Feb 21st, 2021
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ANNOUNCEMENTS
– Next Sunday is my last Sunday with St. Michaels. I am a basket case of emotions. Happy and sad. Mourning and looking forward. Everything jumbled. And so in love with our community.
CENTERING
So for our centering today, we’re going to use an emotion wheel. This is a circle with large category emotions in the center, and then more and more nuanced emotions the further out one goes from the center. It helps us discern and name what we’re actually feeling. I may say I am sad, but am I also saying I am feeling lonely, I am feeling isolated? Find where you feel today. Don’t worry about if the emotion is good or bad because emotions are simply emotions – it’s what we do with them that are good or bad. Just feel your emotion, give it a name, and welcome it. We’re centering ourselves for worship today just as we are, for God meets us where we are, and calls us in to community.
Rainbows of Emotions
Red – We bring our red anger, our ruby frustration. God we bring today scars – jadedness, sarcasm, irritation, and jealous. We bring open wounds pouring hateful feelings, self criticism, hostile words for others. Hurt. We bring our red emotions.
Orange – We bring our orange emotions. We are scared. What will the future hold? We’re anxious. It’s hard to sit still. We’re feeling helpless and confused. God, where do we turn when we are overwhelmed with this Lent one year long and still going? Where when we are discouraged; and feeling insignificant? We come to worship scared.
Yellow – We come filled with joyful yellow sunshine. The vaccine news makes us optimistic, and we are hopeful for returning in person. We are feeling excited about this glorious day and it makes us energetic. A cheerful song fills our hearts and we know, with God, all things are possible. We bring yellow joys this morning!
Green – We are a stalwart, lush, green tree. Power flows through us and from us today. Faithfully we attend to the important honor of worship. We are valued, we are respected, we are looked up to, we are leaders. Our discerning wisdom is the pillars that others rely on when things get tough. We are here out of duty, and out of respect, and to be the strength to our community. We bring green power.
Blue – We come to worship peacefully blue, like the serene blanket of the stars at night and the security of the sun rising each morning. We are relaxed, loving, trusting, and ready to share intimate moments of praying with and for one another. Content, thankful, we come to worship with blue peace.
Purple – We are sad. We’re here tired and sleepy; a bit bored and apathetic. How long are we going to keep being isolated? We’re lonely and depressed. We need this time of lent to feel our guilt, our shame, and to honor the depressed among us. We are purple sad, but we come to worship.
We are all emotions. Those we have named and those we have not. We are all colors. Those we can see and those we cannot. We are a rainbow – and not complete without all.
As one rainbow, one body of Christ, made of many colors, many parts, we come and worship God in our united diversity.
Amen.
Current Prayer Requests available in our private facebook page, or by telephoning me, or consistory.
SCRIPTURE
Our first reading comes from the beginning – in Genesis – after the world has been through catastrophe God makes a covenant with all humanity and all living creatures…
Genesis 9:8-17
Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
…
Our next reading references why we do Lent for 40 days. 40 is the number of a complete time, a long time, a perfect time. Jesus goes through the wilderness for 40 days, and so, we do too. It is a time of purification and testing.
Mark 1:9-15
In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”
And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.
Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”
SERMON – Rainbow of Emotions
I am entering Lent 2021 feeling… some red and purple emotions. Apathetic. Like, haven’t we already been in lent for um… a year and a month already? We never left it! We are STILL in Covid-2019 in… 2021. We are STILL online. Most of us are STILL waiting for a vaccine. We are STILL in the wilderness. So why would I give up chocolate when it’s the bright part of my day? Why would I fast when I’m fasting from movie theatres and birthday parties and hugs. Great big group hugs. I’ve done the biggest lent of my lifetime and am still doing it!
Uh… no, God. I’m not giving up anything more.
