Ash Wednesday

During Lent, you will receive a daily “flower drop” in your inbox - a reflection, idea, quote, or prayer to help you “consider the lilies” throughout the season. This is the first one. Have a blessed Lent!

See you tonight at 6:30pm in the sanctuary. We will listen, sing, and pray, and all are invited to have a cross drawn with ashes on their forehead or hand.

April 16, Holy Saturday

Divine silence, by Henry Nouwen

There was deep rest around the grave of Jesus. On the seventh day, when the work of creation was completed, God rested. “God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on that day he rested after all his work of creating.” (Genesis 2:3).

On the seventh day of the week of our redemption, when Jesus had fulfilled all he was sent by his Father to do, he rested in the tomb, and the women whose hearts were broken with grief rested with him.

Of all the days in history, Holy Saturday - the Saturday during which the body of Jesus lay in the tomb in silence and darkness behind the large stone that was rolled against its entrance (Mark 15:46) - is the day of God’s solitude.

The Paschal Sabbath is the day on which the whole creation waits in deep rest.

It is the day on which no words are spoken, no proclamations made.

The Word of God through whom all had been made lies buried in the darkness of the earth.

This Holy Saturday is the most quiet of all days. …

This divine silence is the most fruitful silence that the world has ever known.

From this silence, the Word will be spoken again and make all things new.

April 15, Good Friday

An Encouragement to withstand Suffering, by Walter and Sandra Robinson

In bringing many sons to glory it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom all things exist, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through sufferings, for he who consecrates and those who are consecrated are all of one stock. That is why he does not shrink from calling men his brothers, when he says ‘I will make your fame known to my brothers: in the midst of the assembly I will praise you’. . . . Since the children share in flesh and blood, he too shared in them, so that by dying he might break the power of him who had death at his command, that is, the devil, and might liberate those who all their life had been in servitude through fear of death.

Hebrews 2:10-15 (Revised English Bible)

The Creation of a New Season of Brotherhood obtained through Suffering

With the coming of Spring, we are reminded of a promising change when all has been relatively lifeless for a season. The book of Hebrews turns this dormancy on its head, with the promise of a new season of creation. God has bonded his son with humanity for a multitude of blessings.

The developing argument in Hebrews leads us to a spiritual level rarely ascended. The lament of Psalm 22 refers to the frailty of flesh and blood. As usual is with other Psalms, its latter verses state that God in his might will eventually save believers.  Hebrews complements the Psalmist by showing that there is a new creation in the advent of his son (chapter 1, verse 5). The new creation is described in the second chapter: that of brotherhood of humankind with Christ himself. The transformation of a new brotherhood will culminate with the final erasure of pain and death itself. Notice that the devil is stated as “had” death at his command, referring to an event already realized.  Jesus is identified as the “pioneer” of their salvation through his own sufferings.          

Not all humanity has reached this new togetherness. The suffering of the Christ shows us how inequities can be overcome, or at least mitigated, by sacrifice and suffering itself.    

April 9

You must believe in spring, by Abi Flowers

I am ALWAYS looking for opportunity to share this song. “You Must Believe In Spring” with music by Michel Legrand, English lyrics by Alan and Marilyn Bergman. This version by Bill Evans and Tony Bennett is gorgeous:

Lyrics

When lonely feelings chill
The meadows of your mind
Just think if Winter comes
Can Spring be far behind

Beneath the deepest snows
The secret of a rose
Is merely that it knows
You must believe in Spring

Just as a tree is sure
Its leaves will reappear
It knows its emptiness
Is just the time of year

The frozen mountain dreams
Of April's melting streams
How crystal clear it seems
You must believe in Spring

You must believe in love
And trust it's on it's way
Just as the sleeping rose
Awaits the kiss of May

So in a world of snow
Of things that come and go
Where what you think you know
You can't be certain of
You must believe in Spring and love

Even in times of doubt, this song is so TRUE that it gives me confidence. The nature imagery reminds me that resurrection and hope are displayed in the world around us every day.

April 5

Psalm 104

Bless the Lord, O my soul.
    O Lord my God, you are very great.
You are clothed with honor and majesty,
    wrapped in light as with a garment.
You stretch out the heavens like a tent,
    you set the beams of your chambers on the waters,
you make the clouds your chariot,
    you ride on the wings of the wind,
you make the winds your messengers,
    fire and flame your ministers.

You set the earth on its foundations,
    so that it shall never be shaken.
You cover it with the deep as with a garment;
    the waters stood above the mountains.
At your rebuke they flee;
    at the sound of your thunder they take to flight.
They rose up to the mountains, ran down to the valleys
    to the place that you appointed for them.
You set a boundary that they may not pass,
    so that they might not again cover the earth.

You make springs gush forth in the valleys;
    they flow between the hills,
giving drink to every wild animal;
    the wild asses quench their thirst.
By the streams the birds of the air have their habitation;
    they sing among the branches.
From your lofty abode you water the mountains;
    the earth is satisfied with the fruit of your work.

You cause the grass to grow for the cattle,
    and plants for people to use,
to bring forth food from the earth,
    and wine to gladden the human heart,
oil to make the face shine,
    and bread to strengthen the human heart.
The trees of the Lord are watered abundantly,
    the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
In them the birds build their nests;
    the stork has its home in the fir trees.
The high mountains are for the wild goats;
    the rocks are a refuge for the coneys.
You have made the moon to mark the seasons;
    the sun knows its time for setting.
You make darkness, and it is night,
    when all the animals of the forest come creeping out.
The young lions roar for their prey,
    seeking their food from God.
When the sun rises, they withdraw
    and lie down in their dens.
People go out to their work
    and to their labor until the evening.

O Lord, how manifold are your works!
    In wisdom you have made them all;
    the earth is full of your creatures.
Yonder is the sea, great and wide,
    creeping things innumerable are there,
    living things both small and great.
There go the ships,
    and Leviathan that you formed to sport in it.

These all look to you
    to give them their food in due season;
when you give to them, they gather it up;
    when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.
When you hide your face, they are dismayed;
    when you take away their breath, they die
    and return to their dust.
When you send forth your spirit, they are created;
    and you renew the face of the ground.

May the glory of the Lord endure forever;
    may the Lord rejoice in his works—
who looks on the earth and it trembles,
    who touches the mountains and they smoke.
I will sing to the Lord as long as I live;
    I will sing praise to my God while I have being.
May my meditation be pleasing to him,
    for I rejoice in the Lord.
Let sinners be consumed from the earth,
    and let the wicked be no more.
Bless the Lord, O my soul.
Praise the Lord!

April 2

i thank you god for most this amazing day, by e.e. cummings and eric whitacre

In 1999 Eric Whitacre was commissioned by Northern Arizona University to write a set of choral works commemorating the 100th anniversary of their school of music. He chose three of his favorite E.E. Cummings texts and started writing. “The third, i thank You God for most this amazing day, is such a beautiful and joyous poem that the music was at times almost effortless.”

i thank You God for most this amazing day

i thank You God for most this amazing
day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky;and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun’s birthday;this is the birth
day of life and love and wings:and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

e.e. cummings, 1894 – 1962

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