Sunday, March 27, 2016 - Resurrection of Our Lord/Easter Day

Sunday, March 27, 2016 - Resurrection of Our Lord/Easter Day

Alleluia! Christ is Risen! Christ is Risen Indeed! Alleluia!

Worship: 8 & 10:45 am

O brothers and sisters. O sons and daughters. O Catholic offshoots. O holy, celestial plants, O you who are regenerated in Jesus Christ and born in heaven, listen to me, or rather hear from me the words: Sing to the Lord a new chant. Good, you say. I am singing. Yes, you are singing. I hear you. But let not your life belie your words. Sing with the voice, sing with the heart, sing with the mouth, but sing with your whole life: sing to the Lord a new song. But how should you sing of that which you love? Doubtless it is what you love that you wish to sing of. You would like to know his glory to sing of it. You have heard the words: Sing to the Lord a new song. You want to know what is his glory? His glory is the assembly of the saints. The glory of him who is sung about is nothing other than the one who sings about it. Become yourself the glory that you sing of.

            St. Augustine of Hippo, (d. 430), Easter Sermon on Psalm 149

·       Celebrate with abundant excess, with song and with joy.

Daily readings are from the Sunday Lectionary, Year of Luke, ELW, pp. 26-31.

Saturday, March 26, 2016 - Holy Saturday

Saturday, March 26, 2016 - Holy Saturday

Vigil of Easter: 8:30 pm

Rom. 6:3-11; John 20:1-18

O Night brighter than day;

O Night brighter than the sun;

O Night whiter than snow;

O Night more brilliant than torches;

O Night more delightful than paradise;

O Night which knows not darkness;

O Night which has banished sleep;

O Night which has taught us to join vigil with angels;

O Night terror of demons;

O Night most desirable in the year

O Night of torchbearing of the bridegroom in the Church;

O Night when the devil slept and was stripped;

O Night in which the Inheritor brought the beneficiaries into their inheritance;

An inheritance without end.

            Asterius of Amasea,( d. 410), Easter sermon

• Visit someone. Take them some hot cross buns for their Easter feast. 

Friday, March 25, 2016 - Good Friday

Friday, March 25, 2016 - Good Friday (from “God’s Friday”)

The Annunciation

Worship: 12 Noon & 7 pm

Reading:  John 18:1-19:42

…Hard it is, very hard,

            To travel up the slow and stony road

            To Calvary, to redeem mankind; far better

            To make but one sceptered miracle,

            Lean through the cloud, lift the right hand of power

            And with a sudden lightning smite the world perfect.

            Yet this was not God's way, who had the power,

            But set it by, choosing the cross, the thorn,

            The sorrowful wounds. Something there is, perhaps,

            That power destroys in passing, something supreme,

            To whose great value in the eyes of God

            That cross, that thorn, and those five wounds bear witness.

                        Dorothy Sayers (1893-1957), from "The Devil To Pay"

• Bake hot cross buns to break the fast (see recipe below.)

Holy Week: Hot Cross Buns      375° oven            about 15 buns

In a small bowl, combine:

       1 pkg. dry yeast

       ¼ c. warm water

In a small saucepan, scald:

       1 c. milk (or soymilk)

Add:

       1 t. salt

       ¼ c. sugar

       ¼ c. butter

Pour milk mixture into a large bowl. Let cool to lukewarm.

Stir in:

       1 c. flour

Add:

       yeast mixture

       1 egg, beaten

       ½ t. ground cinnamon

       ½ c. raisins or currants

Mix well. Add:

       2½ - 3 c. flour

Knead 5 minutes on floured surface. Place in greased bowl. Cover with clean kitchen towel. Let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 ½ hours. Punch down. Turn out onto floured surface; let rest 10 minutes. Shape into round buns (about 2 ½” diameter), and place on greased baking sheet. Cover with towel; let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. Bake in a preheated 375° oven for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown. Remove to racks. Cool.

Mix: (to make a moderately thick frosting)

       1 c. powdered sugar

       2 t. to 1 T. milk

       a few drops of vanilla

Pipe frosting through the snipped corner of a sandwich bag into the shape of a cross on each bun. Makes about 15.

