Lent Week Four

 

Please pray this beautiful prayer/blessing from Kate Bowler with me:

 

a blessing when you can’t fake it (or make it?)

I have been propped up on my toes, peering over fences but mostly staring at the peeling paint.  Hoping has become longing.  Wanting has become needing. I can see love everywhere but here. There is a naturalness to the way other people experience their joys popping up like tender, spring grasses. The earth, it seems, is always warm and autumn seedlings break open and bring life, life, everywhere. And I chew on my lip as neighbors roll their eyes at relationships, children, plans—gifts I would tear open like a Christmas present. What riches. Scatter my heart like a dandelion, drifting high over these walls and setting down, gently, where good things grow. Contentment and wonder, surprise and new adventure, comfort in the hands of those who know love’s value and love’s cost. Envy will be blown away by another breeze and I rest here waiting, waiting for the blooms.

Lent Week Four ~ Delores Williams

 

Women’s History Month is a call to open our ears and hear voices that come from diverse perspectives.  Delores Williams is a Womanist Theologian.  She was an African American who wrote the brilliant book, “Sisters in the Wilderness”.  She built on the voices, like Sojourner Truths famous quote, “Ain’t I a Woman?” and helped to expand our understandings of faith with her insights.  Slowly read the following two quotes from Williams:

Faith has taught me to see the miraculous in everyday life: the miracle of ordinary black women resisting and rising about evil forces in society, where forces work to destroy and subvert the creative power and energy my mother and grandmother taught me God gave black women.”

 There is nothing divine in the blood of the cross ... As Christians, Black women cannot forget the cross, but neither can they glorify it. To do so is to glorify suffering and to render their exploitation sacred. To do so is to glorify the sin of defilement ...

 

What is your response to these two quotes?  What thoughts are evoked and provoked?  Do they stretch you?  Where are you seeing the miracle of the everyday, especially in the courage and conviction of our siblings on the margin?  How does Williams’ beautifully unique voice send you in a new direction?  I pray you will expand your list of female voices this month.  Read the voice of a new author, especially one who does NOT share your background.  Listen to the podcast of a female who comes from a different perspective.  Women’s History Month should invite us into a conversation with a multitude of beloved daughters of God who are still speaking and singing in the spirit of Sophia, or wisdom in the book of Proverbs.  Sophia, who sings to us, calling us back to God’s way in a time when so many voices want to pull us to consume and lash out at each other.  Stretch yourself today and listen to the voice of someone unfamiliar as a way for God to get a word in edgewise.  Amen.

Lent Week Four ~ Therese of Lisieux

 

Therese of Lisieux was born in 1873 and lived only until 1897.  In her short, sacred life she wrote, “The Little Flower of Jesus”.  You can find out more about her online or read her book.  For today, savor these quotes from her:

 

The value of life does not depend upon the place we occupy. It depends upon the way we occupy that place.

 

Perfect love means putting up with other people's shortcomings, feeling no surprise at their weaknesses, finding encouragement even in the slightest evidence of good qualities in them.

 

Jesus, help me to simplify my life by learning what you want me to be and becoming that person.

 

I recently heard that annoyance is the price of community.  We can frustrate and flummox each other.  We can push each other’s buttons.  And, this is true not only for others, but for you.  I annoy people ~ perhaps with my lame jokes or side comments or constant talking.  We base much of our lives on what we accomplish or achieve, rather than how we occupy and show up.  We judge based on numbers rather than character.  Ponder, how do you want to show up today?  How might you hold gently the weaknesses and foibles of others?  Let these quotes sing to your soul this day in ways that surprise and delight and stretch you.  Amen.

Lent Week Four ~ Women's History Quotes

 

I pray today you are continuing to remember women who have left fingerprints on your soul and inspired your life.  I pray your list is growing longer as you suddenly remember that 3^rd grade teacher who instilled in you a love of reading.  By the way, my 3^rd grade teacher was Mrs. Lord (no kidding!).  She was thoughtful, kind, and generous.  I still remember her giving me extra pretzel sticks when we were making a log cabin for Abraham Lincoln’s birthday in February.  Why, why would we glue a perfectly good (and delicious) pretzel stick on a piece of construction paper?  I don’t remember, but I think I ate more than I glued.  In the spirit of that, read slowly these quotes from Julian of Norwich.

 

The fullness of joy is to behold God in everything. God is the ground, the substance,
the teaching, the teacher, the purpose, and the reward for which every soul labors.

 

As truly as God is our Father, so truly God is our Mother. (note that Julian wrote in the 1300s!)

 

Between God and the soul there is no between.

