Empty

When you see the word “Empty,” what is your gut feeling? Is it negative? An empty bank account means trouble. An empty stomach means hunger. An empty person usually refers to someone who is vacuous. When someone says her life feels empty, it usually means devoid of meaning. Often when I feel empty, I feel depleted of energy, tired, worn out.

On the other hand, especially in the United States, “Full” means something good. I have a full belly. My bank account is full. To say our hearts, minds, souls are full means that we live in abundance.

But if we go beyond these dualisms, we will see that there is a complete emptiness that means complete fullness. Many different religious traditions invite us to a kind of prayer or meditation where we empty ourselves as completely as we can in order to be open more fully to God and to allow God’s presence to fill us.

In this past week’s text, Jesus said, “You must lose yourself in order to find your Self.”
Nagarjuna (one of the most important Buddhist teachers, after Gautama, the Buddha) says: “I am not, I will not be. I have not, I will not have. This frightens all children, and kills fear in the wise.”

Aldous Huxley said that on one level all of life is impermanent, inconstant, changing, but that there is a dimension of life which is infinite. The word “religion” literally means to re-connect. It is related to the word ligament, the connective tissue in our bodies. Religions give us a way, a path, to re-connect with infinity, with that which is ultimate, with God.
Albert Einstein said: “A human being is part of a whole, called by us the ‘universe’, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separate from the rest, a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affectation for a few people near us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circles of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”

My favorite Buddhist writer, Thich Nhat Hanh writes in Living Buddha, Living Christ, “Enlightenment for a wave in the ocean is the moment when the wave realizes that it is water.”

This coming weekend is Palm Sunday in most Christian traditions. We proclaim the story of Jesus riding a donkey into the holy city of Jerusalem. Most people do not realize that in Jesus’ day, when a king rode a horse into a city, it meant that he was ushering in a reign of war. When a king rode a donkey into a city, on the other hand, it meant that he was ushering in a reign of peace. This year at our church, the children from our theater camp will act out the Palm Sunday story. One of the dads will play the donkey. He will carry Jesus (acted by his daughter) on his shoulders. Everyone will be given a palm, and invited to join the procession around the church, proclaiming “Hosanna (Hosanna literally means “Save or rescue us!”) in the highest! Blessed is the one who comes in God’s name!”
My favorite part of the story is when the threatened religious leaders yell at Jesus: “Tell your followers to be silent!” and Jesus replies, “I tell you, if they were silent, the rocks themselves would shout out and sing!” (Luke 19:40) In other words, Jesus is saying that nature has a wisdom that is beyond most human wisdom. That rocks and stones may be filled with God’s presence more than some people.

My other favorite text for Palm Sunday is from the ancient hymn (song) in Philippians 2: “Not counting equality with God something that could be grasped, God emptied Godself, and became fully human, even unto death.” The Greek word that is used here is “kenosis:” emptying of self.

This coming weekend Christians around the world bring the forty days of Lent to an end, and enter Holy Week, the heart of our faith. Lent has been a journey from death to life, a forty day journey of dying to those things in our lives which we need to die to, in order to rise, with Christ, to a whole new way of life. We follow in the footsteps of Christ this week.

The great climax of this week is what is called the Three Days: the Triduum. One of my favorite moments during holy week is the Easter Vigil, which is held on Holy Saturday, the night before Easter. We light the Paschal (Christ/Easter) candle for the first time, and pray that “as Christ on this Holy Night passed over (from the Jewish Passover) from death to life, so we, with Christ, pass over from death to new life.

It was only in complete kenosis, self-emptying on the cross, that Jesus opened himself to Infinity. This coming week, as many of us follow in the way of Jesus, may we empty ourselves fully so that we lose ourselves in order to find our True Self, so that our drop of water becomes part of the Ocean that is God, so that we, with Christ, can rise from our many patterns and ways of death, into the way of Infinite Resurrected Life.

This day may you see the Holy One in all you encounter,
and may you reflect the Holy One to all you encounter.

Linda Forsberg, Copyright March 24, 2015

Photos: Georgia O’Keefe’s “Tree,”  Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu, NM; Vic at the Cloisters, NYC; Supermarket, NM; Linda in Box Canyon, Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu, NM; Vic at the Cloisters, NYC; Linda’s shadow, Glacier National Park; Linda at the Mediterranean Sea; Yellowstone National Park;  Linda and Christ’s Tree, Utah; the Road to Christ in the Desert Benedictine Monastery, Abiquiu, NM; Paschal Candle, Christ in the Desert Benedictine Monastery, Abiquiu, NM;  Glacier National Park

Saint Patrick’s Message for Us Today

Today the city of Newport, RI, where I live, holds their annual Saint Patrick’s Day parade. I will don a green shirt and go to my friend Janet Fahey’s annual Saint Patrick’s Day parade party. Today, as I write this, I can smell the corned beef and cabbage cooking on the stove. After all, “Irish” came out as my second highest ethnicity in the ancestry.com DNA test., after Swedish.

What IS saint Patrick’s Day about, and does it have a message for us today?
Saint Patrick was an actual person, who most people believe lived from 385-461 CE. In my many books of the lives of Saints I have read that he was actually of British lineage, and was kidnapped by Irish pirates when he was just sixteen years old. He spent six years as a prisoner in Ireland, serving as a shepherd. In his Confessions, he writes that it was during this difficult time that he deepened his relationship with God and became a Christian. One night in a vision, he was told that he would return home. He escaped, and boarded a ship which returned him to his native Britain. He was ordained a priest. He had another dream, where he felt entreated to return to Ireland,  as a missionary. He eventually became the bishop of Ireland. By the seventh century he was considered the Patron Saint of Ireland. He used things native to Ireland and important to the people to teach them about Christianity. For example, he used the three-leafed Shamrock to teach them about the Trinity.

