New Season: New Life

 A Story for the Coming of Spring

Tomorrow, March 20, at 5:24pm, marks the Spring Equinox.  In other words, tomorrow is the first day of Spring!  

People of different cultures welcome the arrival of spring in a variety of ways—

·       Every year, hundreds of thousands of people climb 360 steps up the ancient Pyramid of the Sun near Mexico City.   When they get to the top, they throw their arms up to the sun and welcome Springtime.

·       In India, the first day of Spring is called the Festival of Colors.  During this festival, people walk through the streets, throwing colored powder on each other.

·       In Gloucester, England, they roll a huge wheel of cheese down a steep street called Cooper’s Hill.

     The people of Thailand reach for their cannon-sized water guns, buckets, pressure hoses, or any other creative way they can think of to drench their neighbors in water on the first day of spring.

·       And finally, each Spring Equinox, at sunrise, people living in the town of Zenica in Bosnia, gather at the Bosna River and enjoy a community breakfast of scrambled eggs.

Spring is a season worth celebrating!  It is a season of promise and hope as we see new life springing up all around us.  Each day in springtime grows longer and warmer.  There are fresh, new leaves coming out on the trees, and beautiful flowers like daffodils and crocus tell us that Spring has arrived.  

Christians around the world welcome Spring with joy.  When Spring comes, we know that Easter will soon be here.  And Easter is the most important day of the year for those who love and follow Jesus.

You’ll hear more about Easter and why it is such an important day in the coming weeks.  For now, let’s thank God for Spring and all the promise and new life it holds.

MOVING DAY

God's Call to Abram and Sarai

2nd Sunday in Lent, Year A
Genesis 12:1-4a
Prop: A moving box

Good morning!  How many of you have moved from one home to another?  How many of you have always lived in the same home?  When I was young, my family and I moved around a lot.  I was born in Hollywood, California.  Then when I was five weeks old (I barely remember it), my family and I moved to Western Springs, Illinois.  Then we moved to Park Forest, IL, then to Union, Missouri, then back to Park Forest, then to Belleville, Illinois, then back to California.  A few weeks later, I started third grade. 

Moving from one home to another is a lot of work.  You have to go through everything you own, decide whether to take it with you, sell it, give it away or trash it.  You put all of your toys, books and clothes in boxes which often get loaded into a big truck with your furniture and taken to your new home.  Once your stuff arrives, it has to be taken off the truck and put away at the new place.  It’s exhausting!

Many, many years ago—about 3,900 years ago—God asked a man named Abram and his wife, Sarai, to move to a new place.  Abram and Sarai were used to moving.  They were nomads, and their home was a tent.  They would set up camp in a place and live there for a while, and then move to a new place where there was new grass for the animals to eat, fresh water, a different view of the desert.  But God wanted them to move to someplace far, far from the land they called home.  It would be like starting over completely.  They wouldn’t be able to visit their old friends and their family would be far away, too. 

God had an important reason for asking Abram and Sarai to move away from everything and everyone they knew to start over again.  God wanted to do something brand, new.  He wanted Abram and Sarai to be the start of a new nation—a nation of people devoted to God.  God said, ““Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. ² And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.”

And do you know what?  They went.  They packed up their tent and all of their stuff, loaded everything onto camels and headed off to a new adventure, a new life, a new relationship with God.  They stepped outside of their comfort zones in faith.  God richly blessed Abram and Sarai and in turn they were a blessing to others.  

Thanks be to God!