Lent 2019Life Transformed - The Way of Love in LentWhat does transformation look like?

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The poet, Mary Oliver, died recently and there were several articles written about her life and work in various publications. I was most familiar with her poetry, having read many of her poems through the years. I was not aware, however, that she wrote any prose.

The above quote was in an article I read about her soon after her death. When I read that sentence, I was overwhelmed at the utter simplicity, yet intimidating power, of her words. Whether we are aware of it or not, we are all creatures of habit. Admittedly, some are good and some bad. Some are life affirming and healthy, while others are not nearly as enriching.

Most of us have a series of routines we participate in each day—work, school, exercise, hobbies, meals, TV shows, etc.—and often we can set our clocks around these activities. Our ceremonies and habits form us and make us what we are. But what about our faith or even our moral lives, how are they formed? And how have they taken shape? What are the components and foundations of what we believe about life, relationships or a higher power? Upon what are our lives of faith built? What makes up our moral compass? Is “you know” or “whatever” sufficient? Are our lives of faith and moral beliefs simply “vague”?

If you didn’t see this already, let me show you my hand—this article is about Lent. Lent is an interesting season in the life of the

church that many are conflicted about. For some, guilt, shame, dust, and death are all they can hear when Lent rolls around. Let me tweak that narrative a bit for you. I have come to view Lent as a time to recalibrate my life. Leading up to and during Lent, I try to discern where and how I might have gotten off course. The course, as Jesus has set it out for us, is love God, love neighbor.

I don’t know about you but my ability to love God and love others requires a plan. I need some ceremonies, some habits in order to get where I think I need to be. Otherwise, my attempt to follow the Great Commandment will be vague, at best. So, as we lead up to Lent, let’s ponder, pray and consider how we, as individuals, and as a community, might more faithfully be the people we are called to be.

Regular daily prayer: www.forwardmovement.org has the Day-by-Day devotion and we have hard copies of the devotion. Consider getting the app for your phone or tablet (Forward Day by Day). Many Good Shepherd folks read Richard Rohr’s daily devotion which comes into your in box every morning. Go to Center for Action and Contemplation website and look for “Email Sign Up” near the top of the page. The Henri Nouwen Society has daily meditations from the late Henri Nouwen’s writings and they are always good. These are just a few ways to get started but they give the beginning of your day some focus and direction centered in God.

09 SAVE THE DATES & EARLY REMINDER

Lent & Holy Week at Good Shepherd and a reminder about Easter flowers

10 LIVING INTO LENT& MUSIC OPPORTUNITIES

Fr. Mac shares some daily pracitces to help us live into Lent & daily transformation. John Wigal shares about upcoming music events.

12This Maundy Thursday & into Good Friday, sign up to keep watch overnight in memory of Jesus’ passion.

KEEP WATCH WITH THE DISCIPLES

Table of Contents03 SPIRITUAL HABITS

Fr. Robert reflects on the importance of creating & practicing spiritual habits.

Learn about the Way of Love & how it can transform your life.

The Outreach Grants Committee reports on their work throughout 2018, sharing Christ’s light with the community.

Deacon Janice and Margaret Anne Haley reflect on the impact we have on East Side Elementary School & MetMin.

Youth Pilgrimage fundraiser dates, youth group & confirmation info from Matt Harbison.

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On the cover & above: Spring buds transforming into a flowered tree, Good Shepherd, Lookout Mountain

THE WAY OF LOVE IN LENT - LIFE TRANSFORMED

RE-GREENING MY SOUL

BLESSING OTHERS

YOUTH PILGRIMAGE & ACTIVITIES

What good are spiritual habits?Robert Childers, Rector

“If you have no ceremony, no habits, which may be opulent or may be simple, but are exact and rigorous and familiar, how can you reach toward the

actuality of faith, or even a moral life, except vaguely?” Mary Oliver

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Worship: Consider regular attendance of one (or more) of the many services offered throughout the week here at Good Shepherd: Sunday - 8:00 am, 10:30 am, 5:05 pm; Tuesday -10: 30 am Healing and Eucharist; Wednesday - 5: 30pm Eucharist; Thursday - 5:00 pm Eucharist; Morning Prayer during Lent - Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 8:30 am. If you are downtown, St. Paul’s has Eucharist every day at 12:05 pm.

Study: Bible Study - Wednesday 7:00 am Talbird Hall (men’s); 6:45 pm (after Shepherd’s Night Out supper); Thursday -10: 30 am Library (women’s); Sunday Morning - 9: 15 am (library, Lupton Reading Room), not to mention Godly Play and Youth formation on Sunday’s at 9:15 am

Centering Prayer: Tuesday 11:15 am, Lupton Reading Room; Wednesday 4:30 pm, Library

Lenten Retreat: March 9, Library, 9:00 am - 12:00 pm

Let’s not think of Lent as a time to beat ourselves up and feel guilty. Instead, let it be a time for us all to turn back towards the light of love that is Christ, the one who is calling always us back home into his loving arms.

