Category Archives: Lenten reflection

Get to know Beloved, Lenten reflection

Lenten reflection by Miguel Carpizo: my kind of Jesus

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I believe there are two kinds of Jesus in today’s world:

First, the one that is taught and creates a subculture that excludes people who are different.

Second, the one who walks in the red zone of a city, who visits a bar with their friends, who sits among gay and lesbians listening to their stories, who works with the undocumented immigrant for minimum wages, suffering deplorable conditions and the constant rejection and racial comments of the local community. Continue reading Lenten reflection by Miguel Carpizo: my kind of Jesus →

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Bible Study, Lenten reflection

Lenten reflection by Palmer Maxwell: cloud and shadow


“And a cloud came, covering them in shadow; and there came a voice from the cloud, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved. Listen to him.’ Then suddenly, when they looked round, they saw no one with them any more but only Jesus.” Mark 9:2-10

I like to think of the forty day season of Lent as a season of “cloud and shadow.” Not in the negative sense of a dreary winter’s day. But rather in the positive sense of being covered and cloaked in the cloud and shadow of God’s word.

Continue reading Lenten reflection by Palmer Maxwell: cloud and shadow →

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Get to know Beloved, Lenten reflection

Beloved Lenten Reflections

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Dear Beloveds,

Will you submit a Lenten Reflection?

We send out a daily writing by our Beloveds during Lent, and they are as varied as are our Beloveds. There are no rules or boundaries on the kind of thing you can write – just something that you’ve been pondering, wondering about, something that inspires you, gives you hope or keeps you going. It doesn’t need to be all Lent-like, just whatever comes naturally from you.
Continue reading Beloved Lenten Reflections →

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Lenten reflection

Holy week reflection

“I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” -Philippians 4:12-13

The Covenant Prayer of John Wesley (1703-1791)

I am no longer my own, but thine.
Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.
Put me to doing, put me to suffering.
Let me be employed for thee or laid aside for thee,
exalted for thee or brought low for thee.
Let me be full, let me be empty.
Let me have all things, let me have nothing.
I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal.
And now, O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit,
thou art mine, and I am thine.
So be it.
And the covenant which I have made on earth,
let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.

From Adam Hamilton, Seeing Gray in a World of Black and White (Nashville: Abingdon, 2008), page 232. In his footnote to this prayer Hamilton directs readers to The United Methodist Hymnal (Nashville: The United Methodist Publishing House, 1989), p. 607

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Lenten reflection

Holy Week Reflection from Palmer Maxwell

“And they all left Him and fled.”
Mark 14:50

With All Our Confusion Around Us

This is where we begin when we begin to know
The content of your love contains our gratitude as well as our groan.
With all our confusion around us you love us
Turning our pattern of chaos into a dance
Turning our indigence and disobedience
Into something we are not ashamed to own.

All we have been shown about you
Shows us you honor all we are and ever were
Because this too was dearly won through pain and loss
When my infamous “no” became your infinite “Yes!”
Now I too have become a brother to one thought lost
Now I too share in the poverty of your cross.

From the vantage point of having no advantage
You have shown us another way
A way that cannot not include you and me.
A way that cannot not include the confusion all around us.

-Palmer

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Lenten reflection

Holy Week reflection from Cedric Rudolph

"Skeleton Woman" Image Source: Imagine Us Free Theatre - http://imagineusfree.com/theatre.html
“Skeleton Woman” via Imagine Us Free Theatre – http://imagineusfree.com/theatre.html

I’ve been thinking a lot about Skeleton Woman.

Clarissa Pinkola Estés retells the Native American myth of skeleton woman very well.  Basically, a lonely fisherman pulls in the twisted ghoul of a woman’s body on his line rather than a fish.  She follows him all the way into his ice-house where he dives, shaking, into a corner. After a while, however, he takes pity on the woman and begins to sing her bones back to life.  Nana-uh-nana-uh-nana-uh-nana, he sings.  When a tear falls down his face, Skeleton Woman drinks it up.

