What’s to Come

• Lenten Fridays continue March 15th at 6:30pm at the Methodist Church of Orange with Judy.
• Look for our next Lenten Home Practices to post here soon.
• Easter Sunrise at 6:30am on the Steps. Regular Easter Services at 9am. Easter Egg Hunt at 9:15am.
• Join the Neighbors Group for a Maple Waffle Breakfast on March 23rd from 9:30 to 11:30am.

Watch the Recording HERE.

These next few weeks carry us through the everything of life.  Jesus knows what’s coming and yet he keeps walking through.  He teaches us to move through.  He prepares us for the the hard stuff.  

We see his hesitation and his questioning.  His wrestling with what’s to come.  We see him make his way to the mountains and the quiet for prayer.  The only way to prepare is to step away and pray.  To find ways to clear the mind, to not get stuck in fear and worry and busy to try to avoid what’s to come.  Because what’s to come will come.  To trust that even in the awful and the ugly things of life…there’s faith.  We see him preparing himself.  We see him struggling.  

These weeks can teach us to face life and everything in it.  This is part of the beauty of the Stories.  They help us to live and thrive in life’s trials and struggles and to keep an eye on what matters most, which is always Love and Grace, Kindness and Courage.  

These weeks also teach us how to fully live and embrace life.  To not live in the fear of what’s to come or what might come, but to live.  To truly see how amazing this life is and how amazing our part in it is.  To know what a gift it is to be embodied and alive.  

Notice, it’s the small things?  The mustard seed, the fig tree, a grain of wheat?  As Mary Oliver asks: what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?  What makes this stunning is that Mary Oliver’s plan is to walk among the fields and notice the small and precious things.  To walk with deep attention to what is. 

It’s not only the BIG things that matter. In fact, maybe it’s the BIG things that distract us from the littlest and most important things. The things that grab our attention and hold it to the detriment of what’s beautiful now and here.  

We get caught up in BIG news, BIG worries, BIG money, BIG busy, BIG and better, BIG and faster, BIG and smarter.  BIG dreams and BIG accomplishments.  BIG competitiveness. BIG wins. BIG and important. 

Maybe, the BIG things are just a distraction from what is little that brings us closer to connection and belonging and Love.  It’s the little things that help us build communities and lives. It’s the little failures that lead us to love and belonging.  It’s the little news and the little worries we share with one another.  It’s the little work and the little wins. It’s the little dreams that are so exciting.  It’s the little accomplishments.  It’s our little lives that come together and unite us as one in our uniqueness and diversity.  

These weeks can get really BIG and scary and incredible.  They can be overwhelming.  Look for the small things of the Story.  The little things and the little details. There’s an entire life here in these weeks.  Worry.  Prayer.  Triumph.  Success.  Failure.  Anger.  Frustration.  Loss.  Fear.  

There is deep trust and hope.  There is bread and wine. There is friendship and love and betrayal.  These are people.  Just like us.  

All the masks come off in these next weeks and we see people becoming real.  We see mistakes and regret.  PAUSE.  We see love and forgiveness.  PAUSE.  The sense that it’s never too late to forgive or to let ourselves be forgiven.  PAUSE.  There is anointing and perfumes. There is the simple washing of feet.  There is connection and unity and such closeness.  There is teaching and learning.  

Look for the small things as people come alive in these next few weeks.  Notice their expectations and disappointments.  Notice what people do when life gets hard and disappointing.  Notice how it is to turn on one another.  Notice how it is to stay true to one another.  

Notice who “moves through” and who gets stuck.  Notice what masks come off.  

It’s a BIG Story, but the preciousness is in the details.  The little things that help us to know and learn.  

Jesus knows the hard stuff is coming.  These are the lessons in life.  Deaths, big and little losses that plunge us into the unknown and scary.  This is not Christmas where there is excitement, expectation, new beginnings, and possibility….

These are the Holy Weeks. These are the times of loss, betrayal, and death.  Where all the expectations come crumbling down and crash into the unexpected.  These are the hard times.  The masks come off of the Story and we don’t know what to do. 

Jesus shows us.  Keep moving thorough and hold tight to the little, precious things, even (and maybe especially) in the midst of the BIG things.  The love and the doves.  The oil and the perfumes.  The water and the wine.  The bread and the communion.  The ordinary things that are so very extraordinary.  The mystery within the Mystery.  

These weeks invite us in our own lives to notice that in the BIG things…the BIG worries, the BIG news, the BIG busy, the BIG money, the BIG competitions…we can easily get disconnected and lost.  In our fury and rage and righteousness we can lose our way. 

These weeks invite us to notice the little things within the BIG things.  The precious friends.  The flowers.  The peepers. The prayers.  The Quiet.  The cupcake and the card.  In our love and gentleness we can reconnect and be deeply present and compassionate to and for and with one another. 

This big stuff takes us away.  The big stuff distracts us from what we might do with this one wild and precious life.  

It’s the small things that lead us through life, everything in it, and into new life.  The small and precious leads us on this journey…together toward Compassion within the Passion.  The little stuff connects us to what we might do with this one wild and precious life.