The season of Lent is almost upon us, and this year our worship theme will center around the idea of composting. There is a lot of overlap between the art of composting and the themes of Lent. There are cycles of death/decay and regrowth/new life. There are the necessary but sometimes difficult processes of letting go and breaking down. There is waiting and trust. There are requirements to turn over and around and provide breathing room for new life to grow. There are collaborations between ourselves and forces beyond what we can see or fully understand.  

As Lent and composting both teach us, transformation rarely arrives all at once. It happens through gathering, turning, waiting, and trusting. This Lent, we invite us all into this rhythm as we consider the theme Composting Faith. We prepare a place for change. We make room for honesty about our limits and shortcomings. We fall back into the grace of a process we cannot fully control. 

We will explore many of these themes together throughout Lent, and you will hear much more in the weeks ahead. For now, I wanted to introduce the theme, get our minds turning, and help us begin preparing ourselves for the journey ahead

Lent will begin with our Ash Wednesday service, which will happen on February 18 at 7pm in the sanctuary. This will be a time for contemplation, prayer, confession, singing, and receiving the imposition of ashes. Debra and Galen Martin will be leading music during this service and would like to incorporate a hymn tune they recently came across that fits the syllabic structure of a haiku (lines of 5, 7, 5 syllables). They would like to invite anyone who feels inspired to write and send them a haiku based on Lent, which they may incorporate into our service that evening. 

As an example, here is my submission: 

All is breaking down
Trusting beauty in the mess
Grace unseen renews

Be on the lookout for other ways to engage these themes personally or in community in the weeks ahead.