Ireland has no snakes. Saint Patrick in art and legend is celebrated as the one who banished snakes from Ireland, and cast them into the sea.

My favorite thing about Saint Patrick is the powerful hymn (song) or prayer, which is said to have been taken from his breastplate:

I bind unto myself today
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same
The Three in One and One in Three.
I bind this today to me forever
By power of faith, Christ’s incarnation;
His baptism in Jordan river,
His death on Cross for my salvation;
His bursting from the spicèd tomb,
His riding up the heavenly way,
His coming at the day of doom
I bind unto myself today.
I bind unto myself today
The virtues of the star lit heaven,
The glorious sun’s life giving ray,
The whiteness of the moon at even,
The flashing of the lightning free,
The whirling wind’s tempestuous shocks,
The stable earth, the deep salt sea
Around the old eternal rocks.
I bind unto myself today
Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.
Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.
I bind unto myself the Name,
The strong Name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three.
By Whom all nature hath creation,
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
Salvation is of Christ the Lord.

For us today Saint Patrick can serve as a powerful example. First, he is an example of one who used the most difficult experience of his life to strengthen his faith and deepen his relationship with God. While many of us crumble and despair during difficult times, others, like Saint Patrick, use their difficulties to strengthen their spirits. Secondly, his is an example for us today of forgiveness. Even though he had been captured and imprisoned by Irish pirates, he nevertheless returned to the very place of his enslavement, to share the good news of the new life he himself had found in Christ.

How many of us would be more effective in sharing our faith and creating mutual understanding, respect, and peace, if we were able to forgive our enemies and move forward? Finally, he incorporated things that were native to Ireland and part of the Irish people’s daily lives into his teaching, like the Shamrock as a symbol of the Trinity, the Sea and green fertile countryside as images of God’s presence, and the fact of Ireland having no snakes to demonstrate how God can banish the things we most fear from our lives. So often we fail to honor the things that are held dear to people’s hearts, and try to impose our own ways upon others. Patrick, instead, connected the things he wanted to teach people with things they valued in their own daily lives.

This Saint Patrick’s Day, may we learn from the example of this great Saint.

This day, may you see the Holy in all you encounter,
and may you reflect the Holy to all you encounter.

Linda Forsberg, Copyright March 17, 2015; edited March 17, 2018

(header photo:  Linda with statue of Saint Patrick, Hill of Tara, Ireland; other photos:  Janet Fahey and Wayne Colombe; Linda atop the hill of Tara, and a little girl running up to join me, Ireland)

Jesus Save Us from Your Followers

I remember seeing a bumper sticker once on a car in front of me at a red light. It read, “Jesus save us from your followers.” I laughed out loud. I laughed partly because I was exhausted at that time by a group of fundamentalist Christians at my church who were causing lots of havoc. They felt that I, because of my belief in the full equality of all persons, my advocating for the full inclusion of LBGTQ persons in the life and ministry of the church, and my respect and honoring of other religions, was surely going to hell. Of course the members of our church who agreed with me were going to go to hell also, they surmised. But the hottest pit of hell, they felt, would be reserved for me, because, after all, I was the leader, and was leading others astray.

They on the other hand, were assured of eternal bliss in heaven, because they could recite a formulaic belief in Jesus as the one and only way to God. They saw no irony in threatening my life in a telephone call to the church office one Saturday when I was counseling someone. Fortunately the woman who was with me, seeing I was visibly shaken and pale after the telephone call, said, “Call the police.” When I did, and the telephone call was traced, of course it was the adult son of one of these strict “Christians.” I remember at the time feeling that I was closer in my belief system to Jews, Buddhists, and followers of Native American spirituality than I am to fundamentalist Christians, even though I do consider myself a Christian also.

Fast forward to the other day. In conversation with a group of young adults, all of whom had grown up Christian, I became deeply saddened by the fact that only a few of them considered themselves Christian today. They all said their struggles with Christianity were not with Jesus, whom the vast majority of them felt was “way cool,” but with some narrow version of Christianity that had been crammed down their throats. “My parents forced me to go to church” was a common refrain. “The Church’s teachings against LBGTQ persons” was another common critique. (Even though I reminded them that some churches, particularly my own ELCA, have been very bold about taking a stand on the full inclusion of LBGTQ persons.) “The lack of tolerance for persons of other faiths by Christians” was another common refrain. One young woman found herself attracted to Hinduism, particularly because of the balance of feminine as well as masculine images of divinity. A few were drawn to Islam because of the depth of commitment of Muslims. Most said they were attracted to Buddhism because it showed deep respect for other faiths, because of its moderate “Middle Way,” and especially because of Zen Buddhism’s emphasis on living mindfully. When I reminded these former Christians that we Christians also have a long, rich, deep, beautiful history of prayer and meditation in our own Christian mystics, one young man responded, “Yes, but that is not part of mainstream Christianity today.” Sadly, I had to admit he was correct.

So, as much as I have deep love, respect, and appreciation for other faith traditions besides my own Christian tradition, and despite the fact that I have incorporated different practices from other faith traditions in to my own daily spiritual path, I have to admit that I felt a deep sadness that these young people were overwhelmingly “done” with Christianity. The really sad part is that they all seemed to love Jesus, but were turned off by the deeply negative experiences they had had with his followers, viz., with some of US. As funny as that bumper sticker is, it says something tragically true: that those of us who self-identify as Christians have done a lousy job of sharing the “Good News “ (the Greek word Gospel literally means Good News or Good Message). In fact, most young people seem to hear the message of Jesus, as translated by his followers, as a lot of Bad News, judging and condemning them and people they love. The other sad realization I had is that I also sensed a deep, sincere spiritual hunger from all of these young people, who are searching to assuage their spiritual hunger in places other than the Christian tradition, because of the negative, Bad News message of Jesus’ followers.

