Presented with the image of faith breaking down walls, one of the first things that comes to mind is the Battle of Jericho, won by an unlikely combination of perseverance, obedience and music. The Israelites needed no weapons beyond these to make the city walls of their enemy come tumbling to the ground. Sadly, of course, they did use their swords afterwards, but it was by faith that the barriers to victory were destroyed.
Christians who have won battles have often done so by obeying God with peaceful protest. Leaders like Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King and Josephine Butler understood the power of a righteousness that did not need to lift a weapon. Christians tend to be campaigners when it comes to fighting for social justice. We are in it for the long haul, because we understand that changing hearts and minds takes time, and the walls of these precious places will only break down and let in the compassion of Christ when they have been prayed for, and walked with and shown the glory and the music of God’s kingdom.
We are always showing the world what the alternative could be to the mess we are making.
The recent prevalence of focussing urgently and often vociferously on certain issues has been concerning to me. We seem to be looking for a fight and imagining that it is within our power to change a great deal quickly by raising our voices, not in prayer or music, not in impassioned, inspiring speech, or long, careful letter-writing, but in anger, in zeal, in self-righteousness, even in vitriol.
I am mostly bedbound these days as many of you know, so my main impression of this change comes from social media. I see people who love God leaving aside his methods and looking for quicker, more satisfying results. I see Christians virtue-signalling and boasting in things other than their weakness, and I see us acting largely as individuals instead of as a chorus.
I am concerned. “Social justice warriors” is a label many Christ followers seem eager to embrace. Good causes are surely what we are all about. Yet, Jesus spent precious little if any of his time protesting or petitioning, or urging people to support particular leaders. He simply loved. He certainly did not condone violence. The turning of the tables at the Temple does a lot of heavy-lifting here. My understanding is that this was a deeply meaningful act in the build up to his painful death, where he was given up entirely to the authorities.
Scripture urges us constantly to bless and deliver the poor, the sick, the needy, widows and orphans. Those on the side-lines, the discarded and the weak. These were also the ones, along with those labelled sinners, to whom Jesus showed the most compassion and grace in his time on earth. Now we seek different labels and are in danger of missing who the real outcasts are. We follow the crowd and the media when they tell us certain groups are disenfranchised or vulnerable, without thinking for ourselves, and our leaders go along with this.
We need to be wiser, dear friends. We need to stop running after cultural bandwagons. We need to remember some truths. That it is still the poor, the sick, the needy, the widows and orphans who need our help, of whatever colour or creed. That postmodernism and its fads and terminology do not speak for us nor determine what love is, and as far as I can see, end up dividing us more than uniting us.
Most of all, we need to remember that we should be helping and loving one another as a team and for the long-term. This is the thing that I find the strangest. That so many people want to be “history makers,” known for changing the world. This message rooted in individualism is foisted on us again and again. I see it all the time in children’s books now. Yes, it is good to be inspired by saints and those who fought for change. But most of us are not Dorothy Day or Mother Teresa, and they would be the first to say they would have managed nothing without God and without their supporters and sisters and brothers.
It can take a long time and much work to bring worthwhile change. Yes, we need to be giving to good causes and making informed choices. But most lasting good will come from prayer, as well as from electing (or being) good leaders and working for well-considered and planned legislation.
We have other callings to remember. Not all of us are Christ’s hands. Some of us are hearts, or eyes, some of us are here to pray, to love, to heal, to see, to create, to raise families as well as awareness. Some, even to speak loving correction to the Church in prophecy.
Activism is just a fashionable word for what we as the Church should be doing in our communities already. The kind I see online seems to be spoiling for a fight, raging at the status quo, instead of discerning the best way forward, being gently compassionate, or thinking in the long-term beyond our own small lives.
I see that we are too often seeking to offer fealty to flags and firearms, kings and countries, instead of rallying around the life of sacrificial love to which we are called.
Can we take a moment, now and then, perhaps, to tune our trumpets to heaven’s notes of grace before we fall in line to play the world’s songs? To look to our prophets for guidance? To step back from the walls the world tells us need to fall and ask God to help the scales first fall from our spiritual eyes that we might see as he does? To do these things before we act, and not rush in with the gall to think we have all the answers, instead nurturing the balm in our hearts that we might give out in good time as medicine to an ailing world?
