Lent Week One: Hymn (Seeking: Who will you listen to?)

*reprinted with permission from A Sanctified Art

 

Lent Week One: Poem (Seeking: Who will you listen to?)

who will you listen to?

Twitter or the BBC / the ads on late-night television / the wind as she blows / the echo of children playing / the quiet of snow / the ice bucket challenge / the phone when it rings / your pastor / your mother / your doctor / your gut / the tension in your shoulders / the restaurant singing happy birthday / audio books / TED talks / the rhythm of the music / the coffee drip in the morning / your therapist / the wisdom of the enneagram / the way your heart comes alive when you’re being creative / the man on the corner asking for change / the kid on the subway selling chocolate / the labels on the makeup bottle that promise timeless beauty / the magazines that tell you you need timeless beauty / astrology / the Dow Jones / the hiss of the radiator / the pitter patter of little feet / financial advisors / the top 40 pop / the top 40 country / the New York Times / the rumor mill / the Book of Psalms / your sense of self / Jesus, when he says, “I am with you, always.”

Poem by Rev. Sarah (Are) Speed

*reprinted with permission from A Sanctified Art

Week of Ash Wednesday Art & Reflection: (Seeking: Is this the fast that I choose?)

read Isaiah 58:1-12

from the artist | Rev. T. Denise Anderson

I love portraiture because I believe there is something deeply profound about our faces and what they can communicate. Few things are more beautiful to me than the shapes and shadows created in our faces by directional light. The pieces I have offered for this Lenten series attempt to show the drama that light and darkness create together on the human visage. Because I’m a person of color, I am careful to acknowledge how scripture’s preference for light over darkness has historically been used against darker-skinned peoples. Therefore, I do not subscribe to a light/dark dichotomy that suggests one is preferable to the other. I believe light and dark work together to frame a specific part of the picture that needs our attention the most. In each of my pieces, light is coming from a specific direction and cooperates (not competes) with darkness to spotlight something.

The Isaiah text prophesies to a community preoccupied with religious observance that draws the gaze “upward” to God but neglects the people and matters that are most important to God. God is not calling for fasts and religious rituals that only focus heavenward. As the community has focused on things above, they persist in injustice below. The people have exalted themselves above their kindred and wondered why God has not responded to them. Meanwhile, God is shining light on what they’ve neglected below—that is to say, their own community.

The person depicted here is fixing their gaze upon a light source that is just below and to the side of them. This is an invitation to stop elevating one’s worship and oneself above one’s siblings and peers, for it is there that God may be found.

*reprinted with permission from A Sanctifed Art

Don't Look Up | Rev. T. Denise Anderson

Oil on canvas

Week of Ash Wednesday Commentary (Seeking: Is this the fast that I choose?)

Read: Isaiah 58:1-12

Commentary Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow

With the beginning of Lent, it will be almost three years to the day when the world was thrust into a global pandemic.¹ Words don’t have the capacity to describe what we have all been through: death, loss, anger, isolation, sorrow, and confusion—but also discovery, introspection, adaptation, and hope.

While it is tempting to try and find “silver linings” that have emerged from the pandemic, I caution us not to do so. There has been far too much pain, suffering, and death to try and negate the suffering with comparatively minimal benefits to the world. Instead, I choose to describe this time as revelatory. The pandemic has revealed much about ourselves, our communities, and the world. We have discovered that adaptation to technology is possible, creativity in curating worship is abundant, and many things that we thought were too important to change about the Church, were, in fact, not. Again, no silver linings, but certainly welcomed revelations about who we can be and become.

This passage from Isaiah does not go easy on us. It poses difficult questions that force each of us to dig deep and ask questions about ourselves and the communities of which we are a part. While it is easy to blame “them” for the problems of the world, we are being asked to explore how we may have played ambivalent witnesses or unintentional accomplices in creating the deep pain that has been brought to the surface of our world.

The revelatory nature of the past few years forces us to face questions, not only about whether hate or love will have the last word, but about how we will be part of a different story for the future. This is where we are inviting one another to sit this Lenten season, in and with the questions, no matter where the answers may lead.

Reflect: As you begin the Lenten season, what are you seeking? What is God seeking? What actions or practices will you commit to?

*reprinted with permission from A Sanctified Art

At the Start (Seeking: Is this the fast that I choose?)

Is this the fast I choose?

Will I wake with the sun each morning?

