Sunday – February 28 – Lent II (The First Day… and the Eighth)

To ponder and pray:

¨ What’s the difference between seizing the day and receiving the day?

¨ Can we trust that God has given us enough time?

Try reading Exodus 16:4-31, with time substituted for manna.

Exodus 16:4-31 – Adapted

Then the Lord said to Moses, I am going to rain hours, time from heaven for you, and each day the people shall rise up and have time enough for that day…

On the sixth day, when they gather up time, it will be twice as much as they gather on other days. Then Moses said to Aaron, “Say to the whole congregation of the Israelites, ‘Draw near to the Lord, who has heard your complaining about lack of time…’”

The Lord spoke to Moses and said, “At twilight you shall eat with plenty of time, and in the morning you shall have your fill of time stretching out before you; then you shall know that I am the Lord your God.” In the evening time came up and covered the camp, and in the morning there was a layer of time upon the camp. When the Israelites saw it, they said to one another, “What is it?” Moses said to them, “It is the time that the Lord has given you. This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Take as much time as you need for the day.’”

Those who had too much time on their hands measured it in hours and had nothing left over., and those who had little time discovered they had no shortage, they gathered as much as each of them needed. And Moses said to them, “Let no one leave any of the time over till morning.” But they did not listen to Moses; some used up the hours of the night until morning, and the time became to them foul; for they were tired and irritable. The house of Israel called it “time”; it was a new gift every day.

Taken from study guide for Receiving the Day, by Dorothy C. Bass.

Saturday – February 27

“Speed is God, and time is the Devil.”[1]

“One day, when I timed an annoying [computer] delay and found that it constituted all of ten seconds, I had what I would call a ‘monk moment,’ a quick slap that told me Pay attention, watch yourself. I had let technology and its attendant idol, efficiency, make a fool of me.”[2]

To ponder and pray:

Take the “Speed Questionnaire” in the back of this booklet … how do you score?

Reflection

And on the seventh day God finished his work which he had done, and he rested on the seventh day...

We are not finished with our work on the seventh day. Monday follows Sunday every single week. We are not finished with our work in seven weeks, or seven months, or seven years. By the time we get to seventy years we may have retired or may be thinking about retiring.

Of course God could rest on the seventh day. Doesn’t Genesis say that He had finished with his work? But had he? Our collect for the second Sunday after Christmas begins, “O God, who did wonderfully create, and yet more wonderfully restore, the dignity of human nature.” The work that He did on the sixth day, creating his troublesome creature, mankind, ensured that God’s work is never done either. He is constantly, everlastingly restoring us to the relationship that he created us to have with him.

---

[1] David Hancock, chief, Hitachi Corp portable computer division;

quoted in Addicted to Hurry Spiritual Strategies for Slowing Down, Kirk Byron Jones, p. 1)

[2] Kathleen Norris (quoted in Addicted to Hurry p. 1)

Friday – February 26

Scripture for the Week:

The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.”

So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. - Mark 6:30-32

Reflection – Eleanor Christensen

Saying no has always been hard for me. I know people who don’t have this problem, who know how to set boundaries and priorities, who can gracefully say no without offending; but I am still a learner. I usually have a guilty conscience when I refuse to help out, so I am an easy touch.

Fill in for an absent teacher at school, even when I have a huge load of things to accomplish? Sure. Give a student extra tutoring outside of school? If he needs it. Serve on the Admissions Committee, which meets several days a week after school? Of course. Then there are get-togethers with friends…..church activities…… All of these are good things, right? But the downside of always trying to participate and be helpful is that I get overtired and have headaches, and when I take on too many things I can’t enjoy the activities or do them as well as I would like.

So the idea of keeping the Sabbath every week in Lent sounds like a good goal for me.

Six days to meet all of my obligations and run all of my errands, and one day a week for stepping back and resting, recharging my batteries by doing simple, enjoyable things like walking, reading for pleasure, keeping a journal, taking time to reflect and be thankful. What sweeter invitation could there be than Jesus’ invitation to his disciples, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” I will do my best to accept.

