Earth Care

I was looking ahead to the April schedule and noticed that my next article for the Brainerd Dispatch Clergy View is due on Earth Day, April 22, for publication on Friday the 25 which is Arbor Day. (Also Great Friday in the Orthodox church.) It's an interesting collection of themes. Are they Holidays...as in holy days? First of all, I am happy that "Earth Day" is printed on my denominational calendar. In what year did that first get included? Earth-care issues have moved more into the spiritual core of today's generation of Christianity and it now seems to be transcending the old destructive divisions of the political-religious right/left patterns. Yesterday Scott G. from Park church was telling me how his family had participated in the Earth Hour"" lights out hour, along with many cities around the world. I wonder how many other households participated? Jeff Reed's blog that I often reference is another good example of spirituality and ethics. "Going Green" for many people has deep religious groundings.
While my practices and lifestyle lag behind, seriously behind, my sense of the vision, I am also remembering that my earlier spiritual life was intuitively fed by my hours in the ponds and the coolie behind our house in the country. ..or the nearby large groves of trees. My family was kind enough to endure the many aquariums, terrariums and the like that I had in my room, filled with ants or frogs.,crickets, salamanders and the like. My school years were enriched by the ecological interests of the late 60s and early 70's and my early career interests were towards ecology or conservation. I look at the the prayers that I wrote in early years of ministry and the strains of "natural revelation" were clearly there. Now I feel like I am going back to the spiritual insights of rhythms and interconnectedness that I saw in nature.


This morning also I read this quote from the Spirituality and Practice web site:
Losing a species to extinction
Is like tearing a page
Out of sacred scripture.
— Calvin DeWitt quoted in Ponderings from the Precipice by James Conlon

Again, its the point that spirituality and earth care are partnered.
I have some other relevant quotes form Martin Luther, Meister Eckhardt, and even Oswald Chambers, that I can't find at the moment, that I will possibly put into my clergy view article when I actually get around to writing it. For now, here is something in the same line;

The Beatitudes for Ecologists/Environmentalists

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who know how little they know and are therefore willing to listen to the world to see what it says about itself. Theirs is the path that leads to whatever wonder there is to be found.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.

Blessed are those who understand that all is not well. Blessed are those unwilling to drink the Kool-Aid of false hope that says otherwise. Blessed are those who know we are in the process of losing something. They are the ones with any real of hope of changing things.

Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who understand that the earth is a gift of inestimable worth. In the end, they are the only ones in a position to receive it.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

Blessed are those whose souls ache with a sharp craving for things to be better, for the wrongs we are inflicting to be righted, for the course we’re on to be corrected. Those who have such hunger are the first in line for its filling.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are those who long to use their power to give what is endangered a chance. Blessed are those inclined to cut what is standing in the path of our greed some slack. They’ll be given the slack they need to survive when the time comes.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.Blessed are those willing to refuse illusion. They are the ones with a vision ruthless enough to perceive God

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.

Blessed are those willing to do what needs to be done with those who are needed to do it. Blessed are those who are eager to make of their adversaries, allies. Blessed are those who are willing to call it creation if it will help to save it. They will be called cooperators with the divine.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those whose concern for the forests earns them the “tree-hugger” title.
Blessed are those whose love for the planet puts them in the “wacko” category. They are the ones who love heaven enough to want to bring it back to earth.

(the source for this "beatitudes" on the internet, that I can trace, would be Ken Wilson from the Vineyard Churches)


PS.
I picked up the book Jesus for President by Shane Claiborne and Chris Haws; (see the website they have also.)
The problem I suspect, if I continue to read it, is that I will see its truth, and the truth will bother me!
Anybody out there reading it? It would be an interesting mix into all the banter about Sen. Obama and the Rev. J. Wright sound bytes!