Her bones rearrange themselves, muscle takes hold, and so does skin.  Suddenly, she’s a full-fledged woman in front of him.

Estés uses the story to describe how, in order to have longevity in any relationship, you must love your partner when things are bare, as well as when the relationship is fun and romantic.  Your partner may need time to themselves.  Two people may not talk as much as in the past.  Estés says that every relationship-and life itself, for that matter-has a life-death cycle.  Sometimes things are fertile, and sometimes things are barren.

I’ve been turning this story over and over again in my head.  At Pilgrim, right now, we’re working on finding a permanent pastor.  Things are different and sometimes don’t feel as comfortable as they did when we had our interim, Sally Harris.  In my personal life, my grandmother has Alzheimer’s, and my mother and I are in a sort of a holding pattern until we can get more help.

Why is it so hard for me to see right now that things will get better in my life?  I may be in the death part of a cycle, but the rebirth is on its way.  I give myself credit for hanging pretty tight with old Skeleton Woman. I use humor to add some levity to bad days.  I meditate if I’m frustrated, or confused.  But sometimes, it’s hard to see that Skeleton Woman’s skin will come back to her.

There was a six-month period when I was out of a job.  I was really down.  Some days I would just burst into tears.  One morning, I was lying in bed, and I remembered something Marianne Williamson had said about applying the three days Jesus was in the tomb to the problems in our lives.  You may be in the “three days,” but help is on the way.  When I remembered the phrase “three days,” I sat straight up in bed and stopped crying. I started smiling.

-Cedric Rudolph

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Lenten reflection

Lenten reflection from Carmen Maria Austin

“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters;
he restores my soul.
He leads  me in right paths for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the darkest valley,
I fear no evil;
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff–they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
you anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell inn the house of the Lord my whole life long.”
Psalm 23 

“Neither do I condemn you.”  – John 8:11

 

How sweetly, simply these words fall from the lips of Jesus.  Often we’re braced to hear the opposite from God.  Perhaps that’s what keeps us from approaching Him at times.  At other times, like the would-be stoners of the adulterous woman in the Gospel, we might be expecting him to judge others-those we’ve already judged and found unworthy-and then taken aback when he doesn’t.

The 23rd Psalm promises quiet waters, comfort and guidance, a table laden and a cup overflowing unconditionally.  Not because we never fail, but because His love never fails.

When He extends mercy, can we receive it? As it flows freely to us all? Can we walk together by those waters?

Merciful one, open me to the goodness and loving kindness that infuse my life, and let me become a bearer of your peace.

(Mary Marrocco, Living Faith volume 30 Number 1)

-Carmen Maria Austin

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Lenten reflection

Lenten reflection from Leah Clements

“Jesus returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. ‘Simon,’ he said to Peter, ‘are you asleep? Couldn’t you keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.’ Once more he went and prayed. When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. They did not know what to say to him. Returning the third time, Jesus said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise! let us go! Here comes my betrayer.'” -Mark 40:37-41

To me, good phrases always come in three’s.

My grandmother and grandfather coined “heavy, deep and real” moments and since learning it myself, I have had many conversations with both of them about those moments in our lives. Repeated phrases like ones we sing every Sunday or recite to ourselves can be helpful reminders of important things to look out for. They can help train our memory.

I found myself the other day quite flustered with various life events all happening at the same time. Or at least it certainly felt like everything was crashing in one by one as I stood in my room trying to freeze them away. Of course, that didn’t work. But then a phrase, a good ‘ol three-word phrase came to me.

“Listen. Pay attention. Stay awake.”

I was able to breathe, first, and listen to my fears which were running around like they owned the place. Then I paid attention to the facts of each situation, one by one. Which meant I didn’t get to each and every situation I was ruminating over, of course. But I also decided to “stay awake” instead of running away from them altogether. And because I did that, I knew that in those other situations, when I came up to them again, I would be able to:

“Listen. Pay attention. Stay Awake.”

Isn’t that what Jesus asked of his disciples when he was praying in the garden? Isn’t that what God asked Adam and Eve while they were staying in the garden?