 

What stirs and swirls in response to these quotes?  When have you experienced and encountered God’s mothering care?  When have you felt the distance between God and your soul evaporate in the blink of an eye?  What objections do you have to Julian, what questions?  Write down your responses.  Then, re-read the quotes and see if anything shifts or something new stirs within you.  May you and I feel God’s presence grazing our skin and entering our souls in these days.  Amen.

Lent Week Four ~ Women's History

 

We are in the middle of Women’s History Month.  As the History Channel’s website reminds us, we “dedicate (this) month to reflect on the often-overlooked contributions of women to U.S. history.  From Abigail Adams to Susan B Anthony, Sojourner Truth to Rosa Parks, (we study) the timeline of women’s history milestones stretching back to before the founding of the United States.  There is a great website:

https://www.history.com/articles/womens-history-us-timeline

that will give you an overview of women who have left fingerprints on the soul of our nation.

 

This is also a wonderful month to honor the current women shaping and sustaining your life.  Name aloud women in your life whose care and compassion make you who you are.  Name aloud your mother, aunt, next door neighbor growing up, Sunday School teachers, mentors, colleagues, friends who show you the sacred feminine through whom God’s image shimmers and shines.  Name aloud women in our church leading and lighting the way in these days.  Close your eyes and bring to your mind’s eye those whose presence is part of you always. 

 

This week, I will offer a few quotes from women who shape my faith.  To be sure, this doesn’t even begin to do justice to the voices who inform, inspire, and infuse my life.  Slowly savor this quote from St. Teresa of Calcutta: 

 

“It is easy to love the people far away. It is not always easy to love those close to us. It is easier to give a cup of rice to relieve hunger than to relieve the loneliness and pain of someone unloved in our own home. Bring love into your home, for this is where our love for each other must start.”

 

Where does this quote stir your soul?  What does it stretch your imagination or your comfort?  What is your response?  Write down your reaction to this quote.  Then, re-read the words.  Did you notice something different this time?  Continue to let these words move, mingle, and mix in your life this day.  Amen. 

Lent Week Three

 

Today, I invite you to pray these words of Bishop Charleston with me.  Speak each word aloud slowly, letting the syllable slowly leap off your tongue, leaving behind a savory/spicy/sweet taste.  Pause at the end of each sentence to give what you just prayed aloud time to sing and sink into your soul.  Read and re-read, rinse and repeat, until these words have wedged their way into your heart and until God has been discovered in what you are praying.  These are God’s words to you:

 

Let me celebrate your outrageousness, your odd quirks, and your essential strangeness.  That’s what I like best about you; that is what I admire.  You not only move to the beat of a different drum, but you have a whole symphony.  You notice what many of us never see.  You find what the rest of us forgot we lost.  You have bypassed the need to be with the in-crowd and have created a community of dreamers.  I, for one, honor your weirdest vision and your most unconventional idea.  Without you, the world would be a bad movie.  So, from one oddball to another, thank you for being what you are not.  Steven Charleston

Lent Week 3 ~ Quote of the Day

 

I guess you could say I have a working-class spirituality.  I think you have to put a little sweat equity into what you believe.  You have to practice what you preach.  Justice does not just happen.  Compassion is not a spectator sport, but something I have to exercise as I roll up my sleeves to do my part in creating a better community.  I need to put in my hours as a volunteer.  I have to join the prayer crew and put my life on the line to make a difference.  The world will change not by wishes, but by the labor of love we call faith.  Spirituality is not a spa, but a construction site, where we build hope one heart at a time.  Steven Charleston

 

As you read the quote this morning, ponder, where are the calluses on your soul from having worked out your faith?  Paul says to the church in Philippi, “Work out your salvation/faith/life with fear (or awe or contemplation or openness) and trembling (or the beautiful uncertainty that we don’t know what we don’t know.  We all still are students in the class of Failure 101).  See Philippians 2:12.  We participate with God in building/remodeling our faith.  We participate in a Divine Dance where God infuses and inspires us.  God nudges us.  God works to escape through us, but our agendas and busyness make it difficult to sense the traces of grace.

 

Where have you had a working-class spirituality ~ sweat on the brow, callus on your hands, muscles strained and labored breathing kind of faith?  This might connect to the Morning Meditation from Tuesday, because my spirituality works hardest (perhaps too hard?) in times of difficulty.  In times of trouble, in times of ache when achievement won’t come, no matter how much I plot and plan, this is difficult.  In times of struggle and stress, working with God for justice, those can be the hardest moments.  When people keep choosing cruelty over compassion, hate over healing, bullying over vulnerable love.  When people keep skipping Failure 101, because they are perfect in their own minds.  Consider, who do you want to be with at a party?  Someone who has a bit of dust on their soul, ache in their voice, and laughter in their heart OR someone who continually says, “Well, I was born perfect and have achieved everything I ever wanted with barely breaking a sweat”?  Over-confident people have made gods of their own image and worship at the altar of the ego.  Too often, we are lured and led by such certainty as history rubs her forehead saying, “I am tired of repeating myself!!” 

