LENT: There is One Among Us Whom We Do Not Know

As the Worship Working Group prayed through the readings for Lent this year, we found them full of questions about identity:

•    How will you respond?
•    How did this happen?
•    Will you embrace or deny who you are?
•    Who am I?
•    Who is this?
•    Who are you?

The questions are not just about Jesus. They relate to the other people in the stories, and to us.

Jesus’ temptations in the wilderness asked him to act in splashy, spectacular ways, when his call was to share the lives, joys, and struggles of ordinary people. Nicodemus was baffled by Jesus’ talk of being born from above; what did it mean, and who was this person he was conversing with? The woman of Samaria was confused by Jesus’ actions, as were his disciples: who is this that acts this way? The healing of the man born blind does not bring excitement, wonder and rejoicing. Rather, it gives rise to questions and suspicion by the authorities and even by his parents. The raising of Lazarus makes us wonder why Jesus waited. Did he see the opportunity to teach a lesson as more important than a human life? The Palm Sunday text shows us the crowd being moved, again asking who is this? The Passion text gives us a different crowd mentality, one that challenges Jesus to show who he is by saving himself – a variation of the wilderness temptations. Saving his life would deny who he was and why he came. The resurrection story is one of immediacy, movement, suddenness, and questions about what happens now.

We are asked to engage these stories of scripture, our own stories, and those of the various people in our lives. We are challenged to ask of ourselves “Who am I?” and to be with others as they grapple with the same question. Together, we move toward discovery of “Who are you?” and “Who are we?” Individually and collectively, we are asked to discover and embrace who we are, even when it is difficult or inconvenient.

As we enter the season of Lent, we are invited to be attentive to those that we do not know: ourselves, family and friends, coworkers, people we have just met. We are given the opportunity to discover who is among us.

We will be trying something a little different this year. Instead of a Lenten Devotional prepared by members of our community, we will be allowing our theme to grow in us together, through song and through physical space.

Linked here you will find our prayer chant for the season, “There is One Among Us.“ Our hope is that it will become a friend in the wilderness, praying in and among you, and us.

Before or after worship each week, we also invite you to visit the little chapel (or landing place) at the top of the stairs, beside the balcony. If you are unable to visit in person, we invite you to create a chapel where you are and, should you feel so led, to share pictures with us. 

When asked to describe the invitation of this space, which has been so lovingly tended by Connie Swanson, Rev. Sharon Huey, and Pamela Green, Connie offered this poem. Let it be the first of many blessings this Lenten season…

The Landing at Balcony Level
We are opening a space for interior encounter
For listening to all that breaks the heart
It is the landing at balcony level, nearest the Social Hall
It looks like a foyer, a widened place where we prepare to enter
Up close it looks a bit like a closet with items no longer used
Items outgrown.
Noise from the Social Hall can crowd out the quiet,
But like the world where our grief is born
We are invited to wait, to bless the sounds of our community,
To notice what we’ve outgrown
A closet of a place to become quiet