Preparing for the Garden Walk of Holy Week
In the last few days of his life, Jesus moved from garden to garden from suffering to resurrection.
Join Christine Sine for a Lent retreat that reflects on this journey and prepares for the challenging week that follows Palm Sunday.
Click here to register! We are once again offering several price points to aid those who are students or in economic hardship
Last week I had the privilege to start Lent on a Civil Rights Pilgrimage to Montgomery, Birmingham and Selma, Alabama. I traveled with my husband Rob, founder of Racial Beginners, and a group of new and old friends from Colorado, Michigan and Athens, GA. The group was organized through The Refuge Faith Community in Colorado. Over the past two years, the group had worked through the 12 steps of Antiracism created by Melvin Bray.
While I have family in Montgomery, sadly I had never been down to listen and learn about our history. The history of slavery and injustices caused by enslavement and racism that continues on through systems of oppression today.
Montgomery is the capital of Alabama and it was a major slave market, the first capital city of the confederacy ( Jefferson Davis was sworn in as the President of the Confederate States of America there), AND it is the city famous for the bus boycott and voters rights march from Selma to Montgomery. Pastor Kathy Escobar invited me to be a part of the opening and closing reflections for our time together. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do or what would fit for our opening time together, but I asked the Holy Spirit for inspiration as I packed up my gear to drive down to join the pilgrimage. If you know me, you know I always have more ideas than I can use, so I just packed a bunch of things like rocks, candles, sharpie makers, art supplies, bubbles etc. And I asked Jesus to weave it all together and give me wisdom about what he wanted to do. I knew I wanted to begin our time with our thinplace candle lighting practice and I brought a patchwork quilt for a southern inspired tablecloth. I found out later on the trip that slaves used patchwork quilts as maps for the underground railroad. It also happened that we were starting our pilgrimage on ASH WEDNESDAY! In my tradition, we remember that we are dust and to dust will will return and the priest or pastor uses ashes mixed with oil to place a cross on our foreheads as a visual reminder of this. So I happened to have some lavender oil from thistlefarms so I threw it in my bag. I thought about the soil, the dirt, that we would be walking on and I had an idea inspired by Fr. Edward Hays in his Lenten Labyrinth Devotional . He invites people to bag up some dirt and keep it near you on your desk during Lent to remind you of “dust to dust.” I also thought about a quote from Jan Richardson, “Did you not know what the Holy One can do with Dust?” .
I process things out loud, so I was sharing with Rob what I was thinking about for that night’s opening reflection. I wanted each person to carry dirt, the dirt, the soil of Montgomery with them on this pilgrimage. Rob stopped me and tells me that the Legacy Museum, where we are going on Thursday, has jars of dirt collected from where a person was lynched. A visual symbol of the terrorism black people had to endure. WOW! chills! I had no idea!
When we got to Montgomery, I collected some soil outside the Cracker Barrel restaurant near our hotel. I had brought some small zip lock bags from home. During our opening reflection, I invited them to pass around the soil and use the lavender oil mixed with water to make a cross, rub in their hands, or on their foreheads and to put some dirt, some soil in a zip lock bag to carry with them during our pilgrimage together. I read this prayer that I wrote on the drive down.
Ash Wednesday on Pilgrimage in Montgomery, Alabama
From Dirt you were created … to dirt you shall return…
We are in a new place
A place of learning & listening
On new soil
soil, dirt, that is new to us
soil that bares witness to history and to people we are here to learn from.
Creator God
give us eyes to see
Creator God
give us ears to hear, Creator God
give us hearts open in compassion
and hearts willing to break because of things that have broken your heart for generations.
Help us listen to the cries of the soil
and not turn away
Help us learn from this dirt.
We are all dirt and we will all return to this dirt. This soil. Amen
The Soil from Lynching Sites
A visual reminder of lynchings in Alabama
I had no idea that the Equal Justice Initiative is collecting dirt as a memorial for the victims of lynching. I had no idea of the the power of those jars filled with dirt in the Legacy Museum! BUT GOD DID! THE HOLY SPIRIT KNEW!