Thursday, March 24, 2016 - Maundy Thursday

Thursday, March 24, 2016 - Maundy Thursday (from “Mandare” – to command) First Day of Triduum (Three Days)

Worship: 12 Noon & 7 pm

Commemoration of Oscar Romero, archbishop and martyr, 1980

Jewish Festival of Purim

Reading: John 13:1-17, 31b-35

Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back,

                        Guiltie of dust and sinne.

But quick-ey'd Love, observing me grow slack

                        From my first entrance in,

Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,

                        If I lack'd anything.

A guest, I answer'd, worthy to be here:

                        Love said, You shall be he.

I the unkind, ungratefull? Ah my deare,

                        I cannot look on thee.

Love took my hand and smiling did reply,

                        Who made the eyes but I?

Truth Lord, but I have marr'd them: let my shame

                        Go where it doth deserve.

And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?   

                        My deare, then I will serve.

You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:

                        So I did sit and eat.

                                    George Herbert (1593-1633), "Love (III)"

• Clean out a closet. Give away what you don’t need.

Wednesday, March 23, 2016 - Last Day in Lent

Wednesday, March 23, 2016 - Last Day in Lent

Full Moon; Penumbral Lunar Eclipse over the West Coast, Pacific Ocean

Passover begins at sundown

Worship: 12 Noon

Reading: John 13:21-32

Not, Lord, because I have done well or ill;

Not that my mind looks up to thee clear-eyed;

Not that it struggles in fast cerements tied;

Not that I need thee daily sorer still;

Not that I, wretched, wander from thy will;

Not now to thee for any cause I cry,

But this, that thou are thou, and here am I.

                        George MacDonald (1824-1905)," January 26", in Diary of an Old Soul

• Take a walk. Look for signs of spring.

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Tuesday, March 22, 2016

Worship: 12 Noon

Reading: John 12:20-36

I have no wit, no words, no tears;

            My heart within me like a stone

Is numbed too much for hopes or fears;

            Look right, look left, I dwell alone;

I lift mine eyes, but dimmed with grief

            No everlasting hills I see;

My life is in the falling leaf:

            O Jesus, quicken me.

My life is like a faded leaf,

            My harvest dwindled to a husk;

Truly my life is void and brief

            And tedious in the barren dusk;

My life is like a frozen thing,

            No bud nor greenness can I see:

Yet rise it shall - the sap of Spring;

            O Jesus, rise in me.

                        Christina Rossetti (1830-1894), "A Better Resurrection"    

• Learn how to say “thank you” in a new language.

Monday, March 21, 2016

Monday, March 21, 2016

Commemoration of Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1556

Worship: 12 Noon

Reading: John 12:1-11

His voice as the sound of the dulcimer sweet,

Is heard through the shadows of death;

The cedars of Lebanon bow at his feet,

The air is perfumed with his breath.

His lips as the fountain of righteousness flow,

That waters the garden of grace;

From which their salvation the Gentiles shall know,

And bask in the smiles of his face.

O! thou in whose presence my soul takes delight,

On whom in affliction I call;

My comfort by day, and my song in the night,

My hope, my salvation, my all -

Where dost thou at noontide resort with thy sheep,

To feed on the pastures of love?

Say why in the valley of death should I weep,

Or alone in th' wilderness rove?

The roses of Sharon, the lilies that grow

In the vales, on the banks of the streams,

On his cheeks the beauty of excellence blow,

And his eyes are as quivers of beams.

His voice as the sound of the dulcimer sweet,

Is heard  through the shadows of death;

The cedars of Lebanon bow at his feet,

The air is perfumed with his breath.

