Lent 5: Fast from Prejudice

There is neither

Jew nor Greek, slave nor free,

male nor female for

all are one in Christ Jesus.

Galatians 3:28.

I was raised to believe that all people who had tattoos were a lower class of people who had bad behaviors.

Just look at some to the tattoos!

That may have been true in the 40's and 50's, but I was only a kid and assumed my parent's prejudice was acceptable.

Times have changed and I have come to recognize my parent's prejudices may have been appropriate for them, but no longer for me.

I have come to see tattoos as an art form worn skin deep. 

Everyone has prejudices and recognition is the first step to overcoming them.

Fasting from prejudice may begin with prayer based on a psalm such as Psalm 139: search me O God, and know my heart: see if there is any offensive way in me. 

Dr. Steven C. Hayes Suggests the following:

• Listen to and learn from people who hold different views, and be open to changing your own perspectives. 
• Focus on understanding the experiences and perspectives of others, and try to see the world from their point of view. 
• Get to know people who belong to groups that your mind judges because personal connections can help build understanding.

Finally, focus on Deuteronomy 6:5 and Matthew 22:37 "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might" and "Love your neighbor as yourself".

Lent 3: The Fasting of a New Thing

"Behold, I am doing a new thing; 

now it springs forth, 

do you not perceive it?" 

Isaiah 43:19. 

I'm writing on the first day of Spring.

This daffodil is, for me, a sign that the harshness of Winter is past and it's time to plan for the new things of Summer. 

Perhaps it will be to revisit a scenic or historic railroad, or to revisit covered bridges, in Vermont, or the coast of Maine.

The daffodil reminds me as well that God is always at work, even when cabin fever increases the desire to get outside, brave the wind driven, bone-chilling temperatures and go for a walk.

Spring says the bleak winter is over, mud season has dried out, sugaring commenced and new things under way.

What new thing is God calling me to do?

Where will God lead? 

What new possibilities are ahead?

What new thing is God encouraging me to do with my "Reflections" blog?

Through whose voice will God say, "consider this "new thing"?

Perhaps you are that voice: What would you say?

A Place of Quiet Rest

Jerusalem, Jerusalem,

the city that kills the prophets

and stones those who are sent to it!

(from Luke 13:31-35)

Cleland McAfee experienced the tragic circumstances of losing his two infant nieces to diphtheria in 1903.

Reflecting on the grief he was feeling, he Composed, “There is a place of quiet rest, near to the heart of God”

For Jesus, that place would have been Jerusalem.

Jerusalem was the world's center.

 Jerusalem’s center was in the Temple, and the precise center was the Temple’s Holy of Holies.

In the middle of a city full of clamor, the Holy of Holies was a dim, quiet place. Empty. Silent.

The Holy of Holies was the place where God’s finger touched the wild, chaotic world and held it still.

Some ancient texts signify the priest would enter that space, carry out ritual acts to bring the world back into balance, emerge and speak of the God Whose Name Is Mercy.

Like all of us, I am seeking a quiet than is more than an absence of noise, it is an inner quiet where my soul can find rest in an out of balanced world.

As someone once said, “a place to recharge my spiritual batteries for the week”.

Its my firm conviction that the place of quiet rest, the place where we can draw near to God and feel the world brought back into balance, is Sunday Worship.

In the sanctuary we gather around the Font, Lord’s Table, and Pulpit.

Through the Holy Spirit, Christ is present as we hear God’s Word of Mercy.

In that time and presence, we can get a glimpse of a balanced world.