How is everybody doing? The winter has been hard on many people and the question, "How am I doing?" is a good one to take into the continuing Lenten journey.

As I speak, hundreds and hundreds of cherry blossom trees are blooming. Great big magnolias will be out real soon if not already. Daffodils and tulips and shrubs that give off the most aromatic perfume are getting ready to announce spring to Vancouver, the land of eternal spring. My friend Kathy, who is an Anglican priest in Victoria said that she was praying for a snow day. I asked her if she even knew what snow was.

Has anybody seen any, any, signs of spring yet? Geese? Dirty cars? Trees? Days are getting longer. Just last night our clocks sprung ahead. There will be more light at night. Spring is going to come even if our days are still filled with signs of winter. Do you believe this? Do you believe spring is coming? Of course you do. Spring always comes eventually. Spring has come every other year so there’s no reason to believe spring won’t come this year. Our experiences inform our beliefs.

Believe is a big word in our faith. Frederick Buechner describes belief this way, and pay attention to the prepositions in and into: You might say someone is in nursing, or in farming or in teaching or in sports. What you are saying is that, that is what they do during the week, and how they make enough money to enjoy themselves the rest of the time. But when you say that person is into nursing, or into farming or into teaching or into sports, you are saying that they are really into it. They live and breathe nursing, farming, teaching, and sports. They take it home with them. They can’t get enough of it. They take it on a journey and maintain a relationship with it.
And so when Jesus tells Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live. And everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.  The Greek to English translation is believe in but the meaning is believe into. He is not saying, “I am the giver of resurrection and life. He is saying “I am resurrection and I am life.” It's like reading about the most magnificent sunset in a book as compared to actually participating as a witness in the most magnificent sunset. It's not a head thing. It's an experience thing.

As some of you know our moderator, David Giuliano has been going through a turbulence of sorts that life brings to some people. You may have been there yourself. His was a brain tumour on his temple. He wrote in one of his articles last year as he walked in the valley of shadows: “I’ve been procrastinating on sending up a note from the valley—mainly because I don’t know what to say. I would like to be able to say something encouraging to you about the encounter of the
holy in valley of shadows. I want to say something about how, in the midst of the difficult week past, I sensed that God was with me. I can’t right now. Sometimes the journey is like that.” David didn’t say, “What a loser I am. I can’t even put two words together as moderator of the United Church.” He chose to walk with the life in the valley saying,  “God is here with me giving me courage to tell the truth, and assuring me that its okay that right now I can’t seem to do things that I think the church expects me to do as moderator of it. Sometimes the journey’s like that. But Jesus is still in the journey even when its like that.” Even though we walk through the valley of the shadows, the shadows do not overcome us because we believe into the life, Jesus Christ. This life affects the way we live. It makes us walk with a daring heart in the valley of shadows.

Now I have to say that when I preach I try as much as I can to preach more to a congregation and less to individuals. Some of us here will not be able to stay and watch Jesus roll the stone rolled away. And that’s okay. Because some of us here will be able to do that on your behalf. Some of us are ready to walk the valley of shadows with Jesus and these people will bring us a message of good news from the valley. Maybe some of the children will go there for us this week, perhaps with a question that awakens us to the good news of “I am the resurrection and the life”. We walk through the valley of shadows, not as individuals but as God’s people, together in community, with Jesus. And we, the congregation of St. Andrew’s United Church/Dominion City United Church/Green Ridge United Church do believe into this. Jesus Christ, the life and resurrection affects our life and living. We are as a congregation affected by this. Imagine this town/area without this church here and you will know how much Jesus affects us here.

Jesus says, I am the resurrection and the life. Those who dare to live and breathe me, even though they die, will live. And every living person who lives and breathes Jesus Christ and does all that they can to stay in relationship will never die.

The Christian journey walking through Palm Sunday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and Easter Sunday—the journey that we can choose to travel ourselves or else the journey we allow others to travel for us, is a journey through a sort of dying when we live, letting go of others expectations of us, letting go of self-criticism, and accepting the journey we are on, not the one we want to be on but the one we actually are on, and turning toward, believing into, the resurrection and the life.

Do you believe into this?