May we listen to the voice of God resonating through beautiful spring days, good soul music, or the living words of our Scriptures.  May we pay attention to the details of grace and frustration. And may we stay awake to wonder and pain which will come as surely as the presence of Jesus beaconing us to new life in the midst of it all.

-Leah Clements

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Lenten reflection, Music

Lenten reflection from Nancy Sales

Hymn: “Before Your Cross, O Jesus”

Author:  Ferdinand Q. Blanchard, 1920, alt.

1.     Before your cross, O Jesus,

our lives are judged today;

the meaning of our eager strife

is tested by your way.

Across our restless living

the light streams from your cross,

and by its clear revealing beams

we measure gain and loss.

2.   The hopes that lead us onward,

the fears that hold us back,

our will to dare great things for God,

the courage that we lack,

The faith we keep in goodness,

our love, as low or pure,

On all, the judgment of the cross

falls steady, clear, and sure.

3.     Yet humbly, in our striving,

we rise to face its test.

We strive the power to do your will

as once you did it best.

On us let now the healing

of your great spirit fall,

and make us brave and full of joy

to answer to your call.

I might not always choose this hymn to share, but it spoke to me particularly in Lent.

In this hymn I am most lifted up by the final 4 lines. The thought of the spirit’s healing being poured out on us, bringing forth joy and boldness,  gives me such a full heart I can’t help but burst into a broad smile whether anyone is around or not!

The “measure” of “gain and loss” sounds potentially discouraging, but perhaps that’s a source of “the hopes that lead us onward” as well as “the fears that hold us back”. Those fears and that timidity! They are not God given.

Earlier in this Lent I heard and saw several references to our need for faith and courage in responding to the visions God has for us. It came up in the children’s lesson with Abraham and Sarah being good models in leaving their homeland for a place known to God but not to them. I also remember Reverend Wright challenging Beloveds in a sermon preached before the roof damaging storm, to listen for God’s message and  be prepared to step out of our comfort zone in order to fulfill the work God has for each of individually and for us collectively.

Thus I pray,

God, you know our strengths and weaknesses, reinforce and undergird the love we know, that all those whom we meet may also know that love and share it as they are called to do.

Amen

-Nancy Sales

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Lenten reflection, Music

Lenten reflection

practice resurrection
Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

by Wendell Barry

 

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.

And you will have a window in your head.
Not even your future will be a mystery
any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
and shut away in a little drawer.

When they want you to buy something
they will call you. When they want you
to die for profit they will let you know.
So, friends, every day do something
that won’t compute. Love the Lord.
Love the world. Work for nothing.
Take all that you have and be poor.
Love someone who does not deserve it.

Denounce the government and embrace
the flag. Hope to live in that free
republic for which it stands.
Give your approval to all you cannot
understand. Praise ignorance, for what man
has not encountered he has not destroyed.

Ask the questions that have no answers.
Invest in the millenium. Plant sequoias.
Say that your main crop is the forest
that you did not plant,
that you will not live to harvest.

Say that the leaves are harvested
when they have rotted into the mold.
Call that profit. Prophesy such returns.
Put your faith in the two inches of humus
that will build under the trees
every thousand years.

Listen to carrion – put your ear
close, and hear the faint chattering
of the songs that are to come.
Expect the end of the world. Laugh.
Laughter is immeasurable. Be joyful
though you have considered all the facts.
So long as women do not go cheap
for power, please women more than men.

Ask yourself: Will this satisfy
a woman satisfied to bear a child?
Will this disturb the sleep
of a woman near to giving birth?

Go with your love to the fields.
Lie down in the shade. Rest your head
in her lap. Swear allegiance
to what is nighest your thoughts.

As soon as the generals and the politicos
can predict the motions of your mind,
lose it. Leave it as a sign
to mark the false trail, the way
you didn’t go.

Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
Practice resurrection.

Poet, essayist, farmer, and novelist Wendell Berry was born on August 5, 1934, in Newcastle, Kentucky. 

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