Third Sunday in Lent

Sundays are not part of Lent, even though they occur in Lent. They are the time when we acknowledge that, as Christians, we always remember the resurrection & we can't keep from shouting "Hallelujah" in response. As I read "The Lutheran" today, I learned in an article by Robert A. Rimbo that the Council of Nicaea in the year 325 actually "forbade fasting, kneeling and any other acts of sorrow and penance on Sundays, even during Lent" [emphasis added]. As Rob Bell said repeatedly during Lent last year, "as far as we know, the tomb is empty!" For more details, read my post from the First Sunday in Lent. This Lent I've picked up the writing of these devotions as a spiritual discipline, and as much as it is a good thing, I find it important to do something distinctly different on Sundays to distinctly separate them out from the 40 days of Lent. Each week, I'm tossing out some quotes I read recently that I hope get you thinking. I provide links to the context in case you are interested in reading more.

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Gracious God, who creates all there is and loves all there is; you command us to love as you love. We failed, we fail, and we are failing. Too many of your children, our neighbors, went hungry and died today; too many of your children, our neighbors, were oppressed today; too many of us counted our wealth in material possessions instead of your love today for us to call ourselves successful Christians, successful God Lovers. Please forgive us. For Christ's sake have mercy on us. Give us yet another chance to love ourselves, our neighbors, and you as you want us to. Amen!
- Father Jason Emerson, From http://fatherjason.blogspot.com/2008/02/lent.html

It has become fashionable for science and religion to snarl at one another. They need not. Many scientists are religious. Universities sprouted in Europe to fertilise religious learning first planted in monasteries. Early scientists sought to explain God's role in the Universe, not to deny it.
- The Times (Online) "God Alone Knows" 2/19/2008, From http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article3393161.ece

If you were to stop reading for a moment, look up, and look around you, you would find that your community is surrounding you. It's the people at the coffee shop you go to everyday or the grocery store that you frequent. It isn't just family and friends. Your community is everyone who steps into your path of vision, peripheral or otherwise. It takes a little extra effort, a lot of listening, and at times extreme patience, but it is never lonely.
- From http://doableevangelism.com/2008/01/09/finding-community/

The natural world is the larger sacred community to which we belong. To be alienated from this community is to become destitute in all that makes us human. To damage this community is to diminish our own existence.
- Thomas Berry, From the ELCA's "Living Earth: A 40-Day Reflection on
Our Relationship With God's Creation"