But Dust...
It says it right there in psalm 103, "For God knows whereof we are made, God remembers that we are but dust..."
There is a wonderful little email floating around that tells the story of a little kid who asks his priest or his parents, can't remember which, at the end of the Ash Wednesday Service, the question, "What is butt dust???" Nothing fun or cool has ever really happened to me like that in the five years I have been running around the Church, some day I imagine something will happen and it will be the story that I bore people to death with in some sermon I preach year after year... But for now, I have to depend on this cute little email that captures my own unsaid as of yet out loud thoughts about how dangerous religious language can be sometimes.
Ash Wednesday is right around the corner, this Wednesday as a matter of fact, and it brings with it time for self reflection and other things that help us "Rend our hearts", help us to change our way of living from the inside out. At Gethsemane we have gone about that a little backwards, we started with our roof and then will move inside as we prepare to move furniture and other things that will help us move towards a true spirit of growth. I suppose it helps to have the roof over your head be thouroughly complete with no leaks or holes so you don't have to change the furniture all over again. I like Ash Wednesday and have come to appreicaite Lent, but I think my colleague in Duluth at St. Andrew's by the Lake, Cindy Peterson Wlosinski, does it right. They do no programming what so ever there during Lent, well maybe a couple of small things, but for the most part, nothing too crazy like most Churches.
Ash Wednesday and Lent are about our own metanoia, our own turning around, our own changing of heart. It is a time of reflectiona and should be a time of quiet prayer and self exploration. Spiritual renewal. Anyway, some day I will find a happy middle there, because I do not think it is wise to cut programming entirely, just somewhat. Maybe Lent is more a time to enter the mystery of worship and how we experience God and Christ in that medium and other seasons are more inducive to programming and other types of events.
I find it interesting that the Season of Easter, 50 days of Feasting as my Field Work Mentor used to say, is not celebrated with the same vigor as Lent. We don't like to party in Church, we only like to complain... It is not as fun to take Jesus down off the cross as it is to leave him up there so we can always remeber that we are Butt Dust. May you and yours have a holy Lent!
There is a wonderful little email floating around that tells the story of a little kid who asks his priest or his parents, can't remember which, at the end of the Ash Wednesday Service, the question, "What is butt dust???" Nothing fun or cool has ever really happened to me like that in the five years I have been running around the Church, some day I imagine something will happen and it will be the story that I bore people to death with in some sermon I preach year after year... But for now, I have to depend on this cute little email that captures my own unsaid as of yet out loud thoughts about how dangerous religious language can be sometimes.
Ash Wednesday is right around the corner, this Wednesday as a matter of fact, and it brings with it time for self reflection and other things that help us "Rend our hearts", help us to change our way of living from the inside out. At Gethsemane we have gone about that a little backwards, we started with our roof and then will move inside as we prepare to move furniture and other things that will help us move towards a true spirit of growth. I suppose it helps to have the roof over your head be thouroughly complete with no leaks or holes so you don't have to change the furniture all over again. I like Ash Wednesday and have come to appreicaite Lent, but I think my colleague in Duluth at St. Andrew's by the Lake, Cindy Peterson Wlosinski, does it right. They do no programming what so ever there during Lent, well maybe a couple of small things, but for the most part, nothing too crazy like most Churches.
Ash Wednesday and Lent are about our own metanoia, our own turning around, our own changing of heart. It is a time of reflectiona and should be a time of quiet prayer and self exploration. Spiritual renewal. Anyway, some day I will find a happy middle there, because I do not think it is wise to cut programming entirely, just somewhat. Maybe Lent is more a time to enter the mystery of worship and how we experience God and Christ in that medium and other seasons are more inducive to programming and other types of events.
I find it interesting that the Season of Easter, 50 days of Feasting as my Field Work Mentor used to say, is not celebrated with the same vigor as Lent. We don't like to party in Church, we only like to complain... It is not as fun to take Jesus down off the cross as it is to leave him up there so we can always remeber that we are Butt Dust. May you and yours have a holy Lent!
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(world getting smaller and smaller. . .)