Will I start with thank you?

Will I peel back the cage around my frame to let you in

or will I get too busy? Will my Bible collect dust on the shelf,

along with my journal, along with my sense of self,

or will I roll back the stone and wade in?

Every new season beckons something of us—

attention, beauty, the chance to create.

This season is no different.

So, like moths to the light, will we find our way toward God,

or will we hover, circling fake suns?

I am seeking something deeper.

I am kicking off my shoes.

I am starting this season on holy ground.

Poem by

Rev. Sarah Speed

*reprinted with permission from A Sanctified Art

Finding Hope Version Two

But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17

We who have run for our very lives to God have every reason to grab the promised hope with both hands and never let go. It’s an unbreakable spiritual lifeline, reaching past all appearances right to the very presence of God where Jesus, running on ahead of us, has taken up his permanent post as high priest for us…Hebrews 6:18-19 The Message

What I do, God, is wait for you, wait for my Lord, my God—you will answer! Psalm 38:15 The Message

In The Comfort Book* by Matt Haig, he highlights some of his favorite things (with a concentration on hope and inspiration). I like his essay “Somewhere”: he focuses on hope by considering the song Somewhere Over the Rainbow, sung by Judy Garland in the movie The Wizard of Oz (link below to the song). He describes how the song goes up an octave, an “actual musical rainbow”. He continues: “Hope always involves a soaring and a reaching. Hope flies. The thing with feathers, as Emily Dickinson said.” Matt thinks that it’s almost easier to feel hopeful when times are difficult, because hope is one of the things we can cling to. As a Christian, I would add that hope comes when we trust in God's promises. To be hopeful, he finds, you just “need to understand that things will change. Hope is available for us all.” Again, as Christians, we have hope that God is with us through life's challenges until "things change".

Coincidentally, a few weeks after finishing Matt’s book I started reading the novel Finding Dorothy** by Elizabeth Letts. Letts takes on the true story of the author of The Wizard of Oz, Frank Baum, and his wife, Maud. The book moves between 1938 in Hollywood, when the film was made, and the years that Frank and Maud were together (when he wrote his masterpiece). I loved the book and its message of perseverance and hope in the face of adversity (I won’t add any spoilers here: you’ll just need to read the book or research the lives of Frank and Maud Baum!) Incidentally, one of the defining features of the novel is Maud’s determination that the song Somewhere Over the Rainbow was sung just right…with a sense of hopefulness and earnestness. In the book, Maud believes that Judy Garland did it perfectly. If you listen below (and recall the song from the movie), you'll probably agree. 

Somewhere Over the Rainbow - The Wizard of Oz (1/8) Movie CLIP (1939) HD - YouTube

Prayer: Dear Lord, thank you for your promise of hope in you. Thank you for being with us in good times and bad, promising your comfort and spiritual presence that we can rely on. Amen.

Donna Gustafson (reprinted from 2022 Advent...edited to omit the advent portion, including scripture adaptations. Reprinted because of our current sermon series on hope!)

*

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Youth Sunday sermon by Hope Shortridge: Romans 8:18-25

I have spent the last couple of weeks thinking about this passage. Romans chapter eight, verse 18 reads “I believe that the present suffering is nothing compared to the coming glory that is going to be revealed to us.” When I read that, this is what I hear it say. Suffering is inevitable throughout life. Now, some of that is brought upon by sin, but it also points to the broken world we are living in. It also shows how you might be suffering now, but the light at the end of the tunnel is God's unending glory. Verse 24 speaks about hope, and that is intriguing to me, not just because that is my name (haha). Part of the verse reads, “Who hopes for what they already see?” In this, I hear the importance of giving your hopes, wishes, and prayers to God, even through the times of hardship or loss.

After reflecting more on it, this is what this passage looks like for me as a Christian.

I think about loss. It is something we all go through and it's an unexplainable feeling. Recovering from loss looks different for everyone. For some, it looks like laughter in a serious setting or it can be uncontrollable anger. For others, it is shutting anyone and everything out. Or, it’s all of the above at different times or different days. Some days are good, others are bad, and some are in between. Some days it’s just a lingering ache, of what once was, and what isn’t anymore. Loss can be around a lot of things. Loss of a loved one, a friendship, a relationship, a pet, or a community member. As I say this list out loud, I realize I have experienced all of these kinds of loss. None of them are easy.

