The beginning of Lent

Upper Arlington Lutheran Church (UALC) is a multi-campus Lutheran Congregation (NALC) located in Upper Arlington, Hilliard, and Columbus, Ohio. At three locations we have nine services and 4 worship styles on Sunday, two traditional (at Lytham only), celebration/contemporary (two at Mill Run and one Lytham), X-alt (two at Mill Run and one Lytham), and blended (at Hilltop).

There are a number of opportunities for Ash Wednesday, the traditional starting date for Lent, when Christians observe 40 days before Easter (not counting Sundays) of prayer, service, and repentence.

Ash Wednesday, March 9
Services at Lytham Road, 2300 Lytham Rd., Upper Arlington, OH 43220
6:30 am, Spoken service with communion
12:00 pm, Traditional service with communion, light lunch following
6:00 pm, Family service, ashes for children
7:30 pm, Traditional service with communion

Services at Mill Run, 3500 Mill Run Dr., Hilliard, OH 43026
6:30 pm, Family service, ashes for children, with communion
7:30 pm, Contemporary service with communion

Service at Hilltop, 12 S. Terrace Ave., Columbus, OH 43204
7:00 pm, Worship with communion

People Magazine in Haiti

My husband recently returned from a short term mission trip in Haiti. The poverty and lack of infrastructure are astounding--no electricity, no running water, no police force, no garbage control or pick up, but because this was his third trip, it's not as shocking as the first time. Mid-week he picked up a People Magazine one of the members of the team had brought along. It's not a magazine we read--he sees it occasionally at the doctor or dentist office. He said he started to leaf through it, then in disgust put it down. What a terrible depiction of our culture--the mindless consumerism, the groveling over entertainers, the glorification of unmarried motherhood. Whose culture is poor?

To read about Haitian culture, see our Pam Mann's Creole Crusts, Lenten Devotions. At the UALC website. You can download it or pick a copy up at any of the church locations. Imagine having your personal items stolen, and then confronting the thief when you see her wearing your clothes, only to be told you should be thankful not more was taken! As a Christian, just where is your treasure?

Ash Wednesday

Easter is really early this year. Our Lytham location had 3 services--early a.m., noon, and 7:30. My husband and I served communion for the evening service. In the morning at Panera's almost everyone I saw had the gray cross on their foreheads. The ashes are from last year's Palm Sunday, I've been told. One family of five that I recognized sat near by and the father prayed over their bagels--and it was a long prayer--I think in his language, although the three children speak beautiful English. It was a beautiful way to start the Lenten season.

Cross posted at Coffee Spills

Listening

One of the advantages of blogging is being able to link to the items you want to share, but since I also print and bind mine, I've just got to provide the heart of this one. It's from Pomegranate and Paper.

"Yesterday in church, the priest asked what we had chosen as our Lentan penance. I squirmed a little in the pew because, as I wrote last week, I don't do the "what I gave up for Lent thing". And then he said that he had a suggestion for anyone who hadn't chosen a "penance" yet. He suggested that we chose what he considered the hardest penance of all: listening. Specifically, listening to someone that we don't like to listen to, someone with whom we are not sympatico.

He described listening as a physical and spiritual act. He suggested we listen without words, that is, that we truly listen without forming a reply, without thinking of what to say next, and without chiming in with what was bothering us. He spoke of listening as the act of opening up fully to another and receiving their words without judgment, without reaction, and without an eye on the clock. My mind immediately raced to all the times I've been impatient with listening: to my kids as I'm just home from work, to my mother in law on the phone with her repetitive list of complaints, to my own mother when she wants to tell me about the intrigues around the mah jong table, and to my husband when he just needs to tell me how he feels and have me accept what he says.

I'm working on listening this week. To really hearing what others are telling me. Sometimes that means listening more to the silences than to the words. I find that listening quiets the words in my own head. It takes me out of my self, beyond my needs, and my mind racing from thought to thought."