Blessings, grace and peace,Robert

This Lent we join with communities all throughout the Episcopal Church who have been invited to walk with Jesus in his Way of Love and into the experience of transformed life. The journey through Lent into Easter is always a journey with Jesus. We are baptized into his life, self-giving, and death; then, we rise in hope to life transformed. This Lent we will reflect anew on the loving actions of God as recounted in the Easter Vigil readings, readings that present our salvation history.

Each Sunday in worship we will hear the scripture noted below for that week, and in Christian Formation we will consider the corresponding practice of The Way of Love. The reflections written by parishioners for our parish Lenten Devotion Book are also set up around these themes and these pairings of practices and scripture.

• Week One / TURN: Dead to Sin, Alive in Christ (Romans 6:3-11)

• Week Two / PRAY: Israel’s Deliverance at the Red Sea (Exodus 14:10-15:1)

• Week Three / LEARN: Learn Wisdom and Live (Proverbs 8:1-8, 19-21; 9:4b-6)

• Week Four / BLESS: A New Heart and a New Spirit (Ezekiel 36:24-28)

• Week Five / REST: The Valley of Dry Bones (Ezekiel 37:1-14)

• Week Six / WORSHIP: The Gathering of God’s People (Zephaniah 3:12-20)

• Week Seven / GO: The Empty Tomb (Luke 24:1-12)

Listen and watch Presiding Bishop Michael Currie introduce the Way of Love in the video found at https://www.episcopalchurch.org/way-of-love (click on the video to start it playing)

For more information on The Way of Love and on the particular Lent 2019 season practice of it, you may also see: https://www.episcopalchurch.org/life-transformed.

Life Transformed – The Way of Love in LenT

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We had a very exciting day at the Mobile Food Pantry at East Side Elementary on Wednesday, February 20. We had a large contingency of parishioners, Blue Cross volunteers, and three students from Signal Mountain High School. We had a thunderstorm and heavy rain so we altered our schedule a bit. Instead of helping families to their cars with the bags and boxes of food, we had them pull up to the front of the school and loaded the cars there. The volunteers helping with the delivery to cars ended wet from head to toe but I never heard a complaint from anyone. East Side is such a special place to volunteer and the families and teachers are very appreciative. Mark your calendars for Wednesday, March 13 at 3:00 and come join the camaraderie!

Margaret Anne Haley

Blessing OthersJanice Robbins, Deacon

Good Shepherd always looks for opportunities to help whenever and wherever our hands are needed. As the report by Margaret Ann Haley shows, we are a very important part of Chattanooga Initiative 2.0 to East Side Elementary School. This February we assisted in Food Bank Distribution Day; and Read across East Side Week by being onsite-readers and providing MANY boxes of books for elementary age children. Doughnuts for Dads Dudes was cancelled due to the heavy rains and is to be rescheduled. East Side is but one expression of our looking outward. Your helping presence is requested and needed at East Side, Family Promise, MetMin, Community Kitchen, St. Matthew’s Men’s and St. Catherine’s Women’s Shelters, and Northside Neighborhood House. Should you be searching for someplace to give of yourself, please follow through! Contact Janice Robbins (Janice@gslookout.com) for assistance in discerning where you can be of assistance!

BE A MET MINISTER!As a part of our Lenten Journey lets lighten the day-to-day load that some that our MetMin* friends carry.

Items are needed for MetMin clients! These items cannot be bought with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), but are still very much needed

What’s needed:• Paper towels/tissues/toilet paper• Laundry detergent pods/household supplies • Personal needs (shampoo/conditioner/soap/

deodorant/shaving cream)• Money• Diapers

Collection is in the narthex through April 21. Met Ministers are needed!

*Metropolitan Ministries exists to be an “emergency room” for social services. It also maintains a “cache” of items that are distributed as needed.

Years ago my husband gave me a necklace that says “If you keep a green bough in your heart the singing bird will come.” I have tended to that green-ness and have always been able to feel it in my bones; but after 18 1/2 years in ministry here at Good Shepherd I have had a season of dry wood within and I can’t hear the bird sing. Wise spiritual counsel from Fr. Robert reminded me that we are a resurrection people, that new life always awaits. I am very grateful this Lent to for the gift of some sabbath time to re-green my soul.

As you all walk The Way of Love toward a Life Transformed this Lent here at Good Shepherd, I will be walking my own way, a path that I pray will bring me right back to where I started, to the place I love, but with new life and joy for my ministry restored.

I will begin my time away in silent retreat at the Abbey at Gethsemane in Kentucky. I will TURN inward to spend time listening to my life and the One who gave it to me. I PRAY that this time away will be verdant. My favorite form of prayer is walking and talking with God, being in creation with my creator, the one who made me to lie down in the good, green grass.

During this time or REST I also hope to LEARN - to learn practices of stillness and faithful routine from the monks, learn from the books stacked up in my “to read” pile, learn from silence and REST. Though I know the trees rest in winter to bud anew come spring, it’s not a habit I’ve cultivated well enough, allowing myself to become a whirling dervish of busy-ness.

I’m very grateful for the BLESSING of this gift of time away and hope to return a person renewed and able to BLESS our congregation.