I think of the Israelites wandering in the wilderness for 40 years… 40 years. We’re told not a single person who was in Egypt made it into the promised land. Everyone died of old age and it was their kids, and their grandkids, who made it. It’s not been 40 years, but I am beginning to develop more and more empathy for these wandering people.
We’re still wandering.
So it’s made me think about the phrase that we are to comfort the troubled, and trouble the comfortable. This has been applied to art and faith; and attributed to several different people. It really seems to be what Jesus does – he comforts all the sick and injured and mourning who come to him. There’s healing and health. There’s community for the lonely. There’s support. There’s the balm of Gilead.
On the flip side, those he finds who are comfortable and not troubled, Jesus challenges. He gives a trouble, a problem, to help them grow. The rich man is challenged to give up all he owns. The scribes and religious leaders are troubled with expanding their understanding of who is, and isn’t allowed to approach God.
Why is this? I think because when our basic needs are met – food, water, heat, shelter – we can’t focus on intermediate needs – love, touch, community – and definitely can’t focus on spiritual needs. So the troubled need comforted. They don’t need more woes on their plate. They need that plate filled with nutritious food! But the comforted are in a place to be troubled with questions of ‘What could I donate to charity? What could I give up for lent?’
So Lent 2020 into 2021… most of us are the troubled and we need comfort. Not more troubles.
While Jesus was in that wilderness, angels comforted him. While we are in our wilderness, Jesus comforts us. I propose we do a Lent of comfort.
Remember the beginning of Covid-19 how we reached out to each other and supported one another above and beyond? We are now burned out. We are tired. Our relationships are slipping. Not because we’re arguing but because it is very, very hard to keep relationships up over the telephone, the US mail, and long distance. We are increasingly in a wilderness alone instead of a people together in wilderness. So this Lent – comfort. Comfort one another. Comfort yourself. Intentionally reconnect.
And we are a people carry many wounds. We’ve missed our normal rituals that guided our lives with births and baptisms, with marriages and parties, with funerals and shared meals. We’re missing family and friends. We’re missing what the old normal was and the new normal isn’t that fun… in the least. We are mourning many big and many small losses. We don’t need more losses in lent. We need comfort. I propose categorizing the things you miss doing. The people you miss. The losses. Feel them. Mourn them. Intentionally mourn. This is a season of mourning. By feeling this, we might begin to heal from these losses.
Comfort. You all know I am a tea person. Tea is a comfort of mine. I can use that time of watching the birds, drinking tea, smelling the rich milk, the sweet honey, to pray comfort. Comfort on the world. Comfort on my family. Comfort on my friends. Comfort on my enemies. Comfort on myself. A time to bless.
We know in the story of Moses that the rain fell 40 days and 40 nights. But he was on the ark with all those animals and people a whole lot longer. Long enough for all that flood water to go away, and life to return. Depending on how you read it, 150 to 370 days on that ark. Quarantined. Unable to go out. Seeing the same people all the time. Same walls. Same chores every day. Not even new things to see like the wandering people. Noah got to see water and water and water. And outside, all the world was uncreated and thrown into chaos.
But… also rebuilt. Re-created. And when Noah steps out, after all of the chaos, all of the isolation, all of the monotony… there’s a rainbow. God promises this is a sign of God’s promise to all humanity, all living creatures, to never flood all of the world again. It is a promise of comfort after trouble. A sign of hope – that only can come after a storm.
I believe we’re called to be rainbows of hope in our uncertain world. We say that in our communion. We are in the middle of storms – rains and discomfort, years in exile, months on months on a storm tossed ship, and we are each other’s rainbows. Hope. Comfort. Reassurance. Sharing the good news with one another and the whole world.
Good news: God is with us. The Reign of God is here. There is a rainbow after the storm. There is a bright tomorrow. Hope springs anew.
Comfort one another, and yourself, this lent. Work on reaching out. Work on loving yourself. And in that manner, love God. So go and be a rainbow of hope in our uncertain world.
Amen!
Pastor Whitney Bruno Sermons 