So the question is for us who call ourselves Christians, “Can we share truly Good News with young people of today who so desperately long for the Good News of God’s deep, infinite love for them?” Just as important, “Can we live in such a way that are lives are in congruity with this Good News, as Jesus’ life was?” Wouldn’t we be more true to the message of Jesus if we shared his love and compassion for all people rather than our own narrow, twisted perverted message of judgment and condemnation based on our own insecurities and prejudices?
Jesus, please do save us from your followers.

This day, may we see God in all we encounter,

and may we reflect God to all we encounter.

Linda Forsberg, Copyright March 9, 2015

Photos:  Linda at the gate of death, Turkey; Linda in sarcophagus, Turkey; Isle of Patmos, Greece; the Acropolis, Athens, Greece; on sailing vessel, Aegean Sea, Greece; Patmos, Greece;  a natural Christmas tree, decorated with elements from the sea, Second Beach, Newport, RI

From Death to Life

“Die before you die,” says the Sufi poet Rumi. Saint Ignatius of Loyola says this spiritual life is about dying to the things we need to die to in order to rise and live the fullness of Life God calls us to. Jesus says that if we follow him we must be willing to lose our life in order to find it. For Christians this season of Lent is about “renunciation.” People give something up for Lent. But unfortunately people usually give something up that they, deep down, really wanted to give up anyway. Like a bad habit. Giving up alcohol or caffeine to detox their body. Giving up sweets, so they can lose weight.
I always encourage people instead to detox spiritually. To give up an attitude that needs a major shift. To let go of judging others, for example. To give up being negative. To set aside that anger, resentment, grudge from long ago. My own Lenten discipline is to let go of “outcomes,” to pour my heart fully into all that I do, then let it go, and not even look to see if it bore any fruit.

In the early Christian church the forty days of Lent were a time of catechesis (instruction, teaching, training, education, preparation). A person who desired to be baptized, and therein to become Christian, would prepare for her baptism during Lent. Then, on Holy Saturday, the night before Easter, adult converts to Christianity would be baptized at an Easter Vigil. At the beginning of the Vigil, people gather outside the entrance to the church, and a new Christ candle is lit for the first time from a new fire. A prayer is said: “O Christ, on this Holy Night, as you Passed Over (from the Jewish Passover celebration) from death to Life, so may we this night pass over with you from death to new life.” The new candle is then carried into the church, and the people chant: “Jesus Christ is the light of the world. The light no darkness can overcome.” All the candles in the church are then lit from the Christ candle.

Then there is the sharing of the sacred story of God’s saving love for us, with passages taken from the first book of the bible, all the way through to the story of Jesus’ resurrection. Then there is the sacrament of Holy Baptism. Sometimes, since we are in Rhode Island, the Ocean State, we make a procession, and drive a couple of miles to a nearby beach, where we baptize adults in the ocean. When you plunge an adult beneath frigid waters, and they emerge from the depths gasping for breath, the act of baptism is truly reminiscent of “dying and rising” with Christ.

I love doing adult baptisms because adults usually are very conscious of wanting to die to their old way of life, in order to rise to a whole new way of life. This is what Saint Paul writes about in Romans 6: “Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried, therefore, with Christ, into death SO THAT as Christ was raised from the dead to the glory of the Father, WE TOO MIGHT WALK IN NEWNESS OF LIFE.” (Romans 6: 3-4, emphasis mine)

The prayer of confession during this season of Lent moves me every time I pray it: “O God, during this season of Lent, we pray that you would bring us out of slavery into freedom, out of the wilderness into the promised land, and out of death into life.”
What is it you need to die to? What is it that is keeping you from living in that fullness of life God desires for you? God is calling us to live a life that is so much bigger!

There is a famous Buddhist story of a salt doll, who longs for a bigger life. She approaches the Ocean. She steps in with one foot, and sees that in the Ocean, her foot has dissolved. But rather than see this “death” as loss, she continues walking, until she and the Ocean are One. The Sufi (Muslim mystic) Rumi says the same thing: “The body’s death now to me is like going to sleep. No fear of drowning. I’m in another water.” In the Hindu sacred text, the Bhagavad Gita, we read: “That one alone sees truly the Lord the same in every creature, who sees the deathless in the hearts of all who die. Seeing the same Lord everywhere, who does not harm self or others, who thus attains the same goal.” Another Sufi, Bawa, says the same thing: “Everything you see tells the story of God. Look at it. God is out spread, filling the entire universe. So look. You exist in form. God is without form. You are the visible example, the sun. God is the light within the sun.”

This day, each day, may you see the Holy One in all you encounter,
and may you reflect the Holy One to all you encounter.
Linda Forsberg, Copyright March 3, 2015

Photos:  The Road to Casa del Sol, Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu, NM; Ted’s baptism at Second Beach, Newport, RI; Christ Candle at Christ in the Desert Benedictine Monastery, Abiquiu, NM; Ted’s baptism, Second Beach, Newport, RI; Ted Reborn!  immediately after baptism, Newport, RI; top of Kitchen Mesa, Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu, NM; view from the Reservoir, Newport, RI

Lenten Longing: Longing for God IS God

Many years ago I lamented to my spiritual director my deep, aching longing for God. Sr. Rose Clarisse Gadourey responded, “I see our deep longing for God as the presence of God within us, longing for us to turn deeper within ourselves to find God in our longing itself.” The poet Coleman Barks says: “We long for beauty, even as we swim within it.”

