This is the second Sunday in a series around spirituality.  I am glad to follow up on Ian's treatment of spirituality last week and to explore some progressive understandings of the traditional Christian season of Lent which began February 25.

In this series, as with all Sundays, I ask you to be mindful of your own particular convictions and what is meaningful to you.  You need not conform to what I say or think today.  Be mindful of what is meaningful for you around Lent or spirituality.

I was reminded how difficult it is for some churches to deal with real gritty issues such as sex and sexuality - as Ian honestly and daringly presented two weeks ago on Mardi Gras Sunday, our annual exploration of the body and party spirit.  We get squeamish and embarrassed; we deem things inappropriate at times because of our perceptions, hang-ups and filters with various words and themes. So on a lighter note, I want to read a few bulletin headlines sent to me by one of you present this morning.  These headlines show how human we all are and that we need not take ourselves too seriously.  Our humanity and our church life can be honest and open. It can contain all that is unseemly, all that is beautifully inspiring, all that is humorous, all that is difficult, all this is comforting. Listen to some of these oldies but goodies: (slightly modified)

The social activities committee of CCC is planning a chili supper - with music to follow; 

Tonight you are invited to explore the topic of "What is hell?"  And Jackie Fisher adds, "Come early to listen to our choir practice."

Allison will facilitate the weight watchers group who will meet at 7:00 in the east wing of the church. Please use large double doors at the side entrance.

Chad Beyer and the 8th graders will be presenting Shakespeare's Hamlet on Friday.  The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy.

Ted Poulton unveiled the church's new pledge campaign slogan last Sunday.  "I upped my pledge, up yours."

Betty Van Till, in an advanced notice indicated to all ladies of the congregation:  don't forget the upcoming garage sale in June. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house.  Bring your husbands."

And Barb Kelly, our nursery coordinator writes:  For those of you have children and don't know it, we have nursery downstairs. 

The wellness Center upstairs facilitates the low self-esteem support group who will meet here on Thursdays.  Please use the back door. 

And finally, there will be a hymn sing in the park across the street from the church.  Bring a blanket and come prepared to sin. 

We and the church have made understandings of spirituality very complicated and serious. It is an unwieldy area, but it need not be so.  We have affirmed that we understand spirituality and spiritual practice in the here and now.being open-eyed, amazed and at one with the moment.  Remember the Zen Buddhist monk who asked the teacher how to attain enlightenment? The teacher asked the student if he had breakfast. The student said yes.  The teacher then says, wash your breakfast bowls.  And that was it.  We have overlooked an obvious dynamic when it comes to living our lives with mindful spirituality amidst the practical and ordinary:  We overlook the fact that we need only to see everything we do, say and think with new eyes and sensitivities.  Beauty and spirituality are all around, between and within.  It is our orientation to what we do that matters.how we do it rather than what we do or when we do it.

I am frequently asked how to get closer to God, how to be more spiritual.or how do I understand God's will.  In the New Testament we read that one needs to explore the renewal of the mind - the waking up to the realities all around with new eyes and understanding. In the Hebrew Scriptures we only need to read in the prophet Micah chapter 6.  What is required of us?  What is pleasing to God? To do justice, to love kindness and to walk humbly.  That's it.  What more do we need?  What do those phrases mean to you?  How would you live them out?

Cardinal Newman said, "That to live is to change and to be perfect is to have changed often."  Our lives, this community, our spirituality, our humanity are about change and seeing things differently. 

There was a man who was asked to tend to his grandmother. She is 97 years old, sharp of mind, but failing in body.  The man picked her up and helped her into his SUV, carefully helping her move her failing legs into the car and then fastening the seat belt around her.  They proceeded to her favorite breakfast spot.  While walking in the restaurant arm in arm the man could hear people say in murmered kinds of ways, Isn't that Mrs. So and so and who is she with?  Later, the food was brought out and enjoyed.  Soon, a man approached the table and recounted some memories from when he and one of her boys played as friends in the backyard -back in the 1940s.  After the man left, the Grandmother recounted other memories from before the motor law - and when horses and buggies ruled the streets.  How her sister fell off a runaway horse scared from loud automobiles.  The man took the grandmother back to her home and reflected.

For the man, what started as a mild obligation to tend to his grandmother, the experience turned into a beautiful sacrament and his eyes were opened.  He found himself so fortunate to be the one grandchild who could have these experiences. He found himself proud to be with this matriarch of Holland; he found himself warmed and softened to be in her presence and to listen to her encounter things long past.  He saw her as an amazing gift to this world; he found himself dwelling in gratitude for all she had set into motion throughout the generations.  He found that in eating with her, they were breaking bread and experiencing the hospitality of this old favorite restaurant of hers.  Breaking bread in pancakes, eggs and meat smothered in the kind of gravy you get with biscuits and gravy.  His eyes were opened and a mildly obligatory task turned into a profoundly felt transformative experience. 

Lent is traditionally a season of change, of penitence, of preparation for the celebrations of Easter.  It is a forty day period of time beginning on Ash Wednesday and running through the Saturday before Easter.  The church calendar contains a number of seasons in which various themes and rituals are practiced.  The Christian church finds itself in the beginning part of Lent - which began a couple Wednesdays ago.  In these church seasons, there is some sense of order and structure and a time to explore the history of the church and of the ministry and teachings of Jesus.  Lent traditionally contains three main practices or emphases:  Prayer and justice toward God, Fasting and justice towards self, and almsgiving and justice toward neighbor.

