The season of Lent is upon us. During Lent, Camas Friends will reflect on the basic question: “Who is Christ?” In order to do this, we will look at images from the Gospel accounts that give us a snapshot of Jesus’ life and ministry over the course of nine meetings. Our reflection and investigation will seek to address the query “Who is Christ” through a variety of other questions:
- Who is this Jesus that the many authors of Scripture portray?
- Who is the Jesus we encounter in God’s Spirit?
- Who is this whom we gather around and worship?
- Who is this we attest to follow?
- Who has Christ been to you?
This Lent we are invited to build on, renew, or change our understanding and commitment to follow this Jesus of the Gospels. But even more than this, we are invited to know for ourselves “Who Christ is.” Right belief is less about being able to align oneself with a particular creed (especially since Quakers are themselves non-creedal) and more about being able to truthfully and authentically speak from what you have experienced to be true. This is the meaning behind what the mother of Quakerism, Margaret Fell, once wrote in her journal:
“The scriptures were the prophets’ words, and Christ’s and the apostles’ words, and what, as they spoke, they enjoyed and possessed, and had it from the Lord”: and said, “Then what had any to do with the scriptures, but as they came to the Spirit that gave them forth? You will say, ‘Christ saith this, and the apostles say this;’ but what canst thou say? Art thou a child of the Light, and hast thou walked in the Light, and what thou speakest, is it inwardly from God?”. This opened me so, that it cut me to the heart; and then I saw clearly we were all wrong. So I sat down in my pew again, and cried bitterly: and I cried in my spirit to the Lord, “We are all thieves; we are all thieves; we have taken the scriptures in words, and know nothing of them in ourselves.”
This will be our journey through Lent. Hopefully through preparation, prayer, reflection, silence and discussing together we too will be opened and “cut to the heart.” But that this encounter might provide healing and renewal to our souls and a new outlook on what it means to live out the implications of the resurrection in our lives here and now.
Schedule: (Subject to change)
- Sunday March 6: Old Technology in a New Setting: An Invitation into Lent (2 Peter 1:16-21)
- Ash Wednesday March 9: Reflect on the cycles of life and death in spirituality. Joan Chittister wrote: “To follow Jesus is to live, no matter how many deaths we face in life.”
- Sunday March 13: Jesus the Missionary (John 1)
- Sunday March 20: Guest Speaker Colin Saxton
- Sunday March 27: Christ the Gathering Point (John 4)
- Sunday April 3: Jesus the Prophet of Mud (John 9)
- Sunday April 10: Jesus the Empathizer (John 11)
- Palm Sunday April 17: Guest Speaker Zachary Moon
- Maundy Thursday Prayer Service April 21, 2011 7pm: Jesus the Scapegoat (John 13)
- Easter Sunrise Service Sunday April 24th @ Beacon Rock 6am
- Easter Morning Sunday April 24th: Christ the Present (Luke 24)
- Sunday May 1st: Unprogrammed Worship – Query: What Canst Thou Say?
- Sunday May 1st @ the Meetinghouse at 1pm: “Spirituality of Gardening” with Christian Sine (her blog http://bit.ly/dMy8x4)
Lenten Reader: Christine Sine
You can download a wonderful Lenten reader with scripture, reflection, and readings from our website: http://wp.me/pzEU4-bc It was put together by Christine Sine of the Mustard Seed Associates in Seattle. Christine will also be with us on May 1st for a Spirituality of Gardening seminar.
