Disciple: A Very Late Spring

By the Rt. Rev. Sam Rodman

Though I understand it has made the rounds of social media in various forms, it was Lynn Hoke, our diocesan archivist, who recently gave me a primer on how to make sense of the seasons in North Carolina. It looked like this:

North Carolina’s 12 Seasons

1. Winter
2. Fool’s Spring
3. Second Winter
4. Spring of Deception
5. Third Winter
6. The Pollening
7. Actual Spring
8. Summer
9. Hell’s Front Porch
10. False Fall
11. Second Summer
12. Actual Fall

As intended, the list makes me smile, but I also find it something of a revelation, especially The Pollening and Actual Spring. This year it is probably safe to say that Easter is taking place during Actual Spring, because even as I write this, my car is already covered in a thin film of yellow. Easter is about as late this year as it ever gets. Of course, the table for determining when Easter falls is almost as enigmatic as the North Carolina spring. Easter is always on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. If there is a Biblical connection to this formula, it is lost on me.

Yet there is something poignant and even poetic about the late date of Easter in 2019. It reminds me of a woman who was a member of our congregation in Milton, Massachusetts, who started attending our church after a long and illustrious career as an English teacher at Milton Academy. People who knew her as a teacher were a bit surprised she had begun attending St. Michael’s. Her curriculum included the overtly religious writings of any number of British luminaries, many of whom are buried in Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey, and she was always quite clear she found their religious sentiment somewhat suspect. In the beginning, she and her husband would show up at the 8:00 a.m. service and disappear almost immediately afterward. But gradually they began to linger, and then they began to show up at other events, including a midweek Bible Study. After a couple of years of increasing involvement, she joined our lay preaching group.

A KIND OF AWAKENING

Somewhere along the way, she shared with me her attendance at church coincided with a kind of awakening she had experienced in the form of poetic inspiration. Despite a lifelong vocation of teaching the poetry of others, she had never written any poetry herself until all of a sudden, several years into retirement, poems began to bubble up from somewhere deep within. They did not emerge fully formed, and she spent long hours shaping them. Eventually, she created a small folio of about 15 poems, and nearly all of them had some connection to biblical characters and the gospel narratives. The folio was titled, “A Very Late Spring.”

So this year, as I reflected on the late date of Easter, I thought again of my parishioner, her story and her collection of poems from her own very late spring. I was reminded that the gift of resurrection reverberating through the Great 50 Days from Easter to Pentecost is a gift that can still surprise us. It dawned on me there is something instructive and important for us to recognize from my parishioner’s journey: It is never too late to discover God doing a new thing in us, among us, for us and with us. Part of what it means to Become Beloved Community, and what it takes to get there, is to look for these moments, mark them, honor and celebrate them.

What is true for us as individual children of God is also true for the communities of which we are part, for our congregations make up the body of Christ. In “organizational development” language this is often referred to as the process of redevelopment, but I find the theological frame of reference more compelling and especially appropriate to the Easter season. A congregation’s “process of redevelopment” can actually be a process of resurrection, rebirth and rejuvenation. This often takes the form of a new missional direction and focus. Sometimes it is in response to the changing landscape of the particular context of the congregation, whether that means the demographic or economic influences of the community in which it is located. Sometimes it is the result of a change in clergy leadership. Sometimes it is simply the movement of God’s spirit, calling a body of people to reimagine their call, their vocation and the way God is inviting them to engage with their particular corner of the world at a particular point
in time.

On a recent visitation to St. Paul’s, Smithfield, I saw a great example of this and was inspired by the ways they are growing in their connection with one another and to the community around them. It seems this reawakening is, at least in part, connected to their decision to build a labyrinth on the property. From its inception, the labyrinth was seen as a gift to the community as well as the congregation. It is visible and accessible to all. It is walked by members of St. Paul’s and by friends, neighbors and even strangers who pass by and are drawn into this holy space. There is a sign of welcome with simple instructions at the entrance. I had the chance to walk it myself after my visit with St. Paul’s and before the service with the congregation of San Jose, the Latino community with whom St. Paul’s shares their worship space.

IT’S NOT TOO LATE

Easter is the season of resurrection, of re-imagination, of new beginnings and of our very late springs. Easter is a season to discover again the call to Become Beloved Community and ask ourselves how the Holy Spirit is inviting us, as a body, to respond to that call in our particular contexts. The gift in all of this is the invitation is not time sensitive, and it never expires. In fact, to paraphrase the old hymn, “it is new each morning.”

It is why it is not too late to take your own next step toward Becoming Beloved Community. It is why today is the perfect day to start a new habit that reconnects you to the land on which you live, even if that land is in an urban setting. It is why it’s the perfect time to reach out to a friend or colleague to take that first step on a project that speaks to your heart. It is why today is another chance to see, really see, those around you and recognize all the ways, big and small, we can demonstrate love for our neighbor.

At any point on our journey, at any stage in our vocational discernment, at any moment of our lives, God may be doing a new thing in us, with us, among us and for us. This is the Easter promise. This is the gift of resurrection power. This is the grace at the heart of our journey and at the center of our vocation as disciples making a difference, and as apostles called to bring the good news of the gospel to our generation, as communities of faith formed and shaped by our new life in the risen Jesus.

Happy Easter!

The Rt. Rev. Sam Rodman is the XII Bishop of the Diocese of North Carolina.