God, help us to use this Lent as a season of growth,
through prayer, fasting, and works of compassion.
When we are discouraged by our weakness,
give us confidence in your love.
LentThe word “lent” comes from an old word meaning “to lengthen” and that is just what the days are doing. Can spring be far behind? We are on our way to Easter, in the journey of Lent. There are many opportunities to deepen our spiritual practice, beginning with Ash Wednesday worship. Please join us, and invite a friend to become a fellow-pilgrim!
Our church school curriculum, "Whole People of God" describes Lent as "an opportunity to take stock of our own lives," adding: "For so many of us there are too few opportunities to slow down and reflect upon the direction of our hectic, consumer-drive lives. The Season of Lent invites us to take time to attend to those aspects of our lives that we often neglect." As I'm sure you've heard, Lent is not about "giving up," but "taking on" practices that will restore us to sanity.
In my experience, my life does not get out of balance because I don't know what is good for my soul. My life becomes unmanageable because I allow habit, or a lazy preference for short-term gratification, or (most often) fear of change, to keep me from doing what I know is better for me.
Ash Wednesday: "Pilgrims in Process"
Wed., March 9, at 7:30 PM, we gather for Ash Wednesday Prayers & Ashes. It's a time of shared prayer, meditative music, and (if you wish) the imposition of ashes. It's a fine way to begin the season of Lent, marking our intentions for the forty days of Lent (not counting Sundays, which are "little Easters"). Ashes, often created by burning last year's palms from Palm Sunday, are a symbol of past triumph and celebration, burnt and ground, and imposed to smudge our flesh and bind our imaginations to God’s power to restore. We are renewing the journey of liberation.
Conversations about PCMK's Future
Our Mission Study team (Anne Carpenter, Joanne Dobson, Ken Murakami, Alan Morjikian, Nicholas Kung, Barbara Zinke and I) invite you to take part in a small-group conversation about the future of PCMK. In a series of coffee and dessert meetings during March, in homes and at church, we are seeking to discern our people's answers to these questions:
- What do you think "Church" means? What do you think is the purpose of OUR church? Can you put it into one sentence?
- What brought you to this congregation? What keeps you here?
- What are important qualities of this church?
- What would you like to find in this church if you were suddenly transported five years into the future?
- Now that you've thought about our church's purpose, what gifts would you see a new pastor bringing to this place?
"Charter for Compassion: The Golden Rule"
During Lent, we will engage the Golden Rule as a guide for action, and reflect together on our efforts to live more compassionately. Through a series of "Supper and Study" sessions, we invite our community to discuss Karen Armstrong's book, Twelve Steps to a Compassionate Life. Please bring a simple vegetarian dish to share and join us 6:30-8 PM, Weds. March 16, 23, 30, and April 6, 13.
I am excited that among the attendees at our first Covered Dish Supper and Study on "The Golden Rule" will be Sultan and Malika Niazi, who lead the Islamic school that meets in our space on Saturdays. Let's invite other friends and neighbors to join the conversation and make this as broad an experience as possible!
Even if you can't join the Wednesday supper and study, there are many ways to participate.
- I'm creating a blog just for this series: http://goldenrulereal.blogspot.com/
- We'll have a "syllabus" for the journey available from Transfiguration Sunday, March 6.
- If you're reading Karen Armstrong's book along with us, each Sunday can be a "book group" gathering, as we check in on our responses to the reading.
John Calvin, our spiritual ancestor, preached the "Good Samaritan" as a call to compassion: "compassion, which an enemy showed to a Jew, demonstrates that the guidance and teaching of nature are sufficient to show that man was created for the sake of man. Hence it is inferred that there is a mutual obligation between all men." In other writings, Calvin pointed out that people are not born merely for themselves, but rather "mankind is knit together with a holy knot ... we must not live for ourselves, but for our neighbors."
In the words of "the Charter for Compassion,"
The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the center of our world and put another there, and to honor the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect….
We therefore call upon all men and women ~ to restore compassion to the center of morality and religion ~ to return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate ~ to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions and cultures…
We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries…. See: http://charterforcompassion.org
--Jack Lohr, Interim Pastor
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