 

I love Charleston, who says Spirituality, and the church/religion/faith, is not a day at the spa but a construction site.  So grab a hard hat, hammer, and roll up your sleeves today for the ongoing invitation of Micah to participate in God’s justice, to embody God’s love/kindness, and remember your human-size-ness each moment this day.  Amen. 

Lent Week 3 ~ Quote of the Day

 

A little laughter along the way never hurts.  A few smiles, sprinkling the brown sugar on oatmeal, help keep our daily reality from becoming relentlessly static.  Life is hard enough.  We need our sense of humor like a lifeline, bringing us back to balance, keeping things in perspective, offering us a chance to see light even in the midst of night.  The platypus and the camel are with us for a reason.  They remind us that at the core of creation is a heart full of whimsy.  Lauther is a gift with a purpose, for when we laugh, we pray.  Death may frown, but the soul finds a reason to smile every time. Steven Charleston

 

Today, I invite you to go do something that makes you laugh!  Yes, laughter and Lent can go together ~ or at least I am going to try to convince you to attempt that today!  Pull up YouTube videos of your favorite comedian.  Stream classic comedies you watched growing up.  Read a book of jokes.  Find joy today ~ or better yet ~ let joy find you in serendipitous and surprising and sacred ways that we all need in such a time as this.  And joy is a gift that longs to be shared with others.  It is wonderful to watch a comedian alone, but even better to share with someone else.  What brings you joy that erupts in laughter?  Let this be our prayer practice today.  Ready?  Set.  Go!

Lent Week Three ~ Quote of the Day

 

One of the spiritual skills we need to practice is how to deal with disappointment.  Prayer is not a vending machine.  We sometimes do not get what we request.  Life can constantly surprise us, and not always in a good way.  Someone else got the job we wanted.  Our bright idea was passed over by the very program we helped create.  It is not easy to come in last.  Disappointment is the price of admission for trying, and it often teaches us more than success.  Wisdom is the value of trying again, and it offers us more than we first wanted or ever expected.  Steven Charleston

As you read the quote above slowly, what springs off the screen immediately?  Sit with the first thing you noticed when you read the words.  Now sit with your reaction and response.  Let grace be part of the conversation.  If you disagree with the quote, ask, “Why”?  If you agree, still ask, “Why”?  If you are indifferent, what might that be about?

 

Re-read the quote slowly.  This time, allow the wisdom to resonate with your life.  When have you treated prayer like a vending machine, that if you just get the words right to God, it would be like feeding a wrinkled dollar bill into the vending machine slot?  When have you been surprised by your life?  Notice, I didn’t ask about being surprised by the news or your social media feed, but consider when you were surprised by your one wild and precious life this week?  When did disappointment pay an unwelcome and uninvited visit to your life?  Hold these sharp, jagged edges of your beautiful life.  Is there any wisdom you can now see reflecting like a rainbow through the shards where you once only saw brokenness?

 

Re-read the quote again, letting your mind, heart, and soul marinate in the message without having to respond or react or do anything other than sit quietly with these words.  This is the chance to turn off your brain for a few moments to be with the words.

 

Re-read a fourth time, considering how disappointment might be a teacher?  I know that I don’t want to enroll in Failure 101 as part of the curriculum of my life.  And because I resist this class, it continues to persist.  Because I sit in the back of Failure 101, doodling in my notebook, not paying attention to the teacher.  Because of this, I have to keep repeating remedial classes in Failure/Disappointment/Welcome to the Human Race 101.  How might what Bishop Charleston is saying to us be the balm to heal your wounded, aching soul today?  May these words settle and sing to our souls individually and collectively in these days.  Amen.

Lent Week 3 ~ Quote of the Day

 

I don’t know if I am spiritual or stubborn or a combination of both.  But the more the bad news piles up, the more determined I am to respond to it with the good news I feel so clearly in my mind and heart.  Yes, life is hard.  It is full of suffering and sorrow – and believe me, I have had my fair share.  But life is also beautiful, full of moments that are transcendent in their healing and love.  I know because I have been blessed by more of them than I can count.  I cannot change the reality of pain and loss, but I can claim the reality of grace and joy.  Maybe I am just stubborn, but I want my last word to be not a complaint but an alleluia.  Steven Charleston

 

This week, we turn to the wisdom of Steven Charleston.  He is a leading voice of justice for Indigenous people, the environment, and spiritual renewal.  He is a member of the Choctaw Nation and served as the Episcopal bishop of Alaska.  He was the president and dean of the Episcopal Divinity School and a professor at Luther Seminary.  He lives in Oklahoma with his wife. 

