Sometimes only poetry helps me to find words for what I am experiencing. During this pandemic, April is National Poetry Month. This week I needed Wendell Berry:

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation

As I was reflecting on the “shelter in place” that we are all practicing, the phrase “stay put” came to my mind. The Oxford English Dictionary describes “stay put” as a colloquialism that originated in the US in the mid-19th century. The OED defines the verbal phrase as meaning “to remain where or as placed; to remain fixed or steady; also fig. (of persons, etc.).” This everyday hanging out in our houses until further notice, for the sake of the common good, also reminds me of the Benedictine rule for monastic life: to stay put in one place (stability), listen well to God (attentive obedience) and be changed by God (conversion through lifelong conversation). So much of ordinary life falls under this rubric. 

Could staying in place be a pilgrimage for us during this stressful, uncertain time? I’m not interested in spiritualizing a very serious global disaster, but perhaps there is an invitation for us to reconsider how we live. We tend to think that movement is good, particularly up the ladder, up the power grid, up the chain of command, up the salary structure, up up up. Or at least movement of any pleasant variety: seeing the world, visiting all the new restaurants, being free and unrestricted. It will be awhile before those are our options. Is that the life to which we want to return? 

We are not all called to be Benedictines or to follow their rule, but it can be both rewarding and challenging to re-imagine how staying in place is part of a high calling. Thinking about this time as an opportunity to be spiritually formed helps us walk continually in the presence of God. In order to open our ears to God’s voice and our eyes to God’s presence among us, Benedict tells us we must keep our hearts and minds open to the ways that God is moving us, in whatever circumstances we find ourselves. 

What are you to be about sitting at the same window every morning? Sitting in the same chair, sitting at the same computer, lying in the same bed? Serving your family hour after hour? A you juggle conflicting priorities, negotiate broadband issues, soothe hurt feelings and manage cabin fever, to whom are you listening? What do you hear? How are you being changed?
 
Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation

Ways to be missional in a pandemic:
 
*Prayer walk your neighborhood, praying for each household.
*Pray generally for those infected, those in high risk categories, and for politicians, health professionals, epidemiologists and decision makers.
*Offer to pray for your neighbors. Get to know them all by name and inquire about their wellbeing regularly.
*Host a front yard prayer meeting (appropriately distanced).
*Write encouraging messages on the sidewalk in chalk.
*Set up a chalkboard in front of your house and write fun and encouraging messages. Leave chalk for others to add their own thoughts.
*Deliver gifts and provisions to meet known needs (and to surprise others with a kind act).
* Invite someone new to your Growth Group and expand your network of support.
*Talk to neighbors as you walk (keeping your required distance).
*If you are musical, hold a driveway concert.
*Join a front window bear hunt for local kids.
*Support the USPS and send snail mail cards or letters of encouragement.
*Host a virtual dinner party using Zoom.
*Set up a little pantry outside your home and fill it with toilet paper and non-perishables.
*Clean up trash from streets and parks.
*Raise funds for a cause using an online donations platform. Initiate generosity.
*Begin to anticipate what might be needed in the transition from shelter-at-home and partner with others to create caring circles to assist those with food and financial insecurity. 
 
Other ideas? 
 
Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation

Those final few days of His life may have been like this:
the sky oppressive with storm clouds,
the shouldered burden too painful,
His soul weighed down, discouraged, disheartened.
Each step brought Him closer
to a desperate loneliness borne of betrayal and rejection.
But the end of that dark walk was just the beginning
of a journey into new covenant:
He is anointed from the broken jar,
His aching joints covered in perfume
by one who believes 
and wants to help bear His burden.
Instead of rain, the clouds bear light,
flooding the pathway so we too can come together to lift the load.
Instead of loneliness, now arises a community like no other.
Instead of stillness, there is declaration of His glory to the heavens.
Instead of discouragement, He embodies hope for all hearts.

His promise fulfilled spills over our path, our feet, our heads.
We too are drenched in gratitude, flooded with grace.
 
 He is Risen!

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation

This week I have been reading through Matthew 6:25-34 repeatedly, the one where Jesus tells his disciples “Don’t worry.” We all know that when someone is worried, “Don’t worry” is about the worst thing you can say. Not only does it imply that not worrying is something we can simply stop through willpower, but it can also come with a certain amount of shame. Really, Jesus? To worry is human. There is no way Jesus could simply expect us not to worry.
 
