Easter Season as a Period of Goodbye
For what are likely obvious reasons if you read last week’s announcement, I have been thinking a lot about how to say goodbye well. How do I say how much I love you and appreciate you while also in the same breath say my family and I are leaving this wonderful church? Honestly, the only way, with all sincerity, is that I really do believe this is what God is calling us into. That is not to say that God is negating anything about our time together, but I believe it is more an honoring of all we have shared.
One of the ways I have been thinking about this is to consider how Jesus said goodbye to his friends. This is apropos in the season of Easter which could be reframed as a season of goodbye. Jesus is risen from the dead and will be ascending back to his place in heaven after a short period and in our liturgical calendar, this is called the season of Easter. We take 50 days to observe the process of Jesus moving from the way the disciples knew him in his earthly ministry to a new period of the proliferation of the Good News of resurrection and grace by the disciples.
If it took Jesus 50 days to say goodbye, it makes sense that we would spend several weeks in the process of doing so as well. I began the announcement from last week with gratitude which I will continue here. I am grateful for this period of growth and faith we have shared. You have been a blessing to me and my family and I am so very grateful for all of you who have reached out to me to share that my ministry with you has blessed you as well. We still have some time, and so I leave this note to you open ended with an acknowledgement of how hard goodbyes are as well as the way hard goodbyes are a celebration of all the things that have been a part together. I’ll see you Sunday as we continue to celebrate Easter.
We love you and God loves you,
Josh Condon+