Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces…
~Isaiah 25:8
 
Keep your proclamations of grandeur.
Give me an easter as small as a seed.
One that can be planted while it’s still cold outside.
One that can be watered with tears,
and demands time and patience to grow.
 
I don’t need to know how large it will become,
how long until it blossoms,
or even if it will be pretty.
I only want it to grow roots that dig deep down,
striving for life in the underbelly of the world.
 
Spare me the cosmic promises of other-worldly escape
and point me to the Sacred possibilities within reach.
 
Tell me again about how the nutrients born from decay
keep even the saddest places brimming with potential for life.
- Rev. M Barclay, enfleshed
 
Enter into worship. 
 
Readings: Isaiah 25:6-9 † Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24 † 1 Corinthians 15:1-11 † Mark 16:1-8
 
About the Art: Weyden, Rogier van der, 1399 or 1400-1464. Mary's Tears, detail from Descent from the Cross, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55988 [retrieved March 18, 2024]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Weyden,_Rogier_van_der_-_Descent_from_the_Cross_-_Detail_women_(left).jpg.
 
About the artist:
Rogier van der Weyden was an early Netherlandish painter whose surviving works consist mainly of religious triptychs, altarpieces, and commissioned single and diptych portraits.

“Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!”
~Mark 11:9
 
Hosanna! The cry means, “Save us!” But from what do we need to be saved? This is an essential question. It seems the answer these days is as varied as our individual hurts and hungers, as our political and cultural divisions. Is it fair to say we all long for deeper connections, for more days of peace, intimacy, and well-being as did those who welcomed Jesus as he entered Jerusalem? Can we say together we long for the distribution of resources—of food and clothing, shelter and safety—so that no one is hungry or exposed or disconnected from human well-being? Can we agree on our common desire for belonging? For dignity? For meaning?
 
How to get there, of course, opens us to all sorts of polarities. How might we shape the work to draw on diverse wisdom and varied perceptions? In what ways do “all the law and the prophets” and the hope of our scriptures speak into this longing, into our cry for salvation? Is there a possibility of alignment here that might open us to a better way?
 
Mark’s Palm Sunday entry signals another entry for us in the church—into Holy Week, and its concentrated attention to what does and does not save us, what makes for life and well-being.
 
Enter into worship. Enter into Holy Week.
 
Readings: (Palms) Mark 11:1-11 † Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29 † (Passion) Isaiah 50:4-9a † Psalm 31:9-16 † Philippians 2:5-11 † Mark 14:1-15:47 or 15:1-39
 
About the Art: Koenig, Peter. Palm Sunday, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=58531 [retrieved March 4, 2024]. Original source: Peter Winfried (Canisius) Koenig, https://www.pwkoenig.co.uk/.

​About the artist:
Peter Koenig is a Catholic artist whose goal in life is “to paint the drama, romance and poetry of the sacred book” (https://www.pwkoenig.co.uk/).

The opposite of an ordinary fact is a lie. But the opposite of one profound truth is complemented and given life by another profound truth.”
~Nils Bohr, Nobel Award winning physicist
 
This Sunday we are doing something different. While we will not worship in our traditional manner, we are following the Lenten invitation to open ourselves to a spirit of learning and discovery.
 
Led by experienced presenter Yarrow Durbin, we will learn about polarities and how to map them and explore how they play out in our own life together and shared mission.
 
Polarity maps allow us to explore tough, persistent  dilemmas that are not actually problems that can be “solved”  - but ongoing polarities which can be navigated constructively. They involve a polarity—a relationship between two opposing ideas that each have some good in them. In fact, you need both sides to achieve your goals. And guaranteed, if you overdo one side, you get trouble. The good and bad news is that you can’t get rid of a polarity – ever.
 
Based on the work of Barry Johnson, Polarity Management is a powerful yet very accessible model of thinking, assessing, planning, and acting that moves individuals and teams from resistance and conflict towards embracing the complexity of their challenges and working together towards their common purpose. When groups learn it, they are more able to work effectively with “opposition”, build stronger teams, make better decisions, and focus their energy where it will make a bigger positive difference.
 
Come and join us Sunday morning beginning at 10:00am. We will finish at noon. If you can't make it in person, you can join us online on our livestream.
 
