Lent at Lincoln Street

Our Lenten Theme - Seeking: Honest Questions for Deeper Faith

The lectionary for Year A offers us many stories of Jesus encountering people who are seeking.

In these stories, each person is seeking a new beginning, a different life, a deeper faith. What unfolds is an exchange filled with questions and exploration. Often, an unveiling occurs—assumptions are disrupted, a new perspective is revealed, mystery grows.

Our seeking won't necessarily lead to answers, but perhaps will help us find clarity and a new perspective. Ultimately, let us pray they lead to a new beginning, a restoration, a wider grace, as we seek clarity, connection, wonder, justice, balance, calling, a sense of the sacred, and how to live as a disciple. Throughout this season, let us ask ourselves: what am I seeking? What is God seeking?

Calendar for Lent and Holy Week

Donations for the Floral Cross, Friday, April 4 and Saturday, April 5

Easter Egg Hunt and Games, April 5

Easter Sunday, April 6

Lenten Giving Project: PIRC and Kellogg Middle School.

This year our Lenten Giving Campaign will focus on issues of Immigration and Detention by focusing on two organizations and two ways of giving, time and money.

Kellogg Middle School has been mobilizing to support families living in fear of ICE, and those needing support with food as government resources are less secure. We are seeking to build relationships with these neighbors by volunteering at one of their monthly Free Food Markets. The Market will be held March 27th (Friday) 2:00-5:30 pm. They are seeking 10 volunteers to set up and work the market. More details to come. Keep in mind this will require becoming an approved volunteer with PPS, which can be completed online at this link: https://www.pps.net/volunteer/volunteer/volunteering-with-pps Please let Barbara know if you intend to volunteer bkutasz@gmail.com
Portland Immigrant Rights Coalition (PIRC) is working in our community and across the state in a number of ways to support the immigrant community. They host a hotline where people can report ICE presence, refer community members to rapid response legal support and social services and operate an immigrant resource center where family members can get information about detained loved ones. PIRC has trained over 5,000 Migra Watchers all across the state to respond to ICE Activity and continues to train more each month. Please make your financial contributions to PIRC in the manner you typically give to the church, with a memo that says LENT.

Palm Sunday

seeking: Where Are You Headed?

"Power Play"
by Lisle Gwynn Garritty
Inspired by Matthew 21:1-11
Silk painting with digital drawing and collage

In their book, The Last Week, theologians Marcus Borg and John Crossman assert that there were actually two parades occurring simultaneously in Jerusalem on this day. From the east, Jesus entered on a donkey. From the west, the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, entered with an imperial guard. They write: “Jesus’ procession proclaimed the kingdom of God; Pilate’s proclaimed the power of empire. The two processions embody the central conflict of the week that led to Jesus’ crucifixion.”9

This image is a meditation on these opposing processions and the embodiment of power. Pilate processes with a pompous display of armor, accompanied by soldiers. For him, power is displayed by superiority, elitism, and weaponry. Later in the week, he will use his power to satisfy the crowds willing Jesus to be crucified, despite not finding any offense to justify it (read John 18 & 19). He uses his power for violence, to appease the status quo.

Jesus enters the city on a donkey with her young colt in tow. He wears no armor, only soft linens. In this image, I imagine if the composition were expanded, Jesus would be kneeling, humbling himself before his disciples as he washes their feet. In Jesus’ processional, members of the crowd lay down their coats as a display of humility and honor. This foreshadows the way Jesus will take off his outer robe and tie a towel around his waist to wash his friends’ feet. Jesus embodies power through a posture of vulnerability, through caring for those who desperately need love.

Which parade you would join in Jerusalem has a lot to say about your definition of power. If you are quick to place yourself in Jesus’ parade, I encourage you to pause and consider these questions honestly: When have you aligned yourself with systems or people who have used their power for violence or to uphold the status quo? When have you embodied power through vulnerability and love for your neighbor?

—Rev. Lisle Gwynn Garrity

9 Borg, Marcus J. and John Dominic Crossman. The Last Week

As I met with this text, I was drawn to Jesus’ call for Lazarus to be unbound. To represent the fabrics used in preparation for burial, I wrapped a canvas in linen. You’re not really supposed to do that. The canvas was already stretched and gessoed. It was ready to resist the oil paint medium I was applying. However, the texture of the binding cloth matters for this tactile text. I began to scrape the paint onto the woven strands. The linen fabric absorbed the paint as I scraped it on with a palette knife. In the final image, the linen shows through the paint and the paper lace design, representing the bindings.

Jesus’ call for unbinding also includes the community. The foreshortened hands of the community, tasked with unbinding his body, reach in toward Lazarus. They reach through the concentric binding lines so that he can go free. Can these bones live?

In the strength of community, they can. The community made up of Jews, Gentiles, Samaritans, and others all joined one another at the tomb to grieve for Lazarus that day. They came to support Mary and Martha. Jesus arrives as the community mourns together. Jesus cries in his grief. Their collective tears create the backdrop for this paper lace design. This diverse and neighborly community is who Jesus calls on to do the unbinding. Jesus makes sure that the community knows about this miracle so that they can share the news. Can these bones live? Lazarus lives, and Jesus’ miracle lives on in the telling.

—Hannah Garrity