I ran into a pastor the other day who’s in the first year of parish ministry, who said it’s going well and she’s grateful to have the counsel of a friend who’s got her first year already under her belt, and can alert my friend as to certain events and issues coming up.

That conversation reminded me of my first Ash Wednesday in the parish.  I had started there on January 11 – and thus Lent began just a few weeks into my ministry.  My general procrastination and inability to plan combined with my innocence about certain details meant that it was 5:00 p.m. on Ash Wednesday when I realized I had no ashes to apply to the foreheads of my faithful.  I remember standing at my stove, frantically burning bits of paper, cardboard, anything that I could think of in an effort to come up with passable ashes for the evening worship service.  The skimpy, grey-colored ashes I finally produced were a poor substitute for “the real thing”!

You can be sure I never was caught unawares or ashless after that!  I learned about the little packets of ready-burned ashes I could buy from a church supply house, and  relied on that for the rest of my years in that congregation.

But the liturgically proper way to get Ash Wednesday ashes is to save and burn dried palms from the previous year’s Palm Sunday processional – and some folks even do that as part of Ash Wednesday ritual events.  I have to confess I’ve never mastered the art of palm-burning.  But at Saint Paul, I don’t have to: Our sexton, Gregg Petersen, does that job and always makes sure we have plenty of ashes!

Yet, I always feel a little taken off guard and unprepared for Lent, especially when it starts as early as it does this year  (it’s this Wednesday, February 6!).  Besides planning for extra worship services and events in the parish, I always think – too little too late – that I should be taking on some Lenten disciples in my personal life.

On Ash Wednesday every year, we read words from Matthew 6 encouraging us in the proper ways to pray, fast, and give alms.  (Do these things meaningfully, and not just for show!)  I read these words, which begin “When you pray / fast / give alms…” as if it’s a foregone conclusion that the hearers actually do these things, and the cynic in me wonders how many of my parishioners even pray.  Fasting is foreign to most Lutherans [your Catholic friends’ practice of  “giving up something for Lent” is a form of fasting], and I don’t know who if any do special alms-giving (acts of charity) during Lent.

Lent is traditionally a time of repentance, of self-examination, of paring things down to the basics.  This is increasingly difficult in our over-busy, mostly-secular lives.   Yet, it can be done, and it can be done with integrity.  I encourage you to attend midweek worship this Lent, but that’s only the beginning.  What can you do at home?

That brings me to some of the riches left to us by our two Passing on Faith Conference presenters, Lyle Griner and Linda Staats of The Youth and Family Institute in Minneapolis.  In case you hadn’t heard, the weekend turned out wonderfully, with about 90 registrants attending at least part of it, gaining knowledge and energy and ideas for ministry back home.

I believe we all are concerned about passing on faith to later generations.  But we just don’t know how to do it.  Research shows that faith practices in the home and faith talk with others are far more powerful conductors of faith than merely coming to church.  The congregation’s job isn’t to teach faith to the kids.  The congregation’s job is to partner with and equip families to be teachers of the faith.

TYFI recommend four key components to faith-conduction:  Caring conversation (sometimes called faith talk), devotions, ritual, and service.   Lent is the perfect time for individuals and families to take on some of these rich practices.  We’ve begun putting in each week’s bulletins “Taking Faith Home,” an insert with prayer, scripture, and practical suggestions for doing just that.  Here are some additional suggestions:

Caring Conversation:  Talk about what Jesus gave up for your sake.  Share examples of how each of you gives for the sake of others, and how each of you receives from others.  Devotional Practices:  Look at each week’s bulletin cover, and with its help, tell each other the biblical story it illustrates.  Ritual:  Fast from one meal per week, and… Service:  …give the money saved to a favorite charity.

My hope is that the Four Keys will become an integrated part of our life together, as well as our lives outside of the congregation. I challenge you to approach this Lent with intentionality, choosing and taking on one or more keys for yourself!

This months article on “Arms Reaching Out”, Was written by Darlene Clausen.  

Nineteen twenty-nine, I am sure you all know the date of the Great Depression.  Teasingly, my father said that I was the cause of it.  I don’t remember going hungry as a child.  We always had a garden and my grandparents lived on a farm so we had meat given to us.   Living through the Depression,  I  learned to share at a very young age.   I grew up on 18th Place where the railroad round house was.  This is where the trains changed crews and where the hobos would disembark to go and find a place for a hand-out.  I am sure they told each other where good places to go were and our house must have had a big X on it because no one was ever turned away.  We shared what we had, home made bread and jelly, a cup of coffee and probably a cookie or two.       

Perhaps my experiences as a child is the reason I have always been interested in helping others.

No one should ever go hungry.  After my husband and I came back to Clinton to live, I asked Pastor Last if anyone in our church could use a Christmas (food) basket.  Marie Minnnihan and I made up 5 baskets to distribute that year and a tradition that still continues today was started at Saint Paul. 

After that first project, I founded the Service Committee and was elected the chair person.  Most of the projects the committee  has done and continue to do today are related to World Hunger.  In the 90’s, the Synod was looking for an advocate for the Hunger Ministry Team in South-Eastern Iowa.  Pastor Lubs asked if I would be interested.  I didn’t think that I was qualified but I agreed to become an advocate for the synod.  I had no idea how involved the synod was in the Hunger Ministry.  Bishop Hougen is gun-ho on Hunger.  He challenged the congregations in our synod to participate in local food programs, to join Bread for the World, and to increase our giving to the ELCA World Hunger Appeal.  The Bishop’s list consists of twenty different ways for congregations to participate and Saint Paul participates in ten.  The Bishop also stressed taking part in the Stand with Africa campaign, which we did, and we have had a wonderful response.

The Hunger Ministry Team Conference meets twice a year at various locations.  The state of Iowa is divided into eleven districts and around twenty people attend.  At the conference we exchange ideas and discuss new projects.  It is fun to share our Hunger Ministry experiences at Saint Paul and to see what other congregations are doing.  Part of the advocate’s job is to get a person to represent the Hunger Team for Conference 5.  We have eighteen churches in Conference 5 which consists of Clinton and Jackson counties and more than half have representatives.

Bishop Hougen and I both promote the idea that every congregation member should contribute to the ELCA World Hunger Appeal on a regular basis.  For most congregations,  this is done on a monthly basis.  The money is used in a variety of ways: to feed the hungry, clothe the poor, to provide homes for the homeless, education, medicine, and aid during natural disasters such as floods and hurricanes.  One person can’t do it all but if congregations work together as a team it can be done.  The ELCA World Hunger Ministry is funded entirely by the ELCA World Hunger Appeal.  The gifts given by congregations to the ELCA World Hunger Appeal total well over $18 million dollars each year.  Our goal is to grow to $25 million per year.

 I would like to encourage the members of Saint Paul to give to World Hunger on a regular basis.  Through our generosity, the lives of people all over the United States are being improved.