Friday of the First Week in Lent

Only when one is barefoot can one feel the stones underfoot. -- Hasidic Teaching

I love to walk in the early mornings on a long stretch of beach. I disobey my orthopedist and walk barefoot, listen to the rythm of the waves, and wade in the ocean. Occasionaly, I come upon a bed of shells or rocks. I must delicately cross to continue on my journey. I do so slowly and gingerly feeling the shells and stones with each step.

My walk across the shells and the Hasidic teaching relect part of our life's journey. Regardless of our relationship with God, it is we who must place one foot in front of the other. Sometimes tired, feeling the pain of each step along the way, we must move forward nonetheless. To not move across the stones we become paralyzed and swept backwards by the winds of why, so regardless of the pain we advance, and with each painful step we are closer to the smooth sand, the waves, and the calming effect of the ocean.

In the Hebrew tradition when one gets up from the first seven days of mourning, one symbolically walks around the block as a re-entry to life. Lent is our tradition of re-entry into a life of companionship with God. Let's all take that walk.

Webb

Thursday of the First Week in Lent

As a face see its reflection in the water, so does one person's heart reflect another's feelings. Proverbs 27:19

There is something redemptive about water. By a cool mountain brook we consider our own reflection and cast our pain and concerns away. Lent is like dipping ourselves in a cool mountain brook where we wash away our bad habits, let them float away, and emerge refreshed.

Proverbs reminds us that we are not alone in needing renewal and experiencing pain. When someone pours out their feelings of pain or need for help our heart needs to reflect true empathy. Our concerns for others can be for them a mountain brook bringing refreshment.

Webb

Wednesday of the First Week in Lent

If you can't have what you want, want what you can have. -- Solomon Gabirol ( I also think it is a line from a Rolling Stones song.)

We are as happy and joyous as we make up our minds to be. Lent helps us frame that point-of-view. In a similar sense, we make spiritual renewal about as easy or difficult as we want it to be. If we focus on being deprived, if we view praying and going to Church as a burdensome time commitment, spiritual renewal is no less needed -- just more miserable. There are better ways to be miserable.

Spiritual renewal with joy in our heart works a lot better. As the Good Book says, “When one performs a good deed, she should do so with a cheerful heart. " And make no mistake spiritual renewal is one of the best deeds of all -- we are saving our own lives.

A cheerful heart is a more willing one. The part of us that resists our Lenten discipline, the part that prefers the negative -- that is the sick part. There is so much that we can have, so much that we do have. And the option to smile joyfully is one of them. If your day goes wrong, remember that you can save it -- and you -- with a smile.

Webb

Tuesday of the First Week in Lent

Sooner or later we all discover that the important moments in life are not the advertised ones, not the birthdays, the graduations, the weddings, not the great goals achieved. The real milestones are less prepossessing. They come to the door of memory unannounced, stray dogs that amble in, sniff around a bit, and simply never leave. Susan B. Anthony

Hardly a quote or analogy I expected from Susan B. Anthony, but like her “stray dog” it stays with me.

Having a significant birthday last month, a wedding in October, and a graduation in this May I am tempted to argue. However, over time, will I forget the birthday but remember that all my children and grandchildren attended that birthday? The wedding was so wonderful, but is it more memorable than the moment my daughter told me she “was in love?” Will the graduation come close to the pride I feel whenever my daughter speaks about the passion she found in the profession she is entering? My home is fortunately filled with “stray dogs.” We place so much emphasis in today’s society on the advertised moments, that they blind us to the “stray dogs” that enter our life and never leave.

As I meditate, I thank God for people who have entered my life “unannounced.” The employer who hired me when no one else would take a chance on me, the co-worker who risked her career to write while I was an “untouchable,” the next door neighbors who showed up on 9/11 at our doorstep with a bottle of wine saying “no one should be alone on this day”, and hundreds more friends who entered my life and “simply never leave” in reality or memory. I would be devastated if they did.

This Lent may we thank God for the “stray dogs” in our life whether they be a moment or an individual. May we also pray to be a “stray dog” in someone else’s life.

Webb

Monday of the First Week of Lent

They heard the the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the Garden. But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” -- Genesis 3:8-9.

Y’all know this is one of my favorite images in the Bible -- God strolling in the garden to enjoy the cool evening breeze. He calls to Adam for companionship, much like asking a dear friend or spouse to walk a beach at sunset.

In the Bible, the first creation story in Genesis 1 portrays God in terms that accentuate God’s majestic and distant sovereignty. God simply speaks, and the world comes into being. In the second creation story (Genesis 2-3), far from being distant, God is portrayed as much more involved in the details of creation. He moves through the Garden searching for Adam. The two images of God could not be more different. Are they both true? Is God both majestically distant from us and, at the same time, extraordinarily close to us?

Compare Psalms 8:5-6 to Psalms 144:3-4. Both of these images of the humans are profoundly true for we are both extraordinarily fragile creatures and are also more powerful, gifted, and competent than the rest of creation.

Many suggest that to reconcile these dual images of God and humankind we must achieve a balance. This is easier said than done. Perhaps that is why Christ’s call to his disciples was simply to put down their nets and walk with him. History doesn’t record it, but I suspect the call was “at the time of the evening breeze.”

Webb

The First Sunday of Lent

And on the seventh day God finished the work he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation. Genesis 2:2-3.

Over the years I have written about the Sabbath, the importance of rest, and using this special day as God intended. It is a day where our body shuts down and we free ourselves of weekday clutter. it is a day that allows us to recharge for the days ahead.This Lent let me offer a slightly different perspective than previous meditations.

This perspective came to me as a “bus thought.” As I watched more and more people coming home this Friday from work still talking to the office on their cell phones, editing legal briefs, and reading memos I thought perhaps, “God created the world for the Sabbath.” The work week is for doing what is necessary to clear some space out of our lives for the Sabbath. We use the work week to set aside our desire for busyness so we can enjoy the Sabbath.

Lent is like 40 days of the Sabbath. We clear our minds and bodies so we can hear the Holy Silence that eclipses the noises of the World.The Sabbath is scented with the perfume of Paradise. As it reaches earth, sorrow and sighing flee away.

Peace and Joy reign supreme. -- Zohar

Good Sabbath. Webb

Saturday after Ash Wednesday

as far as the East is from West, so far he removes our Transgressions from us. Psalms 103:12

Lent starts to feel overwhelming. So much work to do, so much damage to fix until we realize we don’t have to do it all at once. This first Saturday we take comfort in knowing that in committing to a Lenten discipline we have already done the main thing. ( It is also not too late to start.). “ How far is it from East to West.” The wise rabbi asks. His students guess wildly, then he smiles and says, “ It is only one step to turn from East to West.”

Likewise we need but a slight mental turning-about to be far removed from the negative behavior we distance ourselves from during Lent, east to west.Just because our Lenten tasks seem daunting it does not mean we can avoid them. Easy does it ... but do it. Simply focus your prayer and heart.

WebbP.S.

Yesterday’s meditation prompted several comments like Luis’s who believed the RC Priest had “coped out.” So we will revisit soon. W.