Marked by Ashes
 
Ruler of the Night, Guarantor of the day…
This day — a gift from you.
This day — like none other you have ever given, or we have ever received.
This Wednesday dazzles us with gift and newness and possibility.
This Wednesday burdens us with the tasks of the day, for we are already halfway home
     halfway back to committees and memos,
     halfway back to calls and appointments,
     halfway on to next Sunday,
     halfway back, half frazzled, half expectant,
     half turned toward you, half rather not.
This Wednesday is a long way from Ash Wednesday,
   but all our Wednesdays are marked by ashes —
     we begin this day with that taste of ash in our mouth:
       of failed hope and broken promises,
       of forgotten children and frightened women,
     we ourselves are ashes to ashes, dust to dust;
     we can taste our mortality as we roll the ash around on our tongues.
We are able to ponder our ashness with
   some confidence, only because our every Wednesday of ashes
   anticipates your Easter victory over that dry, flaky taste of death.
On this Wednesday, we submit our ashen way to you —
   you Easter parade of newness.
   Before the sun sets, take our Wednesday and Easter us,
     Easter us to joy and energy and courage and freedom;
     Easter us that we may be fearless for your truth.
   Come here and Easter our Wednesday with
     mercy and justice and peace and generosity.
We pray as we wait for the Risen One who comes soon.
 
Walter Brueggemann

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation

Giving Grace

Don't save up and hoard your grace,
don't wait to give to yourself
or others. Like honey in the tombs
of pharaohs, it will remain usable
for thousands of years, but you don't
want to get caught letting it build up
and crystallize in you. Offer it freely
on the street to anyone you meet,
during every argument, when a wave
of shame high as a king tide tries
to engulf you. Pry open the jar
and pass it around, this sweet grace
of forgiveness, of saying to yourself:
we're all just doing the best we can.

James Crews

 
Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation

Terrible things are happening in the world, and as sometimes it is more than I can take in, I am seeking refuge this morning in hope.

To live in hope is to thirst. To thirst for justice, for mercy, for healing, for welcome, for peace. To hope is to build up, not tear apart. St. Augustine wrote that the courage to challenge injustice was a daughter of hope. To live in hope, then, is to stretch my heart wide enough to encompass the needs of my neighbors as my own, to feed the hungry, house the homeless and welcome the refugee. “We are workers,” said St. Oscar Romero, “We are prophets of a future not our own.” 

Fear is the antithesis of hope. Fear seethes and rails. It preaches ruin and destruction; it deafens us to reality. Fear is a failure to see what is possible, a failure to see the worth and dignity of everyone I encounter. Yet fear clings like tar, I confess I cannot easily shake it off.  There is a reason, I suspect, that the phrase “Do not be afraid!” appears again and again in the Gospels. To live in hope is to turn down the volume on the rhetoric that demonizes others and tune in to the voices that call us to companion each other, as Jesus has promised to accompany us.

 Hope is not fragile, nor is it always gentle. Sometimes it is a bit gritty. But it is always a grace. Thanks be to God.

 Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson

Pastor for Spiritual Formation

Drawn to love?

Matthew 23:36-8 
 
“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’” This is the first and greatest commandment.”
 
In his answer Jesus concentrated all the questions about what true obedience to God might look like. Love God with everything you have, and all that you are. Worship, adoration, praise and thanksgiving are the first response of our hearts to God’s gracious love and faithful mercy. To love God is to give God that space in our lives where we grow and are transformed by the Spirit who pours God’s love into our hearts. We love because God first loved us —the initiative always comes from God. Our response is loving gratitude and faithful obedience to that love. 
 
Matthew 23:39-40 
 
“And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
 
Jesus links love for God and love for neighbor. And don’t bother trying to define neighbor to make it manageable and convenient. The Good Samaritan story put an end to all that moral squirming. To love God, we must love those made in God’s image, and in whom we meet those Jesus called sisters and brothers. For as much as you love the poor, hungry, hurting, lonely, scared, struggling person you come across on each day’s journey, to that extent you love Jesus, and show your love for God to be genuine, because costly, generous because a sign of the grace that has helped us.
 