Thursday – February 25

The Bright Field

I have seen the sun break through

to illuminate a small field

for a while, and gone my way

and forgotten it. But that was the pearl

of great price, the one field that had

the treasure in it. I realize now

that I must give all that I have

to possess it. Life is not hurrying

on to a receding future, nor hankering after

an imagined past. It is the turning

aside like Moses to the miracle

of the lit bush, to a brightness

that seemed as transitory as your youth

once, but is the eternity that awaits you.

- R. S. Thomas, Welsh Poet and Priest

To ponder and pray:

¨ What fields in your life are fallow at the moment? By choice or not?

¨ What fields in your life are worn out and in need of Sabbath rest?

Wednesday – February 24

Scripture for the Week:

For six years you are to sow your fields and harvest the crops, but during the seventh year let the land lie unplowed and unused. Then the poor among your people may get food from it, and the wild animals may eat what they leave.

Do the same with your vineyard and your olive grove.

Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest and the slave born in your household, and the alien as well, may be refreshed. – Exodus 23:10-12

Reflection – Mark Lingle

Sabbath and the Land

The north forty just outside of our house in northern Minnesota teemed with crops from summer to summer. Corn, oats, barley, and alfalfa respectively filled the barbed-wire-fenced-in forty. Early in the season the rolling plot of land looked like a sea of green, blades breaking through soil seeking the sun’s light. Come September, the grains created an amber wave over the field, and come October, the field became a veritable Halloween patch of tassled and curled corn stalks.

Every year something sprouted from the rich loam soil and grew before our very eyes. Every year, that is, except for the seventh year. That year the field would lie fallow. Rest. Stop producing. The land would put its feet up, as it were, and kick back for a summer of nothing-to-do-but-just-lie-there. Nothing happened. Nothing.

But we also know that Everything happened. Everything.

Because the next year, the field would put forth a bunker crop, rested and enriched as it was.

The author of Exodus 23:10-12 was millennia ahead of her time. She understood the need for rest, and not just humans resting. All of creation was to rest at some point (in Exodus, the counsel was the Sabbath year, the seventh year). Farmers have long since taken this counsel to heart. Hard-working and hearty as they may be, they recognize the importance of rest and will gladly give it to the land before they take it for themselves. To live this close to the land, to recognize the fragility of the earth, to see the salutary salutation in slowing down—in stopping, offers a tiny window into the heart of our being.

Sabbath, you see, is not counsel for getting ahead or completing the various habits of highly effective people. Sabbath is grace. For when we stop, we recognize all that exists outside of our control, we see how vast is the universe and the inter-connections that create and sustain life, and we pause long enough to glimpse how good it feels not to have to do anything. And that is the heart of grace: everything is already done. All the lists, all the agendas, all the planning, all the mental gymnastics to make everything “fit” ultimately are second order activities. The first order activity—God engaging the world in love—is the primary order. In the grace of Sabbath, the fields of heart and our mind and our spirit are rested and enriched, and we, hopefully, develop a practice that prepares us for the fullness of grace to be expressed in life. Indeed, Sabbath is practice for the rest we will one day share with—and in—the north forty.

Tuesday – February 23

Scripture for the Week:

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:

a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

a time to scatter stones

and a time to gather them,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace.

- Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

Reflection – Bridget Bilgrei

“Time is my enemy.” My brother-in-law once said this during one of those conversations we’ve all had about having too much to do and too little time in which to do it. It’s a phrase that often pops into my mind when I’m feeling overwhelmed and unproductive. Time keeps passing whether I’m getting things done or not. Now we are being encouraged to think of time as a gift.

Time is a gift for us to receive, but it is also a gift that we should give. It’s what our friends and families want most from us. It is what we tend to regret the most when someone passes away, that we didn’t give them enough of our time. I’m making a conscious effort these days to spend more time with my children. I’m with them all the time when they’re not at school, but we often spend our time doing our own things. But they absolutely love it when we all play board games or do an art project together. Today they were thrilled when both my husband and I played in the snow with them. It was such a simple thing, but it made us all so happy. Time spent with my kids is not just a gift to them, but a gift to me as well. Time is no longer my enemy, it is my gift.

To ponder and pray:

¨ When does it feel like time is your adversary?

¨ When does it feel like time is your friend… or when does time stop for you?

