The season of Lent is upon us and after the experience of Ash Wednesday we move to the First Sunday in Lent where we explore the story of Jesus’ temptation. The passage can be found in Luke 4:1-13 and the sermon will be entitled “Even in the Desert.” The theme this year is “Full to the Brim” and may be a different lens to take to this Lenten season.  I look forward to “hearing again for the first time” many stories from scripture and to look at them through the lens of fullness.  Please see the attached schedule for all the details.  

Ash Wednesday and Lent give us a chance to give up some things that may be holding us back from fully experiencing the love of God in our lives.  It is an act of vulnerability and will be different for everyone.  Below is a meditation from Howard Thurman that reminds us that all that we lay bare before God is still encapsulated by the love of God.  The meditation was read at the Ash Wed service, but thought it very worthwhile to share with you here.  We are all imperfect people who are perfectly loved.  Let’s remember that as we go on this journey of Lent to Holy Week.  

After worship this Sunday we will have an in-person gathering in the fellowship hall to discuss the service and have some fellowship time.  On Wednesday evening of next week we will have a Zoom study as we look at the life and work of Howard Thurman (We will send out the link early next week).  If you are looking for some fellowship and want to have conversation, this is a great way to do it.  All are welcome!  
Looking forward to being in worship with you this Sunday and blessings to all in the season of Lent.  

Peace,
Chad

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“We Yield to the Love of God” by Howard Thurman Rev. McCreight

WE BARE our lives to the scrutiny, to the judgment, to the love of God. There is so much that burdens the mind, that peoples the thoughts, that again and again we are confused even in the great quiet Presence of God. We yield to Him our confusions: the chaos of our minds and spirits; the tensions that tame the glory of the love of God out of our lives. We yield to Him our frailties and our limitations: our quiet physical pains and the long chain of anxieties they inspire; the fatigue of spirit, because with reference to our private burdens often we become so tired. We yield the desires of our minds and hearts: the private intimate wishes by which again and again the springs of our activities are fed and kept alive. We yield the desires of which we are ashamed: those desires that buffet our spirits and torture our minds and yet seem to cling to us with such tenacity. We yield our joys: the joy in being alive; the joy in renewed friendships; the joy in re-established and reconciled lives; the joy in the day’s work and the night’s rest; the sheer joy of being loved, of caring and being cared for. We yield our concerns for the world where we are exposed to much that casts down and depresses, to little that uplifts and inspires: war and the threat of war; the long loneliness and the deathwatch which seems to stalk our culture and fill our civilization with deadly dry rot. We yield our lives, the nerve centers of our consent: lest the mainsprings of all our values collapse and we become like shadows in the night. All of this—and more than tongue can say and heart can feel and mind can think—all of this we yield to the scrutiny, to the judgment, to the love of God.

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