Rambling on,

Food prices and shortages

I don't know if I have this as working link printed at the end of this post.
This is an eye opening article on the global food situation. Why isn't this more on the news? Or am I just that out of touch. (Yes, I am!) According to this picture we have some serious shortages going on. While this writer is dealing with an investment perspective, I think there is an ethical side that needs big attention at several points. One quick response endorsed in the article is that the corn production being put into biofuels needs to end asap.
I also wonder why, and if, we ignored the wheat blight in Africa that started in 1999? Was it not "our" problem? It is now!
Again, I send you to Jeff Reed's blog and welcome his comments but see if you can find this article on MSN.
I assure you that the dollar increases you and I might be noticing are nothing in comparison to what this means in much more fragile economies and household needs around the world.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/SuperModels/
CouldWeReallyRunOutOfFood.aspx

New link added for Jim Perry's General Conference thoughts. General Conference meets at the end of April into the first week of May. Go to the Minnesota Conference website for other web resources. Check in as it happens.

Easter and Chocolate?

This is from a site I read in Australia.
http://jmm.aaa.net.au/articles
Now that I have loaded up on Easter bunny chocolate, I should learn more about this. We have some fair trade coffee and cocoa at the church but this sounds like an even bigger issue. And I am impressed that World Vision is seeing this larger justice issue.
The information follows.

As we approach Easter and remember the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, we are reminded again of the consumerist madness of the sale of untold amounts of chocolate that we 'must' buy for our family and children. Whilst there is something I like about the idea of giving at times like Christmas and Easter, in these days when we are made more aware than ever of the consequences of our purchasing choices, we need also be aware of the power that we have to exercise our choices wisely, in ways that will benefit the most vulnerable people in the world.

If we are going to buy Easter eggs this year, have a think about where the chocolate is coming from and what processes are performed to have that sweet tasting stuff in our hot little hands. Much of the chocolate that we eat is the result of trafficking and child labour in cocoa farming in West Africa. We are the grateful recipients of a long process that keeps thousands of the world's poor in a state of helplessness and vulnerability.

To help combat this, World Vision has launched a campaign called 'Don't Trade Lives'. This campaign will initially focus on the issue of chocolate in the lead-up to Easter, and will then address specific issues such as Australia's role in trafficking, trafficking into child labour situations, and trafficking into the sex trade.

The scale of the problem is enormous. Just last year we celebrated the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slavery with the release of the film 'Amazing Grace' which showcased the life of the great reformer, William Wilberforce. However, the problem still exists today. In fact it exists in greater numbers than when Wilberforce was finally successful in pulling the rug out from under the foundation of the British Empire. Today there are still more than 27 million people around the world who are the victims of trafficking.

In its campaign, World Vision is urging the following:

· Calling for Australians to use their voices and purchasing power to demand ethical chocolate - that is, chocolate that is child labour-free and human trafficking-free.

· Calling for industry to change their practices, manufacturers and retailers need to hear directly from us - the Australian consumers - that won't tolerate exploitation in the chocolate that we eat.

It is important to note that World Vision is not calling for a boycott of chocolate or any chocolate brands, as this would only hurt poor farming families more without adequately addressing the underlying problems.

As we remember the sacrifice and grace of the crucified God this Easter; as we remember the one who hears the cries of the millions locked in slavery each day, let us remember that we too can play our part in following Him along the road. We can imitate Jesus by refusing to submit to the powers that be and identifying with the poor and vulnerable in our advocacy and calling for change.

Find out more by going to http://www.donttradelives.com.au

by Nils von Kalm

He is Risen!

Easter in the Dark

This first part of this post is copied and clipped from Dean Snyder's Good Friday sermon at Foundry UMC in Washington DC

“The biblical scholar Walter Brueggeman tells us that if there is any truth at all to the biblical account of the crucifixion and death and resurrection of Jesus, it must mean this: that in the darkest of times, there is something afoot in the darkness that the prince of darkness himself knows nothing about.
The invisible God is there in the darkness. This is why God is invisible because he plants himself in the places without a particle of light or hope.”

I post that here today along with the words of John’s Easter Gospel:
“while it was still dark.’
....Mary went to the tomb.

“While it was still dark.”
The stone was already rolled away.

Resurrection had already happened in the dark.
Easter happens in the dark.

