As the world searches for peace, let us worship the HOLY ONE of justice, love, and peace.

Enter into worship.

Readings: Song of Songs 4:7-16 † Psalm 136:1-16 † 1 John 4:7-12 † John 3:11-17

As the world searches for peace, let us worship the HOLY ONE of justice, love, and peace.

Enter into worship.

​Readings: Genesis 3:8-21 † Psalm 96 † Romans 8:31-39 † Mark 13:14-22

“Beware of false prophets, who will come to you all in sheep’s clothing but inside are rapacious wolves. By their fruits you will know them.”
—Matthew 7:15-16a
 
Imperfect foods. Ugly produce. Or Strange fruits. Wilda Gafney, the womanist scholar and crafter of Year W, an alternate lectionary we are using for the seasons of Lent and Easter keeps us in the second creation story (Genesis 2) for this second Sunday in Lent. If you didn’t read about Year W last week, you can find an explanatory article here.
 
Gafney pairs the serpent and the fruit of this garden varietal with a warning in Matthew of the fruits of false prophets. The serpent, according to Gafney’s translation, “had more naked intelligence than any other animal…God had made,” but craftiness is not enough, is it? All sorts of people are shrewd. God has crafted us for good works, according to Ephesians 2, but even this is no guarantee for a healthy, fruitful harvest of a life.
 
There is tending to be done, and weeding in the garden of our souls. Lent is a season to examine the stories we are told. False prophets abound. Rapacious, ravenous hungers lead to tragic suffering, dislocation, and violence with a long shadow. Surely we are witnessing these fruits in these days! But in truth, self-examination is the real staple of Lent. What are the stories we tell of ourselves? Are they reliable, good for eating, nutritious? What kinds of fruit will they produce when we are old and in the ages to come?

​Enter into worship.

​Readings: Genesis 3:1–7 † Psalm 92:1–5, 12–15 † Ephesians 2:4–10 † Matthew 7:15–20

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The Sovereign God crafted the human from the dust of the humus and breathed into its nostrils the breath of life, and the human became a living soul.
~Genesis 2:7
 
It all sounds so easy, doesn’t it—this process of creation? “The Sovereign God crafted the human…” It’s such a lovely image. We see the potter at her wheel perhaps not effortlessly, but joyfully, skillfully, mindfully giving such unique and exquisite life to the dust.
 
For God, all things are possible… But what about for us? This creative process of (re)making ourselves is anything but effortless and emotionless. What’s the aphorism from Thomas Edison, that prolific inventor? “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.” It seems, sometimes, it will be the death of us.
 
Indeed.
 
Colossians 3:1: “If indeed you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above…”
 
Sanctification is a word our Wesleyan siblings are more familiar with, but it is a good word for Lent—this process of becoming more Christlike, more like the God who is crafting us into and for a beloved community. The uncovering, the testing and self-testing of assumptions and patterns in our lives and our communities for what gives life and what takes it away, for truthful stories that speak to the whole of who we are, not just a part. These require a lot of time behind the wheel on this journey. Steer us away from self-delusion and simplistic conclusions, we pray, as we peel away layers of privilege and layers of presumption.
 
Take heart, beloveds, you extraordinary creatures. As we begin Lent, Wilda Gafney’s reading selections (read about Year W here), give us a little Easter in Mark 16. Resurrection is always appearing. Remember this.

​Enter into worship.

We continue to keep our financial commitments to our mission partners and staff. If you are not yet able to join us, thank you for remembering to send in your financial pledges and offerings or donating here. ​

“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


We speak of Lent as a time of testing, but what kind? Surely we can understand this wilderness not only as suffering and endurance, but testing of another kind—testing that seeks to clarify what is true and what is fake, what endures amidst hardship and unsettledness, and what does not last. A refiner’s fire. We watch a miles-long serpentine convoy of aggression twist along a neighbor’s roads, and we might wonder if this way of active nonviolence really makes for peace when desperate autocracy has its finger on a red button. We may doubt that our small actions could make any difference at all against a rising tsunami of climate change. We might wonder if peace can break out closer to home—in our families, in our children, in me. What do we truly believe? What hope might bud in us in this Lenten season that means to lengthen our days?

​Let Lent be a gift, then: 40 days, a season, to suspend belief and test, to be curious, to discover, to dream, to chance. A litmus test. What have we to lose save that which might save us? Surely we are dust, but we are more: The Spirit that gives Life—she lives on in us and with us as the Spirit of Truth.
Enter into worship. Enter into Lent.