DO YOUR OWN PILGRIMAGE THIS LENT
I invite you to get some dirt from your yard or from somewhere in your neighborhood and put it in a bag or jar to carry with you during Lent. Use this dirt, this soil, to consider the legacy of the place where you live. Use it as an opportunity to learn the history of the marginalized people in your town. Do you know the history of racial injustice where you live? Do you know about the Indigenous people who lived there first? Do you know about the racial history? How can you learn more during Lent? Who can you invite to join you on your journey?
We must truthfully confront our history of racial injustice before we can repair its painful legacy. equal justice initiative
I had no idea there were six lynchings (that they have records for ) in my county, Davidson County, Nashville. I had no idea that one of them involved 10,000 white people stringing up an innocent man off the bridge that is just a few miles from my house. This was in 1892….but the soil still speaks. This is hard history, but one we must face in order to understand why we are where we are now in America and in order to heal. The trauma is not just in the generations of the black community, but in the generations of white people who participated and those who stood by.
In Psalm 103 we are reminded that we have a God who can help us in all of this and travels with us on this journey of healing ! I am forever grateful! We are greatly loved and we are NOT ALONE!
The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; 14 for he knows how we are formed, The Lord remembers that we are dust.
Pilgrims
“The ashes on our head remind us that we are dust and to dust we will return. Yet upon this dust of ours,
God blew his Spirit of life. So we should no longer live our lives chasing dust, chasing things that are here today and gone tomorrow.
Let us return to the Sprit the Giver of Life, let us return to the Fire that resurrects our ashes.”
POPE FRANCIS
Join me on Pilgrimage to Scotland! August 28-September 4, 2023. We are working on reducing the price so keep checking back. Please email if you have questions or are interested. findingyourthinplace@gmail.com
©lillylewin and freerangeworship.com
Preparing for the Garden Walk of Holy Week
In the last few days of his life, Jesus moved from garden to garden from suffering to resurrection.
Join Christine Sine for a Lent retreat that reflects on this journey and prepares for the challenging week that follows Palm Sunday.
Click here to register! We are once again offering several price points to aid those who are students or in economic hardship
Here’s a song called The Wall Song; I wrote it for a friend who had built up very strong walls all around herself, when her husband proved unfaithful. She turned inwards and grew very bitter. She would allow no-one in to her home to come alongside and befriend her. She was trying to protect herself from future pain, but unfortunately, she had shut God out too. I believe that God was trying to tell her, “Let me in, let me love you!” Those walls did come down in time.
It could well be that the scholarly walls Nicodemus had built throughout his life were about to come down too.
I asked some people recently, “if you could ask Jesus one question, what would it be?”
The first said, “Who will win the Grand National this year?”
The next person, who was unaware of what the first person had said, answered just as flippantly, ‘I would ask him to tell me what numbers to write down to win the EuroMillions lottery!”
The third, an eight-year old child, said he would ask why God chose Jesus to do magical things and no-one else?
The fourth wanted to know, when Jesus would come again?
What would you want to ask, if you could have a face to face meeting with Jesus? I’ll be asking that question again later.
Our gospel reading (below) tells how Nicodemus, a respected teacher and member of the ruling class in Jerusalem had important questions to ask Jesus, and also how he visited him, by night. It seems that Nicodemus was breaking free from what he ‘ought’ to think and believe and from what he was ‘expected’ to think and believe; he was breaking free from the pressures and responsibilities that often come with leadership, to come to Jesus with an open mind.
It’s not wrong to ask questions! He was searching for the Truth.
When asked to pass on his best advice on for future generations, Heston Blumenthal, the famous chef, said, “Question everything. If you don’t question things, there’s no knowledge, no learning, no creativity, no freedom of choice, no imagination!”
He’s right, it’s what we tell our own children and grandchildren to do.
Nicodemus was a member of an elite ruling body known as the ‘Sanhedrin’, which was made up of 70 elders. These men were top theologians dedicated to keeping every letter of the law but they were in effect the Jewish appeal court and police system of the day.
It can’t have been easy for Nicodemus to visit Jesus, who was such a controversial preacher and teacher. He was already being looked upon with suspicion by the religious elders. After all, Jesus was fairly new to the scene, a ‘new kid on the block’ so to speak, and he was wielding such an enormous influence on the people and making quite an impact.