Tomorrow morning with children and youth due at the church by 7, I will be getting up for Easter in the dark. The Risen Christ will already be there.

That is such a simple kind of darkness, marked by sunlight and a clock. I can see my way to that kind of Easter. The children have rehearsed. The choir has prepared. The cross is draped in white. I was there to see the flowers being set up. I have my notes for the sermon. I know the signs of resurrection are already there when I arrive in the dark.

But I will try to consider the greater darkness.
Violent darkness. Five years now in Iraq. Or is it now Kenya, Tibet, Gaza, Afghanistan, Kosovo?
....political, emotional, social, economic, spiritual....
and wait and trust, searching with eyes not good at seeing in the dark;
still looking for resurrection signs.

Holy Saturday

Holy Saturday
Waiting after the cross and before Easter
Waiting for "God knows what?"
What will tomorrow bring?
It is true now as it was then.
Tomorrow
God knows,
what?



And this from The Upper Room today:

DELIVERANCE may not be external, of course. It was not so for Christ on Good Friday, nor for millions of souls since. But even in the worst circumstances, the waters of the soul may be sweetened to new life by surrounding the horror with remembrance of goodness and the reality of compassionate love. And who can ever predict what further resurrections may come from entrusting ourselves to such love?

- Robert Corin Morris
Wrestling with Grace: A Spirituality for the Rough Edges of Daily Life

From pp. 110-111 of Wrestling with Grace by Robert Corin Morris. Copyright © 2003 by the author. Published by Upper Room Books

Good Friday. It was snowing. We gathered at noon at Park Church with the shades partially drawn, the lights dimmed, the chancel furnishings were bare, from the "stripping" last night. We had clergy from The United Church of Christ, the United Methodists and the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Congregants from here, or somewhere, or no where? We read the scriptures of the passion. Now we wait for the next chapter of the story.
Light out of darkness.

Lent Post Ending

When does Lent end? My brief Internet search yielded an answer that it ends just as the Great Triduum begins with Holy Thursday worship service or Mass. Sara wanted to know because she gave up all desserts for Lent, and we have had a few cookies around the house, so the temptation for her has been at hand. I told her she could bring a cookie to eat as soon as the service was over. My Lenten discipline was to avoid all consumer purchases other than food and fuel. It was not a very difficult discipline. I don't plan to rush out to Target, Gander Mountain or Kohls to end my limited consumer fast after the worship service tonight.
My other practice was to post something here for every day of Lent. Looks like I made it but sometimes it was very perfunctory; just getting something posted. Thanks for reading. I might still have something posted for the Tridium. Wait and see. Thanks for visiting here this Lent.
We have a service of Holy Communion and Tenebrae tonight at 7:30.

Lent Post The Easter Idea

The "Can Man" came to see yesterday. I have known him from the soup kitchen and some other conversations in the past. He is a complicated person. (Aren’t we all?) He needed some money for gas, for flatbed trucks to move his stuff up north away from everybody. Needed to move while the snow is on the ground and before the dirt roads thawed. The story in his mind unfolded to me: the government, "they" ..the missiles...what the Bible said... and so on. He had an idea in his mind. The ideas in our mind do affect our behavior and outlook. Some ideas set us up to live in worlds of paranoia and suspicion.
Where do those ideas come from? How do they get "in" us? For this person, I suspect an untreated mental health concern. Our "ideas" can be a complex interplay of biology and brain chemistry, relationships, feelings, beliefs and circumstance. I don’t have the professional skill to address or understand that "science" and I am probably exposing my ignorance of the subject.
But I live with the power and reality of ideas. How do you get an idea into a person’s mind?
How do you change a person’s mind?
Rollo May, the famous American psychologist, wrote somewhere (I don’t have the source) :
"I was seized then by a moment of spiritual reality: what would it mean for our world if He had truly risen?"
Here in this Holy week and upcoming Easter message of resurrection, in a sense, I am trying to get an "idea" into my mind, and into the mind of others..maybe something like Rollo May’s "moment of spiritual reality"
Is it more than an "idea" that is offered in the Risen Christ who says "Fear not."
Well....maybe you get the "idea."
Maybe we can get the Spirit of it?
Keep that in mind?
It could determine the way we live and see the world.

