Our theme for our worship services during Lent this year is Holy Vessels: a Lenten Season of Recovery. Our scripture passages will come from the healing stories found in Matthew, chapters 8-10. The main metaphor for this series is shards of beach glass. “Each of us is created a holy vessel of embodied love. Our sense of wholeness has been shattered. And so this Lent will be a ‘season of recovery’ after the toxicity of the past year. We will witness Jesus’ solidarity with those who suffer, and seek healing practices for body, mind, and spirit, personal and communal, creating beauty from that which feels broken.”
We began our Lenten Season of Recovery last night with an online Ash Wednesday service on the theme “Shattered.” You can view the video of that service below. . This Sunday our theme will be “Treasure” as we ponder Jesus’ healing of a leper in Matthew 8:1—4. “Beach glass begins as something whole and yet discarded. As it is tumbled by the sea, it is broken and polished until it becomes a treasured “mineral gem.” We do not embrace that suffering is necessary or God-given, but that suffering is a part of life. When pain comes and brokenness enters our lives, Jesus reaches out to touch and remind us of the Treasure that we all are–worthy of new life in the midst of hopelessness. In a year when pandemic has wreaked havoc on our world, we begin by affirming our journey to physical health.” May we be open to the healing that Jesus offers us.
In Christ, Ernie