FOOD for the JOURNEY

United Methodists have never been big on dietary restrictions. I believe my faith tribe invented the coffee hour and the accompanying finger sandwiches. Give us a reason to eat and we are all about it!  We love the potluck supper and offer doing a church dinner as the best fundraising idea.  

Our Catholic sisters and brothers will not eat meat on Fridays during Lent harkening back to the "killing of the fatted calf" in celebration and feasts and connecting Friday to the date of the crucifixion and thus the need to be somber and sacrificial and add all that together and bring on the fish fry. It's amazing to me how our capitalist society jumped on this idea, note the popularity of the McDonald's Filet-O-Fish during these 40 days.

Central to an effective Lenten journey is discipline and self-control. Both traits, I confess, I need some work. I've found participation in fasts to be rewarding and requiring a clear WHY as to the fast. For me, having a set day works and to build that fast day into one's overall Lenten experience. Of course, one can also fast from the computer, the i-phone (!!!), the television, Facebook ---- foundational to fasting is to be introspective and self-reflective and throughout the experience to become whole, balanced, more aware of who you are and whom you want to become.

A serious Lenten journey is tough stuff. There are times I want to return the juvenile actions of giving up chocolate for Lent ---- trust me, that was a glorious Easter! Yet, I really didn't grow as a person and from Easter Sunday onward there were never enough M&M's, Whoppers, Cadbury Mini Eggs to satisfy.   

Blessings on your Lenten journey. Throughout, focus on the journey and notice and learn more about yourself and deepen your soul print, your relationship with the Holy and the wonder of saying and living YES to discipleship.

Blessings on the journey

Today followers of the Christ begin the Lenten journey.  Instead of packing for the trip, the point is to lose our baggage and all that weighs us down from living freely and wholly.  

Presbyterian minister and author Frederick Buechner writes that Jesus was trying to figure out what it meant to be Jesus.  And, so too do we make this spiritual trek to try and figure out what it means to be us.  More than giving up swearing (what a fun Easter that would be!) or ice cream or twitter Lent is to be about becoming more you and adding or, if need be, removing habits and actions that stunt your growth, dim your light, un-zest your saltiness and spice-i-ness.

The season begins with the imposition of ashes.  I always struggled with what were the best words to use when placing the ash-made cross onto the forehead of another.  Many years the folks in my congregation were already down and defeated and feeling very much discarded. The best words I ever received were "You are a child of God, sent from God. One day God will call you back home."  

Lent re-minds us of our mortality. The rabbis teach that each of us should have two pockets, in one should be the message "I am dust and ashes" and in the other we should have written "for me the universe was made."  

May your Lenten journey be one of balance and becoming wholly you as we journey from "ashes to fire."

Best named holiday EVER!

 Happy Fat Tuesday!

And so we prepare to begin the season of Lent by having a day of feasting, drinking and partying!  It always reminds me of the the folks who attend Saturday mass before going out for a night of bar hopping and sheet shuffling....kind of like paying on a soul insurance policy before hitting the town.

Fat Tuesday is a "get it all out of your system" before getting down to the seriousness of Lent.  Today, is the time to use up all the sugar and milk and butter before the fasting that anchors so much of the Lenten journey.  It's why  on this day we have pancakes and beignets.....who doesn't love this holiday!!!

With the pandemic preventing the traditional Mardi Gras parades, kudos to New Orleans for instituting "YARDI-GRAS" and decorating their homes and porches!  

While speaking about this new practice, a resident of New Orleans said, "Our souls need this."  Amen. We need times to just cut loose and "get it all out of our system."  I always am most comfortable in the congregations that are honest about this need we each have and understand instead of doing the "frozen chosen" tsk-tsk finger wag.  Lighten up....and I mean that in every way from metaphorical to literal.

YARDI-GRAS highlights another important aspect of the human soul and that is resilience. We must be able to rebound, to risk and fail and fall down and then get back up.  I offer that as we begin this Lenten journey and ask to pay attention to how many of the stories read and preached will focus upon the falling down and the getting up.....I dare say it is at the very journey of Lent. 

LOVE...IT'S ELEMENTARY

The elementary school way and reason of handling Valentine's Day was the best.  Everyone received a paper bag and were asked to write their name on the bag. Everyone --- the cuties, the cooties and the mixture of both, we each did this.  It worked. 

The class was instructed to buy enough Valentines so that each kid received one. Brilliant. I loved the equity of this project.  Of course, there were those kids who added the little extra to their Valentine and included a heart-shaped lollipop; I think those kids eventually became class presidents and maybe eventually obtained higher elected offices.

As a kid I was a major fan of the cartoon "Scooby Doo" so of course my Valentines featured

Scooby and Shaggy.  I confess that the classmates whom I liked, thought were cool and with whom I played kickball at recess --- they each received the Valentine that featured Scooby, the second tier playmates got Shaggy and those kids who landed in the "have to" category got the Valentine with Velma.  We do pick and choose and reward and do only what is required.  Yet, the concept of everyone receives a valentine remains a good one.