I suggest it is always a time for Lent, which literally means, "the lengthening of days or spring." It can mean the broadening of minds, the expansion of practice and discipline, for change, a time for new habits. For taking on and letting go.  Lent is 40 days because it builds upon the several uses of the number 40 in Christian and Hebrew scriptures. It is a symbolic number. Biblical examples include: Noah and the flood, it rained for 40 days; Moses on Mt. Sinai for 40 days receiving the 10 commandments; The Hebrew people wandering in the desert for 40 years;  Jesus in the wilderness for 40 days;  Even Jesus in the tomb for 40 hours. 

I suggest that many of us have actually been about Lent sorts of practices during these leaner days since the economic downturn began some months ago.  Simplifying, doing without, and getting back to some basics.  Living with fewer excesses.  Less spending.  A progressive understanding of Lent is not limited to time; it is not limited to one particular set of codes or practices one must follow.  I remember years ago, when this community was still very much guided by the traditional church seasons, I determined to give up on giving up on anything during Lent.  Some only eat fish and no red meat. Some fast at various times. Some give up chocolate or booze or even sex.  All practices have various meanings to the people instituting them.  A progressive understanding of Lent is not bound to time, but rather is open to the freedom to be about justice toward God and life itself, justice to self and justice to neighbor - anytime.

I want to lift up some living examples of spiritual practice and beautiful humanity. I raise these people and scenarios up with this in mind: That everyone here is practicing deep spiritual lives whether you know it or not. Each of you is a living example of beauty, of change, of intention, of deepening spirituality and Lenten practice.

Cheri Borns with tasty, creative and healthy preparations of food - and many others who make and deliver meals to those dying, or those in need or transition; Barb Badolati, Dan Gleason, Pam Schap, Ann Ross, Katie Baker and many other professionals in the wellness area who guide and inspire countless people into more balanced living and being.  Joan Scheifele with your beauty and perfume (after we embrace you are with me for quite some time!), Tom Webber your artfulness with wood and careful decades-long practices (recently retired too),  Marv Bottema - with your emphasis and love upon family (fun, casual gatherings), David Dean with the ways you jumped into this community with open spirit and willing hands, Harvey Hammond with your thorough organization to benefit many seeking employment,  Connie Farell with your wit and humor, Nancy Dykehouse with decades-long history here. Kate Remlinger with your love and care for those new into this land.

The mundane and spiritual practices in your lives are an inspiration to me. Thank you. You and this community inspire me to face my kids openly every day, to make their lunches with love. To be more patient in times of frustration.  And more broadly, to understand who my kids are and that they are a product of the stars in the billions old evolution of everything and that they are a product of their mother and I with all their giftedness, goofiness and tendencies.  It is not taking them for granted even for a moment. I see working out as spiritual; I regard more highly now waking up and seeing the sunlight or stars at night.  Watching cats play.  Seeing a couple walk down the streets holding hands. 

It's all right in front of us. Will we have eyes to see it all anew? Will we have ears to listen differently?  Might we understand afresh what constitutes spirituality? 

There is a challenge to identify and live out another change, a new change in whatever Lenten season you identify or live out - whatever timing you wish to see the world anew or to institute some new way of thinking, relating or behaving.  Perhaps it is a new haircut.  Maybe it is taking off a few pounds.  Maybe it is setting some more time aside with your children one on one.  Justice toward life, toward the God of your understanding; justice toward self; perhaps it might even be some present or future support of new initiatives that may soon take hold here at CCC.  The IHN... The Refugee support effort, the unemployment Resource Group... Justice toward neighbor. 

In the gospel of John we read how Jesus came to invite people to live with abundance, to live abundantly.  What will be our newfound abundance?  What will our new eyes, our new perspective present to us in new wonders, inspiration, practices and commitment?

Our lives are flesh and blood, these bodies and brains of ours.  Our lives are also spiritual, mindfully taking on and experiencing fully the day to day - both the meditation practices we enjoy and the mundane, ordinariness of now.  Our spirituality is what we do in the day to day.  The main question is, how do we do the mundane? How do we view the ordinary events of our lives?  The daily is the spiritual. The spiritual the daily.

Each of our journeys includes every step as sacred or spiritual. With a higher consciousness and acute vision,  every experience, every encounter, every lunch made, every dish washed, every smile given, every sexual encounter is spiritual and results in more and more essential transformation. In this everlasting season of Lent we move away from a tight-knuckled rigid attempt of perfection through prescribed rituals and judgments toward a liberated posture to see all of life with new eyes and understanding. 

I know the man who took his grandmother out for breakfast to her favorite spot.  That man is me.  I am still learning to see everyday people and everyday things in a new way.  You, right now.  This day with new eyes.  In a way, to spiritualize everything, to wrap it in gold and see it as miraculous.  This is how to be more spiritual, more aligned to god, life and neighbor.

Paul's relationship with the church at Philippi was a love affair.  Paul wrote the letter, likely from a prison cell in Rome.  The people in Philippi, this Roman outpost, had been supportive of Paul in his missionary journeys and now with him while in prison.  Paul's letter to those in Philippi is filled with gracious invitations to be kind, to be patient, to be loving and hospitable. The letter is full of gratitude and warm expressions.  It is in this spirit that I entreat you to dwell on things that are life-giving this spring season, this Lenten season.  Be about that which is life-giving rather than life-eroding.  Be about the practices and attitudes that bring out your fuller humanity and justice toward life, self and others. 

What would you see differently today?  Who would you see differently today.even walking out of this church this morning?  What beauty will come of your justice toward life and god, your justice to self and your justice to others?  What will your Lent or spring experience be today and in all the days to come?