Minister’s Musings

Minister’s Musing by Rev. Julie Lombard

As the buds appear at the tips of the bare branches after a late winter storm, we are

reminded that hope prevails. Spring comes, salvation is ours. The snow will melt away as

it prepares our sleeping landscape to turn green again. In April, salvation is our worship

theme which also invites us to celebrate Palm Sunday, Easter Sunday, and Earth Day.

It seems every March we get a late winter’s snow, sometimes it arrives in April. But this

snow, no matter the amount, never remains long. It cannot complete with the longer days

of sunlight returning to warm our corner of the earth. The snow is a cool tease because we

are ready for winter to end. April seems a creatively maladjusted month. How could

anything grow when the seasons can’t seem to make up their minds? But it happens, spring

returns and we rejoice.

Martin Luther King, Jr. said, “Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively

maladjusted.” In other words, those who believe, desire, and do differently will lead the

transformative way that secures salvation for human kind. It is not by doing the same old

routine that will bring about a change. It is by changing our perspective and our actions

that we see the world in a new way. As the sun changes its position in the sky, ever so

slightly, day after day, the warmth returns and with it comes new growth.

Buddha said, “Work out your own salvation. Do not depend on others.” That sounds like a

faith’s motto for a united church as we honor each individual on their own spiritual path

where ever it may lead them. Surely with all our differences, we still come together for

some good purpose. There must be a greater purpose for our gathering other than it makes

us feel good to see each smiling face again after a long cold winter.

Thomas Aquinas claimed, “Three things are necessary for the salvation: to know what one

ought to believe; to know what one ought to desire; and to know what one ought to do.”

These theologians remind us that we come together because we believe we are stronger

together and our like mindedness and heartedness is a salvation of its own. We come

together because we desire and value freedom and justice for all. It is our aim to share our

unique variety of freedom and justice with the wider world. We want it to be a beacon to

those who seek it. It may not be the desire of every soul, but our creative maladjustment is

the salvation to those who seek it. Let us be the hope that prevails for them. Plato said,

“Courage is a kind of salvation.” May we continue to have the courage to offer something

different, something creatively maladjusted.