SamEpisco

Second Wednesday in Lent

WOW!  The response to last week was really amazing.  We have had over 80 people check out the blog, and I have had about 50 emails sent to me directly.  Thank-you to all who took the time to read the blog, and I had many, very touching emails sent.  I am sorry I haven't replied to everyone's email yet, I really wasn't prepared for the initial wave of responses.  I will get to you all, I promise!   I already knew it, but it really has reminded me how life at college really can get quite complex, and complicated, sometimes. But, I do believe it really does help to have some community of support to talk, think, and pray through it sometimes.  Please know you can email me directlly anytime.  Also, if you want to post a reply for others to comment on, you can do that as well.  (By the way, those replies also get sent directly to my email so "annonomously" as well, and I will do that later today. 

Again, I will update this blog once a week for Lent, mostly because I think that's a reasonable Lenten Observance for you all.  However, there are daily mediations available as well, and you can go to the website I provided last week to register for that, or just email me, and I can do that for you.  A few people have already requested it, and its easy for me to do for you.

Below is the meditation for this week.  I like it, but it does occur to me that this her "reconnecting with God" gets reinforced by her weekly attendance at church, which I assume, is not typical for most college students (although I know a couple of you do go every week, or a couple times a month.)  So, I am wondering, for you, do you have anything that helps support or reinforce your reconnecting with God, or the Holy part of your life and soul?

Agape, Sam McDonald

Read Matthew 11:28–30

"Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I
will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle
and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."

When I fail to make time for God in my daily life, when I do not stop
to pray or spend time with the Word, it catches up with me. It recently
happened like this: I am in church, a hymn begins; suddenly, I am hearing
for the first time because the message is so urgent: "It's me, it's me,
Oh Lord, standing in the need of prayer." This old song that I first
learned with my grandma at her childhood campground is a tune I
know by heart. I stood singing the words when—without warning—I
got a rush of the Lord's presence in a strange and new way. I sang these
words in earnest, realizing that I had turned my back on God and I was
crying out "It's me, it's ME."

Standing in need. I go to church every Sunday; I have sung this
song for over thirty years. This time, it was different. God got my attention
with a familiar tune, in a familiar place, and I sang with a genuine
plea: "not my brother, not my sister, but it's me, Oh Lord."

Lord, teach me to sit still.
I am listening, Lord, for _________________________________________

An Ash Wednesday Meditation

I was sent this awesome Lenten Meditation Guide from the Higher Education Ministries Arena.  Its called Sitting Still by Lois McCullen Parr with weekly meditations by Erin Brown.  You can find the whole thing here, http://www.cescm.org/orderguide.html, I highly recommend it.  I thought I would draw from it for our time together during Lent.  Here is an excerpt from the Introduction:

Beginning with the tradition of ashes on one's forehead, symbolizing death and sorrow for sin, Lent began for me a few years ago with the re-reading of T.S. Eliot's poem "Ash Wednesday." Eliot's prayer poem pleads with God to "Teach us to care and not to care/Teach us to sit still." I decided that year to discipline myself to read the poem every day of Lent.

T.S. Elliot's poem can be found here:  http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/ash-wednesday/

but here is the wonderful meditation for Ash Wednesday in the guide:

Read Psalm 37:3-7

Let the Lord lead you and trust the Lord to help. (CEV)

I own a Zen mditation book called "That Which You Are Seeking Is Causing You to Seek," and I have quoted its title often to name what I observe in the problems college sttudents describe to me.  The thrust of the book is this:  stop working so hard at seeking-just sit down and pay attention. Hold still.  It is a lesson I have learned over and over again (and am still learning):  when I am still, listening to the sounds around me and taking in the world with all my senses, I find a peace that eludes me when I frantically try to find it.  This is simple advice, but so hard to practice.  In this season of Lent when we see the world move from winter to spring, when we feel the renewal of life around us, we can readily find God.  Just walk outside and listen to the birds.  Hold still long enought to take in the details of God's creative energy.  Take a deep breath.  Stop trying so hard.