 

As has been our Lenten practice, each day you will be invited to engage in a sacred reading of a quote.  I encourage you to take time, slowly savor, and let the spirit of the words infuse/inspire your life.   

 

First, read the quote above, and notice/name your response.  How have you been stubbornly faithful recently?  What words/thoughts/stories are you clinging to?  You can listen to the stories you tell about yourself to others.  I wonder if there is a way you feel the Holy is clinging to you stubbornly?  Are you holding onto anger, anxiety, stress, your way, grace, love, complaint, or alleluia?  If you are like me, you just yelled, “Yes!!  All the above!!”  How is that shaping you?

 

Second, re-read the quote, this time letting it intersect your life.  Where are you trying to change the past reality of pain and loss?  How can the reality of grace, love, and joy enter into even that moment here and now?

 

Third, re-read the quote, and sit quietly with the wisdom of the words.  Maybe on this third reading, you notice something in the quote you missed the first two times through, or maybe you feel a sensation surge in your soul.  What is one truth you hear in the stillness of sitting with this quote that causes your heart to shout, “Hallelujah!!”

 

Finally, consider the quote: how might the words above inform and inspire your living today?  Be specific, where will you show up today differently because of what you are reading above?  Maybe it will be to share good news and God’s love where there feels like there is none.  Your prayerful intention doesn’t have to be drastic or dramatic, but move the needle of your soul a tinge in a new direction and toward the destination of God’s guiding grace this day.  

Lent Week 2 ~ Quotes

 

Lord, catch me off guard today. Surprise me with some moment of beauty or pain so that at least for the moment, I may be startled into seeing that you are here in all your splendor, always and everywhere, barely hidden, beneath, beyond, within this life I breathe.  Frederick Buechner

 

When have you been caught off guard by God recently?  The ability to be surprised is one of the holiest prayer practices in a world of information overload, where we may feel like there is nothing new under the sun.

 

When did you behold or feel held by the holy recently?  This doesn’t have to be splashy or spectacular, just an ordinary everyday moment you didn’t see coming ~ or a blink and you almost missed it kind of moment.

 

Have you picked up any new insight or questions so far on the road to resurrection this year?  Have you held the tension of crucifixion and resurrection ~ the terrible and beautiful ~ of life in a different way?  Doesn’t have to be some profound eureka moment.  Just a soft, tender, timid insight you may not utter aloud or see the light of day yet. 

 

Hold and be held, release and be received by a grace that longs to fill you each moment of this day.  Amen.  

Lent Week 2 ~ Quote of the Day

 

Resurrection means that the worst thing is never the last thing.  Frederick Buechner

 

After a few lengthy quotes from Buechner, we take time today with a single sentence.

 

A few questions:

What was the worst thing in your life this year?  Name, notice, pray, shout it aloud.

What was your response and reaction while living through that worst moment?  How do you view that event or experience today?

Here you are with the truth of the terrible thing, still breathing, still striving or struggling, and surviving.  What does that reality provoke in you?

What if resurrection isn’t just a restoration of the past (remember Jesus says to Mary do not cling to me) or a recitation of breath, but resurrection can feel like something new?  And resurrection always bears the wounds of yesterday into the newness of what might be. 

May your life hold the beautiful and terrible, the awe and awful, and hard and holy of these days.  Amen. 

Lent Week 2 ~ Quotes for Each Day

 

In the entire history of the universe, let alone in your own history, there has never been another day just like today, and there will never be another just like it again. Today is the point to which all your yesterdays have been leading since the hour of your birth. It is the point from which all your tomorrows will proceed until the hour of your death. If you were aware of how precious today is, you could hardly live through it. Unless you are aware of how precious it is, you can hardly be said to be living at all.  Frederick Buechner

 

There has never been a day like today, and will never be another again.  Hold this as we let Buechner’s words roam and rummage around the baggage of our lives. 

 

First, what is your response to these words and to this thought?  Agree, disagree, both, neither?  Maybe you feel a bit overwhelmed.  Be in conversation with this quote.  What questions would you want to ask?  What insights do you have about what he is saying? 

