One of my favorite authors throughout the 40+ years of my ministry has been Frederick Buechner. Over the years his work has found its way into my writing and preaching. However, I am reminded again I am not alone in my admiration. A memorial article published in the October issue of The Christian Century observed “During the 1980s and 1990s, [Buechner] was quoted from American pulpits more often than anyone [else] alive at the time.”
On the liturgical clock, this Sunday, traditionally called Christ the King, is the Church’s equivalent of 11:59 PM on December 31. Next Sunday, November 27, we begin the new Church Year with the first celebration of the season of Advent, the season of hope.
Early in October Judy and I took our Miata on a 16-day, 3200-mile road trip we referred to as the “Southwest Tour.” Our route included stops in Hamilton, Missouri, Colorado Springs, Colorado, Corrales, New Mexico, and McKinney, Texas.
As I have had opportunity to visit some of the elders of St. Luke’s I’ve learned from them we have a long and rich history of creating tie-quilts for Lutheran World Relief. Among our “shut-ins” are women who remember day long quilt workshops with large crews of cutters and piecers and as many as three sewing machines running at any one time. However, these quilters had heard little first-hand witness to the on-the-ground impact our donated quilts had.
Every year (at least every year pre-pandemic) Judy and I threw an Epiphany Open House in early January. It’s a
great way to extend the holiday season and bring a little light to the long, cold, dark month which is January.
Our guest list drew from the various worlds to which we are connected – co-workers, neighbors, friends,
members of our car club. There would be between thirty and forty people who attended in any given year.
Our 2020 calendar included five out-of-state road trips, all cancelled with the onset of COVID- 19. During the winter of 2021 – 2022, seeing the growing percentage of the population achieving a level of immunity due either to vaccination or infection, reading about declining rates of hospitalizations and death, and trusting that the trajectory of the disease would continue in the right direction, Judy and I planned 2022 as the year of the road trip. We have six road trips on the calendar between the beginning of June and the middle of October, everything from an “over-nighter” in southern Wisconsin to a sixteen day “southwestern tour” including Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas.
To many cultures shaped by Christian tradition, this pre-Lenten season is a time of celebration, a time to “eat and drink.” It is no wonder we think of partying, especially if we remember this year the season began with the story of Jesus making gallons and gallons of wine for a wedding celebration. Jesus ate and drink, and his disciples with him.