This month we get to celebrate Easter again! I am really looking forward to lilies, great music, and wonderful resurrection stories. And because winter was so long this year, I am really looking forward to spring, too! But first we have Holy Week: Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday. Parts of these services can be difficult, and somewhat dark. But we must read these stories if the Easter story is going to make any sense. There is no resurrection without death.
This is mostly likely going to be the last newsletter article I write. The last 11 years have been some of the happiest and most fulfilling of my life and my ministry. Mary and I have loved living here and loved being a part of this congregation. This is where Mary became a Lutheran! Lutheran Church of the Master will always occupy a special place in our hearts. I give thanks to God for our years here and our years of ministry together.
There is a time of transition ahead for all of us. For LCM it means forming a call committee, filling out a Ministry Site Profile and other paperwork. It will mean meeting with the Assistant to the Bishop, Phil Misner. And eventually interviews. First, of course, there will be “fill -ins” on the Sundays after I leave. And the Bishop herself will be here in May.
I would also encourage you to contact me (email, phone, text, in person) if there is anything you need to say to me before I go. If I have offended you in any way, I would like a chance to apologize and put things right. If there is gratitude or disappointment or questions you have or need to express please do not hesitate. I really would like to end well. For my own sake but also for the sake of the next pastor.
Endings are difficult. They just are. But I look forward to a new beginning for LCM and for me and Mary. Easter is all about death and resurrection, and not just in the past, but in our Christian walk, here and now.
Please pray for me, as I am praying for all of you.
God’s peace,
Pr. Bob