The loss of a pet - it might bring tears to your eyes right now just to hear those words or think about it. Many of us have experienced this. My first dog Frodo was a beloved family member. He was 16, with one eye, a big personality, and he barked all the time. After he passed, I started to miss all that and the cuddles.  And so did Sam, our other dog. 

Next, we might feel loss in our school setting. This can happen in different ways. Whether it be a friend moving away at the start of middle school or leaving a favorite teacher’s classroom as you move on to the next grade or school. Within the past month, my school community has experienced loss three times. As a young person, it can be a lot for my brain to comprehend. Classmates, and friends, who were at school yesterday, but won’t be tomorrow. There is a protocol in place when a crisis happens. But when it happens more than once, in a short period of time, the suffering that occurs happens on another level. As a community of faith within Lincoln and at East, we came together. We came together to pray over our school and our community. To hold each other, and even to cry. Over 150 people coming together to show unity, peace, love and comfort - pastors, teachers, students, parents, even those who don’t go to church on Sunday. We came together as a community, to mourn what was, and what will no longer be. The feeling of everyone surrounding our community in prayer was so powerful. And as hard as it was, it was a crucial step in our journey of healing. 

Now, I think of the church members right here in this community who made an impact on everyone. They graced us with their presence. I feel like some of those people were gone far too soon, and I just wish I could give them one more hug. 

And lastly, for me, last year I experienced one of the hardest things I’ll ever go through. On May 3rd, 2022, my grandpa Harley, went to be with our God. He was suffering and in pain for quite some time. I am happy that he is now pain free. But, even though I am grateful for that, I still mourn the time I had with him. I look back on all the fun memories I had with him throughout my life. I think of how blessed I and all of his grandchildren were. In addition to mourning the past with grandpa, I mourn the future. I mourn that he will not see me graduate from high school and college. He won’t be there to dance with me at my wedding. He won’t be there to meet my future children. And I also see how his passing affects the people I love. I think of my grandmother, who lost the love of her life and the father of her three wonderful children.  I see her trying to continue experiencing a new life, one filled with grief. 

Through all these experiences I share with you here today, I have learned that grief and loss cannot be handled alone. There is support all around, and available in different ways. Whether that is a member from the church that works with grieving, a therapist, or another friend to confide in and to lean on. But also, be available, to be THAT friend that others can lean on as well. 

So…here we are in this conversation about grief and loss. After all that, how do you find hope when you feel like there isn’t any. A complex question, with complex answers and ideas. I don’t think there is a guidebook for this sort of thing. The Bible has some wonderful stories and verses for us to read and study but we have to take those words off the page for them to really help us. I have a few things that I do and I would like to share them with you.  They aren’t an instant fix but they are a step in the right direction. A step towards the light at the end of the tunnel. Find joy in the little moments. At the end of the day, reflect on someone who made your day better.  Maybe they were a bright spot in your day. Be thankful for them, and pray for them. Recognize that things are so tough and hard sometimes. It’s okay NOT to be okay!  Those hard times are going to happen. But remember, there IS a light at the end of the tunnel. 

When life happens, things can get hard. Those hard times can make us angry at God. When this happens, it can be easy to forget our “why” or our reason for being HERE this Sunday morning. That reason is Jesus. Jesus died and rose again for our sins, so that we could live the way we do today. As the scripture reads, we believe that Jesus will one day come back, and that our belief in him leads to eternal life. It is important to try and remember this as we walk through life. How ever it looks for you, whether that’s taking a breath, going for a walk, talking to a friend, or just prioritizing some quiet time alone, try and implement these habits into your life. 

We all feel the suffering, in one way or another. Days can be long and feel full of uncertainty. The truth today is this. God sees and hears our struggles. God knows we are struggling before we do. That means that through all of the uncertainty in our lives, God will be the constant comfort. Our unending and unwavering love. But being part of this community, I have come to recognize something else. In addition to the unwavering love of God, I also have the unwavering love of my family, my friends, and THIS community. ALL those who love you will carry you through when you feel like you cannot. I charge you with this; be there for your neighbor. Check in on all your friends, neighbors, and acquaintances. Be kind, always! You never know what struggles someone is dealing with. Hold the door open for people, say please and thank you, help others take steps towards that light at the end of the tunnel, and in return, they will do the same to you. Most of all, cherish every moment, because you never know how much time you have left. God be with you all.