- Corned Beef Supper on March 14th at 5pm (please RSVP by 3/6)
- Neighbors Waffle Breakfast on March 21st
- We continue our collections for Fuel Assistance for local families in need
- Death Cafe March 28th at 4pm (please RSVP)
- Discussion Circle is on the last Sunday after Church; this month we will look at passages from Matthew to inspire, teach, guide, and challenge us–all are welcome to join us (this is an exploration of sacred passages, poetry, words, and quiet to inspire us toward freshness, surprise, and wonder)
Visit our Calendar of Events to explore our upcoming dates and times
Our Sunday Reflection is recorded and can be found HERE (posts each Sunday late morning or early afternoon).
All are Welcome. If you are uncomfortable with the word God, please feel welcome to insert your own word for the divine or Mystery in your life (Universe/Grace/Spirit/Divine).
Believing is just as complicated as being human. -K. Lewis
Yesterday it felt like spring. Today it’s back to winter. Life changes. We change. The people around us change. The seasons change.
We have the season of Advent where we’re journeying to the cradle—the already and the not yet season. We have the season of birth and celebration, the Christmas season. We move into the season of baptism. The season of Jesus growing up. Jesus beginning his ministry. We move into Ashes and the season of Lent, pf prayer, reflection, and giving. The starkness of the wilderness. And then on Good Friday, we come to the Cross.
The cross is like a pinnacle. We have the cross, but then on Easter morning, we have the resurrection. Flowers, eggs, butterflies, and bunnies. The season of rebirth from the ashes.
We move from Easter to Pentecost with flames and the Holy Spirit moving through. We move into a season of beginnings…the beginnings of the Christian movement. I find this exploration…fascinating. How it all started. People trying to “figure it out” and understand, just like we still are “figuring it out” and understanding.
There’s always change. It’s the only constant. Shifting seasons, the wheel of the year, the liturgical cycle of the year. This isn’t “book club”, but if you’re curious about the seasonal year, Diana Butler Bass’s new book A Beautiful Year introduces this.
Through it all, God is the constant.
Grace speaks, not just in words, but in the shifting landscapes all around us. The divine is speaking through each season which comes with its own story and place. And there are as many ways of listening and believing as there are people.
I might be biased, but I’m partial to our Community Church. A church where we come together with our diverse ways of listening and our diverse landscapes (within us and around us), but we still, together, listen for the voice of the Universal. Some of us always find God in the Book and some of us rarely seek God in the book, and yet God is still there for each of us. The the path is just as real for each of us. There are as many different ways of believing as there are people and it holds us together as Community.
Different ways. Just what the kids are beginning to learn.
Jesus is a storyteller, who guides us through stories. Who guides us to lead through stories and to find the Mystery through Story.
Jesus is a healer, who guides us through healing. Who guides us to heal others and are led to the Mystery through healing.
Jesus is the Beloved, who guides us through Love. Who guides us to share Love and to find the Mystery through Love.
We could keep going with Teacher, Hope, Savior, Presence, Mystery…the possibilities are endless and yet just as deeply real.
There are different ways of coming at each Story. One way of reading the stories is to find yourself in the story. Perhaps this is why there are so many stories and so many diverse people in the stories. Because there are as many ways of believing, and coming to faith, as there are people. We are not alone in the diverse ways we explore and find our way.
When I read, I am often trying to find something new and fresh. I am seeking to be surprised! To not read the story the same way I read it last year or the year before or the decade before, not to reinforce what I think I already know…but to let it be something new and fresh. To not let faith or myself get stale.
The story of Nicodemus (did you start to wonder if we’d ever get to this day’s reading?). It’s easy to read it “the same way” and it can be a sticky passage. But, let’s look at it, perhaps, another way.
One way that you could read this passage is to see Jesus is almost amused. We can read it as Jesus getting exasperated and almost shaming Nicodemus. But if we read it differently, it could be humor. Nicodemus is a highly studied priest.
It could be: “Seriously Nic, you’ve been studying this stuff for years and you still don’t get it?”
Jesus asks questions and Nicodemus is looking for the literal answer in metaphor and Mystery. “How can we possibly be born anew? Do we climb back into the womb and then back out?”
This is actually quite an amusing image and moment. Stepping back to see some of the possible humor may also soften some of the long standing tension we can have around some of these passages, like this one about being “born again”. There are very different ideas of what that means. It’s not to say that our ways are “wrong”, but we can soften into tenderness with one another (and ourselves) when we try to see from a different perspective with gentleness toward one another (and ourselves).
There are as many different ways of believing as there are people and they still lead toward Grace.
Nicodemus is almost (desperately) trying for something tangible that he can really grasp and hold onto. Maybe…it’s “proof” he’s seeking? But the Mystery is a constantly shifting landscape that asks for faith, not proofs.
When I was thinking about Nicodemus and his need for tangible “proof” this week, I thought of the book and character, Silas Marner, by George Elliot (Mary Ann Evans).
In the beginning, Silas is a Brother in a religious order. He’s set up and accused of stealing (long story short) and the Brothers draw lots to decide whether to cast Silas out. Lots are supposed to show the truth through God, but innocent Silas gets kicked out of the Brotherhood.
He moves far away to the outskirts of a small village. He becomes a weaver and he hoards all of the money he makes, over the years amassing a small fortune. He becomes isolated, bitter, and miserly. Every night he counts his money and hides it away. It’s as if he’s looking for something tangible that he can really hold onto. Something that’s going to keep him safe. Maybe this is like Nicodemus seeking his safe “proofs”?
Then, Silas’s money is stolen.
His whole safety net crumbles. His world, again, has fallen apart. Everything he was able to trust is gone.
After a fruitless pursuit, hopeless, he sits down in front of his fire. He looks down and finds that scattered across his hearth is a big pile of gold.
He reaches out for the gold and it’s a pile of golden locks. For while he was out searching for his money, an orphaned child had crawled into his home for comfort and warmth.
A constantly changing landscape.
There is no tangible “proof” or “gold” to keep us safe. It’s faith and loving when it’s really hard. It’s a Mystery that gives us not what we want, but what we need.
It’s easy to think Nicodemus has failed. He arrived in darkness and shadow and he leaves in darkness and shadow. But Nicodemus appears again in the story. He’ll come to defend Jesus.
And we find him at the end of the story. He is one of the ones who buries Jesus. Which makes us wonder where is his faith? Did he take his time, slowly growing, into deepest belief?
We don’t know, but we can have faith in Nicodemus. Perhaps the Story tells us that we all grow at our own pace and in our own ways. Perhaps it tells us that we can always have faith and hope in one another. That even though it seems we walk very different paths, perhaps we are all being guided toward what matters most. And…we can always have faith in a God that Loves and heals us.
There are as many paths and ways as there are people. As we walk the wilderness of Lent, we might remind ourselves, once again, that we believe in a God who tells us Stories, who Loves us, and heals us. All in Mysterious Ways.
Hush…listen…the still, small voice is whispering the way.
Community Church of North Orange & Tully 