I look forward to visiting other congregations in this time to experience WORSHIP strictly as a participant without the constant watchful eye to possible glitches or missing volunteers and the like. I hope to come back home with some new ideas and inspiration for our corporate worship.

I will carry all of you in my heart as I GO forth into this time apart. I hope you will keep me in your hearts and prayers as well. One of the things that stirs and restores my soul most powerfully is poetry. If you’re moved to share a favorite poem for me to dwell with while I’m away, I’d be grateful for the gift.

I wish you all a holy Lent. I can’t help but wonder (of course I can’t; wondering is my stock in trade), if there shouldn’t be a eighth practice on The Way of Love - THANK. I thank all the people who have made this time possible: Fr. Robert for his guidance and encouragement, my fellow staff members for bearing the burden that any one person away always presents, the many volunteers who are taking on responsibility for Godly Play, Morning Prayer, Trinity Kids, children’s worship and more. I have such deep gratitude for the willingness with which my core volunteers responded when I told them that I ached for this time away. Thank you, all, for this gift.

Re-greening My SoulKathleen Crevasse, Director of Christian Education

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An Early ReminderBarbara Helton, Flower Guild

Believe it or not, the Guilds and staff of the of the church have already started planning for Easter. As usual, the Flower Guild will have a general memorial fund for donations to remember and honor special people and groups. Also, we will have also a few memorials that will be in place for Palm Sunday and Easter both. You may call the church, 821-1583, for more information or to make a donation to the fund. Additionally, Easter flowers envelopes will be placed in the pews during Lent.

save The daTes

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March 24, 8:00 pm the Office of ComplineIn Spiritu, a choir of singers from several area Episcopal churches, will offer the Office of Compline here in the Good Shepherd Nave at 8 pm on Sunday, March 24. This short 30 minute service is taken from the Monastic practice of the hours – worship services occurring throughout the day. Compline is the office for the close of the day before sleep. In Spiritu has been offering this worship opportunity for the past 2 years in Chattanooga and this will be their first offering here at Good Shepherd. This extremely peaceful service of listening and quiet offers a moment of respite at the end of the day.

April 7, 5:00 pm Chorister EvensongThe combined Choristers from St. Paul’s, St. Timothy’s and Good Shepherd will offer Evensong at 5:00 pm in the Good Shepherd Nave. This has become an annual event for the combining of these three churches’ children’s choirs and we hope you will come and support the children on this day. A Reception will follow in Talbird Hall.

April 13, Palm Sunday, 5:00 pm The Requiem by Maurice DurufléThe traditional text of the Requiem Mass will be offered by select members of two area ensembles, Voices of Reason women’s choir and Voci Virili men’s ensemble. The setting will be by 20th century French composer Maurice Duruflé. Duruflé was a proponent of plainsong chant and his setting of the Requiem is full of plainsong melodies in a contemplative and contemporary setting. This will be a wonderful musical event to begin your Holy Week journey. The program will be offered free in the Good Shepherd nave, Mr. Josh Golden conducting and Mr. John Wigal at the organ.

Living into LentMac Brown, Assistant to the Rector

Music Opportunies in LentJohn Wigal, Director of Music

We are entering the season of Lent, a time of getting ready for the mystery of Love and Life that comes in just a short six weeks. But for those of us with small kids at home, this time of getting ready may just blow by. So how can we participate in a Holy Lent, while also helping our children participate, and acknowledge the reality of life with little humans?

Many of us know that this is a time to fast so that we may make room for God to be resurrected in us, but there is more to Lent than just fasting. The three pillars of Lent are fasting, prayer, and service. We fast because Jesus did, and we make room for God to bless us in new ways. We pray because Jesus did, and we make space for God to communicate with us in new ways. And we serve because, well you get it, and to hear how God is calling us to love in new ways. So, it isn’t just about fasting, there are many ways you and the entire family can participate in a holy Lent. After researching ideas to help us in this journey, I came along a calendar from 2015. I have borrowed the idea and some of the suggestions, but also made this calendar ours.

On the following page, you will find a copy of this calendar. Throughout Lent, each day we will have an opportunity to fast, pray, or serve, with simple, family appropriate exercises. So, put it on your refrigerator, hang it next to your kids’ calendar, hang it on your bathroom mirror. Give yourself a break and allow your Lent to be a holy path toward the mystery of Love.

“Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love’s sake.”

These words come from Evening Prayer and Compline liturgies in our prayer book and ask God to do the work we are called to do as we take our moments of rest. Immediately following the Maundy Thursday service on April 18, we will keep watch in the prayer chapel in our narthex. As the altar is stripped, and the darkness of Good Friday falls upon us, the reserve sacrament will be removed from the ambry and placed on a small altar of repose in the prayer chapel, and we will begin keeping watch. And you can keep watch too! We will be looking for volunteers to keep watch, to sit in prayer, study, and meditation in the prayer chapel from 7:30 pm on Maundy Thursday through the night into Good Friday. So watch your inbox to see how you can keep watch.

The ChurCh of The Good Shepherd 211 Franklin Road Lookout Mountain, Tennessee 37350

Return Service Requested

Keep Watch with the Disciples