John 13:34-35 
 
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 
 
The commandment is new because it has a new point of reference; “As I have loved you.” Jesus is the exemplar of what Christian love looks like, how it speaks and acts. Jesus had just washed the feet of each disciple. This wasn’t an act of passive humility; this was Jesus’ answering all the earlier arguments about who was the greatest. The one who serves, who takes care of others’ needs, they are the greatest. That kind of servant love is the logo of the Christian community. Wear it— with humility!
 
Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation

Luke 2:17 “When they had seen him they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child. And all who heard it were amazed…”

There’s quite a lot of amazement that goes on in the Christmas story. Mary’s annunciation; Joseph’s dream and the angel; shepherds ambushed by God’s choir; the shepherds’ gawking and gossip. And those who heard them were amazed. Why not? Angels and heavenly choirs, a baby supposed to be the Messiah, a young woman both scared and honored above all women. The vocabulary of Christmas is full of big words – Jesus, Immanuel, Bethlehem, signs and prophets, child, manger, shepherds, glory, joy, peace, God’s favour, spreading the word. And it’s our story, and these words are our words, the vocabulary of God’s gift beyond all our telling. 

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation

When the song of the angels is stilled,

when the star in the sky is gone,

when the kings and princes are home,

when the shepherds are back with their flock,

the work of Christmas begins:

to find the lost,

to heal the broken,

to feed the hungry,

to release the prisoner,

to rebuild the nations,

to bring peace among others,

to make music in the heart.

Howard Thurman

The long journey from

Bethlehem to Calvary:

the Light of the World.

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson

Pastor for Spiritual Formation

Hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace!

Hail the Sun of Righteousness!

Light and life to all he brings,

Risen with healing in his wings.

Mild, He lays his glory by;

Born that man no more may die;

Born to raise the sons of earth;

Born to give them second birth.

Hark! The herald angels sing

Glory to the new-born King.

This is a mosaic of biblical phrases from Isaiah, Malachi, the Gospel of John, Romans, Philippians, and of course, Luke’s choir of angels. The great Messianic titles come at the climax of the carol, drawing our eyes to behold his glory, full of grace and truth. The eternal glory of the Son is laid aside in obedience to God.  And notice, that word ‘risen’. It refers to the rising of the sun of hope and the in-breaking light and life of God. But ‘risen’ also anticipates the resurrection when “Light and life to all He brings.” But first, Bethlehem. Advent is about a child being born; Charles Wesley tells you why. Three times. Born! Glory indeed!

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation

“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned."
Isaiah 9:2

There are different kinds of darkness within which we sometimes have to walk. Many of them can feel like living in a land overshadowed by despair, anxiety, grief or loneliness. These bring an accompanying loss of motivation and appetite for life. Often life in our world these days is like walking in darkness, living under deep shadows of foreboding and uncertainty. Advent interrupts our pessimism. Isaiah declares the coming of the light of God’s coming! Against a horizon of despair, hope dawns, as God says “Let there be light!” God is on the move and hope is rising.

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders.”   

 Isaiah 9:6a

I can’t read these words without hearing them set to Handel’s music with its outspokenly joyous chorus! It’s an irresistible Advent earworm! These words were first spoken to broken- hearted people who could see no good future. Government was Empire, and Empire was about force, control and loss of freedom. The sign of the newborn child was God’s promise of a different future. This Advent, when you celebrate the birth of the Christ child, and open yourself again to the gift of God’s Son, do so looking forward to the coming of God’s Kingdom, in God’s good time.

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation

Advent

Advent means
we are waiting for something,
we are to expect
something good and up-lifting
to make us feel better.
And why not?
We struggle so, 
and we only want
peace, security and even
a little happiness.
We dream of it—
like a lost treasure
in an empty desert.

Then, in the very dying of the Autumn Season,
along comes Advent
with candles, prayers, songs
and promises
of new possibilities.
And, all tingling
with excitement and expectancy,
we are seduced
into hoping once again.

Oh—thank God
for Advent—
and its perennial promise—
pointing to a light
which never dies.

Edwina Gateley

Grace and peace,

Anita Sorenson
Pastor for Spiritual Formation