People are People

• Lenten Fridays continue at Mission Covenant this Friday at 6:30pm.
• Look for our next Lenten Practice to post soon.

To watch the Recording, click HERE.

The question has been, and is, asked…is this all still relevant?  It’s so old.  It’s ancient and has been distorted over time and history and change.  It’s from times we don’t know and really don’t understand. It’s different people, different rules, different laws.  It’s old and outdated. Worse, over time, it’s been used to control people, to justify awful wars, to force people into poverty, to take advantage of people.  There’s been abuse and…more abuse.  It’s sometimes…embarrassing. We’re a completely different society.  We’re so…modern with modern things and means.  

How could this possibly be relevant anymore?  It’s old, stale, stagnant, and out of touch with this new world. 

And yet…

We’re still a world full of distortion, division, control, war, abuse. 

In so many ways…not much has changed over time.  

Stories are still very much relevant and relatable.  Scripture, texts of Wisdom, help us in this world and they stand the test of time.  Reading scripture, anchoring ourselves in passages, listening to stories…it’s both so simple and a form of Art.  It’s available to everyone. It’s very relevant:

Then. Today. Still….

In the lost, we are found.  

In the wilds, we find hope.

In the desert, we find faith.  

In delusion, reality.

In loss, grace.

In hate, love.  

In fear, tenderness.  

We still need wise words on a Journey of Love and Forgiveness, and Compassion.  We still find it hard to forgive and there is wisdom in the words.  We find it hard to love and there is wisdom in the stories.  We still find it hard to be compassionate and there is wisdom in the text.  We find it hard to have faith and there is a guidebook in the passages.  We find it hard to have hope…listen to the songs.  We find it hard to hold to Joy…look at the art.  Within is all the unknowable Mystery and the Grace.  It’s wonderful.

Life was hard.  And unfair.  And awful.  

Life still is hard.  And unfair.  And sometimes ugly and awful. Yes, even within our relatively “easy” lives.  Our “easy” lives?  That’s a blessing and calls for remembering our prayers of thankfulness in our prayers for “help”.

Trials are still trials. 

Darkness is still dark.  

Grief is still grief.  

Fear is still fear.  

Hate is still hate.  

Loss is still loss.

Excuses are still excuses.  

And money and power…still…challenge us.  

We still need hope and guides.  We still need Grace to remind us what is asked of us.  We are asked to Love and it’s hard.  We are asked to Forgive and it sometimes feels impossible.  We are called to Compassion and we don’t know how.  We try to be Kind and we feel thwarted. We are to give where we can and more than is comfortable.  To help in our way and in ways that often force us out of those “easy” zones.  We are called to be a part of one another’s lives.  To work together. To bear witness to one another.  To do Good Work together.

These weeks of Lent remind us that we are asked to build strength and courage for whatever is to come.  The trials and the challenges that have been, and always will be, a part of us as embodied beings.

We are also asked to remember the Blessings, when the Uglies seem to take over.  To see clearly that, yes there are trials and sorrows and hurts and confusions, but there is Beauty.  All around us.  We are asked to witness that!

We still strive to know better and to do better.  We still question and ponder the big things.  We struggle to know and understand God and our world and our place in it.  

We ponder Truths, as we always have.  

We explore “Holy Pondering” in the Words given to us that have over time become the words and also art and song and poetry and action and more.  

The Stories are our Guiding Light in the darkness and the wilds.  They bring us hope in despair, as they have for centuries.  They bring us faith, when we are lost, as they have for centuries.  The hold us together in Love as they have for centuries. 

We are reminded of Togetherness.  To be united as sisters and brothers.  To be the one-ness within the great One-ness.  To not divide, but to knit a world together in our own way with each of our hands working together to build and rebuild a world full of beauty and grace.  Together.  

When it comes down to it…

Love is love.

Kindness is kindness.

Hope is hope.

Faith is faith.  

Joy is joy.

Compassion is compassion.  

Grace is grace.  

Tenderness is tenderness.  

Forgiveness is forgiveness.  

Peace is peace.

Giving is giving.  

Trust is trust.  

Light is light.  

People are people.  

Then.  Now.  Today. Yesterday. Tomorrow.  

People are people.  

Each of us reads, hears, sees, understands, and know the Stories in our own perfect way.  As a way to understand our purpose, the world we live in, and what’s beyond.  The stories and songs and poems and art…anchor us in a world that can be so unstable toward what matters.  A Mystery rooted in the truth of Love, Forgiveness, and Compassion.  A Mystery WE are a part of.  Together.