Lent Post Prophets

We still need prophets to summon us back to the spiritual roots of wholeness and peace. We still need broadcasters of God’s word and magnifiers of God’s truth, so that we will understand and turn and be healed.
- Kenneth L. Waters, Sr.
I Saw the Lord


So...do you know any prophets in the news these days?

Holy Week traditions

Monday of Holy Week.
Yesterday in the worship service I spoke of the contradictions and contrasts of the day: Palms or Passion? Up or down? Festive joy and innocence with children parading and singing, or silence and solemnity in the sacred scriptures. Bright Sunday or Dark Friday ? Hosanna or Crucify? Some people say that we should pick one or the other! But this is not an ‘either/or.” It is a "both/and.”
Yes it is too much for one worship service...perhaps just as it was too much for a week, centuries ago. . Expectations are conflicted and confused. What next? Easter will only accentuate the feeling of the unexpected.

Today, the day is slower. Holy week has begun. I look ahead to the Thursday evening service with communion and the tenebrea scriptures and the darkness. Good Friday noon service always brings back not just the traditional holy images but also the memory of Sara being born on a Good Friday 19 years ago, in another year with an early Easter. We got our share of light hearted teasing about the kind of timing that was for a parsonage family! It definitely was a case of having too much to do in Holy Week and not knowing what, and when to expect. She arrived in time for me to call the announcement over to Tabor United Methodist Church in Big Stone City, South Dakota, where I had been scheduled as one of the liturgical participants. She came home on Easter Sunday. The day was bright and" risen" and everything was miracle! Beyond anything I could ever expect!
I remember that we had a basket of Easter candy set out in the Ortonville church to celebrate her arrival.
That Easter candy launched a family tradition that the Easter bunny always left a huge basket of Easter candy for Sara and then, Nick, to pass out on Easter to the congregation.
Over the years another Holy week tradition was for us to go to the Dairy Queen in Ortonville after the community good Friday service. Now that we live in Brainerd we have other dining choices available as well, but the tradition says it has to be the Dairy Queen!

So those are some of my Holy Week memories. Old classic church tradition, mixed in with others much more relative to the Swenson household but no less meaningful and sacred. It too, is probably not just a simple case of “either/or”. It is another case of “both/and.”

Holy week is like a scrapbook that continued to collect images as we return to it year after year. I hope you have some traditions to remember and maybe add a page or two. You might have something in there that you didn't expect.

Palm and Passion

Lent Post .....Roots

All gardeners know the importance of good root development before we force the leaves and flowers. So our life in God should be deeply rooted and grounded before we presume to expect to produce flowers and fruits; otherwise we risk shooting up into one of those lanky plants which can never do without a stick. We are constantly beset by the notion that we ought to perceive ourselves springing up quickly, like the seed on stony ground; show striking signs of spiritual growth. But perhaps we are only required to go on quietly, making root, growing nice and busy; docile to the great slow rhythm of life.

Evelyn Underhill

this was part of today's inward/outward message .

Lent Post

Howard Thurman:
"No event in your life can imprison you. That is what resurrection is about. I shall not allow the events of my life to make me their prisoner. I shall continually believe that God is not through with life, or with me.” (The Growing Edge)

Lent Post John Wesley again

Since John Wesley showed up in my email box this morning I thought I would let him speak for himself and let him stay here for while.

What shalt thou do? ... Do good. Do all the good thou canst. Let thy plenty supply thy neighbor’s wants; and thou wilt never want something to do. Canst thou find none that need the necessaries of life, that are pinched with cold or hunger; none that have not raiment to put on, or a place where to lay their head; none that are wasted with pining sickness; none that are languishing in prison? If you duly considered our Lord’s words, "The poor have you always with you," you would no more ask, "What shall I do?"

