Dear People of Christ Church,
A holy Lent to you, and a happy Valentine's day! My wedding anniversary is tomorrow, so in my household we have a universal "pass" on celebrating today, but I hope you will do something special. I have heard a few moans about the coincidence between the beginning of Lent and Valentine's Day-all those usual treats of chocolate or champagne are often on the chopping block when it comes to Lent. For the record, I don't think that our general discomfort is much of an offering to God, but I do think the invitation of simplicity that Lent offers us is something to follow after.
Our bishop, Tom Shaw, has started a video blog series: "Monk in the Midst," and he released one this week for Valentine's Day. He says that Lent is a little like a Valentine to God. If it's possible to take Valentine's day in an un-cynical, un-commercialized way, and observe it as a centering-in on love, then I think it works...being a monk, Tom does not have a lot of experience with romantic love, but he does know God (I wrote one of these pieces several years ago about Valentine's Day and the Church here)
Tom says that Lent can be a time to tell God who we are, what we desire. It's a time we can admit our unfaithfulness, and ask about all the things we don't understand. In my sermon yesterday, I quoted Dorothy Day's comment about wanting to create a world in which it was easier to be good. One of the invitations of Lent, going on that theme, is an experiment to see how we can structure a life in which it is easier to be near God. What are the places we can clear out in order to make room for God? Where can you add in some silence, or take away some "stuff," in order to see God's face?
Lent is not necessarily an occasion for general self-improvement; if you need to drink less, you should go ahead and just do that-but I find that the limited scope of it makes it easier to try something out that I might want to do for longer. My unexpectedly transformative activity last year (which I'm doing again this year) was having no radio in the car. It takes me between 20 and 35 minutes to drive from home to work, so adding in an average of an hour of silence each day was big. I'm a total NPR junkie; even bad call-in shows on topics I'm not actually interested in-so to break the habit of always having that distraction shifted a lot for me. I found even in the non-Lenten parts of the year that I was able to turn off that episode of Fresh Air with Paula Dean-how to contract diabetes and then control it isn't an improvement on silence. There's nothing wrong with listening to public radio, but if it's crowding out my awareness of where I actually am-and the present is the only place God can find you-it's not worth it.
What practices will bring you closer to God this Lent? What can you add, or take away?
Blessings,
Sara+
Bishop Tom's video is at diomass.org
For 40 days of ideas, check out Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber's page here
Local friends
Our friends at Chaplains on the Way are offering labyrinth walks at First Presbyterian Church at 34 Alder Street in the evenings on the second Tuesday of the month (7:30-9) and on the second Wednesday from 3 to 4pm.
COTW also offers a Centering Prayer group right here at Christ Church every Wednesday from about 9:15-9:45.
The Wider Church
Want to learn more about the saints? Rev. Norm wrote about them in this space last fall; take a different approach and see who will win the "Golden Halo." The "saintly smackdown" is at www.lentmadness.org.
And of course, join US here at Christ Church for Lent education for all:
Dinner at 6pm; children's and adult education at 6:40, Eucharist in the choir room at 7:30.
More on Ashes to Go
See the Waltham News Tribune
My personal blog at saraiwrites
No comments:
Post a Comment