But the questions that Nicodemus clearly wanted answers to are clearly not meant for the daylight hours, when others could be listening in, or passing judgements, or criticizing him for approaching Jesus in the first place. And of course he may have wanted Jesus to speak freely and openly, with no other witnesses around.
Nicodemus realised that the way to discover the TRUTH about Jesus was to go right to the source and discern for himself, whatever he heard.
But after hearing what Jesus had to say, after his ‘up close and personal encounter’, I suspect there was no turning back for him.
Jesus puzzled Nicodemus by saying:-
“Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God, unless they are born again.”
I heard a street preacher on Keswick High Street a couple of years ago. He was almost finished speaking when I sensed, out of the corner of my eye, one of his assistants sidling up to me with a pamphlet in his hand.
He smiled and asked me “Are YOU a Christian?”
To let him know I was ‘one of the flock’, I replied with a smile, “Yes I am.”
But seemingly my answer wasn’t good enough, it didn’t satisfy him.
He leaned in closer to me and asked “Ah yes, but are you born-again?”
He was really asking me if my faith was genuine, was it alive, was the Spirit of Jesus living in me, but he said it in such a smug way I felt really irritated with him. Perhaps it was because I too had made similar judgments in the past, as to whether some people were really ‘fired up’ as Christians, or simply ‘going through the motions’. (I’m actually ashamed to confess that.) But I think if Jesus had said the same words in the same ‘smug’ fashion, then Nicodemus might well have felt irritated and annoyed too!
But when Jesus spoke these words to him, I really do feel that he would have said them out of love, not by way of judgment, wanting Nicodemus to have the best of what God had to offer.
There could be very few others people around then with credentials as impressive as his; he had been circumcised, he was an orthodox Jew, a learned teacher, a member of the ruling council, aristocracy really! If anyone had a right to enter God’s kingdom he had! And yet, here was Jesus telling him that to be born again from above, and that to encounter a ‘spiritual birth’ was by far more important than a physical birth, or elite background.
It must have felt like a carpet was being pulled out from under his feet. Nicodemus’ life was being turned inside out by this secret encounter with Jesus. Nothing would ever be the same again.
I admire Nicodemus. This expert was willing to come to grips with a teaching that was not of his established line of belief. But he desperately pushed himself on, to draw his own conclusions and make his own mind up.
Not many possess such courage.
And I suspect that because he knew the scriptures well, it may have already dawned upon him that ancient prophecies about the coming ‘Messiah’ were being fulfilled in Jesus, who taught in parables, was ministering to the poor, was healing the sick and driving out demons.
Nicodemus reasoned that all this must come from God, and NOT from the devil as some were suggesting. Nicodemus was impressed by Jesus, but he wanted to hear from his own lips who he was and what he had come to do.
As they spoke together Jesus confided to him,
‘Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.’
Jesus had referred to a strange incident from the ancient Book of Numbers chapter 21, that happened during the exodus of Hebrew slaves across the desert hundreds of years before. The people had sinned against God and had been besieged by a plague of venomous snakes. That’s when God had commanded Moses to erect a bronze statue of a snake in camp so that all those who looked upon it would be healed!
Was Jesus suggesting that by looking towards him personally, humankind would be saved- that even he, Nicodemus, could be saved?
Nicodemus needed answers once and for all. ‘Was Jesus indeed the Messiah, or was he not? Would his teaching set his life firmly on rock or lure him into sinking sand? And if Jesus of Nazareth was indeed the Messiah, what might be the consequences of rejecting him?
Then Jesus spoke the following words (words which are now famous the world over):
‘For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
He could not have been clearer than this. Did these words convince Nicodemus of Jesus true identity and satisfy his curiosity? ‘God gave his one and only Son…’
It appears that Nicodemus did indeed become reborn, because later he defended Jesus against accusations made by the council of Jewish elders in John’s gospel chapter 7, verse 50. Not only that, but in John chapter 19, we read how Nicodemus was bold enough to join forces with another member of the same council, named Joseph of Arimathea, and they both carefully wrapped Jesus’ dead body in a cloth, and took him away for burial. Joseph provided his own tomb for him, and Nicodemus provided at least 3-4 kilograms of myrrh and aloes. They both did this openly before darkness fell.
