Humility and Learning from Others - Lent 2016

About an hour ago, I watched a fellow with a disabled tag on his car, call over a young mentally disabled man who was holding up a sign saying he needed help. The guy in the car handed the younger man some money, said a few words, and as the light changed drove away. I didn't see anyone else interact with the young man.

It reminded me of a story in a book my wife is reading. The author retells a story that happened to his wife when she was a child. She and her father were driving down the road during a terrible storm when they saw a man struggling to walk along the side of the road. "We have to help that man, Dad," the young child said. "It is dangerous to pick-up people who are walking along the road." The father continued to drive. The young child burst into tears. The father turned around and drove back and they took the man to his job. Afterwords, the father turned to his daughter and said, "It is important for parents to remember that we, too, can learn from our children. Thank you."

Who are we willing to learn from? Isn't life about learning, and about sharing compassion with others, just as God shares compassion with us?

It reminds me of a story my wife shares of our son. He must have been two or three years old, because our daughters were still of an age where they rode in the stroller. The four of them had walked to the pizza place to eat dinner while I was away at a meeting or something. They had saved me a couple slices of pizza. On the way home, our son spied a man in the grocery store parking-lot. He asked my wife, "Is that man a stray?" We had just adopted a stray cat.
"Maybe," my wife responded.
"We should see if he wants to stay with us."
"That might not be a good idea. He might be traveling some place," my wife said.
"We can at least see if he wants some pizza," our son said.
"That we can do."
Once they had reached the grocery store parking lot, before my wife could say anything, our son had said to the man, "Are you hungry?" slight pause and a slightly bewildered expression on the man's face. "Because if you are, we got too much pizza and you can have these two slices." The "stray"-man thanked our son, smiled at my wife, and gladly accepted the pizza.
In the meantime, we parents learned something about generosity from our son.

Again, who are we willing to learn from? Do we really believe there is abundance in the universe? If so, if God has truly provided more than enough for every-one/thing, how do we act that out?

Good questions for Lent.

Blessed Be,
Joel

Sailing Keeps Us Humble - Lent 2016

I got to thinking about how sailing (and other boating experiences) tend to keep us humble. It doesn't take much to realize that every time we are out on the water, there is more to learn: we miss a tack; the wind dies just at a headland and a change of tide; or we read the weather wrong and find ourselves shorting sail. I find that while sailing keeps me humble, it is also the challenge that keeps me interested. The challenge, and the fact that I'm absorbed in Nature - in God's First Book.

So, when my issue of the Jan/Feb WoodenBoat showed up, I was excited to see that two great sailors on a famous ship have written a book. Matthew P. Murphey reviews Thies Matzen and Kicki Ericson's Antarktische Wilnis: Sudgeorgien (Marevelag GmbH & Co, 2014 - See WoodenBoat, Jan/Feb 2016 (Issue #248) p. 82-3). If you are not familiar with Matzen and Ericson, they bought Wanderer III (of the Hiscock fame) have been sailing her all over the place. The book is about their two year stay on South Georgia told through photographs and lyrical captions.

What struck me about this in particular was the following quote on page 77 of the book accompanying a photograph of a pair of Arctic terns (it must have caught Murphy, too, because he pointed it out):

We saw maybe 200 or 300 of the 130,000 Antarctic terns that exist worldwide. Maybe seven of the 400,000 leopard seals, one of the 2,000 blue whales, 80 of the striated caracaras - every animal that we meet is a specimen of its species that exist in the thousands, hundreds of thousands, more rarely in the millions. They are relatively small groups. All the king penguins of the world, maybe 1.5 million, would fill Copenhagen or Hamburg. ... I don't actually know what I want to say. But in comparison the seven billion individuals of the species Homo sapiens 130,000 terns seems vanishingly few. ... But humans live globally, everywhere, in every habitat, whereas these terns only in this one.

I found that it suddenly put some things into perspective. How precious are these other creatures with which we share this home (our planet)? And how marvelous is this First Grand Book of Scripture - the natural world.

As I was preparing to write, I also came across this which I found interesting, especially in light of the recent excitement about gravity.

Blessed Be,
Joel

PS - here are some other photos from googling the book title - enjoy. And here is a book review in German with more photos.

Ash Wednesday, 2016

Happy Ash Wednesday, to you, Dear Reader.

I'm finding that today I'm recovering from a case of the flu. As it suddenly came on Friday night, it just as suddenly left Tuesday morning. At the moment, I'm feeling about 90%.  I haven't had a full-blown case of the flu in years. Nothing like the aches and pains and delusions of a high fever to remind one's self of one's own mortality. Actually, I found that I did manage to keep sense of humor (maybe it was just dark irony) during the process. I find I'm too liturgically minded to miss what today is, and when Lent starts.