Lent is from the Anglo Saxon word for Spring. I look outside at the frozen earth, and imagine the seeds beneath the mountains of snow. My longing for the new life of spring, Sr. Rose Clarisse would say, is already the beginning of that new life itself. One winter, when I was going through a particularly difficult time in my life, I was on a weekend retreat at a place called Our Lady of Peace in Narragansett, RI. During our free time, I walked bundled up tightly in the frigid cold, along the seawall that runs the length of Narragansett Beach, a boundary between the street and the tumultuous winter waves, crashing against jagged rocks. Also on retreat that weekend was a man who was a professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island. When I shared with him how my heart felt like the grey and frozen earth during this season of winter, he told me that the ocean during these coldest months is actually teeming with new life. He told me that on a microscopic level, oceanic life was growing, exploding exponentially beneath the surface.

What is your Lenten longing? What is the Spring you ache for in your heart? What would it look like for you to experience the burst of Spring’s new life in your life?

St. Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179)spoke of this as our own “greening.” She lived in the part of Germany that is called the Rhineland. I have not been there – yet – but some of my favorite mystics were from that region. The photographs I have seen of the Rhineland are lush, verdant green. It always amazes me how some places on this earth are teeming with mystic experiences and some are not. What is it about the physical landscape that speaks to the inner landscape of our souls?

Here in the Northeast, it has been a particularly hard winter. There is so much snow that we do not know what to do with it. When you pull out onto a major road, you edge out slowly to see past the snowbanks which block your view, whispering a prayer that the traffic zooming by will see you. We ache, we long, for spring’s thawing. Yet I trust that the greening’s arrival has begun already in my yearning, and in yours.
Over my kitchen sink for many years was scotch-taped a quote from a Joyce Rupp poem:

And every year
the dull and dead in us
meets our Easter challenge:
to be open to the unexpected,
to believe beyond our security,
to welcome God in every form,
and trust in our own greening.
(from Out of the Ordinary: Prayers, Poems and Reflections for Every Season)

This day, may you know your own greening.

Linda Forsberg, Copyright February 24, 2015

Photos:  Winter, Second Beach, Newport, RI; winter view from our front porch, Newport, RI; Five Stones Beach, Newport, RI; Jules’ photo from Glacier National Park; Wentworth, NH; Santa Fe, New Mexico

Lent: A 40 Day Process of Transformation

When my children were little, they all went to Little Red Hen Preschool. My youngest child, Juliana, had a wonderful teacher named Mr. K. One day when I was dropping Juliana off, Mr. K. said, “Mrs. Forsberg, you look beautiful today in that dress.” Usually I wore jeans or sweat pants. “Oh, thank you,” I said. “I am dressed up because I have a funeral.” “Oh, I am sorry,” said Mr. K. My funeral dress was a green and black paisley dress, because as a Christian, I do not think we should wear total black for funerals, as if we have no hope. This dress was tasteful, but it was all about life, vivid green, bursting forth from the black, like plants in dark, rich soil. A week later, I brought Juliana to Little Red Hen, wearing the same dress. “Again, Mrs. Forsberg, you look very beautiful today, all dressed up.” “Another funeral,” I said. Mr. K. looked concerned. “I am SO sorry,” he said. I nodded. A week later, same dress. Mr. K. looked at me, very puzzled and concerned. “I hate to say anything about the dress. Do you have another funeral?” he asked. I nodded “Yes.” Then I realized, “Mr. K., do you know what I do?” He shook his head “No.” “I am a pastor of a church.” The puzzle pieces fell together as Mr. K’s face registered his epiphany. “I see!” he said.

Being a pastor from a young age – 25 years old – has brought me very much in touch with the reality of our mortality, yes, more than most people my age. Most people, I think, try to avoid thinking about their own mortality most of the time. Ash Wednesday is a wake up call for all of us. It doesn’t matter how old or young you are. Part of being human means that each of us will face death: death of those we love, death of our hopes, and dreams and aspirations, death of all that we know, our own death.
Yet how our culture tries to trick us into thinking it will never happen to us. Yesterday Ted and I saw a commercial – a woman my age or a little older. “Do your cheeks look like apples? If not, get this injection, and you will look young forever.” Who wants apple cheeks? Really?
We are delusional. Just in this past week, I have had experiences with people my age, and five-ten years older, who have lost a parent, and seemed shocked. They do not know how to handle death. One family made all the plans for me to do their mom’s funeral, without asking me! Do they think pastors are eternally available for their every need? As it turns out, I had another funeral at that time. “Well then we will find someone else to do it.” I knew their mom for 27 years – half my life. I loved her. They are going to find a stranger who doesn’t know her because they are clueless about death, even though their mom was in her late eighties. They didn’t think about it?
Ashes whack us all upside the head and remind us: “You are not immortal. Those you love are not immortal. Part of every life includes death. There is no detour. You cannot avoid it.”

In the Hebrew bible, ashes were a sign of repentance. Repentance in the Hebrew bible meant “turning” – turning away from our delusions, turning away from our “sins,” which means turning away from everything that leads us away from God, and turning toward God. Returning to God with all our hearts. Ash Wednesday we wake up to our mortality. But we also wake up to the one thing that is immortal: the soul dimension of life, the spiritual dimension of life, the God dimension of life. This Friday and Saturday I will teach my first class at Salve Regina University. It is a comparative religions course, called “Life as Spiritual Adventure.” Same title as this blog. In the introduction to one of the books for that course is a quote by Aldous Huxley, author of The Brave New World. It turns out Huxley wrote another book called Perennial Philosophy, which I am trying to find. In that book he says that all of human life is constantly changing, temporary, impermanent, but that there is another dimension which is infinite. All human beings share this capacity for the infinite. The purpose of this human life is to awaken to and then focus on the infinite.