Monday – February 22: Breathing Exercise for Lent – Mark Lingle

Today, let’s just start with breathing…

Take a long, deep breath in. . . And breathe in peace.

Allow a long breath out. . . And breathe out stress and anxiety.

Breathe. . .and come into the fuller presence of God.

Best when done at least 10 times...

Or a Lenten practice can be to increase your breaths throughout the season.

Come into the Quiet, a hymn by Diane Davis Andrew, 2001

Come into the quiet, be one with God's breath,

Rest in this waiting place, peace will be there.

Rest, rest, peace will be there.

Repeat, substituting other words like love, truth, hope, for “peace will be there.”

What other words come to you as you sing?

Sunday – February 21 – Lent I (The First Day… and the Eighth)

Our Sundays during this Lenten journey are going to be light (in keeping with the theme of Sabbath). Just a poem or a hymn to contemplate and enjoy. Today's hymn is an invitation to "turn, turn" till by "turning, turning we come round right." That is in fact the invitation of Lent - to turn back to God in fullness of heart, till by turning, turning we come round right.

Simple Gifts, by Shaker Elder Joseph Brackett, Jr.

'Tis the gift to be simple,

'tis the gift to be free,

'tis the gift to come down where you ought to be,

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

It will be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gained,

To bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed.

To turn, turn will be our delight,

'Til by turning, turning we come round right

Are You Addicted to Speed? What is your “Pace Quotient?”

1. You are behind a driver who has not noticed that the light has turned green.

How do you respond?

1. Give the person a moment to notice the light has changed.
2. Blow your horn immediately.
3. Blow your horn and express your irritation verbally.

2. You are in a slow-moving grocery line with time to spare. How are you most likely to do?

1. Engage in a conversation with someone else.
2. Look repeatedly at the person at the register to see how fast things are going.
3. Become irritated.

3. In conversing with others, how often do you interrupt them in mid-sentence?

1. Not very often.
2. Some of the time.
3. Very often.

4. How much time during the day do you devote to prayer, pondering, mediation, and/or just taking it easy?

1. At least an hour.
2. At least half an hour.
3. Less than half an hour.

5. Someone/thing has interrupted your planned activity.

Select the word that best describes your feeling.

1. Interested.
2. Disturbed.
3. Aggravated.

6. Which word best characterizes your mood at the beginning of an average day.

Select the word that best describes your feeling.

1. Excited.
2. Burdened.
3. Depressed.

7. Which word best characterizes your mood at the end of an average day.

Select the word that best describes your feeling.

1. Contented.
2. Fatigued.
3. Stressed.

8. When you see a rainbow, how long does it hold your attention.

1. Many minutes.
2. Several seconds.
3. Just a second.

9. When was the last time you paid serious attention to a child.

1. Today.
2. Within the past few days.
3. I can’t remember.

10. How often do you feel joy in your work?

1. Frequently.
2. Often enough.
3. Are you kidding?

11. How often do you hurry one activity to get to the next activity.

1. Not often.
2. Regularly.
3. All the time.

12. How often do you move fast when there is no reason to?

1. Never.
2. Sometimes.
3. I confess, I have rushed through this test.

A. Review your responses.

B. Which responses do you wish were different?

C. Think of other questions that you will help you gauge your present living speed.

D. Note the behaviors identified in each question. Develop one or two modifications in your behavior that will contribute to your being able to check off (a) more responses the next time you take the test, a month or two from now.

Questionnaire taken from "Addicted to Hurry: Spiritual Strategies for Slowing Down," byKirk Byron Jones (2003, Judson Press, Valley Forge, PA)

HOW DO WE DESIGN A SABBATH?

The Lenten reflections are going to formally begin on the first Sunday of Lent, February 21st... stay tuned. In the meantime, here are some thoughts about how to design a sabbath from Kate Heichler:

If you’re going to take this Lenten leap of faith, here are some things to consider as you design the Sabbath that works for you. There is much freedom; the only thing we strongly recommend you hold to is a 24-hour period. You can’t do Sabbath in 4 or 6-hour chunks. It takes us at least 12 to come to resting. Take the day!

