New Life

This time last year, I was in my first week of retirement from the parish. I was more than a little lost. There were lots of projects around the house I’d let slide that could occupy my time. There was a course in the Fall at the seminary I needed to prepare for. The blog gave me a chance to theologize a little. But with all that, there was a vacuum.

Gone was the weekly preparation for and teaching of the adult ed Sunday class I’d taught for years. Gone was the almost weekly homily for a weekday Eucharist and the once a month sermon for Sunday morning’s multiple services. An equally big loss I felt was the daily contact with other staff members and parishioners. They were my friends and suddenly I didn’t see them or talk to them anymore. In a real sense, life seemed, if not over, certainly diminished.
Easter Sunday is just past and this is Easter week. Both are times of thinking about resurrection and the new life that results.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus tells Mary not to cling to him. He has a new life to pursue, an ascended life. In another Gospel, he tells her to tell his followers to meet him in Galilee. There he will commission them for new work.

That’s what’s happened to me. I have new work. Life didn’t end after all. It certainly changed, but it didn’t end. Just as in death and resurrection. I’m teaching, both at the Seminary, and a short class at the church we attend. The University of Memphis keeps me busy leading workshops that help people improve their lives. Parkview Retirement Community has asked me to lead a worship service twice a month for them—something I’d done for years before retiring. Thinking I would like never preach or celebrate again was a real loss, but in my new life I get to keep doing it after all.

Life is different. I still miss my friends, though we stay in touch with emails and the occasional lunch or after work drink. But I’ve discovered I can still feel productive and useful and have the sense that I’m still doing the work I was called to do.

I hope you can have that same sense of new life as you reflect on the meaning of Easter.

Peace,

Jerry+