LENTEN LINE 6: PREPARE THE WAY

 I was never a scout. All good for those who were, yet it just wasn’t my scene. The “Mental Floss” website has an article on Eleven Retired Girl Scout Badges which include the Dairy Maid badge where one learns how to clean the utensils used in milking cows and also how to churn butter. There is the Pioneer Badge which includes being able to identify and cut down trees for fuel and shelter. 

 I’ll stick to playing sports, thank you.

 

We all know the motto for scouts is “Be prepared. Plan, do the work that gets you ready for whatever is placed before you. Similarly, the season of Lent is to prepare us for deeper disciple living and being and becoming. Lent is so much more than what one gives up or denies oneself for the 40 days.  

It’s the orange cone season here in Southwestern PA.  Road crews are out and will be even more numerous in the coming weeks and months. With the recent scary bridge collapse here in Pittsburgh, I’m good with the crews and their work. I’m learning to be more calm and patient as I sit in traffic….I bring a book or a bottle of bubbles to entertain myself and fellow motorists….works for me.

A frequent sign in the orange cone season is BE PREPARED TO STOP.  The preparation helps when speeding along the highway and you spot the orange cones in the distance. 

 

We ought not to come to Easter with the attitude of having made it through the 40 days.  Early in my ministry when I was doing a lot of youth work, I didn’t know a whole lot  and joined with the youth in giving up something for Lent. I gave up chocolate and let everyone know I did. Believe me when I say that Easter was one of the best ones ever!  I was gifted with chocolate everything! It was wonderful!

 

There is no “Be Prepared to Stop” sign in the disciple living; ours is to be willing to trust and then to leap and go deep, to keep growing and strengthening in our spiritual lives.  It’s why we do this disciple living best when we do so in community with others also on the journey.

 

LENTEN LINE 5: "And the crowds followed..."

 We base so much on numbers.  Being an English major with limited math skills, I hate this.  

Yet, we all get sucked-into the importance of numbers. Salary, followers, attendance...I get it, yet, how about an intention on making the connection and the work and the experience matter and lead to effective change and deeper relationship.

While doing my daily Quiet Time, I read this line from Fr. Greg Boyle, "our community is crowded with God."  

BOOM!  There it is!  Think of the reality of being in a congregation, part of a community, building a world that is "crowded with God."  I would love to walk around and keep bumping into God.....God would be everywhere!  You could not miss seeing, feeling, experiencing God! 

LENTEN LINE 4: "The people gather"

 In the worship bulletin I wrote and pieced together, the opening line was always THE PEOPLE GATHER ---- to gather, to come together, to be in shared space, in community with each other and all the other others.  The recent gospel lesson referred to Jesus being like a “mother hen gathering her chicks.”  It’s a good image of protection, huddling close and keeping safe from predators above and below.

 

Someone has said we live in the “age of identity and the age of the refugee.”  A lot of truth is evidenced  in the movement of persons proudly claiming their identity, how one understand one’s self, the pronoun one wants used; it is powerful and it is freeing. In some areas the quest for political power at any cost has this under attack.

 

Be it our southern border, the starving multitudes in Syria, climate change forcing massive movement, and, of course, the millions of persons fleeing the horrors of war in Ukraine. The age of the refugee continues to impact in size, scope and spirit. 

 

The age of identity and the refugee demands a response.  I long for the faithful to speak out, stand up and to be granted the wisdom and courage needed for the living of these days. 

Central to crises is for the faithful to claim, live and extend a central tenet of our faith --- hospitality, that radical notion that we notice, we act, we protect, we gather.  Are we, the faithful, about much more than just words printed in a bulletin or found in hymnal or highlighted in a book?  A world has been waiting for the lived answer......