Second Sunday in Lent

As I pointed out last week, Sundays aren't technically part of Lent -- every Sunday is a celebration of Easter, even the ones in Lent -- they are feast days! I'm not saying we stop "returning to God" on Sundays in Lent, or that there is anything inherently wrong with however anyone chooses to observe them. Like last week, I'm going to share some quotes with you. We'll continue with my daily Lenten devotions tomorrow.

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History suggests that change doesn't start inside the beltway, inside our chambers of power, inside the heads of politicians. Change begins outside Washington, D.C., in the hearts and minds of those who first experience society's brokenness, envision a different future, and then bet their lives on a new vision. That's how social movements begin.
-- Jim Wallis, From http://blog.beliefnet.com/godspolitics/2008/02/pomp-and-people-power-by-jim-w.html

The kingdom of God, I think, is that tribe…a tribe of migrants moving through from the beginning to the end that will never be because, outside of the restraints of time, endings can not be since there are no beginnings. The scenery of the Kingdom–the landscapes of the migratory moves–may change, but that is all that changes. The tribe is. It is beyond the concept of either "now" or "later," for like endings and beginnings, now and later are artifices of time, not reality. Thus it is, Father, that we pray that Your kingdom come and Your will be done in this landscape as it is in the center. Amen.
- Phyllis Tickle, From http://pomomusings.com/2008/01/24/phyllis-tickle-on-the-kingdom-of-god/


"The mission of a community is to give life to others, that is to say, to transmit new hope and new meaning to them. Mission is revealing to others their fundamental beauty, value and importance in the universe, their capacity to love, to grow and to do beautiful things and to meet God. Mission is transmitting to people a new inner freedom and hope; it is unlocking the doors of their being so that new energies can flow; it is taking away from their shoulders the terrible yoke of guilt and fear. To give life to people is to reveal to them that they are loved just as they are by God, with the mixture of good and evil, light and darkness that is in them; that the stone in front of their tomb in which all the dirt of their lives has been hidden can be rolled away. They are forgiven; they can live in freedom."
-- Jean Vanier, Community and Growth, From http://nextreformation.com/?p=2021