            Joseph Swain (1761-1796)

• Visit www.gratefulness.org

Sunday, March 20, 2016 - Sunday of the Passion/Palm Sunday

Sunday, March 20, 2016 - Sunday of the Passion/Palm Sunday

Spring Equinox

Worship: 8 & 10:45 am

Readings: Luke 19:28-40; Is. 50:4-9a; Ps. 31:9-16; Phil. 2:5-11; Luke 22:14-23:56

Gospel Acclamation: Christ humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death - even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name. (Philippians 2:8-9)

Impleta sunt, quæ concinit                 (That which the prophet-king of old

David fideli carmine                           hath in mysterious verse foretold

Dicendo nationibus                            is now accomplished, whilst we see

Regnavit a ligno Deus.                       God rule the nations from a tree.)

All down the windy woods, along the throbbing hedge,

And in the starting sedge,

Yea, in all choirs and places where they sing,

I hear its growing cadences that ring:

Noblest of the processionals of earth,

The great Vexilla Regis of the spring:

And topping the soft hill

With sudden joy of emerald fluttering,

Against the sky's bright edge

I see the mighty banners of the King…

…Lo! on these eager branches shall be hung

That Life of which the woods have ever sung;

Making themselves soft harps for the hand o' the rain

To whisper of his pain,

And 'neath the poignant bowing of the wind

Subdued to move,

Crying to all mankind

The secret of the sacrament of love.

Yea! from a Tree

God shall shine out at thee;

For this doth Nature grow,

To this the kingly banners forward go.

            Evelyn Underhill (1875-1941), "March Music"

Saturday, March 19, 2016

Saturday, March 19, 2016

Community Meal: 12 noon, Undercroft

Joseph, Guardian of Jesus

Reading: Philippians 2:5-11

Philippians 2:9 "Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name,…"

            The path out of the desert now comes into view. The church approaches Holy Week and the Three Days.  These Lenten days, which began with ash and confession, reach their culmination in Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, his new commandment, his death, and – behold! I am doing a new thing! – Christ’s rising from the grave. Out of winter, spring. Out of the wilderness, a river. Out of darkness, light. Out of barrenness, fruit. Out of sorrow, joy. Out of death, life.

            Christ will step out into the spring morning with a new day and a song of joy for all those who have experienced trials, dust, dryness, fear, sorrow, death. “Rise, heart, thy Lord is risen; Who takes thee by the hand, that thou likewise with him mayst rise.” (George Herbert)

O God, our springtime, blessed are you, for you fulfill your promise of new life. May we all, baptized in your living water through Christ, live as radiant signs of your grace, mercy, and steadfast love, for your glory shines through all ages of ages. Amen

• Place a candle at the grave of someone you love. (Lazarus Saturday)

Friday, March 18, 2016

Friday, March 18, 2016

Commemoration of Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem

Reading: Luke 19:28-40

Luke 19:37-38 "As he was approaching the path down from the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully saying, 'Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest heaven!'"

            In their book The Last Week, Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan portray day by day the last week of Christ Jesus' earthly life. On what we call Palm Sunday, they describe two contrasting processions entering Jerusalem: one from the east, one from the west. From the west, the Roman prefect Pontius Pilate would be travelling from his palace at Caesarea on the Mediterranean. It was the prefect's responsibility to be in Jerusalem to keep order during the Jewish pilgrimage holidays, and he brought with him military reinforcements - foot soldiers and cavalry, chariots and war-steeds - to represent the empire and the force of Caesar Tiberius, divine emperor, claiming the title Son of God. To the east, descending the Mount of Olives on the Jericho road, Jesus rode on a colt of a donkey, the sign of a ruler of peace and mercy (Zechariah 9:9-10). Power, domination, and violence enter in procession from the west. Compassion, mercy and peace enter in procession from the east. Before which procession, they ask, do we lay down our cloaks?

O God of compassion, lead us in the way you would have us go. Amen

• Eat no meat or oil today.

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Thursday, March 17, 2016

Commemoration of Patrick, bishop and missionary to Ireland, 461

Reading: Philippians 2:5-11

Philippians 2:5,7 "Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who…emptied himself, taking the form of a slave."

