This weekend we celebrate our annual collaboration with Temple Shir Tikva with shabbat services at 6:15pm in Wayland (link here) and 11am worship at United Parish.
This Lent (March 5-April 19), we follow the Sanctified Art series “Everything in Between,” an invitation to navigate the polarities in our lives, like “faith & works” or “rest & growth,” or “grief & hope.” We will continue to follow Jesus’ ministry in the Gospel of Luke and imagine together where God can meet us “in between.” In it all we acknowledge complexity in our spiritual lives, that God shows up in shades of gray, rainbow hues and everywhere in between.
Do you ever lose things? A pair of sunglasses? a book you’re reading? a lone glove in winter? earbuds? an ID? keys? a wallet?
It can drive you crazy, right? I hate losing even the smallest thing, like a tube of chapstick. I will search and search. I’ve been known to bike back miles in the dark or at sunrise to find reading glasses on the sidewalk. One time, my iPhone flew off my car on Route 128, unbeknownst to me, and with the help of FindMyPhone, I was able to recover it on the highway shoulder the next morning. My wallet has been returned to me more than once: via Facebook, a former Marine calling the church, a bystander calling a friend’s number tucked in with my credit cards.
When things are found: Wow! There is such relief, such satisfaction. It’s worth a small celebration. And I take delight in finding other people’s lost items in ways that will get them back to their owner. It seems like an everyday exercise in karma.
In Luke chapter 15, Jesus talks a lot about what it means to be lost and found and how God views each one of us, all of us, when we are lost. God delights when we are found again. God won’t give up the search.
On Sunday, we will worship again with our friends and spiritual siblings from Temple Shir Tikva in Wayland, celebrating the collaboration that our own Music Minister Susan DeSelms and Cantor Hollis Schachner forged 14 years ago. Their Associate Rabbi Lisa Eiduson has graciously agreed to help us continue in our Lenten theme by offering a d’rash (interpretation) of our Gospel text. I’m looking forward to this interfaith message!
Our two choirs will merge once again to sing some of their favorites from this decade of collaboration. Come for the joyful celebration. Bring your friends!
In faith,
Kent
Image credit: Lost & Found by Lisle Gwynn Garrity. Inspired by Luke 15:1-7. Newspaper & gold leaf collage with digital drawing. © a sanctified art | sanctifiedart.org
