Palm Sunday Blizzard

This post is ridiculously past due, but I'm posting it anyway.  Here in Kansas City we've had a crazy winter.  November and December were mostly like the previous year - warm and dry.  It got colder in January but it looked like we might be in for another mild year.  Then the last week of February, only a week or two after the ground hog had assured us that spring was just around the corner, we had two installments of snow adding up to a foot or more.  It took forever for it to melt.

Just about the time we were seeing grass again, the clergy or our diocese gathered for our annual overnight meeting.  Diana Butler Bass was our guest speaker.  She spoke about cultural and population trends that are and will continue to impact the church over the next few years.  It gave us a lot to think about.  One of her comments is that she doesn't think in terms of church growth, but of church depth.

I liked that.  Much of the way we talk about success and struggle in the church during the years I've been ordained involves numbers:  how many new members?  how many dollars pledged? what percentage larger or smaller are we this year than last year? We're in the habit of measuring our success by numbers. But the numbers may steal our attention away from considering how people's lives are changed by the work of the church and by their involvement in it.  These last two things are more about depth than growth. It completely changes your perspective when you think about it that way.

The big religious holidays can be a real ego booster.  Looking at a congregation that fills the church feels good and I looked forward to it the week before Palm Sunday.  We prepared for the day as usual.  Our palm leaves were ordered, the choir was rehearsed and our route for an outdoor procession was planned.  As the day approached, that outdoor route gave way to an indoor alternative.  The weather was predicted to be chill and rainy on that morning.  Our choirmaster who is not fond of processing and singing outdoors had jokingly suggested to the choir that they pray for rain on Palm Sunday.  Next time you need prayer, give me a call and I will put them to work.  As the weekend approached, the forecast changed.  We were now expecting another several inches of snow to fall through the night before Palm Sunday.

And it fell.  I spent the night in my office at the church in order to assure having a priest on hand in the morning.  As the sun rose, our snow removal crew tackled the parking lot with plows and a bobcat, just in case the usual crowds might be able to get there.  But they didn't.  We had already sent text messages to choir members and servers advising them to be cautious about travel in the morning.  Phone calls and text messages began to come through letting us know that streets were impassable.

A group of 15 of us gathered for worship that day.  Several walked - among them an out of town visitor from Port Townsend, Washington.  A few drove and a couple more rode the bus.  A day or two later the weather began to warm and it all melted.

 It's really about more than how many people are there.