As Sr. Mary pointed out last Sunday, we are continuing our theme from Lent 2023 for Lent 2024 and are inviting you to join us in a “revolution,” a revolution of contemplation.
Each Sunday, we will offer a time of silent prayer after communion, with a theme for the week to encourage us in our prayer. The theme for the Second Sunday of Lent is Awareness, Seeing in New Ways.
The following commentary is heavily based on the article “Now What?” by Rev. Diana L. Wilcox. In this article, Rev. Wilcox draws extensively on the writings of Barbara Brown Taylor. What follows is taken from both authors:
Then a voice from the cloud lifts the hairs on the back of your neck. Fear so fast and primitive, you’re bristling like a dog. What’s the voice saying? Not “listen to me” but “listen to him.” The Son, the Beloved. But listen to what? He’s not saying anything. He’s shining. Or at least he was. Now he’s not. Now it’s over. Now what?” Now we come down off the mountain…and we walk. We walk with our questions, as we walk with the answers…the ones we don’t see, the ones yet to be revealed. And that is why Lent, is so very powerful. It is a time of questioning, searching, returning, experiencing. A time to let wonder and amazement happen – or really, to see the wonder and amazement that is right there in front of us – happening all the time.
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, once said “Our goal should be to live life in radical amazement. To be spiritual is to be amazed.”
“…to live life in radical amazement…” What would that be like? That, my friends, is why we get the transfigured Jesus now – just as we turn with Jesus toward Jerusalem in Lent. It is the moment we grab off the mountain, the shining glint of hope we pick up amidst the din, the gift of wonder we carry in our hearts as we strip away the trappings of church and life that distract us. It is the time we allow ourselves to simply be, rather than do, to listen rather than speak, to question…yes, to question…because we just might be in awe of what we find.
Because the wonder of the Christian experience is ours to see and feel…we just need to be open to it, but not always search for it, to ask questions, but not need answers. To sometimes just say “I don’t know – at least not yet.” To see the transfigured, the transcendent, that is in front of us every day – the Christ in ourselves and in the world.
To see in new ways!
What might this mean concretely for Lent?
During this second week of Lent when we invite you to focus on Awareness let us pray for being open to ways that will stir seeing in new ways.
What can foster seeing the shining glint of hope in my life?
We might ask ourselves what keeps us from being deaf to the voice telling me to listen to him?
Today we would also like to invite you to stay with your own questions, because they might just lead you to radical amazement.
To read Rev. Diana L. Wilcox’s article in full visit: https://christchurchepiscopal.org/now-what/.
