Dear Friends,
Hold on it is windy March.
It is the month that falls THIS year right in the center of our Lenten journey
and it is the month when spring always arrives!
I love March.
Perhaps because I have so many happy memories
of March spring breaks with my children,
off to the beach in Ocean City, Maryland,
at a time, just before the rates at nice hotels would sky rocket.
Indoor pool, beach walking bare feet, T-shirts and shorts,
simply enjoying quality time watching the surf
and especially being with my four children.
March in Maryland, like Maine, is different every year.
Sometimes the wind howls and snow falls while other years
jonquils are blooming and the robins are back and fat!
“March forth!” my pun poet flip side would call out
then I would duck waiting the groans, “Ah, Mom!”
And time does march forth.
Now, though it feels like my kiddos should be 6-10,
they are 21-to nearly 32. I still call them up and nudge “March forth”
Now, they still groan but seem a bit more tolerant.
I look out onto the Ellsworth United Methodist Church congregation
and I believe I am seeing a “Marching” group:
sunny, breezy, excited about mission, invigorating to be with.
EUMC folk are filled with ideas and hopes for new beginnings.
So as we match together, connected by our faith,
following in the footsteps of Jesus as “the Way,”
“We are marching in the light of God”
as the lyrics to the South African hymn
# 2235 b from Faith We Sing , “O, we are marching!
in the light of God.”
As I write this letter I wonder how everyone is doing
with your Lenten resolution or promise
“promises to keep” as you journey through these weeks,
which may seem like miles and “miles to go before you sleep”
(to paraphrase Robert Frost).
I wonder how many of you are enjoying the Heifer Lenten calendar
as much as I am.
Taped to my refrigerator (a great show place)
I look at it every morning anxious to see
what I am required (or asked ) to do.
“10 cents for every house plant.”
Easy. I only have 9. So I gave $1.00.
Read Matthew 25:34-36 – I’ll let you check on your own.
“Eat an egg and think of chickens” given by Heifer
so young farmers can begin to grow their own food.
What other Lenten promises have you made?
Read the Bible every day.
Read or sing a hymn and think of the words
and if you have picked one with a catchy tune,
you’ll be singing that hymn all day
and that’s not a bad thing.
My other Lenten resolution has been to keep
a journal and write every day:
a poem, a reflection, a memory, a quote
that has popped in my head and stays.
And, I have found words have been pouring out of me.
Also a poem, which I will end this letter with,
but first here’s a few calendar events for you to remember:
March 7 reflection theme will be water,
4:00 Joyful Jazz will perform “Singing for our Supper”
followed by your choice: fish chowder or beef stew.
This is a benefit concert for Loaves and Fishes food pantry.
March 14 I will ask folks to reflect on
“God is watching us” and a God’s Eye
will be something to look at,
while keeping silent for 3 minutes.
March 21 we will have a special time of anointing.
March 28, Palm Sunday, the Rainbow Girls will help
us celebrate with readings and a few songs from
“Jesus Christ Super Star”
my sermon that Sunday (it will be short)
is “I Don’t Know How to Love Him”
The Him? If you guessed Jesus,
you can give yourself a gold star!
So let me leave you with a tiny poem,
inspired by a wonderful poet, Lucille Clifton,
who died recently – too soon, too soon.
Lucille once wrote a poem with the words “some Jesus”
I hope as your make your journey, Marching through Lent
You will come to know more and more about “some one named Jesus”
the Jesus
who nobody knew
meets the you
who no one knows
embrace
and there is peace.
May God Bless, Pastor Susan Yaruta-Young
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