Across the Pastor’s Desk by Daphne Hamborg

One morning this past summer, my Jack Russell terrier began to raise a terrible ruckus outside. In itself this wasn’t unusual, but when I opened the door to check, I was impressed to see her frantically and emphatically barking and charging at something hidden between the house and the front steps. I thought, “Finally. A gopher.” Although Jacks as a breed are known to be fierce vermin catchers, Macey as a single representative of the species is not. I wasn’t quite sure what to do, but began by pulling her away from the creature cowering in the crevass. Almost immediately, I discovered not a gopher but a small, tortoiseshell cat, who jumped up onto the steps and began purring and rubbing against my legs. I was smitten. I kept her, named her Breezy because she had just breezed in, and have settled into a routine with two pets.

When Breezy arrived, she was friendly but bedraggled. She was skinny, ­— half-starved ­— and initially ate startling amounts of food. I have no idea where she came from. I strongly suspect she was “dumped” — a term used by those of us in the country who are forced to deal with dogs and cats that others drive out from town, remove from their cars and abandon. But that’s another article.

Why begin with Breezy? Because she is a picture, a symbol, for me, that represents most of us at least at one time or another, when we end up frightened, hungering, confused, perhaps even abandoned. We might be left standing in a roadway or cowering, wondering where we can go, what we can do, what will become of us. We long for rescue. We might even just long for hope.

For Christians, Lent is a season of repentence, of sometimes piercing self-examination. And it is also, in its own way, a powerful season of hope. During Lent we can look into our lives deeply, even facing our deepest pain, and know that there is a way through. We call that way Jesus.

Next week is Holy Week. It begins with Palm Sunday, and will see the arrival of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter. It is a week filled with the consideration of pain, but it is much more. Maundy Thursday, the evening of the Last Supper, tells us that we are forgiven; Good Friday, that we are redeemed; Easter, that new and wondrous life will continue to bless and startle us, now and forever.

The times of struggle do not end in this world, but because of Jesus they are changed. They do not have final power or definition. They will fade. Next week reminds us that we have been scooped up in the arms of God, brought into a new life. We call this resurrection. It is ours.

 

Daphne Hamborg is the pastor of Bear Lake and St. Paul Lutheran churches.