My First Lent

My pastoral care professor in seminary would, from memory, recite Howard Thurman’s “Inward Sea”, so frequently that I have started to imagine that Thuman and Dr. Ellison’s voices were one in the same. And, it never came off as “Oh, here we go again.” Every single word brought you back into relationship with God. That is a big claim that 91 words could remind you of the holy flame that dwells within each one of us because the Word became flesh and lived among us,

(John 1:14a). But, there isn’t a time that I hear Inward Sea and do not think of the altar that lives within me. The altar God created when He gave his only begotten Son to live among us and die for us. But we rebel against God, and continue to wander far away; and yet; and yet God does not forget us. 

We talk a lot about Contemplation at Good Shepherd. So much so, that it can so easily can come off as “Oh, here we go again.” But, I want you to take a second a listen to my professor, Dr. Ellison in just three minutes recite Howard Thurman’s Inward Sea and then give a brief explanation of why it is so important to us right here, right now. Dr. Ellison says, “However, far too many people do not access that gift that rests upon the altar of their soul because they are too fearful to face the inward sea.” 

When I really sit and imagine the Inward Sea and that Island where only God and I uniquely dwell, God is always doing something to make that altar more beautiful and more creative. Some days God is diligently carving away a new relief on the side covered in dust. Other days, God is simply a painter, covered in array of bright colors and diligently taking a paint brush to that altar. And most days, God is simply sitting before that Altar marveling at the creation that it truly is. It is from this sacred place that I am rooted and grounded.

What a gift to believe in a God that can constantly marvel at the beauty of creation, but always be surprised how it can creatively evolve it something even more spectacular. What great Hope that is in the midst of so much chaos and darkness in this world. 

So, this Lent, I kindly ask you to join me and this utterly creative and loving God on a journey to rediscover how Art whether Music, Poetry, Architecture, and writing are all part of the blank canvas God is calling us to work on. Come to marvel. Come to create. Come to be inspired. I am so excited to offer Good Shepherd this class where I get to share my passion for Art and Spirituality. We will witness the beautiful illumination of scripture shown in the St. John’s Bible, find hints of Christianity in Charlotte Bronte and C.S. Lewis’s writings, examine the architecture of old English Country Church, see that Episcopal and Anglican history as seen in musicals like Hamilton and Six, and listen to beautiful renditions of Pslam 130. 

There is in every person an inward sea

And in that sea, there is an island

And on that island is an altar

And standing guard before that altar

is the angel with the flaming sword.

Nothing can get by that angel to be placed upon that altar

unless it has the mark of your inner authority.

Nothing passes the angel with the flaming sword

to be placed upon your altar

unless it be a part of the fluid area of your consent.

This is your crucial link with THE ETERNAL.

-Howard Thurman, “Inward Sea”