Lenten Post For Sunday Feb 10 Wilderness

A Three piece collage on the wilderness.

The Gospel lesson for the first Sunday in Lent is the Temptation in the Wilderness.

Piece one in the collage: I read these words by Sarah Parsons from the Upper Room site:

LENT BEGINS in the wilderness. … Even against our better judgment, we must begin these forty days [of Lent] by going alone to a wild place — in ourselves or in our lives. If we are fiercely honest with ourselves as we begin a Lenten journey toward greater openness, we must start by seeing things we would rather not see.

From p. 13 of A Clearing Season by Sarah Parsons. Copyright © 2005 by the author. Published by Upper Room Books. All Rights Reserved.

Those words could point us in so many directions. There are so many things we would rather not see; pain, poverty violence, ecological abuses, my own complicity in those injustices.
What are my own wilderness places? Making that list could be too severe even for Lent. I wrote earlier of prayer and honesty.

All of that melds with piece number two :
something I read last week in Wounded Prophet, A Portrait of Henri J.M. Nouwen.
it is citing The Inner Voice of Love by Nouwen; It too, is a call, the imperative of the wilderness. Does the wilderness honesty mean facing the wounds we would rather not see? Here is the quote: Live Your Wounds Through

You have been wounded in many ways. The more you open yourself to being healed, the more you will discover how deep your wounds are. You will be tempted to become discouraged, because under every wound you uncover you will find others. Your search for true healing will be a suffering search. Many tears still need to be shed.
But do not be afraid. The simple fact that you are more aware of your wounds shows that you have sufficient strength to face them.

The great challenge is living your wounds through instead of thinking them through. It is better to cry than to worry, better to feel your wounds deeply than to understand them, better to let them enter into your silence than to talk about them. The choice you face constantly is whether you are taking your hurts to your head or to your heart. In your head you can analyze them, find their causes and consequences, and coin words to speak and write about them. But no final healing is likely to come from that source. You need to let your wounds go down into your heart. Then you can live them through and discover that they will not destroy you. Your heart is greater than your wounds.

Third piece in this Lenten thought-collage came as Park church provided space for the Light of the Lakes UMC as they mourned the loss of a dear church member and leader in the life of their faith community and the Baxter business community. Nouwen has wisdom here in letting this hurt go to the 'heart." The head will offer no answer for the sudden death of man in his mid 50's. Believe, me after more than 250 funerals, for all ages; I have tried. It is one of my wounds.
It is wilderness. Go there. Jesus was there too. He left a way to follow it through. It is in the heart.

Lenten Post for February 9th Fear of the Lord?

"Working out one's salvation in "fear and trembling" doesn’t refer to the terror of the Almighty’s punishment or power - but rather, the fear of confronting ourselves exposed and finite before a God of Infinite Accepting Love. That is frightening!"

from 1-29-79 personal journal entry

Why is this frightening? Because I cannot consider what it might mean for me to live in the "practiced" or integrated truth of that love...with myself or others? That kind of love would threaten my ego self as I know it!

Are we afraid to live like that?

I confess that I can hear that kind of unconditional (grace) love as an idea...but my mind and heart ...at so many levels, in so many daily situations.....doesn't seem to "get it!"

Prayer and Scripture:

"Perfect (completed, matured) love casts out fear" (I John 4:18)

"Dear God, help me to "grace-fully...work on it" to work out my salvation..to grow in Your love."

Lenten Post for Friday Feb. 8th Honest Prayer

The Gift of Honesty

"Prayer is simply a matter of course in the Bible. It was so much taken for granted that, to begin with, Israel had no word for "pray." The word for praying was rejoicing, laughing, crying,

reviling, imploring, according to how one felt."

Huub Oosterhuis (Dutch ,Jesuit) Your Word is Near/ no page cited from my Feb 26, 1985 personal journal entry

Those words are so embodied by the Psalms, the Prophets (and Jesus too.)

The Psalms flow with such human emotion, in all its range and richness:

exultation and praise, anger and fear, vengeance and despair, questions..doubts...sometimes just a waiting, seeking.. searching.

It is poetry. It is the human soul put into word. It is prayer.

Could Lent be a time for me to trust, a little bit more, this kind of prayer. It is a form of trusting God's love...

..permission to be...

isn't that a kind of grace?