Lent is from the Anglo-Saxon word which means Spring. Spring is my favorite season because it is about death and life, smacked right up against each other. Summer we just see life. But in Spring we have dead leaves from fall, dead branches knocked down from heavy winter snow, hard-packed grey earth, and cold that seems like it will never let go. But then there is a yielding, an opening, a warmth that grows and one day cracks things open. Green appears, little at first, tender buds and shoots. As much as I try, I can never pinpoint when the tipping point happens and suddenly everything is bursting with green, vibrant life! Lent is like that.

Lent lasts forty days. It takes forty days for something to really sink in, to become a habit, a practice, part of the fabric of our lives. Biblically there are a lot of 40’s. Noah was in the ark for 40 days. The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. Moses spent 40 days on Mount Sinai when he received the Ten Commandments. Elijah went for 40 days in the strength of the spiritual food Gave gave to him. Jesus spent 40 days in the desert before he began his ministry, the fulfillment of his life’s purpose. Yoga studios bid us to commit ourselves to a 40 day process of transformation. Lent bids us to commit ourselves to focusing on the infinite for the next 40 days. The Sabbath is not included in the 40 days, because every Sabbath we celebrate the resurrection, no matter what season we are in, even Lent!

Jesus offers us three spiritual disciplines for these 40 days: fasting, almsgiving and prayer.
Fasting is not really big in our culture, unless you are trying to lose weight, to do a cleanse. But there are many different things from which we might need to fast. The purpose of fasting is to wrench us free from whatever it is in our lives that has us in an unhealthy grip. So we may need to fast from whining and complaining. How about a fast from a negative attitude? How about fasting from being judgmental? Fasting from anger or resentment? Maybe we do need to fast from sugar or chocolate or alcohol or cigarettes! Whatever has us in its grip and leads us away from that infinite dimension of life, THAT is what we need to fast from for these 40 days.

In this “it’s all about me” culture, almsgiving is the next discipline we are to commit ourselves to during Lent. Almsgiving literally means to give to the poor, to give to those in need. But maybe you are poor. Maybe you have no job, no money. How can you give to the poor? We all are rich in something. Maybe you are rich in time. Maybe you are retired, or unemployed, so have a lot of time right now. Give of your riches of time to those who need time: your family, your marriage, your elderly relative who is in a nursing home, a child who needs mentoring, a difficult person who needs companionship. Let this be your Lenten discipline. Whatever your riches are, time, talents, money, health, experience in some area, give to those who are needy in that area. Let these 40 days of Lent wrench you out of your puny self, your self-absorption, into seeing the needs of others, and for 40 days at least, putting the needs of others before yourself.

Finally, Jesus says to pray during Lent. For the next 40 days, commit yourself to spending time in communion with God, the Infinite One, each day. Some of us pray in silent meditation. Some of us walking, or running, or praying with rosary or other prayer beads. Some of us pray with scripture. Some with music. Whatever it is that brings you into communion with God, that wrenches you from the temporary, constantly changing, impermanent dimension of life and brings you into connection with the Infinite, that is prayer.

The prayer of confession for this season of Lent is: “In these 40 days of Lent, may God bring us out of captivity into freedom, out of the wilderness into the promised land, out of death into life.”

Amen

Linda Forsberg, Copyright February 18, 2015

Photos:   Church Windows in Kauai, HI; Ted, Turkey; Linda tomb of Saint Tekla, Turkey; Linda at Caravansarai, Turkey; Linda a Glacier National Park; First Lutheran Church at Easter time; Linda at Death’s Gate, Turkey; Betty and Vicar Brett; Charlene at yoga; church window, Kauai

While It Was Still Very Dark…

Last week was CRAZY! For the first time in my almost twenty-nine years of ordained ministry I officiated at two funerals, one hour apart. Winter is a difficult season for our elders. In addition, we were dealing with the wreckage of not one, but two floods in our Thrift Shop. Then of course the snow, snow, and more snow. My heart, mind, and soul focused mostly on praying for healing light to fill and surround a member of our community, beloved friend, father of three, who is in the ICU after an aneurism burst in his brain. Unfortunately it is also the season for lots of year-end administration, annual reports, and final preparations for our annual meeting last Sunday. Then late Friday afternoon in between my two wakes, I came back to the church office to discover our church secretary looking totally frenzied because a hacker had taken over her computer, our church computer!
Ironically, the Gospel for last week was about Jesus feeling overwhelmed. He had been healing the sick and casting out demons (see last week’s blog), and the whole city gathered outside the door of where he was, pressing upon him. Talk about the needs and concerns of this life overwhelming us!

What did Jesus do? We read: “In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.” (Mark 1:35) In fact we find one-liners like this sprinkled throughout the Gospels. Jesus needed to get up early, to carve out even a few moments, to be in communion with God in prayer. If Jesus needed this, how much more do we?

Tomorrow night our women’s spiritual support group meets. We call our group “S.O.S.” How apropos. It stands for “Sisters of Spirit.” It also stands for “Help!” This group was started almost nineteen years ago when I began my ministry at this church, by two women who worked in the church office, and I. Day after day we would give each other moral support for all of the overwhelming tasks and concerns of our daily lives and ministry. We would pray for each other. Then one of the women said, “Hey, maybe other people could benefit from some mutual support. We should expand our group.” That was the birth of S.O.S. At our first meeting we shared a story that summarizes what we are all about: “When you fly on an airplane, the flight attendant always says,’If you need to assist someone, make sure you first put on your own oxygen mask. Then assist your neighbor.’” What an appropriate metaphor for this life. Each and every day Jesus needed to get up early, while it was still dark, and spend time in a deserted place, in communion with God in prayer. So also do I.