- John Wesley "On Worldly Folly"

Lent Post on the Common good

Last night I was at the community listening and information session for the Brainerd school district decisions about sports and activity cuts due to the failed operating school levy. I was encouraged to hear that the consensus seems to be toward a model that would continue to fund the activities and sports with the Warrior Way especially positive were the statements that we want to work together even if "your" favorite sport is slated for funding and continuance, we value all the students and activities so we want people to work for the common good. Don't just support your favorite activity or sport. I liked that way of thinking because it calls me, and us beyond our particular self interests. Maybe the Lent edge is for me to ask how I will work toward the common good, beyond my self interests. If I can do that in the realm of community sports and events, can I do it in larger ways of food, housing, health care ; and lifestyle comforts. Can it push me to conversations and actions of justice in global thinking? Are there transferable lessons to learn? There is a world of possibility for how I can think of what other kids and families need other than just my own and beyond the Brainerd schools.

Of course it gets us looking at the need for a new way of funding education in Minnesota, and beyond. How are all the children doing! Thats a topic for churches too.

But who do we organize that with? A group of Brainerd folks are also headed to the capitol on April 1.

Lent Post Ps 46:10

Psalm 46:10:
“Be still, and know that I am God!”
“Be still, and know that I am…”
“Be still, and know…”
“Be still…”
“Be…”
Simply be in the presence of God.
Relax, be still and be with God

Lent Post on SIN!

“Vatican lists "new sins," including pollution”
See the Reuters new service article for the rest of the story or keep reading for today's Lenten rambling:

This Vatican action sound like a good thing. Rome is giving attention to environmental offenses. Its long over due. I am hoping it catches on. We may not agree on a few other sins the Vatican is discussing such as the sins related to modern science and bio ethics. But thinking about the future, carbon emissions, energy policies, species protection, deforestation..etc... gives us a few things for repentance in this season of Lenten confession and turning. Even the traditional evangelical groups and churches are seeing the need to care for creation! Stewardship never was meant to be just the church's annual fund drive.

But I am playing with the idea that the Vatican has a list of sins and they are adding new ones. If we add new ones , can we also take off some old ones just to keep the numbers manageable? We also know about outdated laws that need to be reconsidered in government regulations and ordinances. Most states and towns have a few that sound pretty odd or useless now. Churches should probably check for the outdated versions too. At least we finally got that slavery one sorted out. What's next?

I am wondering if different churches have separate lists of sins?
Well, I know we do. Drinking alcohol and gambling can get you in trouble according to some sin lists but not others. My caffeine use would definitely make the list according to the Latter Day Saints. And I am sure that the level of luxury and consumerism that I practice would be abhorrent to many Christians in developing nations; not to mention the early church; or at least those early monks that fled to the desert hermitages. And I am sure to be in trouble by some Sabbath lists both then and now. Next time we get a chance to make a list, can I submit any for revisions and consideration?

This could get controversial. You get the idea. Can we get this down to some kind of top ten list? Has that already been done? Or maybe we will have to stay loose with the list and work on this love and spirit guideline. I still probably need a checklist to review. A long one. Send me your latest suggestions!
If we keep getting more new ones this month I meet need to file for an extension in the Lenten season in case I don't make the confession deadline.

Lent Post on Sabbath

Today is Sunday. The morning worship services were held. I have had a short nap! The sun is shining. My body is adjusting to the clock that has jumped ahead one hour. There are things to do. But now this seems to fit the day:
It is from Wayne Muller ; Sabbath, Restoring the Sacred Rhythm of Rest

There is astounding wisdom in the traditional Jewish Sabbath, that it begins precisely at sundown, whether that comes at a wintry 4:30 or late on a summer evening. Sabbath is not dependent upon our readiness to stop. We do not stop when we are finished. We do not stop when we complete our phone calls, finish our project, get through this stack of messages or get out this report that is due tomorrow. We stop because it is time to stop….
The old, wise Sabbath says: Stop now. As the sun touches the horizon, take the hand off the plow, put down the phone, let the pen rest on the paper, turn off the computer, leave the mop in the bucket and the car in the drive. There is no room for negotiation, no time to be seduced by the urgency of our responsibilities. We stop because there are forces larger than we that take care of the universe. The galaxy will somehow manage without us for this hour, this day, so we are invited to relax and enjoy our relative unimportance, our humble place at the table in a very large world.

