Calendar News

Lent

One of the most important times of the year occurs during the 40 days leading up to Easter— Lent. Lent is like the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness prior to beginning of his ministry. Immediately after John baptized Jesus in the Jordan River, Jesus was “led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.”  During Lent, we seek personal and community renewal so that we might welcome the risen Christ with joy on Easter Sunday. We are challenged to make individual sacrifices, or to take on a discipline appropriate to our own spiritual condition. Tried and true fasts for the season include giving up meat on Fridays, or giving up chocolate and sweets, swearing, or fast food. But other fasts can be just as challenging and perhaps more appropriate for the next six weeks. Try giving up:

• Looking at your phone when in the presence of others. We all do it, and it dehumanizes us and those we are with.

• Being late. If you’re always arriving at a meeting or logging onto that call late or just in time, arrive early this Lent. You will be calmer and more present and available.

• Looking at your screens before bed. Give yourself 30 minutes between the end of screen time and lights out. It could help with the quality of your sleep.

• Pretending to know the answer. There is great freedom, and great wisdom, in saying, “I don’t know.” Embrace it.  Some fasts are about going deeper instead of giving something up.

• Watch more movies. Watching films can be a spiritual act in a time when  long-form media is dying off and attention spans are shorter. A good movie  can be a form of meditation and self-care. Any movie will do, but here are suggestions for movies in Lent.

•  Introduce yourself to poetry at https://poets.org/poem-a-day

• Change your music station or playlist to classical music. There are suggestions on every music platform.

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Changing your prayer practices and using devotionals can deepen your Lent. Here’s a quick calendar that helps you spend just a little time each day during Lent reflecting with gratitude on the ways welcome is offered in our world. Each week will focus on a new area of welcome. The calendar is printable and good for many ages. 

 

Looking for fun? Try Lent Madness. Online meditation? This is The Episcopal Church’s United Thank Offering series with lots of options. 

 

And finally, for readers. Here are four books for personal devotion and development— consider choosing a friend or two from church to form a very small book group!

1. Final Days by Matt Rawle. Each Gospel offers a different lens through which we  understand Jesus’ Passion. One portrait reveals Jesus to be in control, while another  emphasizes his suffering. In one story Jesus offers hope to the thief on the cross, and  in another Jesus only receives derision. These different perspectives aren’t a reason  to dismiss the Gospels; rather they reveal an abundant, diverse, and complementary  picture of God’s work in the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Listen to the author introduce the book.  Rise: An Authentic Lenten Devotional by John Pavlovitz. In this new Lenten devotional,  popular progressive Christian author John Pavlovitz once again takes us on a transformative spiritual journey.

2. RISE is a 40-day journey of elevated hopes and ascending spirits. Each  entry includes scripture, a reflection, and a prayer.

3. The Jesus Way by Eugene H. Peterson. Continuing Peterson's major evaluation of  contemporary Christian spirituality, THE JESUS WAY asks what it means to authentically  follow Christ in the modern world. It is written for both academic and serious lay  audiences. Challenging but rewarding, it combines first-rate scholarship with illustrations  drawn from raw human experience. 

4. The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God by Dallas Willard. An  oldie but a goodie, The Divine Conspiracy has revolutionized how we think about  the true meaning of discipleship. The author skillfully weaves together biblical teaching,  popular culture, science, scholarship, and spiritual practice, revealing what it means to  "apprentice" ourselves to Jesus. Using Jesus’ Sermon of the Mount as his foundation,  Willard masterfully explores life-changing ways to experience and be guided by God  on a daily basis, resulting in a more authentic and dynamic faith.

 

Meditation Group

Come join our newly formed guided meditation group.  We will meet on Wednesdays at 11:30am in the sanctuary during the weeks of Lent. The meditation will last for a half hour. Please let Susan McEvoy know if you want to join or have any questions (307-271-1289).  As this is a space to cultivate stillness and silence, please leave your cell phones in your car, but do bring your open heart and mind. 

 

Thrift Shop News

An Ask From The Thrift Shop: Donations, primarily clothing, continue to come in. Since the shop has limited space for displaying items, it is necessary that we continually cull the racks in order to make space for new clothing items. Our goal of recycling good, usable clothing items is still a priority for us. And, in order to achieve that goal, we are in need of transporting the clothing bags to Billings to Goodwill, Salvation Army or other  non-profit organization. If you are going that way and have room in your vehicle to  transport and deliver a few or more bags we would be most appreciative. Our shed is filling up quickly!  If you can help, contact Diana Anderson (307-272-6225) to arrange a time for pick-up.  THANK YOU!  

 

Thoughts and Ponderings for the Week

• March 17 is St. Patrick’s Day, celebrating Ireland’s patron saint. Here’s SALT’s “Brief Theology of St. Patrick’s Day.” March 20 is the beginning of the first day of spring this year, when the vernal  equinox occurs in the Northern Hemisphere. As the Earth travels in its annual orbit, sometimes its tilted axis leans in the direction of the Sun, creating summer in the hemisphere tilted toward it, and winter in the hemisphere tilted away. Today, it’s neither: the North Pole and the South Pole are equidistant from the  sun, since the Earth’s axis leans not toward/away from the Sun, but “alongside” it, so to speak. The term “equinox” is from the Latin for “equal” (aequus) and “night” (nox), the idea being that today, night and day are about as close to equal in length  as they will be all year.

• March 22 is the birthday of former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins, born in New York  City in 1941. Of poets, he once remarked, “While the novelist is banging on his typewriter,  the poet is watching a fly in the window pane.” He’s one of the most accessible, witty, and  popular poets in America today. Here’s a taste of his theological imagination: “Questions About Angels.”