Martin Luther said he had so much to do every day that he couldn’t get by on anything less than two hours of prayer! If you do not put on your own oxygen mask first, you will be no help to anyone else.
This coming weekend, in fact, Christian churches celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration. Jesus took with him his closest friends, and hiked up a mountain. This was no small hill. The mountain bible scholars think they hiked up was over 9,000 feet high! Mount Washington, the highest mountain in New England is only about 6,500 feet. This was a major hike, at least a sunrise to sunset kind of day. But on top of that mountain, Jesus and his friends experienced a kind of “epiphany.” Jesus was filled and surrounded with a brilliant, dazzling light. There also appeared to him Moses and Elijah, who lived about 1200 and !000 years before, but who represented the Law/Torah and the prophets.

Sometimes when I pray I feel myself in the presence of my parents, who now live in God’s brilliant, dazzling light, or of Mary the Mother of Christ and Mary Magdalene, or of my favorite saints…famous and not so famous. I spend time in communion with them too, drawing strength from their presence.

Because guess what? The gospel for last week tells us that when Jesus was off praying in that deserted place “Peter and the disciples hunted for him.” HUNTED for him. Hounded him. Ever felt that way? I think we all have. This coming week, similarly, we read that when Jesus, Peter, James, and John came down from the mountain, the needy crowds were there, waiting.
In the midst of our busy, sometimes overwhelming lives, take time to go off by yourself even for just a few moments. Sometimes, like Jesus, really get away, like up a 9,000 foot mountain. Put on your own oxygen mask. Pray. Spend time with close friends. Spend time with God, and let God’s brilliant, dazzling light shine into the darkness that can be overwhelming. Because the needs never do end.

This day, may you see God’s light in all you encounter,
and may you reflect God’s light to all you encounter.
Linda Forsberg, copyright February 10, 2015

Photos:  Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu, New Mexico, sunrise; Ted’s photo, Casa del Sol, Ghost Ranch, Abiquiu, New Mexico, sunrise; Ted in Turkey; Linda and Iznik, Second Beach, Newport, RI; Top of the World Road, Montana; Linda in the Cave of Saint Tekla, Turkey; Linda, walking toward the light, Turkey

What Are Your Demons?

This past week I was not thrilled with the text I had to preach on, a text about Jesus casting a demon out of a man. (Mark 1:21-28) The people who witnessed this were amazed at Jesus’ teaching, because he taught “with authority.” “How do I preach about this?” I asked myself. This isn’t exactly something people today have to deal with…or is it?
As I sat at my desk in the church office, I looked up a at work of art, the wooden depiction of the Last Supper, hanging on the opposite wall, a gift given to me by a couple in thanksgiving…for a demon cast out.
I was twenty-five years old, and a Vicar, or student, working at a church for a one-year internship to learn how to be a pastor. I did a lot of work with the youth. Other adults helped. There was one youth advisor the teenagers liked a lot because she was young, skinny, pretty and “cool.” I was the same age, but eight months pregnant, so night as “cool.” One day this youth advisor called me. She sounded a wreck. “Can you come over?”
Her apartment was a disaster, but she had three little kids, so that was understandable. Her face looked ravaged: red eyes and splotchy skin from crying. She looked at me, and said, “I am addicted to cocaine. It is out of control. I went $10,000 into debt. My drug dealer, who lives here in the apartment complex, threatened my life if I do not pay him. So I had to fess up to my husband, and since we have no money, his parents (a Lutheran pastor and his wife) bailed us out.” She paused, sucked in her breath, then sobbed. “The thing is, the thing my husband doesn’t know yet, is that I did it all over again. We are in debt again, my life threatened again unless I pay…” She looked at me with eyes piercing right through me. “I feel as though I have a demon. Please – cast it out!”

Talk about feeling inadequate to the task. Twenty-five years old and not even ordained yet, a huge pregnant belly, my own fears and all…But I felt her pain, which is what the word “compassion” literally means, to “suffer with” someone, so I laid my trembling hands upon her, and sobbed along with her, and as inadequate as I was and still am, I prayed to God who is adequate, who is the only one big enough to help this young woman, I prayed to Jesus who had compassionate for everyone he met, I prayed to the Holy Spirit to fill her and surround her and protect her…

Then, with me by her side she told her husband. With me by her side we made some phone calls and got her into a three month live-in rehab program. I gathered the youth of the church, and their parents, and told them the whole truth. We put together teams. For the three months she was away, we cleaned her apartment. We made meals. We did laundry. We took turns providing childcare. We had fundraisers to help pay the debt. The whole community of faith surrounded her family and loved them all into healing, which literally means “wholeness.”

So, I ask you: What are your demons? Anyone who battles an addiction would call it a demon without batting an eye. Maybe addiction is not your demon, but you have one. We all do. Maybe it is your inability to let go of your past and forgive yourself, or someone else. Maybe it is anger, resentment, holding on to some grudge. I used to be close to someone who now is all tied up in the knot of anger. It is destroying her relationships with all those around her. It is also destroying her. It is exhausting to hold on to anger. I know someone else who is gripped with fear. He has all these hopes and dreams for himself, but never takes a step toward any of them, he is so gripped, so paralyzed by fear.

So I ask you, what are your demons? The gospel says that Jesus had an “authority” others did not have. The word for “authority” in Greek is “ex-ousia.” “Ousia” is the verb to be, and “Ex” means the way out, something outside. So “authority literally means, tapping into a power “outside of ourselves,” tapping into something bigger than we are.
A Lutheran theologian, Timothy Lull, said that 12 Step programs are the best modern day example of “church” that he knows. That struck me. But then I thought of the Steps. The first Step is “I admit that I am powerless over my addiction.” The Second Step is: “But I believe there is a God/Higher Power greater than I am who does have power over my addiction.” That’s “Ex-ousia.” Twelve Step programs also pair you up with a sponsor, someone who has been where you are, and gotten out, and is further along the road of recovery than you are. Someone you can call when you are ready to break, and they will be there for you. Not only that, but you have the whole Fellowship of AA, NA, OA, etc.

