Pastor Andrew Hinderlie
April 2021 Pastor’s Pondering
“Though April showers may come your way, they bring the flowers that bloom in May.”
That phrase reminds us of what we look forward to in this season and that flowers need water, even as we do in our daily life and we can be thankful for the word of God and the waters of baptism that sustain us in so many ways.
As we enter April we end with Holy Week’s Maundy Thursday (when our Lord celebrates the Passover and is in the Garden), Good Friday (when our Lord is crucified), Easter Vigil (when our Lord is in the Tomb) and Easter Sunday (when our Lord breaks the bonds of death is raised from the dead!). Holy Week ends as April begins with new life for all.
This past year has seemed like a long Lent that has finally begun to see the light of hope. We have been sustained last year with the hope and promises that come from our faith in Christ Jesus. And the hope we have is in Christ Jesus who comes to us wherever we are, in whatever state we are in and however our life may be at this moment and says to us, “Peace be with you.” They are the very words that the disciples are given by Jesus and they are the very words that we are given as well. We can have peace knowing that Easter is new birth for the whole world.
Every Sunday is a “little Easter” as Martin Luther says when we confess our sins and hear the words of absolution, hear the Gospel proclaiming the Good News of Jesus the Christ, receive the sacrament of Holy Communion that reminds us that Jesus is with us and the Holy Spirit has been poured out upon us thru water and the word and we take that Good News out into the world for all to know that we have Immanuel, God with us, every moment in good and bad times. And that gift that comes to us is through the grace that comes to us from Jesus in the faith that comes from the Holy Spirit.
April is also the month that we will have our annual meeting and we pray for God’s spirit to be with us as we are called back together to do the work God gives us to share the Good News in word and deed in this coming year as faithful followers and disciples of the Christ. The challenges are many but I have confidence and faith that Trinity will continue in the ministry we are called to but more will grow in these ministries reaching out to all those who are seeking a community of faith that lives it out through unconditional love for all God’s creation.
The Gospel text that leads us out of Easter is from Matthew 28: 19-22 “19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
God has watered the world with His grace and with His love through Jesus coming into the world and giving us all this life abundant, and how we receive it is how we will share it. May it be as God has given it to us: for all and freely given without condition.