 

Second, let this quote interact with your life so far this week.  What from yesterday is still lingering?  What from last week, last month, or last year is still impacting and influencing your life?  How might today point to tomorrow, either for good or not so great ways?  Have you felt the preciousness of your life recently?  Note this may connect back to Monday’s quote about the lumps in your throat and tears in your eyes.

 

Third, sit quietly with this quote.  Not forcing it to do anything for you or to you, just being with it and letting the words be with you.

 

Fourth, how might you take these words or your own wisdom as a response to Buechner with you into this day?  Remember, it doesn’t have to be life-changing; your response might just be one millimeter of meaning that guides you through the wilderness of today. 

 

May your one wild and precious life be open to the holy mystery of this day.  Amen.

Lent 2 ~ Quotes for Lent

 

The grace of God means something like: Here is your life. You might never have been, but you are because the party wouldn't have been complete without you. Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don't be afraid. I am with you. Nothing can ever separate us. It's for you I created the universe. I love you. There's only one catch. Like any other gift, the gift of grace can be yours only if you'll reach out and take it. Maybe being able to reach out and take it is a gift too.  Frederick Buechner

 

As you read the above quote, what is your response to what Buechner is saying?  Do you find your soul nodding, objecting, or confused?  Buechner juxtaposes the contradiction of faith ~ terrible things happen, and we are not alone.  But, our minds interject/interrupt/object that when terrible things happen, that is the exact moment we feel alone!  How can this be?  What questions do you have?  What experiences do you bring as evidence that might support what Buechner is saying and what stirs within you that challenges this quote? 

 

Read the quote a second time, thinking about the beautiful and terrible things that have happened in the first two months of this year.  Beautiful moments with family and friends, or celebrations, or a warm coffee on a cold day.  Terrible things in the world around us, from violence to famine to homelessness to hurt and harm to personal moments that have left scars on your soul.  Make a list of what has been beautiful and broken so far this year.

 

Third, read the quote, then just let it sit like a pot of soup simmering on the stove of your soul.  Maybe it is just one word or a thought that pulls up a chair at the table of your life for a few moments.

 

Fourth, read the quote again and let your soul receive God’s grace (that isn’t earned or deserved but given from God every second).  What would grace feel like, taste like, be like if grace were being poured into and from you every moment today? 

 

May the meditations of your mind and stirrings of your heart this day ground and guide you as you move your way through the wayless way.  Amen. 

Lent Week 2 ~ Quotes for the Soul

 

Pay attention to the things that bring a tear to your eye or a lump in your throat because they are signs that the Holy is drawing near.  Frederick Buechner

 

During Lent, we are welcoming the wisdom of others to sing, stir, and swirl in our souls.  This week, we will lean in and listen to Frederick Buechner.  Buechner was a Presbyterian minister, preacher, and author.  He wrote 39 books, including novels, memoirs, and theological works.  He enrolled at Princeton University, but his education was interrupted by – in Buechner’s words – “two years of very undistinguished service” during World War 2 serving all over the United States.  After the war, he graduated from Princeton and began his career as a writer.  He lived in New York City and attended Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, where George Buttrick was the minister.  It was in one of Buttrick’s sermons that Buechner was inspired to attend Union Theological Seminary.  After graduating, he was hired at Exeter in the religion department.  He eventually retired to a farmhouse in Vermont.

 

Each day, I will offer a different quote, and I invite you to engage in sacred reading. 

 

First, read the quote above slowly, and notice/name your response.  Let it tickle your imagination, let it roam around your heart, let the syllables of the words stumble around your soul.  Pay attention to your response to the quote.  Does the quote make you smile or feel like sandpaper to your soul?  Does the quote evoke or provoke a passionate reaction, or taste like bland bread without any salt?  Sit with the quote over a cup of tea/coffee for a few minutes.

 

Second, re-read the quote, this time letting the words/images/ideas intersect your life.  For example, with the quote above, think about what brought tears to your eyes last week.  Where was there a lump in your throat or a shiver down your spine or a sense that this world is more than we can comprehend and control?  Our Celtic friends call such moments “thin places,” where the line between heaven and earth blurs.  Or perhaps we could say that this is the moment when the heaven in you escapes your soul into the world.  (Remember the goal of religion is not to get you into heaven, but to get heaven out of you while on earth).

 

Third, re-read the quote, and sit silently with openness to what these words might mean to embrace and embody this day in you.

 

Finally, consider the quote: how might these words inform and inspire your living today and this week?  Try to set a concrete intention given what the quote evokes and provokes from you.

 

May you and I continue to pay attention to the lumps and bumps that leave us stumped, but are clearly moments that are traces of grace in the world today.  Amen.