Where would that young woman have ended up if the whole church community had not pitched in to love her back to health? We need community. Even Jesus surrounded himself with community. And when he instituted the Sacrament of Holy Communion, he also instituted the church, the community of faith, because the Greek word that means “Do this for the remembrance of me,” literally means, “Continue to get together on a regular basis and do this for the remembrance of me.” Because Jesus knew that this life of faith is not a solo sport. It is a team sport. Tom Brady is great, but he couldn’t win the Super Bowl al by himself. He needs the whole team. We need each other.

Finally, once you have let God, Christ, the Spirit cast your demon out, then you cannot remain empty. You need to fill yourself up with things that make you strong, so there is no room for your demon to creep back in, which it is just waiting to do. In another parable Jesus tells the story of a man who cast a demon out of his house” (which means ourselves), and left the house empty. So the demon went off and got seven more demons and they all came back and had a party in that house! Because it had been left empty. Whenever I know someone who is trying to kick an addiction or some other “demon” out of her/his life, I say, “Be sure to fill your life with healthy, positive things: prayer, healthy, spiritually mature friends, helping others, being part of a community of faith, etc. Don’t remain empty.”

Again, I ask you, “What are your demons?” Hand them over to the One who is bigger than we are, to the one who is big enough to overpower them.
This day, may you see the Holy One in all you encounter,
and may you reflect the Holy One to all you encounter.
Linda Forsberg, Copyright February 3, 2015

Photos:  Ruins, Turkey; Cave, White Mountains, NH; Carlsbad Caverns, NM; Turkey; Cappadocia, Turkey; Chaco Canyon, NM; Duke’s, Kaua’i; Church, Kaua’i

The Lessons of Winter:
Snowed In and Forced to Slow Down

So, here in Rhode Island we are in the midst of an “historic blizzard,” and told that we should expect around thirty inches – two and a half feet – of snow! Most people I have talked to say they don’t mind being snowed in, as long as they do not lose power.
As much as I am NOT a cold weather person, I must admit that I would not want to live year-round in a place without seasons. I have come to realize that the seasons of the earth teach us a lot of lessons about the seasons of our lives. In the midst of this blizzard, I think the lesson is the need to pause and slow down. How counter-cultural is THAT?

What are the lessons of the earth’s seasons?
My favorite season is spring. It makes my heart thrill to see the first green shoots emerging from the earth, and the tender buds appearing on the trees.

In the Christian tradition, this is the season of Lent and Easter. Easter, by far, is my favorite day of the Christian calendar. Each year we are invited, during the forty-day season of Lent to die to those things in our lives which we need to die to, in order to rise to the new life of Easter. Christ’s death and resurrection invites us to our own death and resurrection. Saint Paul writes: “Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried, therefore, with him, by baptism, into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with Christ in a death like his, surely we will be united with Christ in a resurrection like his.” (Romans 6: 4-6) One of the most powerful liturgies for me is the Easter Vigil on Holy Saturday, when we baptize adults who have been in a process of learning and formation during Lent. It is also a time for all the baptized to renew their own baptisms at the Easter Vigil, dying and rising to new life with Christ.

In the life cycle, springtime is symbolic of birth and early childhood. We see the new life in the bunnies and lambs of Easter, which are really leftovers from pagan or earth-centered springtime ritual celebrations. Every Easter, we are invited to let ourselves experience new birth.

Summer is the season of growth, warmth, heat, the buds and plants that burst forth from the earth growing and maturing and bearing fruit. We are aware of the abundance and vitality of the earth in all its fullness. We could say that in the human life cycle, this is the season of adulthood, of coming into our true selves, of developing our careers or venturing onto our vocational paths.

It is a colorful, vibrant season. In the Christian Church this is the season of Pentecost. On the day of Pentecost Jews celebrated the spring barley harvest. For early Christians the day of Pentecost is the birthday of the Christian Church. On this day we also celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit, whose name in both biblical languages of Hebrew (Ruach) and Greek (Pneuma) means Wind, Breath, and Spirit. We are told that a “mighty wind” blew through the house where the disciples were gathered. We are also told that each disciple felt the Holy Spirit breathe within her or him. In Hebrew Ruach is feminine. In Greek it is a neuter word, but a feminine concept. For us summer is about being fruitful. In the life cycle it is also usually the season of marriage and child-bearing, literally “bringing forth fruit!”

Autumn is the season of harvest and ingathering. The vibrant colors burst forth in one final season of glory, and then the leaves fall to the earth, disintegrate, and fertilize the soil, for the hibernation of winter, and the nurturing of the seeds which will come forth in the spring.

Autumn is a season of letting go of those things in our lives, of which we need to let go, but also of celebrating accomplishments, things coming to full fruition, and harvesting our gifts with thanksgiving. In the human lifecycle, autumn is the season of mid-life. We have accomplished much in terms of our families and/or our careers. We are enjoying our successes, the harvests of all of our hard work. We are still full of life, filled with vibrant colors, in fact. There is a fullness and abundance to life. I feel that I am at this stage in my own life.

Finally, there is the season of winter. Okay, so I admit it is my least favorite season. I love the first snow, which I am gazing upon even as I write this. I love the earth blanketed in dazzling, pristine white.

