Lenten Practice Invitation: Forgiveness

During the season of Lent, we are called to intentionally turn our hearts and minds back to God.  We can do this in a multitude of ways - from carving out time for intentional prayer, to fasting (from food, from electronics like e-mail and TV, or from negative thoughts), to volunteering an hour a week, or reading a spiritually uplifting book.  The possibilities are endless.  Individually, we will be invited during the Ash Wednesday Service and  in the first weeks of Lent to prayerfully consider which practices to take on for the 6-week period.

As a community, we will be exploring the spiritual practice of forgiveness.It might initially seem like an odd practice to be taking up.  Why forgiveness?  How is forgiveness related to Lent?  L Gregory Jones writes in “Practicing Our Faith” that
forgiveness has as its central goal “to reconcile, to restore communion – with God, with one another, and with the whole creation.” In other words, forgiveness - both extending it and receiving it - is a central way we turn our hearts and minds back to God...and to our brothers and sisters...and to the world that God so loved.   And if Lent is all about turning our hearts and minds back to God….well, you get the picture.

For some of us, this will be a brand new practice.  Forgiveness might be something you haven’t thought a whole lot about.  For others, this might be a challenging and timely practice.  Perhaps you are dealing with the need for or the lack of forgiveness in an important relationship right now.  And for yet others, this might be a scary practice, one we are hesitant and uncertain about exploring.  Forgiveness can be something that makes us feel incredibly vulnerable.  Wherever you are entering this conversation, I trust that there will be something for you.

But how will we be exploring forgiveness?
Each Sunday, after worship, we will gather in the Annex for S.O.U.P II - Sundays of Uniting Prayer II.   Over a warm, nourishing bowl of soup, we will listen to readings about forgiveness while keeping silence.   Afterwards, we will be invited into small groups of 3 or 4 people for a time of prayer focused on responding to the readings.  All in all, our time of S.O.U.P will not last more than an hour.   I hope you will take advantage of this special season and these special weekly gathering to re-connect to the life-giving spirit of God and to form relationships in this community.

Peace & Grace,  Pastor Emily

Forgiveness is something freely granted, whether earned or deserved; something lovingly offered without thought of acknowledgment or return. It is our way of mirroring the goodness in the heart of a person rather than raising up the harshness of their actions....it allows us to live in the sunlight of the present, not the darkness of the past. Forgiveness alone, of all our human actions, opens up the world to the miracle of infinite possibility.
— Kent Nerburn in Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace