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Lenten Devotion 3/22/2022

Devotion Twenty-One
Tuesday March 22, 2022

Lent is a time to consider the wilderness. As mentioned in the sermon for the first Sunday of Lent when the scripture lesson was about Jesus spending 40 days in the wilderness, we noted that the wilderness is not blank and featureless. There are land forms and light and clouds. There are stars and planets to observe. There are some plants and many wild animals and insects and lizards. What is important about the wilderness is what is not there. There is not a lot of human messaging. Not a lot of human voices to be heard or evidence of human life in the wilderness. For us that can mean time away from screens and ear buds and speakers and print and social media and email and phones, etc. Something that rarely happens except when we are asleep.

I remember when the covid lockdown was in full swing. I used to take long bike rides around our neighborhood. First of all, I noticed that there was little to no traffic. We live near a busy road, 22nd Avenue North, and there were few if any cars on the road. Then there was the noise. Of birds and squirrels. So much chirping. It was loud. I wondered if it was always like that and I just didn’t notice because of the background sounds of the traffic or were the birds really making more noise? I now know that the birds were making more noise. Were there more birds? Now, I wonder about the bird population and the all the chirping. Are there fewer birds? Or are they just quieter? That all leads to wondering more about the impact of human activity on the animal community – not just on some distant savannah, but in my neighborhood.

And that is the whole point of the wilderness experience; of tuning out the human noise. You are exposed to a bigger reality. And new perspectives and thoughts. You notice different things. You ask questions. You wonder. You listen. And are aware. Of a larger world. What are we hearing from the birds? From trees? From fish and turtles? From plants and water? From lizards and bugs? From sky and sea? From God?

Yes, in the wildness of mercy, we may get just the message we need to hear from a social media post. But there is no need to restrict our listening to the human realm. May we make this Lenten season about the wilderness.

Prayer
Take some time to tune in to silence or to nature. Mute the human messaging. Notice what that is like. Pay attention to what surfaces and emerges. See how your reality expands. Creating more space for love and mercy to flood in. And to flow out. Consider making this kind of experience part of your regular spiritual practice. Amen.

Lenten Devotion 3/21/2022

Devotion Twenty
Monday 3.21.22

Each day we are hearing the devastating news of war in Ukraine. Since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the toll of war is coming home to us through our screens and speakers thanks to the brave journalists who are working there. People killed. Communities destroyed. Hospitals and homes bombed. People fleeing to safety by the millions creating a refugee crisis. And over the carnage, Putin dangles the threat of nuclear attack. The news reports are heartbreaking, disturbing, shocking, and perhaps infuriating. How can this be happening? How can it be ‘allowed’ to happen? How can one man create such upheaval in the world? Most of us are trying to figure out how to do something good as one person.

In the midst of this, I heard an interview with a NASA official who was asked about how things are going on the International Space Station where there are astronauts from Russia and the US. Apparently, all is well on the space station. The astronauts are functioning as professionals. They know that they are dependent upon one another for their safety and survival.

The intent of the space program is to further human knowledge — about space, the universe, the cosmos. It is to learn about the stars and galaxies and planets. It is to learn about the conditions and forces. And to see how that knowledge can help to advance life on Earth.

Maybe what we need from the International Space Station is not calculations about distance, or temperature readings, or how to grow things in zero gravity, or images of far-flung planets. Maybe what the space station can give to humans on Earth is wisdom about how to live together in peace and how to cherish life here on this precious planet. Maybe given the wildness of mercy this will be another unintended consequence of the space program!

Prayer
Look at the sky. The sun. If it is night, look for the clouds, the stars, and the moon. The vastness of it all. With a consciousness of this greater reality, surely humans can learn to live together in peace. May the wildness of mercy stir us to make peace with each other and with our gorgeous blue-green marble planet. Amen.

Lenten Devotion 3/20/2022

Devotion Nineteen
Sunday March 20, 2022

Today is the first day of Spring. It is a day to celebrate the changing of the seasons. It is a time to look for signs of new life. Well, if you live in a temperate climate. Not so much in our semi-tropical climate here in Florida.

Often when people move to Florida they say they miss the changing of the seasons. Having lived in Florida for 32 years, I have come to appreciate the changing of the seasons in different ways. We have the brutal heat and the intense thunderstorms of the summer. We have the season when oak trees drop their pollen, in our case, into the pool so we have to skim a couple of times a day. There are the two planting seasons for the vegetable garden – in the fall and as the new year begins. There is the season when the northerners are in Florida and the traffic is congested! So, there are ways that we can mark the seasons in Florida.

Here we are not going to know it is spring because all the bare branches on the trees begin to bud and those glorious spring green leaves appear. Or because the grass turns green. Or because flowers suddenly begin to emerge from barren dirt. It’s not as dramatic here. The changes are more subtle. So we have to pay more attention.

It can be like that with matters of the spirit. Sometimes there is dramatic unmistakable welcome change. And it is glorious. But often our spiritual growth is more subtle, incremental, and less flashy.

Our subtle seasons here in the semi-tropics invite us to look more closely. To pay more attention. To concentrate our awareness. To be more mindful. Because the world around us is going through its yearly paces and cycles. The plants and the animals are going through their seasons. Our son works on a farm in Bradenton and in the spring the calves are born. Nature stays true to its cycles.

These subtle seasonal changes reminds us of the need to pay attention to our spiritual cycles and seasons. How are we changing? How are we growing? What is surfacing in us? What is emerging? What is dormant and fallow? What comes up each year around the same time? This Lenten season is a time for reflection and examination and introspection. It’s a time to pay attention to what is going on with our spiritual lives. Maybe we haven’t had some kind of dramatic breakthrough, but if we are looking, we may just see that we are growing and learning and becoming more healthy and whole.

In the wildness of mercy, we may find that we are becoming more loving and caring and compassionate toward ourselves, others, and even our enemies. Even if it isn’t flashy and flowery, there may be slow and steady growth.

Prayer
Look outside, out a window, or sit on a porch. Notice the signs of life around you. How are things changing? Emerging? Growing? What are the signs of new life? Take some quiet moments to think about your life. Do you see some new attitudes or openings or softenings taking place? Do you see passions forming? Do you see new love emerging? Or maybe forgiveness or acceptance? Give thanks for the signs of life in your spirit. Amen.