Choose the Day of the Week

Sunday is the traditional Sabbath for Christians, because it is the day for communal worship, but you can choose any day that:

• You don’t go to work
• You don’t have to do chores beyond the basics
• You can spend time with friends or family, OR,
• You can spend time alone, if you crave solitude

Choose What Activities You will Avoid

The overall “rule” for Sabbath is to rest from being productive.

So plan to avoid:

• Anything related to your paying work – that may mean you don’t check e-mail or voicemail on your Sabbath
• Anything that is on your “to-do” list
• Anything that is productive or achievement-oriented – this is a day to rest in who you are, not in what you can do
• House chores that can be done the day before or the day after. Obviously, children and pets must be fed! But keep it simple.
• Errands or highly commercialized activities

Choose What Activities You Will Embrace

Choose activities that are restful and life-giving to you:

• Reading
• Prayer or worship
• Taking a walk or exercise (if it’s not on your to-do list!)
• Cooking a meal for friends – if you enjoy cooking! If you choose that as a Sabbath activity, take time to enjoy it, to smell the spices and delight in the colors, to stir love into the pot.

That’s the main thing: choose things that give you life, and don’t over-structure your Sabbath.

What About the Kids?

If you want to keep Sabbath as a family, there are wonderful ways to introduce it to your children. You might try the Jewish tradition of lighting candles and a festive meal at sundown the night before your chosen Sabbath day. Some families keep a “Sabbath candle” burning all through their Sabbath day (except when they’re asleep, of course) as a reminder to the household that this is a different day than normal.

If your children are small, part of your Sabbath should be enjoying their company and giving them a break from “to-do’s.” Just play on this day – clean up the toys the next. If your children are older, talk with them about what it means to be loved just for who you are, not how well you do things – find Sabbath activities that appeal to them.

If your children are not interested in this project, don’t push them. You need to try this discipline on for yourself first. Design a Sabbath that is as restful for you as possible, factoring in time with the kids, and see what happens once it becomes a habit.

What About Your Spouse?

One question you will face right away is whether or not you and your partner will take a Sabbath together, and plan it together, or whether you will take separate Sabbaths because your work schedule or the children’s needs don’t mesh. If your partner is not interested in trying the Sabbath on, plan a day when you can be as free from family distraction as possible – and ask your family to support you in this discipline.

What if You’re Retired?

Many people seem to get busier when they retire – so setting aside a day that is less structured, more restful, more worshipful, is just as important for retired folks. Plan activities that are out of your usual routine – perhaps a long lunch with a close friend, or a longer time of prayer and Bible study.

Sabbath is an invitation for you to notice where and how God is at work in your life. Take the time to be attentive.

An Invitation

Welcome to the season of Lent, 40 days, give or take a few Sunday “feast” days.

These 40 days can be just like the 40 that came before, and the 40 that will follow...

or we can experience them differently. We can take the invitation to go into the wilderness where the elements are more intense, the familiar is stripped away, where we are confronted by our truer selves: our fears and longings, our hurts and petty dislikes – and by the strengths we forgot we possessed: resilience, courage, compassion, a wondering eye, an unexpected faith, a capacity for love.

This year our reflections focus on the spiritual practice of Sabbath-keeping. If you’re so inclined, we invite you try out this discipline of being unproductive one day out of seven. Counter-intuitive, counter-cultural, yes… but it works when we give ourselves over to it.

And if we manage to live into that invitation to step off the treadmills of our lives for one day a week, most of us will experience some Lenten “desert” time in new ways. You don’t have to leave home to go to the desert… sometimes you just have to unplug and open yourself to the silence and the feelings that come up when we’re not distracted 24/7.

And so we invite you to walk into wilderness this Lent. You will take this journey alone – and in the company of wonderful walking companions, some of whom you’ll know well, and others not at all. There will be times of silence, and times of conversation (a blog page is being set up for those who will enjoy discussing the day’s reflection). Some days you’ll wish you never came, and others you may wish that this journey never end.

Our hope is that you will be regular and intentional in taking on this discipline each day.

Start with five minutes (set a timer…) and maybe increase the time as Lent goes on.

We suggest you keep a notebook with this booklet, and write down insights or questions that come to you as you spend this quiet time each day. If the reflection leads you into prayer,

go with it. If God says something in your prayer, write it down.