In daylight this time. Not at night!
Each time we pray or read scripture, it is possible to encounter Jesus. We are renewed and we are able to move deeper into his love and his ways.
Be still for a moment, wherever you are, and just imagine it’s night-time, and you are approaching a table in an upper room where Jesus is sitting and waiting to talk with you.
He looks straight at you. What kind of greeting does he give you? What does he say to you?
Bring to him your question, and simply listen, just wait upon him.
P.S. Incidentally, I once had a very big question to ask as I stood gazing over the Sea of Galilee during our visit to the Holy Land.
Life was quite tough way back then for women in ministry so I asked him, “Lord did you REALLY call me to become a woman priest, or was that just my imagination?”
There was no audible response, but as I turned around to go back to the tour bus I very nearly fell over a massive heart sculpture, and there was another and then another there on the beach. (You can see one of them in the video)
The scripture that came to my mind was, “Lord you know I love you!”
“FEED MY LAMBS, FEED MY SHEEP!”)
Prayer
May God’s peace and healing be yours this day, and may he supply answers to questions you’ve pondered over, perhaps for years, and may he satisfy your need in the hot barren desert of our world.
Amen
Bible Reading
John 3. 1-18
Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 2 He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”
3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”
4 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”
5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell
where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
9 “How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.
10 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 11 Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 12 I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 13 No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.
14 Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, 15 that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.
In the last few days of his life, Jesus moved from garden to garden from suffering to resurrection.
Join Christine Sine for a Lent retreat that reflects on this journey and prepares for the challenging week that follows Palm Sunday.
Click here to register! We are once again offering several price points to aid those who are students or in economic hardship
by Elaine Breckenridge
Cover photo: St. Non’s Chapel, near St. David’s, Pembrokeshire, Wales
Happy St. David’s Day! St. David is commemorated on Roman Catholic and Anglican church calendars, and widely celebrated by the Welsh people. In Wales, he is also known as Dewi. As he is their patron, in many cities and towns in Wales, there are parades and special activities on his feast day of March 1.
Born in the sixth century, his mother was Saint Non. As a young boy, he was sent to the family of a bishop to be fostered and was dedicated to the church. Over time, David became both an abbot and a bishop. Some twelve monasteries were founded by St. David.
David is said to have been around six feet tall and very strong. He chose to live a simple life, dedicated to Christ, living mainly on water and vegetables. David and his monks became known as the “Watermen” since they only drank water and not the customary wine or mead in other monasteries. Despite his personal austerity, David was noted for treating others with respect and kindness. His words and his way of life encouraged many to join his religious community.
As David lay dying, he said these words to the people gathered, “Be happy, keep your faith and your belief, and do the little things that you have heard and seen me do.” As scholar Patrick Thomas points out in a discussion of David’s influence, “In any community apparently insignificant acts of habitual kindness and self-forgetfulness which display a fundamental respect and love for others can generate stability, unity and wholeness.” Earle and Maddox contend that Welsh spirituality was shaped not by ascetism but by a commitment to building community.
—Holy Companions Spiritual Practices from the Celtic Saints by Mary C. Earle and Sylvia Maddox
As I thought about what acts of habitual kindness and self-forgetfulness might look like; I remembered one special Lenten tradition we did in my family when I was growing up. It was called, “Secret Pals.” The five of us would draw lots until we each had a slip of paper that did not bear our name. That person would be our secret pal for the season. We were to do little gestures of kindness for our pal but in secret. For example, I remember getting up one morning and when I returned to my room from the bathroom, my bed had been made! On Easter Day it was fun to try to guess who our secret pal had been. And of course, each of us secretly doing little acts of kindness created more harmony in our household.
The life of David reminds us of the importance of living mindfully and helping others—whether it is in our families or communities or in the way we greet strangers. We may not have the means to change the world but we can all find ways to do good in our corner of it.
St. David lived in the sixth century. I think it is remarkable that he is still revered to this day. Certainly, the church has had some part in that. There are countless churches named St. David’s in Wales and in other countries too. However, it is also the poets and the artists and the people of Wales who have carried the memory of St. David forward into the present and no doubt will do so into the future.
