Summer Warm-up

The word summer occurs only three times in the New Testament, about 25 times in the Old Testament; at least that’s what my Concordance says. If that’s all the Bible has to say about it as a season, maybe we ought to give some thought to what a major season summer has turned out to be for many Americans in recent years. Summer is a season that is really different from the other three. I mean in the sense that who we are and what we look like and do with ourselves changes more. The man next door likes to mow his lawn shirtless. People splash around in pools of water, or go to the shore. Traffic loosens up for a while. Trees and plants and grass grow and sometimes get dryer than ever. We use gallons of “sun block” to protect all the skin we expose and we cook over open fires in the backyard or on the deck, sometimes with comic results. “Cool” is the word for the way we would like to feel, not warm, or dry, or toasty.

 

  

But mostly, our minds change for a couple of months. We change our schedules and expect to do some special things, maybe a trip or at least a few extra days off from work–whatever. We move into a kind of “vacation mode.” We feel we “owe it to ourselves to…” meaning that we get a license to pursue recreation, relaxation, refreshment, and so on, that doesn’t fit as universally into our agenda in the other three season. Actually, summer is a time when you might be finding out who you would really like to be. When you have “free time” your priorities are written large in what you choose to do.

Summer is also the time when Lord of Life opens the windows on a whole array of happy possibilities for new experiences and offering s to find growth in faith and fellowship during the summer months. Wednesday night suppers and devotions in the woods behind the church for the whole family, camps, Vacations Bible School, trips for work parties, bible camps, national youth gatherings and summer camp at church for the young people, bible studies that can be life-changing for all of us, Sunday mornings at worship with everybody together, guests and all (to name only a few). So, plan ahead.

Pentecost is for all seasons, of course, but coming at the beginning of our summer season, for us, it can be like the liturgical opening of another summer of God’s grace–God’s way of warming us up for the year ahead.

Go with God,

Pastor Jansen