Dear Friends,
The preacher and writer Frederick Buechner begins a sentence that way. And concludes it with, “See it for the fathomless mystery that it is.” It’s a good description of what we often think of as the season of Lent. This is what it looks like to me, perched on the edge of Palm Sunday and Holy Week.
Life is a fathomless mystery. Well worth exploring! During Lent we welcomed six people into membership – each one a fathomless mystery. One the son of a Jewish father and a Roman Catholic mother; one who understands herself as a Deist; one who grew up Catholic and found herself confused by our Protestant worship service; one who identifies himself as an atheist (having grown up in very conservative Protestant Christianity); one who has recently become sober. The fathomless mystery evident in these little snippets reminds me of the gift of each fathomless mystery in the pew and outside of the pew!
Lynnette and I talk every week about the people who cross our paths in the parish. On Monday Lynnette called me to celebrate the wonderful conversations she had with the United Women of Faith on Sunday afternoon. She was filled to overflowing.
This week I was reading a book by Thomas Lynch (poet and essayist from Michigan and Ireland), in it he says: “…what we are all called to do [is]: to embolden, encourage, behold, ennoble, instruct and inspire our fellow human beings in troubling times.” Amen and Amen.
Keep tellin’ the Story,
Mike
If you would, listen and enjoy this hymn of attention, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, by the Aeolians of Oakwood University accompanied by harp and organ.
This week’s takeaway: Lent reminds us, if we pay attention, there are fathomless mysteries all around us.