Lord, teach me to sit still. 

I am listening, Lord, for _________________________________________________

I really wonder how would you would finish that sentence.  What are you listening for?   How radical an idea is it for you to stop working so hard at seeking, and just sti down, pay attention, hold still.  Stop trying so hard, and just "be?" 

Agape, Sam

Its Ash Wednesday, should you go to church?

Heck, I don't know if you ought to go to church, that's up to you!  Is that an awful thing for a youth minister to say?  Maybe it would be better to follow up with the question with a question, like, "Why would you?"  Well, it is the beginning of Lent, that season that we know is suppossed to be really serious.  But why would YOU want to go?  Is the message the church has to offer you really relevant?  Does it make any connection to you and your soul any more? 

There have been so many times when a young person has explained with great intensity why they only come to church to see their friends, not because they believe in any of this stuff.  That is fine with me, I really have no problem with that.  But time and time again, I have seen those same young people drawn to worship because it provides them something they can't describe or understand, but yet it provides comfort, connection, healing, and solace.  You don't have to believe everything to believe anything.  God takes us just where we are, and is stretching and reaching out to meet us there.  There is comfort and healing to be found in the spiritual life, even if we don't believe in one bit of it.  I can't explain that, I just know I have seen it, and experienced myself, time and time again. 

So, you know what, I have changed my mind.  Should you go to church today and have someone put ashes on your forehead?  Yup, you should, especially if you are asking about it.  Do everthing you can to find some church today that is imposing ashes.  I mean, if you are asking, then maybe its because you know you need something, something you can't put words to yet.  But you don't want to be a hyprocrite, because you haven't worked out everything you believe and don't believe.  I understand, I really do, I remember that feeling.  For me, though, I have reached a point where the basis of my faith is in sharing hand-in-hand all my beliefs and my doubts.  They change a lot, in fact.  It sometimes gets hard keeping up with them.  But I am on the journey, seeking, looking deeper, trying to find the divine.  God is there.  Sometimes I can see it so clearly, sometimes, well, I think we are just food for worms.  But in those times when I experience the divine, and realize I am a very small part of something much bigger, well, there just isn't anything else like that feeling.  Sometimes, every now and then, sitting in a mostly empty church, with a group of people I don't know, and I walk up and some person in strange liturgical garments, saying some strange words, rubbing black ash made from burn Palm Sunday palms, connects me to that feeling.  Yeah, in some strange way, every now and then, it connects.

So, go, try.  Seek, ask, listen.  Get connected.  Maybe.

Almighty God, you have created us out of the dust of the earth: Grant that these ashes may be to us a sign of our mortality and penitence, that we may remember that it is only by your gracious gift that we are given everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Saviou. Amen.

Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

(excerpts from the Ash Wednesday Service, The Book of Common Prayer, pg 265) 

Sam goes Blogging!

It all started about 8 or 9 years ago when a group of college students who had been in youth group together in High School told told me they really missed that sense of community where we could talk about our hopes, dreams, fears, and joys.  So, we started an email bible study during Advent and Lent that quickly grew to 40 or 50 college students talking about the nature of evil and good, isolation and abondament, hypocrisy, and frankly, anything we wanted to talk about.  I would post some reflection, comment, and scipture on a Wednesday night, and comments and comments on the comments and so and so on, would flow over the course of the week. 

I had taken a hiatus from the Bible Study the last couple of years, I thought it might have run its course, but I have been getting some of those comments again.  So, here we are, gathering across vast geographic areas in this virtual world that you all are much more comfortable in than I am. Its time for this ministry to reemerge, and I really hope you come along with us.  I am trying the blogging format.  I think it will have all kinds of advantages over the old email routine, in particular the ability for everyone to engage in discussion. 

I will post some groundrules for us to support the community life and discussion in a positive way.

I imagine will start with a Wednesday night postings, and see how that flows. 

Lent is a great time to engage with this type of spirtual discipine to open our hearts, souls, and minds to the spiritual life.