Tuesday, March 22: Katherine Williams

What wrong did your ancestors find in me that they went far from me, and went after worthless things, and became worthless themselves? - Jeremiah 2:1-13

It is so easy to put things before God … and when we do it, we really do it in a big way. That book, that DVD, that piece of jewelry, those tickets to the opera or baseball games, ballet, or symphony! They usually come first.

It really can be so simple: we could try to do without some of these “must-haves.” I have been trying it, and every time I decided I didn’t need this or that, I felt good about it and I began to wonder about what I could with it, to the Glory of God. Each time I was drawn to think about God and the Church.

It isn’t all about the “golden calf.” It is about our ability to sidestep God in so many ways, missing so many of God’s gifts. During Lent we might decide to do without something we consider a favorite thing. And in the space that has been created, look for God’s presence in your life.

—Katherine B. Williams

Thursday, March 17: Ed Flinchem

A sabbath rest still remains for the people of God.

- Hebrews 4:1-10

The Creator rested on the seventh day; contemplating creation, God knew it to be good. When we keep the sabbath, we are invited, among other things, to contemplate our works of the preceding days. We may ask ourselves, “What have I done? What have I left undone?” If I am to grow in harmony with my fellow beings, I know I must ask myself those questions over and over again. I must rest from my labors to make space in my mind to frame the questions.

Jesus spent 40 days in the wilderness, the desert. What is the desert but a space physically empty of the food and comforts and companionship, so near at hand in the inhabited places of the earth? In that vast physical wilderness, I see a metaphor of psychic empty space, a mindful space uncrowded by the pressing concerns of the day and society, a necessary open space for The Word to enter in. In the vastness of the desert, Jesus answered questions put to him by the tempter, such as, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Forgoing something precious to me for 40 days creates an opening in my personal time and space to contemplate large questions.

Lent I can see in one way as the sabbath writ large, one a metaphor for the other, each an essential time and space to be open, to be quiet and to listen for the eternal calling of The Word.

—Ed Flinchem