But then the cold starts to get to me. And the darkness. The snow gets packed down and trampled, turns icy and dirty and grey. I get tired of the layers, the short days, of staying inside. The trees stand stark, naked in the grey light. My friend Ginger helped me to see in their bare limbs another kind of beauty, rugged, and raw. My father always said winter is the season of old age in the life cycle. Winter and old age “are not for sissies,” he would say. But as winter forces us to hibernate, to slow down, to rest, so it teaches us the importance of these lessons. For without winter, we would not have the energy to burst forth into the new green shoots of spring.  So, it is winter, but in this pause, in this hibernation, in this darkness, light begins to expand. The days grow longer, the roots dig deeper, the energy gathers, and a turning takes place within us. A turning from darkness to light, from cold to warmth, from death to new life.

No matter what season of life you are in,
this day may you see the holy in all you encounter,
and may you reflect the holy to all you encounter.
Linda Forsberg, Copyright January 27, 2015

Photos:  Across the street/blizzard; our back yard, blizzard; planting our secret garden with Sylvie; Ted, garden; Linda, Nhew Hampshire; Retreat Center, West Hartford; Retreat Center; Newport, blizzard; Rocky Mountains, CO

What Are You Willing to Die For?
(A Crisis in Faith Part 2)

As we know, this week is a national holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This morning my husband Ted and I went to the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Scholarship Breakfast at Rhodes on the Pawtuxet, in Cranston, RI. It is an annual event held every MLK Day, sponsored by the Minister’s Alliance. It is attended by political as well as religious leaders here in the state of Rhode Island, and is open to anyone who wishes to honor Dr. King and be part of the continuation of the work he began during the Civil Rights Movement. Every single speaker this morning, from Governor Gina Raimondo to Mayors Allan Fung of Cranston, Jorge Elorza of Providence, and James Diossa of Central Falls, from Senator Jack Reed to State Representative David Cicilline, from the Executive Director of the RI State Council of Churches, Rev. Dr. Don Anderson, to the President of the Minster’s Alliance, Rev. Dr. Sammy C. Vaughn to the Keynote speaker, Rev. Dr. James Evans, Jr., EVERYONE said that we cannot rest, that as we have seen in recent days in our nation, Dr. King’s dream is not yet a reality, that there is a lot more anti-racism work to be done. We all “amen-ed” our agreement.
The thing that struck me personally the most was when the Keynote speaker said that, “It does no good to throw up your hands in despair.” That was a zinger for me. Last week I wrote about the film Selma. This past weekend I preached four sermons on Dr Martin Luther King’s teaching and challenged people to work for justice. This weekend the youth group at our church got in the newspaper and on the news for their annual Homeless Awareness weekend, held from 12 noon on Saturday till 12 noon on Sunday, to raise awareness about homelessness as well as funds for the RI Family Shelter. This was our nineteenth year. Our youth director also took the youth to see the film Selma, and I did some education about Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement beforehand, because I feel that young people do not realize the sacrifice of those who have gone before them. On the opposite page of Sunday’s Providence Journal, (Section A page 5) was a feature about a RI man named Clifford Montiero, who marched from Selma to Montgomery with Dr. King. Montiero said the same thing, “Young people should see Selma because they don’t know they are walking on shoulders of people who preceded them.”
I was deeply saddened, and deeply outraged, to hear that many of our youth were acting disrespectfully during the film. To me that is sacrilegious. It shows immense disrespect to Dr. King and to all that he believed in, as well as to me, their pastor, our Vicar and youth director. I feel as though they spat in my father’s face. Believe me, I will give them a long, hard “talking to” when we meet for confirmation class this Wednesday night. But their cluelessness sickens me. I go off on rants in my head of conversations I want to have with them about their white privilege, about which they are probably also clueless, which means they have tuned out my sermons and teaching, especially in recent days. I feel the rage of Jesus when he turned over the tables of the moneychangers in the temple. I am so sickened by their cluelessness, that yes, I sometimes feel myself sliding down that slippery slope of despair.
The keynote speaker quoted Edmund Burke,who said “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.” My stepdaughter posted this quote from Dr. King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail on Facebook:

I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
Edmond Burke also said, “Those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.” If history is in the hands of those  members of my youth group, we are in trouble.  I have a lot more educating to do.
Eight years ago my husband and I went to our national ELCA’s (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s) Mission Developer training in Chicago. One of the keynote speakers at that training session changed my husband’s life. He was an hispanic pastor who works in inner city ministry, and shared a story about a life-threatening experience he had while just doing his daily ministry. The message of his story was “What are you willing to die for?” This question has haunted my husband for the past eight years. It continues to shape the way he looks at so many things.
In the film Selma, there was a scene which took place after the march from Selma to Montgomery, when everyone was relieved, and in a subdued way celebrating this victory. Two white clergy persons were talking together about the experience, and why they had come all the way to Alabama to participate in this march. Just then they were attacked by white racists and brutally beaten. As they beat one of them,a 38 year old Unitarian Minister from Boston named James Reeb, the attacker said, “You want to know what it feels like to be a (racial slur)? THIS is what it feels like,” and he beat him to death.
Later, when my husband and I were discussing the film I said that in an ironic way, he did get his wish, and knew with his dying breath what it felt like to be black. My husband said, “It all comes down to that question I always ask myself, “What are you willing to die for?”
Many feel that Dr. King knew he would be killed for the work that he did. In his last speech, delivered at the Mason Temple, Memphis, Tennessee, after saying how much work still needs to be done for equality, Dr. King concluded his speech:

Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!

And so I’m happy, tonight.
I’m not worried about anything.
I’m not fearing any man!
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!!

I ask you, “What are YOU willing to die for?”

Linda R. Forsberg, Copyright January 19, 2015