This year, May is kind of a “whew!” month for me, as in, “whew, I got through Holy Week and Easter”, and “whew, I finished my trip to St. Louis (with Nicole Greer) to be trained and certified as a Stephen Ministry Leader”, and, “whew, there isn’t all that much going on in May”.
And then I realize that that last, “whew”, isn’t quite right. May 5th the church has the first (annual?) Food and Art Festival, and that has the potential to be a very big event indeed. Food trucks will be here, many artists and craft people and food vendors will be here, and hopefully, the weather is gorgeous and the day is a huge success, filled with great food and great fun and many new people coming to our property to enjoy the food and fun and art. Let me add here a big thank you to Candice for putting this event together. She is doing a lot of great things for St. Luke’s, we are being blessed in many ways by her ministry among us, and I hope you all take a moment this month to say thanks to her for all she is doing at St. Luke’s.
May is also when the church gets ready for JuneFest, our annual Indoor Flea Market. A lot of time and effort goes into making this day happen, and Connie and Charlotte and many other volunteers give a lot of time to make this day happen, not to mention all the folks who donate their items for us to sell. Plus, May 31st is the first day of the Flea Market, and that’s kind of a crazy day (as is June 1st, the second day of the Flea Market). The Flea Market has been a consistent source of revenue for the church, plus a consistent source of fun and discovery, as people drift in and out of the sale, and items sell, and there is laughter and, yes, stress, and we all pull together and it becomes a day of blessing for all who participate in the event.
Then May has Mother’s Day, which is not a very big day at the church but is a very big day in the lives of almost all of our members and friends. It is a day to honor, give thanks, share love, share memories, embrace family, and generally acknowledge all the ways we are blessed by our mothers and grandmothers and all the women who have played a mothering role in our lives. At its best, it is a day given over to love, and those days are always blessed and are always days of blessing.
And suddenly, a month that seems so, well, plain and simple, becomes a month filled with times of blessing, times of being blessed, and times of being a blessing. Even the simplest times of our lives can be times of blessing and love if we are willing to see if we are willing to open ourselves to those gifts. Even the simplest times can be sacred and can remind us of all the ways we come together as the people of God. Even the simplest of times, the most mundane of times, can be special when we come together in love and fellowship and service.
May can be a month that allows us to share our lives and our time and our talents together, as the church, and as friends and neighbors, brothers and sisters in Christ, even when it doesn’t have the “big” things like an Easter Sunday or a week-long educational trip or special worship services. Even Food and Art Festivals, and Flea Markets become holy events, blessed and blessing events, when we do them together in Christian love.
Christ calls us to live together in community, as God’s holy people, and this month of May gives us great opportunities to do just that. I hope and pray many of you will be part of these events, that many of you will come together to give and receive the blessings of community and fellowship, the blessings of work and play, food and fun, the blessings of Christian love being lived out in countless small ways, ways that also bless and change our lives. In so many ways, I hope to see you all in church!
Peace,
Pr. Paul