Like a Watered Garden

Living into the Promise of Lent

If you get rid of unfair practices, quit blaming victims, quit gossiping about other people’s sins. If you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out, your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.

I will always show you where to go. I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—firm muscles, strong bones. You’ll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry. You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You’ll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again.

— Isaiah 58:9b—12

Filled with Spirit, a sculpture
by local artist Tess Little

February 17, 2010 — Our Lenten season this year opens with a special Ash Wednesday service featuring the unveiling in our worship space of the sculpture Filled with Spirit, created by local artist Tess Little and serving as a focal point throughout Lent

During Lent, we will be reflecting on God as the Gardener of our lives and on the garden as a symbol of the original unity of creation from which life came (Genesis 2:4b–14) and of the lush and verdant garden-like place in the New Jerusalem described in the Revlation to John (Revelation 22:1–2). In both these gardens the Tree of Life grows. We will also be focusing on the reality of our lives lived between these gardens that represents the fullness of life intended by God.

The prophet Isaiah offers us a promise as we wander in the wilderness between these gardens that the desert will bloom (Isaiah 39:1—2a). Isaiah also gives us an image of what it means to live faithfully in th epresent, calling us to do justice and be joyful; to meet the needs of the poor, the hungry, the homeless; to rebuild the ruins of the past; and to restore hope for the future. To do so is to be like a “watered garden,” an oasis in the desert for all who yearn for God.

As we move through Lent, we invite you to be gardeners of hope, joy, justice, peace and love. To do so, we ask that you write your prayers of hopefulness, your own yearnings for peace, your commitments to acts of justice, your moments of joy on a slip of paper and “plant” it in one of the empty pots in the sculpture Filled with Spirit. At the end of the Lenten season these prayers will be planted on Good Friday as an offering of our commitments to God.

As we move through Lent, watch as the worship space begins to green and grow and fill with color. We hope that this will encourage the “greening” of your own soul as we prepare for Easter and the Festival of Resurrection and Renewal.

Thank You Offering for Tess Little

During Lent we will be collecting a free-will love offering for Tess Little as a way of thanking her for sharing her art with us this season. Tess has not asked us for anything in exchange for all of the time, expense and expertise it took to create such a grand work of art, and she is thrilled to be able to share her art with us. However, we want to respond in gratitude and deep appreciation. She and her husband Jim spent about 5 hours installing this sculpture the Monday before Ash Wednesday, even while the snow was coming down. You can give by marking your giving envelope “Tess Little offering,” or place your gift in the container located on the usher table. All gifts are tax deductible.