13th Day of Lent

Jesus then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. He spoke plainly about this…

Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?”
[Mark 8: 31-36, selected]

Jesus calls those who would come after him to deny the self. He is not demanding that we put to death our thoughts and desires and all the things about us that make us unique, or that we renounce the wonder and beauty of creation. He is calling us to deny our self-centeredness and need to be in control, and instead to center our selves in God, who is infinite power and energy and for whom we were created. We find that on our own we have very little power to truly change. We may change our actions at times with self-control and willpower, but consenting to God’s will for us, rather than demanding our own way, causes us to be changed from the inside out. As we empty ourselves of our own strategies for success and comfort, we feel our deep hunger for what is real and life-giving, and God has space to fill us with far greater power, goodness, and satisfaction—the kind that grows, and lasts.




"When I first took this picture many years ago, I saw the leaf (and myself) as needing to "hang on"...just keep trying, just keep working at the things that were bothering me, or circumstances that were struggles and painful--just keep trusting and trying and hanging on. Now I look at this same photo years later and wonder why that leaf doesn't just "let go"...let go of the struggles to keep things going, let go of the status quo, let go of the need to control or fix the things that make me uncomfortable and afraid. Letting go is such a relief--relief from trying to control my life, relief that there is Someone who loves me and who will care for me as I fall. Amazingly, there is peace in the free--fall into the dependable, trustworthy arms of Jesus. Now I look at the little leaf and whisper "just let go."
(photo and comments by VJ Thurston. Used with permission)

Read Jesus’ words above slowly and listen to them as if Jesus were speaking directly to you.

Ask now for greater awareness of the places in your life where you might need to “let go” as you continue on this journey through Lent.

12th Day of Lent

Yesterday in our service celebrating the second Sunday in Lent, we focused on the theme of Choosing the Path of Most Resistance: Letting Go and the ways our spiritual practice might help us in surrendering control of our lives to a loving and gracious God.

Many Christians around the world observe Lent as a time for letting go---through fasting, or “giving something up.” For some this can be very serious and somber ---motivated by a sense of duty or obligation, or for the purpose of ‘doing the right thing” for oneself, like eating all your vegetables or going to the dentist. For others engaging in Lenten practice can be an attempt at doing penance---trying to make things right by expressing remorse and “paying the price for sin”.

For Western Christians Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the six weeks of Lent leading up to Easter Sunday. The Eastern Orthodox Church calendar is different: Easter falls on a separate Sunday altogether, and Lent, which lasts for seven weeks, begins on what is often referred to as “Clean Monday”.

In an essay called "Lent and the Consumer Society" from his book Living Orthodoxy in the Modern World Bishop Kallistos Ware writes about the Eastern Orthodox custom of flying kites on Clean Monday:

We are encouraged to associate Lent with fresh air, with the wind blowing on the hills, with the coming of spring. Lent is a time for flying kites--a time for adventure, exploration, fresh initiatives, new hope.... It also has to do with freedom.... Lent is a time when we learn to be free.... As a human person in God's image, I am not truly free unless I have learned how to use my freedom rightly, and this process of learning presupposes obedience, discipline and self-denial. Freedom is not only a gift; it is a task....Lent is concerned, first, with the offering of the world back to God in thanksgiving....


Spend some time now meditating on this image of a kite flying in the fresh air. Be still and close your eyes and imagine yourself as a kite—created and fashioned to fly—light of weight, flexible, yielding --not resisting the wind, not fighting to stay grounded, but embracing the breeze and being swept up into the strong current and lifted high.

What feelings arise for you as you imagine….

Do you feel exhilaration?

Freedom?

Fear?

What might this image of a kite suggest to you about who you are to God?

Jesus asked his friends in Sunday’s reading from Scripture in Mark 8, “What about you…who do you say I am?”

Close your eyes and imagine Jesus asking this of you. Listen to your inner stirrings honestly and without judgment. Respond with whatever emerges in you to Jesus without editing or resisting….and take time to listen….

End your time with a silent prayer, asking God to help you find your way more and more into the freedom that comes from surrendering your life to the One you were created for.

If you are able to spend time outside, take special note of the feel of the breeze on your skin, the air in your nostrils… if you can, go fly a kite!


High Flight
(The Aviator's Poem)
Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air...
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.

by John Gillespie Magee, RCAF 1922-1941 ~ © This England Books 1996