But if you are like me, I’d actually like not to worry so much at a time like this, to trust, to have faith. And this is not just related to the pandemic, but about the world in general, the safety and health of my family and friends, future, retirement, etc. 
 
So, I’ve been thinking about this phrase from Jesus, “Don’t worry.” It got me thinking about Buddhism, that begins with the recognition that all of life is suffering. And the key to managing the suffering is not to become attached to the things you think you need. Nonattachment is the Buddhist way to not worry. But Jesus says in this passage something different: he says “Don’t worry, because your heavenly Father has got you.” The way of Jesus, in worry is not to detach; it is actually to attach more deeply to the One who knows what we need before we even ask. 
 
Jesus says, “Don’t worry” and then “Look at the birds” and “consider the lilies.” When you are worried, look and consider. It is not an answer, but it is a way. Don’t worry, dear ones, instead look at God’s creation, consider his goodness and maybe, just maybe, when we look and consider we become able to seek his Kingdom. As Jesus said in John 16, “In this world you will have trouble, but take heart for I have overcome the world.” When you are worried, look, consider and seek. Amen.
Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation

 "God of the present moment, God who in Jesus stills the storm and soothes the frantic heart; bring hope and courage to all who wait or work in uncertainty.

Bring hope that you will make them the equal of whatever lies ahead. Bring them courage to endure what cannot be avoided, for your will is health and wholeness; you are God, and we need you."

- Adapted from A New Zealand Prayer Book

Our sermon text this week is Jonah 3, his road to the unexpected. Seems incredibly timely...

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation

We are diving into Jonah for the next month as a church in our new sermon series, and through Steve Stuckey's artwork and reflections. 

Are you okay with the fact that God loves your enemies? The book of Jonah holds a mirror up to the one who reads it. In Jonah, we see the worst parts of our own character magnified, which should generate humility and gratitude that God would love his enemies and put up with the Jonah in all of us. This strange story (which comes to a close abruptly with no clear ending) becomes a message of good news of God's mercy that ought to challenge us to the core. 

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation

For Lent this year, we are inviting the whole congregation to be on retreat with Jonah! In a collaborative effort with Steve Stuckey, our talented artist in residence, we are asking you to dedicate yourselves to times of prayer and reflection on the themes from the book of Jonah. Steve has curated a gallery exhibit in the prayer room off the lobby, an interactive series of paintings and images designed to lead you deeper into the mysteries of life with our determined God. There will be weekly contemplative materials available for you to take home for further reflection during the week, four in all. There are also Visio Divina cards, reproductions of art images with a meditative prompt to nudge you with provocative questions.

How does a whole church go on retreat for 40 days until Easter? By coming early or staying late after worship to tour the gallery and immerse yourselves in the story of Jonah's journey with his God. By praying and reflecting, through journaling or making your own creative responses to the weekly sessions at home. And by finding ways as a family to grasp and speak of the relationship between Jonah and a God on mission--read the Scripture out loud together, talk about the story during the week. 

40 days. Just imagine what God can do in 40 days with people who are surrendered to the Spirit and eager to be transformed!

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson

Pastor for Spiritual Formation

Beloved of God, every year at the time of Easter, the Christian Passover, we celebrate our redemption through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We begin this holy season of Lent by remembering our need for repentance, and for the mercy and forgiveness proclaimed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We begin our journey to Easter on Ash Wednesday (February 26) with the sign of ashes, an ancient sign, speaking of the frailty and uncertainty of human life, and marking the penitence of the community as a whole. The sanctuary will be open from 6-8 AM, 12-1 PM and 5-7 PM for meditation and reflection and the imposition of ashes.

Blessing the Dust – A Blessing for Ash Wednesday— by Jan RIchardson

All those days
you felt like dust,
like dirt,
as if all you had to do
was turn your face
toward the wind
and be scattered
to the four corners

or swept away
by the smallest breath
as insubstantial –

did you not know
what the Holy One
can do with dust?

This is the day
we freely say
we are scorched.

This is the hour
we are marked
by what has made it
through the burning.

This is the moment
we ask for the blessing
that lives within
the ancient ashes,
that makes its home
inside the soil of
this sacred earth.

So let us be marked
not for sorrow.
And let us be marked
not for shame.
Let us be marked
not for false humility
or for thinking
we are less
than we are

but for claiming
what God can do
within the dust,
within the dirt,
within the stuff
of which the world
is made
and the stars that blaze
in our bones
and the galaxies that spiral
inside the smudge
we bear.

 Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson

Pastor for Spiritual Formation