Consider the Herring
From The Pastor’s Desk—
I’ve lived and vacationed in several parts of coastal New England, and almost all of them have a herring run. Some are small roadside culverts connecting freshwater ponds; others are larger infrastructures. Some run past old mill sites, others have special ladders to allow the spawning herring to access the pools where they will lay their eggs. This annual migration lends its name to streets, developments, markets, parks, and dozens of other types of locations and businesses.
This geographical lexicon is a testament to the overwhelming importance of the annual herring run to both indigenous people as well as European colonists. Life would not have been possible in these places without the herring, as they provided an abundant source, food, bait, oil, fertilizer, and a chance to capture other animals that prey upon the teeming swarms of fish.
Did you know that the herring have been running the past few weeks? Have you ever taken herring during the run? When was the last time you, or someone you know, did so? Despite the prominence of this seasonal bounty in the lives of our ancestors, now it seems to be mostly invisible. I was riding my motorcycle the other day and saw a few naturalists observing a run in Eastham, but aside from that (as well as word from a few friends interested in aquaculture) this seasonal spectacle seems to have been largely unnoticed and unremarked.
Poet William Carlos Williams wrote: It is difficult to get the news from poems yet men die miserably everyday for lack of what is found there. In the past century and a half, our world has grown busier and more connected. While this allows news and goods to travel with a speed and reach that would have been unheard of in our grandparents' time, it can also serve to divorce us from our immediate environment. We no longer anticipate the return of the herring because we no longer rely on them for food, fuel, and fertilizer.
In this season of Easter, we are invited into a renewed sense of appreciation for the life within us and around us. Early in the life of the church, faithful Christians understood that Christ’s Resurrection was not for Christ, or for the faithful, alone. Rather, the power of Easter was a renewing of all creation, a theme we find amplified in the Book of Revelation, which speaks of a New Heaven and a New Earth.
How are you aware of the power of new life these days? How do you find yourself relating to others, to the world itself? May the newness of Easter draw you deeper into relationship with all of God’s creation.
—Pastor Jon