Lent Post Hungers and Fasts

Still doing any Lenten fasting?
Some quotes (probably from Sojourners Verse and Voice) that I invite you to intermingle around a common theme?

Most of us have to taste our need in a fierce sort of way before our hungers jar us into turning our lives over to God.... In the Divine Arms we become less demanding and more like the One who holds us. Then we experience new hungers. We hunger and thirst for justice, for goodness and holiness. We hunger for what is right. We hunger to be saints. Most of us are not nearly hungry enough for the things that really matter. That’s why it is so good for us to feel a gnawing in our guts.
- Macrina Wiederkehr
A Tree Full of Angels

Inherent in a fast is a feast. When we fast from food, we feast on prayer and God’s bountiful love. When we fast from divisive patterns of relating with others, we feast on the amazing awareness that each face we see is the face of Christ. When we fast from building social, economic, and political walls, we feast on our universal oneness with the One.
- Marilyn Brown Oden
Wilderness Wanderings

842 million people do not have enough to eat —
more than the populations of USA, Canada, Europe
and Japan.

With a world population of 6.3 billion, the 842
million people who experience hunger represent
one out of every eight members of the global
human family.

Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin? Isaiah 58:6-7

And a reminder that this is Food Share Month. We are collecting at church!

Lent Post

I think joy and sweetness and affection are a spiritual path. We're here to know God, to love and serve God, and to be blown away by the beauty and miracle of nature. You just have to get rid of so much baggage to be light enough to dance, to sing, to play. You don't have time to carry grudges; you don't have time to cling to the need to be right.

- author Anne Lamott, in a recent interview. (Source: The Washington Times)
From Sojourners

Lent Post From St Basil the Great

O God, enlarge within us the sense of fellowship with all living things, our brothers the animals to whom thou gavest the earth as their home in common with us. We remember with shame that in the past we have exercised the high dominion…with ruthless cruelty so that the voice of the earth, which should have gone up to thee in song, has been a groan of travail. May we realize that they live not for us alone but for themselves and for thee, and that they love the sweetness of life.
~St. Basil the Great (329-379)

Maybe this ties in with some of Jeff Reed’s current blog thoughts.

Lenten Lazarus

GOD,
sometimes
we’re as tightly bound
as Lazarus
in a tomb:
unseeing,
unfeeling,
unmoving.
Then,
in our bondage
you send
another
to help free us;
a friend
who believes
and rolls the stone away.
Unbound,
enabled to emerge
from the caves of our making,
our eyes are opened
to see your loving face.
We are released —
Resurrection!
- Roberta Porter
Alive Now
From page 45 of Alive Now, March/April 2003

Lent Post on Lazarus... Truth Unfolding

I am thinking about the Sunday Gospel in John with the raising of Lazarus. I had planed to work with this sense of delay from Jesus and the "if you had been here" words from Mary and Martha. It could be a way to talk about our time in the tombs before we get called forth.. and how we would rather have that hurried up or avoided.
But then there is also the verse that says unbind him and set him free. It too is rich with potential, as we are partners in that process. But then I came across a simple quote
from Joseph Goldstein who writes from some Buddhist insight . "Be gentle with yourself. You are the truth unfolding."
(I found the quote on another blog; allchannels.blogspot.com)
But what a way to see ourselves and the community of faith in the setting of Lazarus and his unbinding or unfolding!
"Be gentle with yourself. You are the truth unfolding."
Our new life and our resurrection world is a truth unfolding....
the unbinding is still happening....

Just an information update. With the funerals this week for Dorothy Little on Wednesday, and Dean Prushek on Thursday, the Spiritual Life retreat for Thursday is being post-poned until April.