            A room cannot be of use unless it is first empty. A cup cannot hold water unless it is first hollow. A mind that is overfull with preconceptions and certainties has little room for newness. A heart that is overfull with bitterness and spite has little room for divine love and forgiveness. In the journey of transformation we call Lent, we have been travelling with Jesus Christ, through wilderness, through Galilee, now up to Jerusalem. And to make room for the Easter newness God desires for us, we will learn from Christ this lesson: to empty ourselves, to let go. To let go of treasured hurts and disappointments - from parents, religious leaders, traditions, friends. To let go of protective hardness of heart. To let go of fear. To let go now even of Lent, and take the hard steps into Holy Week toward the cross.

O God of compassion, so surround us with your lovingkindness that we may fearlessly become the people you desire us to be. Amen

• Let go of a hurt or a habit or an attitude that has become a burden. Write about it or draw it or sculpt it and place it on your altar. 

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Wednesday, March 16, 2016

Worship: Noon, soup meal follows; 7 pm, soup meal at 6 pm.

John 12-:1-8

John 12:3b "The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume."

            Martyred Archbishop Oscar Romero is said to have remarked that people need beauty in their lives as much as they need bread. The Little Brothers of the Poor take not only meals to people in poverty, but bouquets of flowers also. Jesus in this story is the recipient of an act of beauty and love from Mary of Bethany, an act with no ulterior motive, no in-order-to. Beauty for beauty's sake, love for love's sake, is a gift for the whole universe, not just the direct recipient. As we read in this passage, the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume that Mary used to anoint Jesus' feet. Everyone was blessed by the beauty of what was truly an extravagant act of love.

O God of compassion, so fill us with your love that our every act may proclaim your loving presence in the world. Amen

• Do something beautiful today.

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Isaiah 42:16-21

Isaiah 43:19 “I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.”

            Wilderness times are like wandering in the Negeb, a desert in southern Israel, west of the Dead Sea. The Negeb receives less than 8” of rain in a year. And God is going to make a river? Here?

            What is so amazing is what happens in the desert when water does come. The silvery, spiny, low-growing plants bloom. Cactus puts out leaves and flowers. Desert frogs emerge after spending ten months burrowed underground. Even 3,000 year old peas found during excavation of Tutankhamen’s tomb have blossomed and produced purple pods of edible peas.

            “Behold, I am doing a new thing,” proclaims God. What miracles could happen when water flows into our wilderness?

O God, our springtime, may we never lose hope in you. Amen

• Memorize a scripture verse.

Monday, March 14, 2016

Orthodox Great Lent begins

π Day (Pi Day 3.14…) Bake a pie! Write a Pi-ku:  3 syllables, 1 syllable, 4 syl.

John 12-:1-8

John 12:3 “Mary took a pound of costly perfume… anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair.”

            Kings were anointed. Priests were anointed. Prophets were anointed. The rich dead were anointed. Sacrifices were anointed. The healed and sick were anointed. Which of these was Jesus?

            Heads were anointed. The healed parts of the sick were anointed. Why, then, Jesus’ feet?

            Priests anointed priests. Priests anointed offerings. Priests anointed kings. Prophets anointed prophets. Why Mary?

            Here is a new thing: a woman anoints a prophet, priest, and king, but on his feet. Why?

            Poet Rainer Maria Rilke wrote, “You must learn to love the questions themselves.”

O God, our springtime, even when we think we know, we do not know. Help us to love the questions themselves. Amen

·       Place a small amount of olive oil in a bowl. Anoint your eyes, your forehead, your lips, and any other parts of your blessed body with the sign of the cross. Give thanks to god.

Sunday, March 13, 2016 - Fifth Sunday in Lent

Sunday, March 13, 2016 - Fifth Sunday in Lent

Is. 42:16-21; Ps. 126; Phil. 3:4b-14; John 12-:1-8

Gospel Acclamation: Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13-14)

"Knowing that, just because we are mortals, we might easily forget our mortality, the Church on the first day of Lent, signs our foreheads with symbolic ashes: Remember that, whether you like it or not, thou art dust, and unto dust thou shalt return. However opportune such a reminder might be, it is not what I wish to insist upon now. I prefer to stress the marvelous grandeur to which we are all called: Dust, remember that thou art splendor! In this frail envelope of our body is enclosed a great marvel. I am not referring to the marvel of our soul only, but more especially to the life that God designs to live in each of us…"

                        Raoul Plus (1882-1958), Dust Remember Thou Art Splendor

·       Listen to movements 6-10 of J. S. Bach's St. Matthew Passion, which portray Matthew's version of the anointing of Jesus at Bethany.