So, as Lent starts this year, I find myself pondering mortality, sure, but also the exuberance of health. I'm mindful of what a precious gift health is, and how much it takes all of us to have healthy relationships with those around us: our civilization, our natural world, our friends and acquaintances, and our families.

During this season of Lent, may we all celebrate and strive towards more health, all the while delighting in finding the Divine in our midst.

Blessed Be,

Joel

Below is my Ash Wednesday Service for those of you apart from a church community this Ash Wednesday.

GREETING:
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you.
And also with you.
Bless the Lord who forgives all our sins.
God’s mercy endures forever.

OPENING PRAYER   (from the United Methodist Hymnal #353)

O God,

maker of every thing and judge of all that you have made,

from the dust of the earth you have formed us 

and from the dust of death you would raise us up.

By the redemptive power of the cross, 

create in us clean hearts

and put within us a new spirit,

that we may repent of our sins

and lead lives worthy of your calling;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

SCRIPTURE:
Joel 2:1-2, 12-17
Psalm 51 (#785 in the UMC Hymnal)
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

INVITATION TO THE OBSERVANCE OF LENTEN DISCIPLINE
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

the early Christians observed with great devotion 

the day of our Lord's passion and resurrection, 

and it became the custom of the Church that before the Easter celebration 

there should be a forty-day season of spiritual preparation.

During this season converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism.

It was also a time when persons who had committed serious sins 

and had separated themselves from the community of faith 

were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, 

and restored to participation in the life of the Church.

In this way the whole congregation was reminded 

of the mercy and forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel of Jesus Christ 

and the need we all have to renew our faith.

I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, 

to observe a holy Lent: 

by self-examination and repentance; 

by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; 

and by reading and meditation on God's Holy  Word.

To make a right beginning of repentance, 

and as a mark of our mortal nature, 

let us now kneel (or bow) before our Creator and Redeemer.

(a brief silence is kept)

THANKSGIVING OVER THE ASHES
Almighty God, you have created us out of the dust of the earth. 

Grant that these ashes may be to us a sign of our mortality and penitence,

so that we may remember that only by your gracious gift

are we given everlasting life;

through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

IMPOSITIONS OF THE ASHES
(as people come forward, a leader dips a thumb in the ashes and makes 

a cross on the forehead of each person saying:
Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

THE LORD’S PRAYER

DISMISSAL WITH A BLESSING

Visions of the Kingdom/Kin-dom of God

What is  your vision of the Kin-dom/Kingdom? Is it something you can put into words, a few sentences, maybe a sermon? Is it something that calls you forth into action in the here and now? Does it shape how you see the world while also giving you something to work towards?

I happen to believe that the Kin-dom/Kingdom of God is something that is breaking into the here and now, yet isn't quite all the way here yet. We humans continue to get in the way, in some ways, and in others we continue to bring God's Way forth. We are a mixed lot we humans. But as a consequence, we live between the Now and Not Yet of the reality of God's Way - Kin-dom - Kingdom.

I ask this question as we are quickly coming to a few seasons. We are shortly to enter Lent in which we Christians have long held as a time of self-examination and pondering our own relationships: with God, with ourselves, with one another, with the world at large. If God's Way is one of unlimited, boundless love, mercy, grace and compassion - how are we (I) acting?

The other season that is upon the United States is a political landscape of casting visions for the future of the United States. While each political party is in the process of nominating a candidate to represent them, we are hearing lots of debates about where each candidate wishes the United States to go under that particular candidate's leadership.

Did you notice the Google Doodle today? It is a "doodle" of Fredrick Douglass (1818 - 1895). Douglass continued to speak out for the end of slavery and for the rights of everyone (ending slavery and the rights of women to vote being the big issues of his day). As his weekly paper (The Northern Star) proclaimed her motto: "Right is of no Sex – Truth is of no Color – God is the Father of us all, and we are all brethren." His vision of how God's Kin-dom/Kingdom was to operate gave him vision of how he was a act and lead.

For another vision (full of hope and lament) see what Fatty Goodlander has to say in his article in the February, 2016 edition of the All At Sea: Caribbean (pg. 24). [This is a free magazine, the link should download as a pdf. If it doesn't try this link to their download page.]

I hope your vision inspires you to act with courageous acts of love and compassion all the while experiencing huge doses of wonder and awe.

Blessed Be,

Joel