Wednesday, February 26, is the first day of Lent for 2020. You probably knew this already because it was mentioned at worship last Sunday or because Mardi Gras was Tuesday night. Lent is a period of 44 days of reflection and sacrifice. How do you personalize the season of Lent in your life? Sue and I visited Hope Lutheran Church in Palm Desert, California this past Sunday and along with the bulletin we were given a calendar for Lent. The calendar offers a daily opportunity to go beyond one’s regular routine to take action in the spirit of this season. Here are the suggestions for the first two weeks: Feb 26 Ash Wednesday – Have an ash cross put on your forehead Feb 27 Don’t text today, just
We'd all like to know that when we leave a job that there is someone in the wings with the skills and desire to take over the responsibility. If we care at all about the work that we do, we want to ensure that it will continue to be carried out well when we are no longer there. I chuckle to think of Jesus' succession plan. He did his job preaching to the people about the redemptive power of God's love. He had a loyal set of followers. But the disciples are presented as being a bit dense sometimes. They followed Jesus, perhaps blindly, without always understanding what he was teaching. These are the people Jesus left to carry on his job? Sometimes, the most surprising people rise up to fill a
St. Stephen’s is the only church and church family that I have ever known. It was my father’s family church and the only church that he would attend. My mother (insisting that we attend church) called his bluff, and we drove from the Red Lion/Bear area every week for Sunday School and services. Back in the late 1950s, that was a trek. For the better part of a century, nearly all of the Gooden family baptisms, confirmations, weddings & funerals have been conducted at St Stephen's. Even so, I have always had difficulty accepting the mystery and spirituality of our faith. I absolutely believe that if we follow the tenets set forth by Jesus, the world becomes a better place. (Love Thy neighbor..
On Sunday morning, if you watched TV at all, you were treated to the annual visit of Punxsutawney Phil, the groundhog tasked with telling the world whether spring will come early or not. He is not the only weather-predicting groundhog, and he doesn’t even have the best weather-predicting record. He does, however, have great PR, and so the whole world knows about Punxsutawney Phil. Let's be real. No matter what the groundhog “says,” spring comes on March 21st. This is all about winter and spring as a state of mind. But there is an amazing history behind that brown-creature and weather prediction. You also need to know that February 2, Groundhog Day, is known as Candlemas, an even-older religi