Saturday, March 12, 2016

Commemoration of Gregory the Great, 344

Commemoration of Symeon the New Theologian, 1022 (Orthodox)

Reading: Philippians 3:4b-14

Philippians 3:13 “Forgetting what lies behind, I press onward.”

            In personal lives, as in churches, as in countries, as in cultures, we can easily get trapped in the past – either in a sense of regret (if only…) or in a sense of grandeur (“those were the days”). The apostle Paul here reiterates what Second Isaiah reported in this week’s text from the prophet: God is always at work creating newness in our lives, and we need to press on. Change is the only constant in life. We can choose to progress or decay, but we cannot remain the same. Let us press onward, writes Paul.

O God, our springtime, blessed are you for you create surprising wonders around us and in us. Grant us courage, endurance and openness to all that you cause to grow. Amen

• Take a gratefulness walk. Gather something for your altar.

Friday, March 11, 2016

Reading: Isaiah 42:16-21

Isaiah 43:18 “Do not remember the former things; I am about to do a new thing.”

            Just before this verse in Isaiah, God declares, “Thus says the Lord , who makes a way in the sea…” (v. 16). God is referring to the exodus, and then admonishes, “Do not remember the former things…”! Do not remember the exodus? Well, perhaps,…yes. God declares, ”I am about to do a new thing…: I will make a way in the wilderness.” God is saying to Israel, yes, yes, yes, I did lead your ancestors to freedom, but look! now I am going to lead you to newness! God is not simply God of the past who once upon a time did great deeds. God is not simply God of the future who will someday set all things right. God is the God who acts now, who acts, here, in this hour, in this dwelling, in this person, in this parish, leading out of wilderness to newness, to freedom.

O God, our springtime, help us to honor the past and also live fully and abundantly in this present moment. Amen

• Place on your altar a picture of someone who has wronged you. Pray to forgive.

Thursday, March 10, 2016

Commemoration of Harriet Tubman, 1913, and Sojourner Truth, 1883

Reading: Psalm 126

Psalm 126:4 “Restore our fortunes, O God, like the watercourses of the Negeb.”

            Each of the fifteen psalms between Psalm 120 and Psalm 134 is titled “A Song of Ascents”. The prevalent thought is that these psalms were sung by pilgrims during the ascent to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is built on a tableland at one of the highest points of the central limestone ridge of Israel, 2400 feet above the level of the Mediterranean. In ancient Jerusalem, surrounded on three sides by ravines, the main approach was from the north, and pilgrims arriving for the three pilgrimage festivals – Passover, Shavuot, Sukkot – would make the gradual climb up to the City of Peace. Jesus went up to Jerusalem from Galilee for the festival of Passover, possibly singing psalms with the disciples, and as we draw nearer to Palm Sunday, we also begin our ascent out of the wilderness, singing psalms.

O God, our springtime, restore our fortunes, like the watercourses of the Negeb. Amen

• Memorize a psalm of ascent, one of psalms 120-134.

Wednesday, March 9, 2016

New Moon, Total solar eclipse over the Pacific

Commemoration of Gregory of Nyssa, 394

Reading: Psalm 32

Psalm 32:12  “Be glad, you righteous and rejoice in the Lord.”

            Prodigal means wasteful, extravagant.  But interestingly, the word prodigal does not occur anywhere in the parable in Luke 15 – in fact, nowhere does the word prodigal appear in present English translations of the entire New Testament.  It is first found in margin notes in 16^th century English Bibles, possibly based on a gloss in Jerome’s Latin Vulgate translation of 432.  The story in Luke 15 follows after the parable of the lost sheep and the story of the lost coin, so perhaps this parable is best called “The Lost Son”.  But the common thread in all of these stories is the shepherd, the woman, the father  - who waits, who searches, who will not rest until the lost has been returned.  The shepherd says “Rejoice with me!” The woman calls to her friends “Rejoice with me!”  The father says to the older son, “We had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours . . . was lost and has been found!”

