time of preparation? Whichever choice you have made for Lent this year, I know that it is enriching your soul. Whenever we surrender habits that may have been distracting us from seeing God’s plan for our lives, it allows us to see all of our habits – good, bad or neutral – more clearly. Whenever we accept extra duties of prayer, service, compassion, stewardship or forgiveness, we begin to see how easy – and fulfilling – it is to increase our commitment to Christ and his Church. The only way we can lose during Lent is if we decide to ignore the opportunities of the season and plod along without changing, without adding some habits and dropping others as life changes.
2. One good thing about Easter being early this year is that Palm Sunday is early and this helps me with an honest appraisal of the surplus in my clothes closet. When I’m in my “April is Spring and Summer is Near” mentality I have already packed away sweaters and cold weather gear and brought out the shorts and aloha shirts. This year, with Palm Sunday being on March 16, I have started to separate the winter stuff that no longer fits my taste or my body. Join me in bringing garbage bags full of clean clothes to church on Palm Sunday, so that we can remember the ways in which the crowds laid their clothes down for Jesus by offering ours up for the work of Jesus, which is done by those who serve the poor of Trenton.
3. Another good thing about Easter being early this year is the reminder that Easter can never be pegged to a date on a calendar, it is always emerging around us. New life will soon show in our landscape, but every Sunday we see the signs of new life around us in our Church family: infants are now the leaders of the weekly Children’s Sermon Zoo, little children are now seniors in HS and presenting us with perspectives on God in worship on Youth Sunday, children are having children of their own, and more and more of you are reaching out to each other before and after worship to establish the web of relationships that are God’s gift and God’s will for the Church. New life, new roles, new relationships are all pieces of the Easter gift that God gives.

Shalom,

Jack