In the Bible, the wilderness is always a place where people think they are lost, and come to find God present. It is our prayer that you will find God present in ever new and deeper ways as we walk this Lent together.

Your companions in the Way,

The Rev. Mark Lingle, St. Francis Church

The Rev. Kate Heichler, Church of Christ the Healer

Ash Wednesday – February 17

Reflection – Kate Heichler

God says we can do it all in six days. Could God be right?

Ash Wednesday is traditionally a day of penitence. This year, I invite us to consider one sin that is at the heart of many others: Being too busy for God.

How many times when you ask, “How are you?” do you hear this: “I’m okay, but I’m just so busy. I’m doing too much.” I say this a lot. God has an answer to that: STOP! This Lent, you are invited to take on an unusual spiritual practice: Keeping a Sabbath day each week. That’s right. Each week, one whole day.

Sabbath-keeping is both an invitation and a command – an invitation most of us refuse, a command most of us ignore. I came to realize that my refusal to accept God’s invitation of rest lays bare the root of sin in me:

Greed – trying to get more than I need, whether it’s money, stuff or accomplishments;

Pride – believing I can do it all.

Lack of trust – believing I have to do it all, that God will not take care of what is needed.

Control – believing I’m in charge of my time on this earth.

God says differently. God says are days are like grass – flourishing one day, gone the next. That our days are in his hand. This day reminds us that in the end we are dust, and to dust we shall return. Our days belong to God, and God has ideas about how we should order our time.

God says: “Your time is mine to give and mine to take away. And of every week I give you, I want you to rest one day out of seven. Why? Because it’s good for you. Because it allows us to refresh our connection. Because it’s a radical act of trust that I will provide for you.”

The Sabbath comes from the very beginning of creation, and it is both a command and a gift from a loving God who knows best how God’s creatures thrive. Sabbath keeping teaches our children about life in balance. Keeping one day set apart, holy, sanctifies the whole week.

We don’t thrive on 24/7 frantic busy-ness, and yet that is how most of us live. We work and hustle and bustle, and maybe crash in front of the television and numb ourselves at the end of the day, but we don’t take the time we want for rest, for recharging, for nurturing relationships, for attentiveness, for just being. Sabbath is about Being, not Doing, and this Lent, I invite you to try that on like a new suit.

Is this a crazy idea? Absolutely. But if we do this together, we have a shot at making a change. Sabbath keeping is a radical response to a world in which time seems to enslave us.

To keep Sabbath is to hand control of our time and our lives back to God, to be ordered

in a way that is good and life-giving for us. Can we risk this for six weeks?

Scripture for the Day:

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." - Matthew 11:28-30

Lent 2010 - Keeping the Sabbath

Christ the Healer and St. Francis Church are joining together again this year to to put out a Lenten booklet collecting the spiritual reflections of our members, and the daily reflections will be published to this blog, for your review and comments. We hope this will be a daily spiritual resource. Our theme for Lent this year will be Sabbath-Keeping - which brings up all kinds of issues of rest, recreation, faith, control, obedience, freedom, justice, self-worth, balance... Try this on for size:

"When we keep a Sabbath holy, we are practicing, for a day, the freedom that God intends for all people. We are practicing life outside the frantic pace set by financial markets and round-the-clock shopping and entertainment venues. We are practicing independence from the forces of injustice. We are trying on a new way of life as we begin to allow our weeks to be changed in response to God's promises. We are practicing - pun intended. Like a novice learning to play a musical instrument, we may be off-key at times. It may be years before we are in harmony, and we will never get it perfect. But that need not stop us. Besides, stopping is less a problem than getting started." (Dorothy Bass, Receiving the Day)

We will have a focus for each of the weeks in Lent:

Week 1: Slowing Down - Recovering Time as a Gift
Week 2: What Happens When Everything Stops?
Week 3: God, Sabbath and the Bible
Week 4: Doing/Being;Giving/Receiving (Sabbath Obstacles)
Week 5: Being Still: Cultivating Attentiveness
Holy Week: Lectionary readings for each day

Stay tuned for our daily posts, and please offer your own reflections and comments!