O loving God, you always search us out with a heart of relentless forgiveness. May we reach out with the same forgiveness to ourselves and others and rejoice each day in the gift of newness.  Amen

• Call or write a relative you haven’t spoken to in ages.

Tuesday, March 8, 2016

Jupiter at closest approach to earth, visible all night

Reading: Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Luke 15:32  “We had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life.”

Jewish philosopher Martin Buber defined two different ways of seeing ourselves in the world: "Ich/Du", I and Thou - and "Ich/Es" - I and It. "I and It" sees the world outside of self as "It", as objects, as separate. "I and Thou" sees the world -

its rocks, its trees, its creatures, other people - and God - as Thou, as connected,

as beings with whom, not with which, with whom, we can have relationship.

Relationship: with whom we can suffer, with whom we can work, with whom we can remember, with whom we can hope, with whom we can celebrate, with whom we can sing, and dance, and rejoice.

O loving God, you have called us to return to you.  May we leave behind all that separates us from fullness of love in you.  Amen

• On your altar, place a photograph of someone who brings joy to your life. Pray for them. Write to them, even if they have died.

Monday, March 7, 2016

Commemoration of Perpetua and Companions, martyrs, 202

Reading: 2 Corinthians 5:16-21

2 Corinthians 5:17  “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation.”

In the northern hemisphere, we are moving toward springtime, a time of greenness and fertility.  In the Jewish calendar, we are moving toward Passover, festival of deliverance and new beginnings.  In the church year we are moving toward Easter, festival of resurrection and new life.  The church year grew out of the Jewish calendar and the pagan agrarian festivals, all of which sprang naturally from the seasons of the earth.  We are ready to be done with gray days, with dormancy and cold.  We are ready for the green of newness, the smell of sod on the wind, the warmth and light of sun on face.  Christ promises us that in the life of the Spirit, new life will follow gray dormancy, that spring will follow winter, that forgiveness will follow repentance, that Easter will follow Good Friday.  God is always creating in us clean hearts and renewing in us right spirits when we return to God with outstretched arms and contrite hearts.

O loving God, you raise us up in forgiveness and new life.  May we always be open to the new creation you offer us through Jesus Christ.  Amen

• Plant a shallow container with wheatgrass. Use it for part of your Easter centerpiece.

Sunday, March 6, 2016 - Fourth Sunday in Lent

Worship: 8 & 10:45 am

Readings: Josh. 5:9-12; Ps. 32; 2 Cor. 5:16-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Gospel Acclamation:   I will arise and go to my father and say, I have sinned against heaven and before you. (Luke 15:8)

"Only after we have gone to the depths of self-knowledge and known the hell we have fashioned for ourselves, only when we can love with an identification with the other, can we begin to rise again. Perhaps wearing ashes as we launch our Lent is not so much

a statement that we are 'nothing but' ashes, as it is the gesture that brings us 'down to earth'.

                        Gertrud Mueller Nelson, To Dance With God

• In the Anglican Church this is "Midlenting" or "Mothering" Sunday, and is celebrated with Simnel Cake and visits. http://www.fullhomelydivinity.org/Lenten customs.htm

Saturday, March 5, 2016

Community Meal: 12 noon, Undercroft

Reading: Joshua 5:9-12

Joshua 5:9  “The Lord said to Joshua, ‘Today I have rolled away the disgrace of Egypt from you’.”

            After wandering in the wilderness of Sinai for forty years, the Israelites, with forty thousand armed for war, crossed the Jordan into Canaan.  (Read beginning at Joshua, chapter 3, for this fascinating story.)  Just as the exodus from Egypt was marked by the parting of the waters, here the waters of the Jordan River stop north of the crossing, allowing the Israelites to enter Canaan with dry feet.  The generation that enters the land God promised to Israel, however, is not the one that left Egypt.  God had declared that the older generation would not enter the land flowing with milk and honey, because they had not listened to the voice of God, had created and worshipped idols, and, over the forty years of wandering, that first generation gradually passed away.  God makes a way in the desert; God makes a path through the waters; God leads into a land of milk and honey,  those who listen to God’s voice.