Prayer reflection:
Will I pray Biblically...being honest before God..."according to how one felt" as Oosterhuis put it. ..bringing all my emotion...just being...
and then....

and then ..the grace of being

as I am, in the presence of God...?

....................

Spend time in silence..letting your emotions come to your awareness. ... an honest prayer.

transformative..... healing

Another Lenten blog referral

Looking for another daily devotional tool for your Lenten walk?

Go to Jeff Reed's blog, listed in my Links column to the side.
I look forward to reading his material.

My Ash Wednesday sermon is posted on my sermon blog. See the link.

Next Wednesday our Lenten service will be at First Congregational UCC with Father Steve Haptonstahl from St Paul Episcopal Church as the "preacher."

Lenten Notes Thursday

Lent as a pilgrimage; a Walk; a Journey; considering the path of
my life:

“Mt Carmel monastery. Carmelites walked barefoot when they first came here because they were on Holy Ground..” (Pg. 22 of Holy Land Personal Journal notes from March 2001)

If I believed I am now on Holy ground, all day, all my life,
how might I walk in its respect?
Is Lent a Holy walk?
To take off my soul shoes for 40 days?
....to consider my steps and the Way I follow? How I carry myself...?
what ecological,
political,
social,
spiritual foot prints do I leave on the earth; the footprints of my life?
Will I go barefoot?
Vulnerable.
Careful.
Attentively.
Slowly .
Holy ground of being...
footsteps of prayer
and awe, and wonder.

Now, maybe before you leave this blog site.... reflect ..pray...... what will be your next step today?
...what is the next task before you...?
Consider that step.....

At the end of the day will you, as a spiritual practice, be in a time of recalling..listening to your life.. ....examining. .. how did you walk today?
What tracks did you leave behind?

Rambling on,
Rory

Ash Wednesday Lenten Post

This begins my Lenten prayer and reflection blog series.
It may get interspersed with other blog entries but I will give it captions with a title of “Lenten post” We begin on Ash Wednesday, Feb 6.

My goal is to have something brief, usually posted for each day of Lent. I know of some days when I will be away for a meeting and will post a few days in row. The posting might be a scripture, a prayer, a quote, a question, an image or an observation.
Come and see.
I encourage you to share this resource with others.

Amma Syncletica said: In the beginning there is struggle and a lot of work for those who come near to God. But after that there is indescribable joy. It is just like building a fire: at first it is smoky and your eyes water, but later you get the desired result. Thus we ought to light the divine fire in ourselves with tears and effort.


I make the ashes for the worship service by burning some of the old dry Palm Sunday palm leaves, and charred wood from a fire place, or bits of paper and twigs...and I do this every year in an old cast iron kettle that has accumulated ashes for at least 20 years. When I make the ashes, I have to make a fire, and I get some of the smoke in the process. So I recall these words from one of the desert mothers. And I think of the times I have bent down to blow on the start of a fire and felt the sting in my eyes and know the effort, but also the joy when the flame begins to burn clean and bright.
Begin with the ashes,
my own inner ashes,
as evidence that there is the possibility of fire.
Ashes are proof that fire exists!
It has been here before....

The picture at the top was in the Brainerd Dispatch about three years ago as I am smudging my daughter, Sara, at a worship service at the Congregational Church.

Advancing in Prayer

Ok, this helps...
I just got back from a two day spiritual retreat at the Episcopal House of Prayer (EHOP) along with some clergy colleagues.
I remember the first time I went; I thought to myself, I am going to learn how to do this: spiritual practices, contemplative prayer, meditation. I remember, in a time of silence, evaluating my performance. Am I doing this right? Since then I have heard the cautions about evaluating, measuring "progress". So this quote, from inward/outward, helps me today;

By Evelyn Underhill

Do not entertain the notion that you ought to advance in your prayer. If you do, you will only find you have put on the brake instead of the acceleration. All real progress in spiritual things comes gently, imperceptibly, and is the work of God. Our crude efforts spoil it. Know yourself for the childish, limited and dependent soul you are. Remember that the only growth which matters happens without our knowledge and that trying to stretch ourselves is both dangerous and silly. Think of the Infinite Goodness, never of your own state.

Source: The Fruits of the Spirit

I will try to keep this in mind for the season of Lent.
Thank God!
Rory