Postcard from the Edge
The weather isn't too bad on the shoreline this morning.  Our snow has transitioned to freezing rain, and now just all rain.  Still, the roads aren't very good and Mari and I are both working from our respective homes today.
 
I wish I could say the same thing about the global political forecast.  I have been jarred on several levels by the Russian assault on Ukraine.  First and foremost, prayers go out on behalf of the Ukrainian people and those who are working to keep them safe and/or to pull them out of harm's way.  It is a humanitarian crisis of the first order, being shelled in your own homes.  I also wonder what it means for the nearly eighty year peace on the European continent:  has Putin begun something that might spiral out of control and consume other nations?  This scares me as well.  Was his not-so-tacit threat to use nuclear weapons a feint, an insurance policy, or evidence of an unraveling mind?  So many questions, so few answers, especially in the early days of the conflict.
 
This Sunday is Transfiguration Sunday, when the church visits the story of Jesus on the mountaintop with Peter, James and John, later joined by Moses and Elijah.  We read the story every year the Sunday before Lent begins.  And even though the events of the past two days mean I need to offer a very different sermon, or reflection, than I was intending, I do think the story of Jesus' transfiguration remains a good starting point.  But rather than offer a full-on sermon, I'm going to open up a conversation Sunday about our own feelings about the Russian onslaught and the plight of the victims.  Come ready to share your thoughts, your fears, your hopes, and we'll try to find ourselves on that same mountaintop with Jesus and the rest.
 
And remember, Lent does begin this coming Wednesday, Ash Wednesday.  We will be holding a service at 4:00 in the afternoon, which will feature the Call to the Great Lent, hymns, readings, prayer, reflections as well as the imposition of ashes for those who desire.