In her book, The Celtic Way of Prayer, Esther De Waal writes about the imagination of Celtic Christians especially when it comes to remembering their favorite saints. Perhaps it is this quality of active imagination that makes the Celtic saints so real to so many. She writes that Celtic Saints are approachable, close at hand, woven quite naturally into life just the as would be any other member of an extended family. She references a poem written by the Welsh poet David James Jones (1899-1968) who is best known by his bardic or pen name Gwenallt. The poet, brings Dewi (St. David) right into his generation’s churches, schools, work places and homes.
“There is no barrier between two worlds in the Church.
The Church militant on earth
Is one with the Church triumphant in heaven,
And the saints are in this Church which is two in one.
They come to worship with us, our small congregation,
The saints our oldest ancestors
Who built Wales on the foundation
Of the Crib, the Cross and the Empty Tomb.
And they go out as before to travel their old ways
And to evangelize Wales.
I have seen Dewi going from shire to shire like the gypsy of God,
With the gospel and the altar in his caravan;
He came to us in the colleges and schools
To show us the purpose of learning.
He went down into the pit with the coal miners
And shone his lamp on the coal face.
He put on the goggles of the steel worker, and the short grey overall
And showed the Christian being purified like metal in the furnace.
He brought the factory people into his disreputable Church.
He carried the Church everywhere
Like a body with life and mind and will,
And he did small things and great.
He brought the Church into our homes,
Put the holy vessels on the kitchen table
With bread from the pantry and wine from the cellar,
And he stood behind the table like a tramp
So as not to hide from us the wonder of the sacrifice.
And after the Communion we had a talk round the fire
And he spoke to us of God’s natural order,
The person, the family, the nation and the society of nations
And the cross which prevents us from making any of them into a god.”
This poem has brought St. David into my life and made him real to me. I read this poem every March 1 and I give thanks for his life and witness and for the faithful people who continue to keep his ministry and mission alive carrying on the love of Christ. Like St. David, we too are invited to share in the ministry of doing little acts of caring wherever we are. Perhaps you will find a secret pal or place where you can do a little good in the name of Christ. May Gwenallt’s poem and the following prayer, inspire your season of Lent.
Lord, inspired by David and the Watermen,
help us to live in you as fish live in water,
help us to move in you as birds fly in the air,
help us to run to you as deer run through the forest,
help us to burn brightly for you as fire burns.
And may the fire of faith blaze afresh in us. Amen.
Ray Simpson, Daily Light from the Celtic Saints
Preparing for the Garden Walk of Holy Week
In the last few days of his life, Jesus moved from garden to garden from suffering to resurrection.
Join Christine Sine for a Lent retreat that reflects on this journey and prepares for the challenging week that follows Palm Sunday.
Click here to register! We are once again offering several price points to aid those who are students or in economic hardship
If we haven’t been introduced before, hello! My name is Rebecca, and I’m the current Godspacelight admin. As Christine is out in Australia enjoying the summer weather and visiting with friends and family, I’ve been tasked with writing the weekly update.
A bit about my background- before I worked with Godspace, I worked as botanist across the Western US in Alaska, Washington, and Colorado. Christine and I share a love of plants and the natural world, which has likely been part of the inspiration for her upcoming retreat Preparing for the Garden Walk of Holy Week. The connection she has drawn between important moments of Jesus’ life and the ecology around him is a new angle on the final weeks of Jesus’ ministry to me, and has already prompted a lot of reflection on the significance and symbolism of the garden in my own mind. Especially for those who could use a moment to reset and prepare before the final week of Lent, I would encourage you to attend the retreat which will take place the morning of Saturday, March 25th.
Our Lent theme this season is Breaking Down Walls which can refer to removing external, physical walls, but also to internal prejudices and the limitations of our own perspectives. I enjoyed the new perspective offered by the post Lent and Rediscovering Our Humanity by John Van de Laar. He suggests alternative ways to practice Lent for those of us who may feel stifled or deprived by common Lent practices. Lilly Lewin also offers reflection questions for Lent in her creative reflection Freerange Friday: Pancake Prayers. Another post that challenges our perspective is Christine’s Meditation Monday – A New View of Mary and Martha, which expands on a passage from Mary Stromer Hanson’s book The New Perspective on Mary and Martha. She presents a fresh interpretation of Luke 10:38-42 and prompted me to reflect on how easy it is to make assumptions about the world around us without considering the limitations of our own perspectives.
