REFLECTIONS / REV. JANICE L. SUTTON

Shadows of winter fade with return of the light

Last week our church held our annual Prayer Breakfast. We enjoyed breaking-eggs together and reflecting on the Lenten season, our spiritual discipline, our stewardship of the created order, and our giving to those less fortunate. With the help of Rev. Lisanne Finston from Elijah's Promise, we committed to being in a posture and attitude of prayer about ways that we can address root causes of injustice, finding ways we can faithfully live committed to seeking solutions to eradicate poverty, hunger and homelessness. We will therefore be doing the work of discipleship.

For it is a new day in the life of the church as we work hard to make the good news of new life relevant in a culture of Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert (I loved it), and The Secret by Rhonda Byrne. My prayer is that faithful people are not threatened by the gravity of this attractive- shift to certain laws- and Eastern practice, but instead will work hard to embrace the energy and the Story that remains the same.

We come to understand that changes in science and cosmology, meta-physics and quantum physics simply provide us a new and exciting language. Those who have been broken by the church are -attracted to- that which is not so doctrinally or dogmatically charged. We are seeking. And we do want our lives to be better, fuller, richer (and not materially.....)

If we are bible people, we have to read the scriptures with new lenses and see the deeply personal, psycho-spiritual (not always logical) meanings therein--- in addition to the highly political and inherently social nature of the divine realm. We must remind people of Jesus as spiritual master (read: "seek first the kin-dom of God") and the rest will be ok. I hope we know that what our friends are "putting out to the universe" in synchronizing vibrations, is simply another way of saying that we are laying ìour stuffî in the hands of the God who made order in chaos, breathed us into being, and spoke and swept over the deep.

Any time spent consciously going inward to our depths, and being mindful and present, is radical in an age of going, doing, climbing and attaining and winding up in circumstances that are not fulfilling or pleasing. Many of us are broken, exhausted, and unhappy. Any time spent searching our souls for the truth about ourselves will be a powerful exercise of the spirit. Once we understand the desires and longings of our hearts, we can offer our lives and our-selves to the creative force of the universe. That one is Love. That One is God, absolutely energetic, co-operative, and grand.

There is room for conceiving new ways of being faithful in the church, listening to our neighbors, and loving and working for all God's children.

I invited two friends from high school to come our breakfast. It had been a long time since either of them had been in a church. I was actually surprised they agreed to come. In the midst of the dry and dark shadows of the wilderness season, we poured living water to quench our thirst and lit votive light to aid us on our way. My friends were in tears, the spirit had moved.

I welcomed them home. If you are hungry or thirsty, or in a shadowy place, feel free to call us or visit at www.trinityumchp.org. Our doors are open this Lent every weekday for meditation 5:30-6 PM and we worship on Sundays at 10:30 AM.

Rev. Janice L. Sutton is the pastor of the Trinity United Methodist Church in Highland Park.