O loving God, may we always listen to your voice, that we may enter the life  you have promised us.  Amen

• Start making Ukrainian eggs for your Easter celebration^.
• Attend a workshop with Gertrud Mueller Nelson on living the church year in the home. 1-4 pm, Christ Church Lutheran, Minneapolis.

Friday, March 4, 2016

Reading: Psalm 32

Psalm 32:5  “Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and you forgave the guilt of my sin.”

            The Greek word for repentance used in the Christian writings is metanoia,  which means "beyond mind" or, "go beyond the mind that you have".  Repentance is not simply a change of mind or a change in the way one thinks.  It is a turning around, a change of heart, and an expanding, a leaving-behind.  To early Christians the heart was the place where the human mind, body, and spirit come together, and thus a change of heart meant a radical (from Latin radix, at the root!), a radical change of life and action and direction.  Repentance is a life-threatening act.  Repentance is a life-giving act.

O loving God, may we turn around where we have gone astray.  Lead us to newness of heart.  Amen

• Pray the Orthodox Jesus Prayer this day: Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Pray to forgive someone who has wronged you.

Thursday, March 3, 2016

Commemoration of John Wesley, 1791, and Charles Wesley, 1785

Reading: Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Luke 15:11  “Then Jesus told them this parable:  There was a man who had two sons…”

            Jesus was gifted as a storyteller.  He told parables to teach the people who crowded to hear him.  Parables are symbolic stories, open-ended, ambiguous, and rich.  The human brain hears and stores stories in a different area than it does concepts.  And that which is not explained, that which is open-ended, causes us to wonder, to puzzle, to contemplate.  Jesus could have said, “God is love”, but instead he said,  “There was a man who had two sons…”.  How deep is the story, how rich in possibility.  Because it is unexplained, because it is open-ended, there is room for all people of all backgrounds and all places in life to enter the story.  Because it is unexplained we ponder it:  Who am I in this story today?  Because it is open-ended it rattles around in our memory.  That which we think we understand, we rarely again contemplate.  So Jesus told parables.

O loving God, you are always revealing your love to us.  May we learn to listen, to wonder, and to ponder.  Amen

• Place an artwork depicting the Prodigal Son on your altar or place of prayer. Who are you in this story today?

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Worship: Noon, soup meal follows; 7 pm, soup meal at 6 pm.

Reading: Isaiah 55:1-9

Isaiah 55:9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, says the Lord.”

St. Augustine wrote:  “If you think you understand, it isn’t God.”  The Lakota word for God – Wakan Tanka – often translated “Great Spirit”, actually means “Great Mystery”.  This passage in Isaiah reminds us that we cannot know the mind of God, no matter how much our age may take pride in having so much knowledge and in providing so many answers.  God is simply not name-able,  not contain-able, not know-able, not tame-able, not package-able, no matter how much our present Christian culture may try to do so.  God is spirit.  God is mystery.  God’s thoughts are higher than ours.  God’s ways are higher than ours.  Thanks be to God.

O God, fountain of life, eagerly we seek you, our souls thirst for you.  May we walk fearlessly in this gift of daily life.  Amen

• Place an icon in your place of prayer.

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Reading: 1 Corinthians 10:1-13

1 Corinthians 10:13 “God is faithful and will not let you be tested beyond your strength.”

The path into Lent is a path into intentional wilderness, a path of reflection and discipline, a path of purification and preparation for the promise of new life. The path leads to unexpected cliffs and desert flash floods. We may stumble on hard stories like the parable of the fig tree or find ourselves in a box canyon where we no longer find an easy way on pat answers or old values. But the path into the wilderness, whether intentional or coerced, also leads out; the road does eventually find water and new life; and God does not let us be tested beyond our strength.

O God, fountain of life, grant us courage to face the unknown on our journey of life. Amen

• Go for a walk. Look with beginner's eyes. Notice new blessings. Notice Blessings anew.