One of my favorite things about working at Godspace is getting to see the Sine’s dog Goldie, so the post Beloved Pets—God’s Message of Love by Kathie Hempel was a great reflection on the important role pets can play in our lives. I also wanted to highlight another collaboration between Karen Wilk and Karen Tamminga-Paton that yielded Gathering Earth: A Hand Reflection, a beautiful poem paired with stunning artwork.
International Quiet Day by June Friesen was a helpful reminder of how silence and stillness can play a role in our church and personal practices. Life can so often feel chaotic and overwhelming, but I hope you each find moments of peace and stillness throughout the upcoming week.
Grace and blessings,
Rebecca
Pen and Paint Ponderings with Karen and Karen
by Karen Wilk (writer) and Karen Tamminga-Paton (painter)
A first glance suggests this is a bowl full of smooth river rocks. Closer inspection shows these to be a curious collection of bird eggs of all sizes, colours and patterns. They represent different continents and ecosystems; some bird species no longer exist, many are endangered. This Earthen container, reminiscent of a hemisphere, holds precious cargo, fragile and full of life!
- Peregrine Falcon (Falco peregrinus)
- Black-capped Chickadee (Parus atricapillus)
- Common Ostrich (Struthio camelus)
- Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo)
- Ivory Gull (Pagophila eburnean)
- Trumpeter Swan (Cygnus buccinators)
- Whooping Crane (Grus Americana)
- Great Blue Heron (Ardea Herodias)
- Common Night Hawk (Chordeiles minor)
- Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos)
- Long-billed Marsh Wren (Telmatodytes palustris)
- American Robin (Turdus migratorius)
- Willow Ptarmigan (Lagopus lagopus)
- American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)
- Lewis’ Woodpecker (Melanerpes lewis)
- Common Murre (Uria aalge)
- Harlequin Duck (Histrionicus histrionicus)
- Northern Oriole (Icterus galbula)
- Spotted Sandpiper (Actitis macularia)
- California Condor (Gymnogyps californianus)
- Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura)
- Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus)
- Gray Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis)
- Black-footed Albatross (Phoebastria nigripes)
- American Bittern (Botaurus lentiginosus)
- Emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae)
- Eastern Screech Owl (Otus asio)
- Osprey (Pandion haliaetus)
- Ruddy Turnstone (Arenaria interpres)
(As always, it is recommended that poetry be read aloud… and if possible with others with whom one can contemplate and respond.
ALL THE EGGS IN ONE BASKET
So many…
Yet just scratching the surface
Hundreds, thousands more, oval, round, distinct
The same, yet different, some abundant- some extinct
Magical, mystical, colours, spots,
Precious, unique, breathing, random blots
All together, all embraced
Creator’s covering, exposing, outlandish grace–
Could there really be ONE basket of all inclusive space?
All moulded, cared for, eternally cuddled,
in earthen vessel swaddled, included, lovingly muddled…
Fragile eggs.
Hard, smooth, strong
Holding, hiding
Tiny life,
sheltering
Eggs in one basket teach us
“Don’t judge a book by its cover.”
But you can judge a bird by its shell.
“Patience is a virtue” –might they tell?
“Trust the life inside.” – all will be well…
Size, colour, shape don’t matter when
we all struggle to crack open, be born and then
To eat, walk, find shelter, thrive
As those who were meant to be,
bright, beautiful, alive!
Eggs-
Birds of a feather resting,
Darting, dashing, squawking
In the reeds, in the trees
By the road, by the seas
Robin, osprey, pheasant, jay
Plumage, wings, beaks, array
Soar, float, waddle, dive, on the way
Whistle, hoot, chirp, and call
Red/green, fast/slow, big/small
Eggs in a celestial basket–
Aren’t we
all?
Preparing for the Garden Walk of Holy Week
In the last few days of his life, Jesus moved from garden to garden from suffering to resurrection.
Join Christine Sine for a Lent retreat that reflects on this journey and prepares for the challenging week that follows Palm Sunday.
