lenten exercises and friendship offerings

Over at Flats this year, we decided to do an interesting experiment/exercise during Lent.  It came about through some dialogue during our house meetings ...  we were wondering if there was some way we could observe lent together, as a community.  This was an interesting discussion, because how/what we sacrifice is a personal decision, related to the things we individually feel led to release.  Still, we wondered if there would be some way to observe lent and practice spiritual disciplines together in preparation for Easter and the meaning of Resurrection.

Someone suggested that we become more in touch with our consumption patterns by trying to buy fewer groceries and being really intentional about using what we have on hand.  Then someone else suggested that we make it really 'visual' and put the contents of our cupboards onto a table that would stay right out in the open in the shared kitchens.  We could watch the stockpile diminish as Lent progressed.  I found that to be a powerful visual reminder week to week.  The suggestions made shaped the plan we embarked on on Ash Wednesday.  We ate some really creative meals (even more so than usual!), and got rid of a lot of canned and dry goods (not to mention at least a dozen jars of pickled things!), plus we emptied a lot of the frozen stuff that accumulates over time in big chest freezers.  The concept got off to a bit of a slow start (I was one of the grocery shoppers during the first week of lent, and my co-shopper actually had to stop at the end of the trip and remind me of our lenten plan - after I remembered,  we ended up putting a bunch of stuff right back on the shelf!)


Right from the start, the plan was to buy less and see if we could save a few bucks.  We decided if we managed to do that, we might be able to do something creative with the savings after Easter.  Last week, we put our heads together and decided to make care packages for 4 families in the neighborhood with the $200 we saved during lent.  It was fun shopping for them and assembling the packages, even more fun to think of who we'd like to surprise with the gift.

The thing that astonishes me about this exercise is that we already eat, shop, and live very simply at Flats.  The whole community got involved at some level (right down to kids helping with the cards for the care packages).

For me, it was such a vivid picture of sacrifice as invitation to something that can't be understood any other way.  I saw the grasp consuming has on me in a new light .... maybe a bit more clearly.

easter

The words below are not mine, they're from another blog I've read for a few years called The Carnival in my Head - Kathy Escobar's site.  

I was planning to write something about Easter, but I kinda thought her words said it better than I would ... Happy Resurrection Day!

to me, holy week is about downward mobility as a path to life.    Jesus, the promised messiah, rides into Jerusalem a hero and goes out on a cross next to two criminals.  he washes his followers feet.  he’s flat on his face crying out for mercy just like the rest of us.  he takes the path of most resistance instead of the path of least.   he embodies the message that going down, not rising above, is the message of the kingdom.  and we all know this a brutal message in so many ways because of what it actually requires of us.

the ways of the kingdom are utterly contrary to the ways of the world.

so in the spirit of easter; the beauty of the cross, i thought i’d share what the cross means to me this year.  not the crosses on my wall or on my necklaces i always wear, but The Cross.  the cross that was carried when Jesus could barely walk.  the cross that his hands and feet were nailed to.  the cross that he took his last breath on.  the cross at the top of hill that was surrounded by people who just a few days before were sure he was somehow going to save them in the way they expected. the cross that took his life momentarily but not in the end.

there’s no doubt in my mind i need to continually remember what the cross really means, not in a happy-clappy-trite-only-on-easter way, but in the deep places of my heart and experience that extends far beyond holy week.

this year, the cross reminds me that:

• yeah, without pain and suffering, it’s really hard to experience new life.  all the end-around-ways we try to avoid things are a big waste of time.
• my natural tendency is to find a way to take an easier way out.  even Jesus tried.
• i always want to move up, not down.  down is harder.  down hurts.  down is confusing.
• God uses the weirdest things to make a point.
• shame must be scorned.  Jesus didn’t hang on that cross so i/we could live in shame.
• love looks like sacrifice.  not talking about sacrifice.  actually sacrificing. damn, it’s easier to talk about it.
• love hurts.
• God’s way of redeeming injustice and my ways are two different things.
• victory needs a new definition; i’m almost positive it isn’t the one was taught to me in most of my christian experience.
• the world’s, the church’s , addiction to strength, power, and upward-mobility thinking need some serious shifting.
• Jesus modeled what we are actually supposed to do as his followers.  imagine what would the world look like if we actually did it?|
• without hope, we perish.
• yeah, it is finished.  like, really finished.   and that it is a mind-bender if i embrace what that really means, not just for me but for everyone.
• out of death and darkness, hope and new life emerges. sometimes in the most unexpected ways.