It was my own fault that I was at the office on Saturday, the day before Palm Sunday. I planned the meeting after all, giving myself the second of my three six-day work weeks, the fillings of a sandwich I probably shouldn’t have prepared right at the end of Lent. It was humid and stormy and I spent my morning (accidentally) pouring coffee grounds on floor and then (accidentally) dropping hot coffee on my white shoes. But the meeting went so well and the coffee washed out of my shoes just fine and then Holy Week was a lovely blur but at least it smelled like lilies, like all the Easters before where I didn’t spend the next week feeling a little bit like the heel of bread left in in the bag.
Bread and sandwiches and lilies aside (it’s nearly lunchtime in my defense) the Saturday meeting on Palm Sunday eve was to move into the next phase of our parish social justice search committee process. For those who might not know, through the first part of this year a group of parishioners has been meeting regularly to help determine a potential way forward as a parish that truly “does justice,” to borrow a phrase. Palm Sunday Eve marked a moment whereby the group was set free to learn and grow in small groups, to make decisions instead of information gathering led by myself and Fr. Gary. I’m proud of them, I’m proud to know them, and I can’t wait to see what they come up with.
To keep this brief, in deference to the current heel of bread nature of my soul, for the next several Sundays in the Easter season we’ll hear readings from Acts of the Apostles that recount the work of early Christians in their brand-new world — their work setting up communities that do the work of justice.
There is a tenderness in my heart realizing that 2000 ish years later, here we are, still the kind of optimists that Jesus calls us to be. That tenderness smells a bit like lilies.
Happy Easter my friends.
- Rebecca MacMaster, Director of Parish Life