Between the Waves

If you have been hanging out in the Methodist Church, you should know that there are seasons in the Church year.  Some of these are pretty obvious.  Christmas, Lent, and Easter should be very familiar to you.  Also, Pentecost should be an important day/time in your view of the Church.  But the season we are in, Eastertide, isn't talked about a lot.  Eastertide is the season between Easter and Pentecost.  It is a 40-day period that happens between two very important high points of our liturgical year.  Easter is an obvious peak, as we celebrate the risen Lord.  Pentecost celebrates the birth of the Church, recounted in Acts 2.  So Eastertide is a "between the waves" time.

When I was little, our family would travel to Myrtle Beach every summer.  Dad and I would fish, and Mom and the rest of the family would bask on the beach.  I wasn't much of a beach person, but when I went out on the beach, I would body surf (we couldn't afford a surfboard).  It was a lot of fun to ride those waves in on a windy day, and I was skinny and wiry (not like today) so I was pretty proficient at body surfing.  But in looking back on those days, there were moments of the "high" of riding the waves, and hours of swimming back out, fighting the waves, to get to the next euphoric wave.  Most of the beach time was spent trudging through the push of the waves and the pull of the backwash.

I think that is a bit like life!  We love the peaks.  Waves, vacations, Easter, Pentecost ... the high moments and mountaintops.  But a lot more time is spent in the work and life between the peaks of the waves.

11 disciples are between the waves.  They get glimpses of the glory of God, manifested in the resurrected Jesus.  But these glimpses are moments that happen amid a life that involves uncertainty, peril, persecution, and waiting.  For these 11 disciples, and numerous other followers,  life between the waves can be frustrating.  "When will we see Him again?" "What did He mean when He said He is sending the advocate (John 14:26)?"  "Is there a message embedded in His appearing to us on the seashore (John 21)?"

Between now and Pentecost we will examine life "Between the Waves."  We will look at how we can learn to enjoy, relish, and thrive in these times in the valley of life.  I hope we can learn together, and I hope we will come to find the hope and joy in doing life together ... "Between the Waves."