An Altar in the World
Trinity Lutheran Church Mid-Week Lenten Series
Did you ever notice that in the story of God and God’s people that we find in the Bible, that whenever there is an encounter with the holy, one of the first things people do is mark that spot, make note of where the encounter takes place? Moses makes note of where he encounters God in the burning bush. He takes off his shoes at the command of God because the place where he stands is ‘holy ground.’ When Jacob spends all night wrestling with God and survives, Jacob takes the rock of which he had been resting before wrestling, turns into an altar to mark the spot, and renames the location. These are just two examples of how the place where God is encountered becomes a place to remember, to pray, to worship God.
The author, Barbara Brown Taylor, calls these places, ‘altars in the world.’ Taylor also tells us that there are places, events, in our lives that work the same way. They are altars in the world where we can encounter the holy. Some people, well, really most of us, long for the opportunity to experience the holy and we can go to extraordinary lengths to do that.
But Barbara Brown Taylor has this to say:
“ . . . The last place most people look is right under their fee, in the everyday activities, accidents, and encounters of their lives. What possible spiritual significance could a trip to the grocery store have? How could something as common as a toothache be a door to greater life? No one longs for what he or she already has, and yet the accumulated insight of those wise about the spiritual life suggests that the reason so many of us cannot see the red X that marks the spot is because we are standing on it.”
Well, how do we see that red x that marks our own altars in the world? Join us during our mid-week Lenten series, beginning on Ash Wednesday, March 6 as we ponder this. Starting on Ash Wednesday and continuing on each Wednesday until April 10, we will be sharing in a meal in the fellowship staring at 5:15 pm and then worshiping together at 6:30. This year we will be using Barbara Brown Taylor’s book, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith, (HarperCollins ebooks) to map out our own encounters with God.
We will be welcoming other guest preachers in this journey as we seek God in ‘getting lost, being present, walking on the earth, feeling pain, and pronouncing blessing.’ We will also be using a special Lenten order of worship written by Marty Haugen called “The You May Have Life.”
Here is a list of guest preachers and themes:
March 6: Ash Wednesday: Pastor Mark
March 13: Bishop Jim Arends: Getting Lost
March 20: Pastor Brad Lindberg: Encountering Others
March 27: Pastor Margo Peterson: Walking on the Earth
April 3: Pastor Dawn Lindberg: Feeling Pain
April 10: Pastor Mark Kvale Pronouncing Blessing
I look forward to joining with you on your Lenten walk of discovering where we encounter God!
Soli Deo Gloria (To God Alone the Glory)
Pastor Mark Kvale