A New Dawn...

Ahhhh... The Lenten pause is over. It feels great to be back in the chair writing on the bloggy wog again. Thanks for allowing me a wee break. I certainly needed it.

Lent has been a BUSY season for yours truly. I’d go as far as to say the last year has been the busiest of my entire life. I've graduated seminary, been ordained as a priest, and called as a pastor to a wonderful congregation on the other side of the state. We've lived in four different homes since August. We sold our place and bought a new place at the same time within the last month or so. Multiple illnesses have swept through our home since November. And then, last week, I presided over my first Holy Week as a priest (!).

Yes, Holy Week... The US Open for clergyfolk...

We did the whole shebang¹ at our church - Easter's Great ‘Triduum': Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and the Great Vigil of Easter on Saturday night.

I'm so blown away by my congregation for stepping up like they did. From what I understand, they've had a more minimal Holy Week experience in past years, and, well... Their new pastor is no minimalist:) I hope to write more about my experience when it percolates. For now, I'll just say, it was magical. As I looked out onto candlelit faces during the Vigil the night before Easter Sunday, my heart was filled to bursting.

Now that my family and I have moved into our new home and I've had a moment to sit and breathe (just a little), I'm eternally grateful for how life has brought me to this place—literally, on the central coast of California. And ontologically, as one who is finally—after forty-something years—doing what I'm 'called' (to put it in Christianese) to do.

So, again… Thank you for allowing me this Lenten pause. Though I've been busy, I've had some time to reflect on the future of this here bloggy wog...

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Throughout seminary and into the first part of ordained ministry, I saw this blog as a place to share my theological epiphanies and sermons. It was a great outlet for that. But now that I serve a real-life church, I thought... Maybe this blog can be something... Else? Something it started out as, years ago? Something ancillary? Complimentary?

Being a priest is wonderful but weird… Please, dear reader, know I’m not complaining here… But since becoming a pastor and moving to a place where no one knows me from my previous life, I'm finding less and less of a space just to be... Jonas. I’m ‘Pastor Jonas’ here. This is amazing! What a gift. I’m glad my parishioners know me - first and foremost - as ‘Pastor Jonas.’ (I’m still getting used to it.)

The white robe intentionally depersonalizes you, which is wonderful in a church setting. During Mass, I ‘put on Christ’ and give people the Eternal Word that is not just my own. I speak for Christ and not from my own fumbling perspective. When I tell people that they are eternally and unconditionally forgiven and loved, I say that on account of Christ. Not because I—Jonas—have decided that they should be forgiven and loved. But because Christ proclaims that life-restoring truth for them.

However, I think it’s unhealthy for a priest to stay in that robe (proverbially and literally) all the time. We need space to be… us. I think this makes us better pastors when we take our ordained role seriously without forgetting that we, too, are humans who have our own localized perspectives and narratives.

So I’m reminding myself out loud here that... This blog is one of those spaces. Of course, I can't mute being a priest or a pastor. But rather than just a 'Theology blog’ or ‘Christianity blog’ (though it will undoubtedly contain elements of both), this is the blog of a real human who happens to be a (ordained and professional) Christian. An arena for me to be flawed, fumbling, stumbling, and exploring... Jonas. Not just ‘Pastor Jonas.’

During my Lenten pause, I also determined that publishing something meaty here every single day is probably unsustainable.

I'm not sure how often I'll post here. I see the form and frequency of this blog as something that will organically materialize over time, and I don't want to lock in too tightly to a structure right now. But here's my thought at the current moment...

I'll email you every 2-3 days (give or take; again, I’m holding this lightly) with something somewhat substantial.

I may try to post a daily(ish) thought, quote, quip, or proverb in the 'note' section of this blog (see the ‘Note’ tab at the top bar of this publication)². These don't get emailed to you, but you can peruse them when you’d like to.

Before my Lenten pause, I posted my sermons in the 'sermon podcast' on this blog, but I decided to delete that. You can behold all of my sermons at the YouTube page of Christ Lutheran Church (and yes, you should totally subscribe).

Okay, reader. Thanks so much for being here. As always, let this be a conversation. Throw any thoughts (within reason) in the comments below. I read them all, even though I may not respond to them. I don’t know if you do the whole Easter thing, but if you do, let’s enjoy the 50 days of the season where a New Dawn breaks and we step into a reality that we might not be able to see in front of our faces. Though the shadows of daybreak loom large, we know that Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Amen.

Grace + Godspeed,
Jonas+

1. Well, almost the whole shebang. I didn’t keep them there for 3 hours for the Easter Vigil, which would have been the truly whole shebang. But then it might’ve been my LAST Holy Week, so we kept it to just shy of 90 minutes:)

2. I really love this 'Note' feature on Substack. If you have the Substack App, it will update on your feed, and you'll be able to see the notes there in real time (from me and everyone else you follow on Substack). But they don't ping your inbox.