A Message from the (Rev.) Pope - April 2010

Yesterday I took a moment to venture outside of the church walls and into the grounds. I took a folding chair and a Bible and sat facing the sun and the scattered white puffy clouds that floated lazily by in a sky of the purest blue. It was about 72 degrees with a slight breeze, the kind of day in which just a hint of coolness in the air mixes perfectly with the warmth of the sun, seemingly inviting anyone who is listening to “come and sit awhile.” As I sat there, I simply closed my eyes and reveled in the warmth of the sun on my face and I thanked God for spring, for how sweet is it’s coming after waiting out the winter. It felt like thawing out. It felt like being re-introduced to the beautiful world that God has made. It felt like…like stinging…and itching.
The gnats had found me. And so I folded up my chair, closed my Bible, and hauled back inside to get on with the day. Just like that my glorious springtime moment was over. And that, as we all know, is life in Coastal Georgia. When the weather is the most beautiful, our insect friends are at their most spry. If you want to venture into sights and smells of spring, you must pay the price of bug spray, swatting, slapping and itching. But we venture on nonetheless because the sweetness is worth the bitter sting of sand gnats and mosquitoes.
That’s not just life in Coastal Georgia, that is the Christian life too – the good and the bad, light and dark, sweetness and bitterness mixed together. After the winter of Christ’s suffering and death, spring came in his resurrection and victory over sin and death. The disciples were there for the whole thing. And they were there when Christ ascended and left the Spirit to be with them. In the wake of such joyful and warm moments the disciples faced persecution, division, and the hardships of being the Body of Christ, now that his body was no longer with them. We are in the same boat. And as we celebrate Easter we rejoice in the warmth of new life, knowing that the bitterness of death and the sting of our humanity are always with us – but knowing that winter always ends with spring, and that one day spring will come fully and finally at last – no more tears, no more death, and, we can hope, no more sand gnats either.