Lent

 

³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

 

Today is the beginning of Lent, a season of preparation for the mystery of Holy Week (Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter).  Next week, I will begin a series on reading all four gospels during the season of Lent.  One way we release the anxiety, anger, fear, frustration, hurt, harm, wounds, and wants of the world is to let God get a word in edgewise.  One way we let the good news of Gospel medicine heal us is to read the good news as recorded in the four gospels.  More on that next week.  I do think one of the ways we show up different that I alluded to yesterday is by letting God’s voice get the first, middle, and last word in.  Another way is prayer.  We focused on this a few weeks ago.  Prayer can be a monologue ~ expressing our emotions to God; checking in with what we are sensing in our skin; naming to tame all that is swirling within us.  One final way we seek God’s presence is quiet and stillness.  We will offer that space and place today at noon in our chapel.  We will enter the quiet center where God is at the core to listen.  You are welcome in-person at our chapel at noon. 

 

There will also be an in-person and livestreamed service at 6:30 pm for Ash Wednesday.

 

I pray that over the coming forty days you will pay attention, set your intentions and energy, toward the sacred that stirs and shows up in your life.  Too often our full calendars and busyness can cause us to race past the sacred.  I do this because my anxiety and people please causes me to keep on going because there is always one more thing I could do.  When coupled with the fact that we live in a world where our phones constantly ding with notifications, our email boxes overflow, there is a constant demand that we do something right now, we sense that if we are not exhausted by the time we collapse in bed at night ~ we are not adulting right. 

 

But to live another way will take more than thinking our way into change…or reading another morning meditation from me…or attending a class.  When we read scripture, we dwell in the Word to let the Word dwell in us.  I pray this Lent rather than racing, we would listen for the holy.  Rather than chasing after every problem thinking we are Superman/Wonder Woman/Mighty Mouse here to save the day, we would first start with the gospel truth ~ God is already there.  I know God may not be fixing the problem as quick as we’d prefer, but I believe that God is everywhere, and we show up to open up to that truth.  We seek the realm of God because the realm is here.  You are citizens and saints of God in this less-than-perfect moment (remember God’s grand arrival in a barn at Christmas is still true in February ~ even though the Christmas decorations have long been stored away for another year).  May you and I continue to collaborate and cooperate with our Creator in the coming forty days.  May God grant you a holy Lent, guide you every day of Lent, and ground you in an abiding presence in this season of Lent.  Amen.