In the mean time you can keep their families in your prayers. I will be thinking of Dorothy and how she loved to talk and how she would come to use the church basement to do her quilting
and for Dean, how he loved to sing and sang in the church choir; and his pages and pages of art work- flowers, birds, and garden things. We plan to share his drawings.

Lenten post. The Deeper Role

Yesterday morning at the 9;30 service we had the baptism for little Cooper Cristion Drake. His family on both sides, are very much part of the Park church family. As Leslie Drake , a retired clergy person who had served this congregation in the past, assisted me in the baptism we had him wearing his clerical garb, white alb and stole, but as we began the baptism liturgy I had thought about how I would introduce him and said, "Les, you may have your liturgical garb on this morning, but we know who you really are, you are grandpa and great grandpa" and with such genuine pride and joy we heard him say, "That's right".

Of course we know that.
We do wear many outfits and roles in our lives, but there are times when , we know an even better and deeper and richer identity of relationships that tells us who we are and why we are here.
I think lent and the journey of renewal by the way of the cross and resurrection, is time when we layer ourselves though our many garments of identity and roles, and come to the joy of our belovedness and our inter-relatedness with others; and we can say, with love and joy that this is who I really am.
Maybe that's what I am hoping and seeking and needing to do with Lent... get past the clerical garb and the other roles, to get in that inner role that is the best and truest of all! Maybe baptism will tell me who I am as well!

Sunday March 2 Lenten Post..Waiting

I am preparing a Spiritual Life Retreat/Book Study for Thursday using Sue Monk Kidd's book; When the Heart Waits.
Throughout the book she uses the image of caterpillars, cocoons, and butterflies. With a wide variety of Biblical illustrations and resources such as Jung, Merton, Eckhart, developmental psychologists, some actual butterfly biology, and her own experiences, she builds on those images of waiting as a necessary part of spiritual transformation.
In that cocoon time we are in the dark, perhaps struggling or helpless, unknowing, vulnerable, (literally the larva becomes almost gelatinous in the transformative process) and nothing can be done to force the process. You have probably heard the stories of the well meaning person who helped the butterfly out of the cocoon, only to have a butterfly wounded and deformed, deprived of the struggle? But we often avoid it or fear it. She cites many biblical images that are symbolic of that cocooning,, Jonah in the “fish” Daniel in the night of the lions den, Sarah in her barrenness , the Egyptian years, or the Exile....waiting images are common; beggars like Lazarus or blind Bartimaeous waiting by the side of the road. I plan to pick up on the Lazarus in the tomb story as an image of this, and the odd statement of Jesus’ delay in coming. Does that simply describe the spiritual condition that you cant rush out of the cocoon time? The spiritual disciplines of Sabbath, contemplative prayer, listening, stillness. entering our suffering...all of it under the umbrella of the waiting heart as requisite in soul formation. Could the ancient desert monastic advice “to enter into your cell and your cell will teach you everything” call us to the cocooning and waiting that births us into the next stage of our growth? To put it simply: it is the cross and the tomb before the resurrection; Good Friday before Easter.

Here is one of her quotes and concerns about our ‘Quickaholic Spirituality” that would have us keep busy, rush past our pains and doubts, and avoid our cocoon stages

"When it comes to religion today, we tend to be long on butterflies and short on cocoons. Somehow we're going to have to relearn that the deep things of God don't come suddenly. It's as if we imagine that all of our spiritual growth potential is dehydrated contents to which we need only add some holy water to make it instantly and easily appear." (p. 26)


By the way, in Greek mythology, the soul /the psyche was personified as a butterfly
and I read somewhere that in Kabbalic mysticism the word for ego actually means “cocoon'. Of course the cocoon/butterfly has its Easter symbolism as well .

Lent Post Listen First

Listening is the first expression of communication in prayer. We know that listening precedes speaking in the development of children’s language skills. The same order applies to the development of our prayer life. Something in our spirit is touched by the Divine Spirit before we are drawn to speak.
- Marjorie J. Thompson
Soul Feast