We had a really good Experimental Worship service yesterday. About twenty people came from all walks of life, young and old, students and retirees, children and professionals, from different denominational strains, some from no church background. Food was served potluck style and everyone brought something from their home table to create our community table. Someone had the forethought to bring a salt and pepper shaker -- good thing too! But others brought sentimental items, napkin rings they had made for their children, a chipped vase celebrating twenty years of sobriety, a placemat and dining set that they would normally use when they ate at home.

Our church is hosting Experimental Worship services on the last Sunday of every month through the month of May, to explore what worship could look like in a post-modern or 21st century world. Does worship require pews? A liturgy? A specific kind of music?

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Each year when Lent rolls around, I'm ready for it. Ready to simplify, to reorient, to be recalled. It's not just an excuse to give up something I should be doing less of anyway: consuming less, eating healthier, drinking less caffeine. My spiritual side understands that many of the things that I do stand in the way, block, the presence of God that wants to grow. I can fill the space that God occupies with any number of things to avoid nurturing it. Staying busy, stress eating, avoiding tasks, purchasing more goods that won't make me happy though i think that they will, but none of those are substitutes for what I really need, time in prayer, meditation, silence, time with God.

We do Lent not because we love self-depravation, but because there is an ember in our soul that only becomes a flame when it's given oxygen by God's breath. The purpose of Lent is to awaken us to the presence of God within us, to become more alive with the holy, to live with greater connection to the Source of our Life.

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This past weekend our congregation went on an overnight retreat with well known author and church consultant, Tony Robinson.  We surrounded ourselves with lakes and mountains, rustic cabins, fellowship, good food, rich worship, and our Christian friends. Our church committed to a process of transformation several years ago, claiming a commitment to be reshaped and reformed under God's creative spirit, and this retreat was to renew that commitment and discern together the next chapter in our life together.  

Tony lead us in a tri-fold process.  The first session looked at how the world has changed from the last century to this century.  We know that the way church operated in the last century is no longer viable and

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Listening to God must be the oldest pursuit of people of faith, but it's not always the easiest. In my own life, there have been times when I was very certain that what I was hearing and discerning was from God, and there were other times when what I was less certain and God's "voice" was harder to hear. But a faith life depends on listening to God. By listening, I discerned a call to ministry, have selected which congregations to serve, and know what to do and what directions to take in my life and ministry. Discerning God's nudge isn't always easy, but it is possible. My sermon from this past Sunday brought the topic up and so I thought that I'd say a little more about it. How do we know when God is speaking? How do we follow Christ's instructions? How do we tag along with the movement of the Spirit? In other words, how do we know when it's God?

First, a few words about God. A letter of John's in the New Testament defines God as, "God is love."  I firmly believe this. Wherever love is being expressed, the nature of God is being revealed. Whenever loving-kindness is being shared, God is there -- bidden or unbidden -- God is there. God's essence is love.

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Today, I am thinking about the people of Haiti and how difficult their recovery will be, scrambling out of the rubble that has tumbled around them, the government and infrastructure that will need to be rebuilt, the years of reconstruction that is before them -- before us all. I am also thinking of the mess we find ourselves in as individuals, when our own world crumbles around us and our lives need to be reinvented and rebuilt, and we are faced with the pain caused by our own callousness, or the devastating choices of others, or situations that are out of our control. How much healing will need to be a part of the lives of the people of Haiti, can they rebuild their nation without it? How much healing needs to be a part of the lives of all of us, if we are to create lives built on peace and seek first a better way -- God's ways. Ways that aren't built on retribution, or violence, or destruction, but ways that are paths to truth, understanding, and hope. Healing the world begins inside each of us. This morning, I prayed this prayer of healing:

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