Click here to register! We are once again offering several price points to aid those who are students or in economic hardship
by Christine Sine
A few weeks ago I read a fascinating article that talked about how chemical sprays – both pesticides and fertilizers – negatively impact pollination by altering the electrical field around flowers, making bumblebees less likely to land on them. What flowers have electrical fields around them? That’s not the way I think about them.
There are other aspects of a flower’s appearance that are not what they seem when it comes to how insects perceive it. When I watched David Attenborough’s fascinating documentary Kingdom of Plants I was particularly intrigued by the very different view that insects have of flowers. Their ultra-violet viewpoint totally transforms what the flower looks like.
Ultraviolet view of flowers
We see the flower on the left, the insect sees the image on the right beckoning it to come and pollinate. Unfortunately a large number of the beautiful hybrid double flowers that we so enjoy don’t have the flashing landing strip lights that say here is the place to come for some yummy pollen. Some of them don’t even have pollen. So as much as I like these flashy hybrids, I always make sure there are plenty of flowers that I know will attract birds and bees and other pollinators.
So what does this have to do with Mary and Martha, with Lent or with Women’s History month which we celebrate in March? Well part of what I love about my changing perspective of God’s world is that it opens me to new perspectives of the scriptures and to new understanding of the historical place of women in the narrative.
A few years ago Mary Stromer Hanson in her book The New Perspective on Mary and Martha – Do Not Preach Mary and Martha Again Until You Read This! questioned our interpretation of the story where Mary is praised for sitting at Jesus feet and Martha is reprimanded for working hard in the kitchen as told in Luke 10:38-42. First we read into the story things that are not really there, like our assumption that Jesus arrives with a hoard of disciples and forces Martha to scurry around getting a meal for them. However, all the text explicitly states is that Jesus entered a village and was welcomed by Martha. Hanson suggests that this was actually a one on one conversation.
Hanson believes that Mary and Martha were both ministry leaders in the church – Martha with a “house church” and ministry in her local village, Mary as a kind of traveling evangelist, spreading the good news of Christ to other villages. She suggests that the King James version of vs 39 is more accurate than others. It says “And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word.”
According to Hanson, since “sitting at the feet” is a figurative description rather than a literal one, Mary is not necessarily physically seated before Jesus’s feet while Martha addresses him. In her presentation, Hanson said that:
“Sitting at the feet,” as in Acts 22:3, is the traditional vocabulary of discipleship. So both Martha and Mary are known as “sitters at the feet” or disciples of Jesus. This is a figurative description, not literal.
Martha addresses Jesus directly in Luke 10:40 because Mary, again according to Hanson, isn’t even there. While Martha is struggling to keep up with the local village ministry, Mary is traveling around ministering abroad. Martha wants Jesus to deliver a message to Mary when he encounters her in his travels, asking her to return and assist Martha in the village ministry.
Hanson also proposes an alternative translation of verse 42. She translates tēn agathēn merida (literally, “the good portion”) not superlatively (as in “the best portion”) but rather positively (as in “a good thing”; cf. The New Perspective, p. 31). In other words, Mary’s choice of ministering abroad isn’t necessarily better than Martha’s choice of ministering to the village; Mary’s choice of itinerant ministry is equally good. Hanson’s contention is that both Mary and Martha were prominent leaders and Mary probably had a very effective evangelistic ministry in drawing others to follow Jesus. (Read Hanson’s entire paper here).
I am increasingly convinced that many of our interpretations of Biblical stories need to be revisited. Just as our perception of the world around us needs to be revisited. Flowers are not what we first perceive them to be and new information continues to be gathered to broaden our understanding and the ways in which we respond to them. Gospel stories like this one are the same. We always need to have our eyes and our ears open to new facts that help us to understand the complete story. Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see (Hebrews 11:1). We do indeed see through a glass darkly. All of God’s creation tells us so.
Preparing for the Garden Walk of Holy Week
In the last few days of his life, Jesus moved from garden to garden from suffering to resurrection.
Join Christine Sine for a Lent retreat that reflects on this journey and prepares for the challenging week that follows Palm Sunday.
Click here to register! We are once again offering several price points to aid those who are students or in economic hardship
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