Slideshow image

Beloved

By Vicar Lisa Rygiel

There is a beautiful writer and poet by the name of Jan Richardson. You have heard some of her work if you have attended our Blue Christmas services the last few years. In a recent blog, she talks about wildernesses, those we choose and those we do not. It is quite different to enter a wilderness journey on our own accord rather than finding ourselves in the middle of one outside our choosing.

In this blog she speaks of Jesus, who sets out on his 40-day journey into the wilderness. She reminds her reader that just before he sets out, he was newly baptized and had just heard his name called from the heavens, “You are my Son, the Beloved (Luke 3:22).

Beloved. With the waters of the Jordan still clinging to him, Jesus carries that word, that name, with him into the desert. As he encounters hunger, thirst, isolation, and everything else that meets him in the wilderness—including the devil—the knowledge of himself as the Beloved tells him nearly everything he needs to know about who he is and what he is here to do.

We too are beloved. Beloved is the message of Lent. I share with you a poem that Jan posted from her book Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons.

Beloved Is Where We Begin

If you would enter

into the wilderness,

do not begin

without a blessing.

Do not leave

without hearing

who you are:

Beloved,

named by the One

who has traveled this path

before you.

Do not go

without letting it echo

in your ears,

and if you find

it is hard

to let it into your heart,

do not despair.

That is what

this journey is for.

I cannot promise

this blessing will free you

from danger,

from fear,

from hunger

or thirst,

from the scorching

of sun

or the fall

of the night.

But I can tell you

that on this path

there will be help.

 

I can tell you

that on this way

there will be rest.

 

I can tell you

that you will know

the strange graces

that come to our aid

only on a road

such as this,

that fly to meet us

bearing comfort

and strength,

that come alongside us

for no other cause

than to lean themselves

toward our ear

and with their

curious insistence

whisper our name:

 

Beloved.

Beloved.

Beloved.

—Jan Richardson

From Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons

March 16 -- 10 a.m. Sunday Worship with Communion

Announcements

  • Flowers: During the six Sundays of Lent, simplicity is the order of the day. During Lent we use only green foliage to reflect the Lenten season of austerity and simple reflection.
  • Fellowship Time/Church Council: Join us after worship in the Fellowship Hall and conversation. All are welcome.
  • Children’s Choir: The Trinidad Music Association (TMA) children’s choir (ages 8-12) practice is at 3 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall. To participate or to get more information, contact choir director Vinnie Gumlich at 719-680-0851 or email: music.association@gmail.com.
  • Lenten Soup Suppers: Our Lenten Soup Suppers will be held each at 6 p.m. each Wednesday in Lent beginning this evening in the Fellowship Hall, join us for food, fellowship, and a brief Lenten study. Sign-up sheets to provide food (soup, bread, dessert) are in the Fellowship Hall.
  • Prayer List Updates: We will be updating the prayer list on April 1, if you have corrections, additions, people you want to ensure remain on the list, or people who can be removed from it, please let Vicar Lisa or Jo Moss know. Realize that as we update the list, God knows of our prayers and concerns, and that we begin each prayer list with the reminder that we pray, “for those on our prayer list and those named in our hearts.”
  • Bible Studies:
    • Zion’s weekly Bible Study continues at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, March 12, with the continuation of The Bible from Scratch, series, focusing on The New Testament for Beginners. The class will be repeated at 10 a.m. on Saturday, March 15.
    • Join in a study of Christian Community During Difficult Times: Zion’s Lutheran Church will host a four-week study of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book, “Life Together” at noon on Sundays March 23, 30, and April 6 &13 in the fellowship hall building behind the sanctuary. The Rev. Dr. Janet Everhart, Professor Emerita, Simpson College will lead the discussions. Bonhoeffer was a German Lutheran Theologian who wrote this short work reflecting on his time as leader of the Finkenwald underground seminary later closed by the Gestapo.

E-formation – First Sunday of Lent, March 16

Lent is the time for the renewal of our baptismal covenant. Each reading gives us a picture of our need—no children, no homeland, enemies around, a hungry fox—and each presents us with an image of salvation—descendants, a home, citizenship, protective wings. This is one of the few Sundays in which Christ is compared to a mother.

Luke 13:31-35

We are like helpless chicks; a fox is lurking; and Christ is our mother hen. Lent is a time to cast out demons and to await the third day when Christ finishes his work of salvation. We give to Jesus Christ the divine “name of the Lord.”

Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18

The Spirit of God, manifest as fire, visits us with the promise of life: a life imaged both as multiple descendants and as a homeland. Like Abram, we believe in this promise, and such faith counts as righteousness. In the cross, Christ takes on the lot of the slain animals.

Philippians 3:17—4:1

Now we are those who are citizens of heaven—an activist image, an urban picture. During Lent we join with Paul in awaiting our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ: “Lord,” the divine title we Christians give to “Jesus,” which is the given name “Joshua,” whom we honor as “Christ,” the one anointed by God to transform the world.

Zion's Lutheran Church

A Reconciling in Christ Community

zionsluth@gmail.com

719-846-7785