ps from ps… How many thresholds have you already walked through today? Doors? Transitions? I bet more than you think! And I bet you barely noticed.
I mean think of your morning. Mine went like this: bedroom to bathroom to bedroom to hallway to stairs to dining room to kitchen to coffee pot. Eight thresholds before I even got my first cup of coffee. This clearly explains why I didn’t most of them!
Door, thresholds and transitions take us from one thing to the other, one place to the other, one room to the other. From home to car to work to lunch to work again to car to home to dinner to random sporting event on tv and back to bed again. Some days we blitz through them so fast, we barely notice a thing. Think through your day already today…how many did you walk through?
The door that we walk through this coming weekend is the threshold and transition between Lent and Holy Week. And Jesus DOES NOT want those who were there the first time, and those that are going through it this time, to miss it. He’s been going toward the cross since he came through the door in the stable into a manger. However, many on that first Palm Sunday are just noticing the threshold themselves.
“Get the donkey so they notice.” Cue the Palms!! Make it obvious!! But even when they noticed, they didn’t fully understand the threshold they were in. “Hosanna. Hosanna!” But that’s not what Jesus was there to do.
Jesus knew the door through which he was walking. And he knew the threshold it would allow to open for us.
Did you notice THAT doorway today? As we move toward Palm Sunday again, will you realize the depth of what this transition holds?
Notice the doorways today. The ones you’ve been through, the ones you’re about to enter and, of course, the one Jesus opened for us all.
Lord, thanks for the important door being open for us all. Help me notice! Amen
ps from ps… This is my friend and colleague Lee Miller (pictured above). When he’s not being the lead pastor at Holy Trinity Lutheran or Dean of a group of Lutheran churches or a husband or dad, he’s running. Running with a purpose. Running for self-care.
Now some would say, myself included, that he looks a lot like Forrest Gump when he does…. but that is not his intent either. His intent is simply to make sure that there is enough time in the day for self-care, prayer and reflection.
He started at the beginning of the pandemic and just kept it going everyday. Here’s what he said yesterday as his streak went to 365 straight days.
“One year ago I began this running streak committing myself to 30 minutes of #selfcare each day of the pandemic and inviting you to #loveyourself with a little bit of daily exercise, too. Remember when we only thought this would last a few weeks? 365 days later I’m still running. I’ve gone through three pairs of shoes and have run the same day as a colonoscopy and a root canal (not the same day.) I hope you can take time to care for yourself as we continue to take time to #loveoneanother. I acknowledge that I run with privilege and so on my runs I remember #ahmaudarbery and many more. Let’s keep on #runningtherace until we can all be together again. What’s your preferred form of self-care?”
Wow. One full year of running everyday. One full year of self-care. One full year of giving himself time for reflection and centering each day.
As we move through Lent, I invite you to start or restart that self-care for yourself….that reflection, meditation, centering and prayer time for yourself. Your Self! You deserve that time to bless and re-bless what God has created! Walking. Running. Counting steps. Movement. Yoga. Silence. Sitting with your coffee. Reading. Whatever it might be, take it for you and for your time to reconnect with God. (I do highly encourage you to merge your meditation/prayer with your movement, if you haven’t already, to be able to bless your body, mind and soul all at once.)
So today, whether it’s Day 1 or Day 366, run, you, run! (Catch the Forrest Gump reference there?) Whatever it is, take the time for your Self.
Lord, thanks for blessing my Self. Help me stay connected to it and you! Amen
ps from ps… Dorothy Menth. An important name today.
Many of you reading this have no idea who Dorothy is. You won’t read about her in a history book. You can’t Google her and she can’t pull up Google because she doesn’t own a computer and wants nothing to do with the internet. She is a gem and loved by many, many people!
Dorothy is a long time missionary at St. Paul’s Lutheran and now lives at Amberleigh Senior Living Center. And today, I am going to visit with her and take her Communion. And she will be my first home visit to share Communion in almost exactly one year. One. Year.
I never thought I’d go one year in between home Communion visits but I also never anticipated a global pandemic shutting normal life down. Just never imagined it possible. But now we are starting to make progress moving forward and creating a new normal to live into.
As we cross the various shapes and sizes and styles of this “one year” threshold, I just want to invite you into some time of reflection, meditation and prayer. (If you’re in WNY, I invite you to do it while getting out on a beautiful day for a run or walk while contemplating because it’s beautiful and this is the last day of Biegner Winter!)
So many things have happened and changed in this past year. My seminary Professor Tony Everett invited us to be constantly asking, “WIGIAT – Where Is God In All This?” So I ask you the same thing today and invite you to spend some time in that question.
Where was/is God in all this past year? Where were you blessed despite all the changes? Where were you carried by faith in the hardest of times? Where did God’s promise of Easter become reality for you? Where did that promise pull you through the Good Fridays?
One year. For me, it’s framed by the last First Communion training I did for our youth at church and the Communion I’ll share with Dorothy today. Those are good bookends. That’s just one of the places God has been.
Where has God been for and with you?
Lord, for your presence in my life over the past difficult year, I give you thanks. Amen
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