About the Presenter: For 35 years, Yarrow Durbin has been creating stimulating, powerful and engaging learning experiences for individuals and groups, integrating state of the art approaches from many disciplines. Yarrow works with individuals, small and large groups in a wide variety of settings, committed to making a positive difference for children, families, and our diverse communities. Her focus is on transformational learning for leaders and groups facing conflict or breakdowns in trust, rapid change, and those desiring truly equitable and supportive environments in which everyone feels included.
 
She launched CourageWork in 2005 to offer individual leadership coaching, team retreat and workshop facilitation, and change consulting in education, human services, government, health care, law, and social justice-oriented not-for-profits and businesses. She built on skills gained teaching high school for 18 years, working in adult professional development, and founding a non-profit based on the work of Dr. Parker Palmer.
 
Yarrow has a master’s degree from the University of Washington in Curriculum and Instruction, as well as certification as a Courage & Renewal® facilitator, Integral® Coach, Certified Polarity Management® trainer, Immunity to Change® consultant and coach, Leadership Circle Profile and EQ in Action Profile, and many others.

And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.”
~Numbers 21:8
 
This obscure and even troubling story of the wandering Israelites finds new life amidst our preoccupation with health and well-being. It is no accident that both the American Medical Association and World Health Organizations have adopted the Rod of Asclepius—a snake on a pole—as the symbol for medical healing. One of the great wonders of modern medicine is that scientists have learned how to replicate viral forces, render them nonlethal, and return them back to the body as vaccines. The only sure cure for infection is exposure (and inoculation), which allows the memory to be activated to destroy what would otherwise kill us. The disease is used to cure the disease.
 
The image carries well to our human condition more broadly. There is something essential at looking closely and squarely and lovingly at our stories. Like the snake on a pole, like the Christ on a cross, we must not look away, but steel ourselves for the story of who we truly are and what saves us. Attending to our choices and their results is an essential act that enables us to correct, redirect, and ultimately find our way to the new life Christ proclaims.
 
Enter into worship.
 
Readings: Numbers 21:4-9 † Psalm 107:1-3, 17-22 † Ephesians 2:1-10 † John 3:14-20
 
About the Art: Fantoni, Giovanni. Brazen Serpent, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55664 [retrieved March 3, 2024]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Brazen_Serpent_Sculpture.jpg.
 
Atop Mount Nebo in Jordan, this serpentine sculpture represents the Old Testament story of the serpent on the pole in Numbers 21:4-9 integrated with the New Testament cross of Christ.

Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!”
~John 2:15-16
 
No animals were harmed in the making of this scene.
 
When Jesus overturns the tables, he drives out both the sacrificial animals and the merchants. Both groups are liberated—the sacrificial victims and their victimizers and the religious system of sacrifice to feed the appetite of a vengeful God is effectively shut down.
 
“For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings,“ says the prophet Hosea. Jesus preaches a similarly revolutionary message, but in this case, no words are necessary.
 
As we consider in our own time the disruptions within our own religious and institutional systems, how are we to think about the uses of our buildings and our resources? How are they being used for liberation and freedom from the bondage of our own age? How might they?
 
Enter into worship.
 
Readings: Exodus 20:1-17 † Psalm 19 † 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 † John 2:13-22
 

​About the Art: Koenig, Peter. Christ Overturns the Tables of the Moneylenders, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=58520 [retrieved February 26, 2024]. Original source: Peter Winfried (Canisius) Koenig, https://www.pwkoenig.co.uk/.
 
About the artist:
Peter Koenig is a Catholic artist whose goal in life is “to paint the drama, romance and poetry of the sacred book” (https://www.pwkoenig.co.uk/). In this modern representation of the cleansing of the temple, Jesus holds a whip as he drives away the sheep being sold for sacrifices. The doves have been released and are chaotically flying around above the people, whose expressions are mixtures of shock, horror, irritation, and anger. Jesus has turned over the tables and money is scattering all around the moneylenders. This painting inspires viewers to reconsider what it means to be a church in today’s society. Should the church be a place of profit (a den of thieves) or should it use its resources for the good of people? Should it exploit the needy or should it help them? Should the church be an exploitative economic institution or one devoted to alleviating the suffering of all oppressed peoples?