​“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
~Mark 8:34
 
This is tricky—an invitation spoiling for misuse. Slippery ground. An abusive relationship, a medical affliction, racial and economic inequity, unnecessary suffering of any kind. Could any of these ever be described as a cross a disciple, or anyone, should bear? We pray not. The scriptures insist not.
 
Suffering due to abuse of power is never redemptive and is antithetical to the character of God. Indeed, to bear one’s cross is first about the elimination of suffering by following the trail Jesus blazed. We resist evil as he did, rather than accept it. We join in solidarity with the crucified; even when it unsettles and inflames the status quo. To do these things, to follow in this way is to go the way of mutual blessing, the way of Abraham and Sarah, a promised way to flourishing for humanity and creation alike.
 
This is, simply, the way to life from the one who calls all creation beloved. The Lenten way: new life comes through the denial of our worst selves, of what destroys us. In his very next breath Jesus says, “For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.”
 
What are we to make of this in this season of strife and inequality and the unavoidable truth that suffering, and denial seems to be borne by some far more than others? What are we to make of this call for the healing not only of this heartbroken and luminous world, but for our own selves...for we who would dare be disciples? Are these not one and the same question?
 
Enter into worship.
 
Readings: Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16 † Psalm 22:23-31 † Romans 4:13-25 † Mark 8:31-9:1
 
About the Art: Bergner, Joel. Global Refugee Mural, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56930 [retrieved February 20, 2024]. Original source: https://joelartista.com/about/.
 
About the artist:
Joel Bergner is an artist, educator and organizer of community art initiatives with youth in conflict-affected and marginalized communities around the world, from Syrian refugee camps to American prisons; the favelas of Brazil to an orphanage in South Africa. His elaborate, large-scale murals weave smoothly between realism with an urban art sensibility and the honest expressions of children and community members.
 
In each project, he guides participants through the process of exploring issues that are important to them, designing their own composition and then collaboratively painting a public mural in their community. Joel travels the globe with his wife, CJ Thomas, who leads dance and theatre workshops, and their two young daughters.
 
Based on actual interviews, the Global Refugee Mural tells the story of three refugees who live in Maryland. Donation by photographer Anne Richardson.

For Christ also suffered for sins once for all…in order to bring [us] to God.
—1 Peter 3:18
 
In order to bring us to God. Here is the invitation of Lent in a nutshell—the gift of a season journeyed toward God that comes by way of…dying.
 
Don’t let this be a morbid thought. Life has always come this way—a virtuous circle of life that is always brought on by death. Our own suffering, then, is not meaningless. Just look outside and let the tree buds and crocus and daffodil shoots testify. How did they get there, if not by way of a previous death?
 
Consider the gospels and their slant toward faith. Mark was the first, written sometime around the year 65. John was the last of the four, around 90 or 100. Two full generations between them. And how different they are as the souls who shaped them tried to figure out how to respond to shattered expectations that Jesus had not returned, as they shaped a new coherence, an enduring faith amid radically shifting times!
 
Today we have the benefit of wisdom across cultures that is easily available to us. That’s what Cindy Lee is offering in her book Our Unforming. This is, of course, not new to us. We’ve already been doing our work. Here Lee captures some key observations that may help us in our own reforming. From a linear to a cyclical understanding of time. From a default toward sameness to difference. From the transcendence of the individual to the collective and communal.
 
Perhaps one of the greatest gifts of the unraveling of the moment and this season of history, perhaps the greatest gift of this Lent is the gift of moving us toward metanoia, conversion, the changing of our minds. That we would lean on God instead, that we find God once again for a new generation.
 
…in order to bring us to God. Enter into worship.
 
Readings: Genesis 9:8-17 † Psalm 25:1-10 † 1 Peter 3:18-22 † Mark 1:9-15
 
About the Art: Moyers, Mike. Reminder, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57154 [retrieved February 11, 2024]. Original source: Mike Moyers, https://www.mikemoyersfineart.com/.
 
About the artist:
For years, I have illustrated, designed and directed many book covers, ads, logos, commercials and campaigns. However, my deeper side is the life of a fine artist. I love to paint with the palette knife to keep my work loose, textured and bold. You will see that I paint all kinds of subjects. My deepest passion, however, is to use fine art to communicate matters of faith.

I firmly believe that art is a communion with the soul. Through my art, I strive to make known the beauty and wonder of life and faith. The pieces are inspired by things that have touched my life in a meaningful way. They range from plein air and impressionism to abstract and conceptual. My hope is to successfully communicate those inspirations so that you might be touched as well.

​“Thus it is written, ‘The first human, Adam, became a living soul’; the last Adam became a spirit that gives life.”
~1 Corinthians 15:45
 
Humility, vulnerability, authenticity. Three words that draw us into this ancient practice of Lent, of lengthening, of extending and filling out our lives with newness in the same way that the light of day lengthens in Lent. Plants emerge from winter’s rest to explore new growth, new forms of possibility.
 
Humility, comes from hummus—dust, earth, soil—from which we became and to which we return according to the stories of our elders: Dust to dust. Ashes to ashes.
 
Vulnerability. From the Latin vulnus: wound. Indeed, to live is to be wounded, and to (be) heal(ed). To be subject to power and designs greater than ours. To be creature.
 
Authenticity. From the Greek authentes: from two words, autos or self and hentes or doing. One acting on one’s own authority. We are agents with agency, actors with purpose to enact. We are powerful.
 
So here we are, at the doorway to Lent, dusty, wounded, wondering, powerful ones seeking to be all that we are, all that we are created to be.
 
Enter into worship. Enter into Lent.
 
Join us this Wednesday evening at 7:00pm in person or online.
 
Readings: Joel 2:1-2,12-17 or Isaiah 58:1-12 † Psalm 51:1-17 † 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10 † Matthew 6:1-6,16-21
 
 
About the Art:[i] An abstract painting depicting the words of the psalmist, “Let my prayer be set before Thee as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.“ 
 
Mike Moyers loves to paint with the palette knife to keep his work loose, textured and bold. His deepest passion is to use art to communicate matters of faith. From his website: I firmly believe that art is a communion with the soul. Through my art, I strive to make known the beauty and wonder of life and faith. The pieces in this exhibit are inspired by things that have touched my life in a meaningful way. They range from plein air and impressionism to abstract and conceptual. My hope is to successfully communicate those inspirations so that you might be touched as well.


[i] Moyers, Mike. Prayer, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=57148 [retrieved February 6, 2023]. Original source: Mike Moyers, https://www.mikemoyersfineart.com/.