August often seems to be a time when things are about to happen: children are about to go back to school, vacations are about to be over, activities are about to start up again, fall harvest is about to begin. Nothing wrong with having a cycle to the year. We all associate particular times in the year with particular things.

But one thing the Church year teaches us is to associate times in the year with the life of Christ. Even in this hot, dry time of the year, the color on the altar and on the pastor is green. The life of Christ that flows to us in Word and Supper never dries up, never gets low, never needs to be restricted. Often, we unintentionally associate the summer time with vacation from every routine, including the Lord’s Day-to-Lord’s Day routine that the Resurrection of Jesus and the Church year instill in us. An unintentional fruit of that unintentional association is that regularly hearing and receiving the Lord’s gifts (whether here at Faith or together with another faithful congregation) can become a casualty of the summer’s irregular routine. It is exactly the routine of Sunday to Sunday that should remain intact no matter what. If we or our children learn to associate going to church with going to school, they will also (perhaps subconsciously) expect to outgrow church like they will outgrow formal schooling. Is this why confirmation instruction is associated, despite our best efforts, with graduation?

If your children are still young, this is encouragement to continue providing for your children’s spiritual formation even during the summer. If your children are grown, you cannot redo things either way. But whether your children are young or have children of their own, the point of these words is this: Christ remains who He is the whole year round. The green of the paraments and vestments and the promises we hear each week are your oasis in the desert of this world: in the dry heat of summer and in the dead cold of winter; in the growth of spring and in the abundance of autumn. He never leaves us or forsakes us, and His promises remain what they are, until things are no longer about to happen, but are all fulfilled. That’s the refreshment that Christ gives, even better than a cold drink of water on a 100-degree day!

Pr. Winterstein

*St. Augustine (354-430 AD), Bishop of Hippo in North Africa, said, “For you I am a bishop [overseer]; with you I am a Christian.”