Soundings March 9 2025

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning everyone, and welcome to Soundings, a public affairs
presentation of iHeart Media. Each week we have an acumenical
discussion on the Lectionary Scriptures and how they apply to
life and to our world. And today we have two
of our regulars joining us. I am the Reverend Malli
Boscher and I'm at Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church on three

(00:23):
Mile Road, north side of Grand Rabbits. And Jessica, would
you introduce yourself first? Sure?

Speaker 2 (00:30):
I am Reverend Jessica Rivera Walker. I am the pastor
of Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Holland, Michigan. We are
at the corner of Quincy and one hundred and twelve.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
And I'm Beth Digg. I'm the director of Faith Formation
at Saint Philip Neary Saint Anne and Reed City. And
I'm the director of Pastor Karen Outreach at Saint Mary
Saint Paul Big Rabbit.

Speaker 1 (00:50):
So we have had a big change this week, haven't
we church change? Yes? We have. Yeah, we are in
the first. Last week was Epiphany, which is Epiphany is
the season after Christmas, and now we are in Lent. Yes,
So what are your churches practices for this season of Lent.

(01:11):
What do you guys do, Beth.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
Well, the music is quieter, so things are a little quieter.
We bury the Allelujah.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
So we donase that means buried to alalujah vera alalujah.

Speaker 3 (01:22):
It means that we we kind of bury it for
the season of Lent. We fast from using that joyful
Allelujah during the Lenton season. So we bury the Allelujah.
So we fast, we pray, we give alms works of
charity during the season of Lent.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Yeah, and that is similar to what we do as well.
So we on the Sunday before the last Sunday before Lent,
we I had the kids and the congregation shout there
al alujahs into a box that I sealed really quick,
and we are going to have that box there and

(02:03):
see if maybe on Easter Sunday something amazing happens. But
we also fast from using the Hallelujah during the during
the Lenten season. We have a midweek service during the
Lenten season. We have soup at six and then we

(02:24):
have a service that's called Holden Evening Prayer at seven.
It's a short contemplative service. It's written by kind of
a Marty Hougan is the person who composed Holden Evening Prayer.
He is he's a big composer, well known in the

(02:45):
in Lutheran circles, and he composed it for a community
known as Holden Village, which is in Washington. It's like
a retreat community and it's really beautiful and really like
quiet and contemplative. So we we have that, and we

(03:06):
are also doing a Lenten study on Dietrich Bonhaffer. So
you've got a lot going on, how about you, Mollie.

Speaker 1 (03:15):
So we had ash Wednesday, Well we're recording on Monday,
so we will have ash Wednesday this week. And we
don't bury our al alujahs and the way you all do,
But we don't say the word al aluyjah during Lent either.
So you know there's places in our in our in
our worship service where sometimes you might say al aluya

(03:36):
and we don't say those. But what we did this
past Sunday Epiphany last is we burned our palms from
last year. And you burn the palms and then you
kind of mash them up and then you sift them
preparing for ash Wednesday. Those are the ashes we use
for ash Wednesday and then in our parish, different people

(03:57):
take on different practices in general. Sometimes people take things
on for Lent. Maybe you say, I'm going to pray
a little bit more during Lent time, going to I've
heard one like write a letter a day to people
I appreciate during Lent. What are some other ones? I mean,
famous one is giving up sugar for Lent. You know,

(04:21):
let's see and yeah, I've done that before. Ah Man,
I ate a lot of grapes that year because grapes
have all that natural sugar in there. Some people will
but ways that we can remember that we're dependent on
God because that is this season of Lent. And you know,
we sometimes call talk about Lent is kind of like
this giving up, but really what it is is it

(04:43):
is a preparation for the joy of Easter. So in
so many ways, like what we have to do in
order to be ready in our hearts and in minds
and our bodies to be ready for the feast of
Easter is we have to do some preparation. We have
to do some kind of cleaning up, like cleaning house,
and you know it's almost like the spring cleaning of

(05:06):
our souls.

Speaker 3 (05:08):
You know.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
Let's think about how really everything that we do and
say and think and all of that is because of God.
And whatever it is that will remind you of that,
whether it is giving up sugar or whether it's taking
something else on, those are the sorts of things that

(05:30):
we like to do during Lent. And I guess, like
the other piece about all of that is it's not
about making ourselves miserable, and it's not about like perfect
perfection again, like when you fail, you, as we say
in our ash Wednesday service, you repent and you return
to the Lord. You know, it's the reminder that really

(05:51):
the only thing in our world that we can't live
without is Jesus. Everything else we can live without, but
we can't live without Jesus. So whatever it is that
kind of reminds you of that, whatever it is that
kind of allows you to see that clearly with your
very being, those are the sorts of disciplines that we

(06:12):
would encourage you to give up. And we two, like you, Beth,
we have we have plain song chants during Lent. And
plain song is kind of like that old music way,
old music of the church, where it's not in harmonies
and it's it's simpler, and our Lent and services are

(06:35):
a little quieter, and it's just. And the other thing
is is we change colors. So back in the day,
way back in the day, they would try to dye
the ultra cloths as dark as they possibly could. And
one of the colors that came out when they were
trying to dye kind of like our vestments and our

(06:56):
ultracolors with natural dyes was purple. So that is why
lent is purple. It's one of the colors of preparation.
And so this coming Sunday today you will see big
changes in our sanctuary. Everything will be purple. And sometimes
we sometimes we put material over our Jesus at the

(07:21):
front so you can't see Jesus until Easter. We're not
going to do that this year. Sometimes we drape something
over our crosses. We're not going to do that this
year either. But when you go, even go with your
body into the church, you'll see different things and you'll
also feel different things. What else would I say, Oh,
we're doing a study, like you're doing a study in

(07:44):
Dietrich Bonharfer. We have three book studies this year, lots
of book studies, and all of them are open to everyone.
There's one that's a one off and that's on March sixteen,
and that's reading the Service Bury by Robin Wallkimer. There's
another one that is happening during the day in person
on Thursdays, and then there's another one that is happening

(08:05):
via zoom on Monday nights. So if you're like, hey,
I want to join a book study, please feel free
to call the front office of Saint Andrew's Episcopal Church,
not to be confused with the cathedral. I think we
get calls for each other at least once every other
week or so. But we're also doing a for our
Fellowship Information, which is kind of our adult Sunday School

(08:28):
or our adult forum. We are going to watch and
talk about a film called Weapons of the Spirit, which
is about a small Huguenot community in France that harbored
more than five thousand Jews during the war. So trying
to kind of think about ways that we can move

(08:48):
closer to Jesus and remember that it is this is
the work that we have to do. This is our
work as Christians. It doesn't happen all at once, and
just because you woke up this morning and did not
find yourself a perfect being does not mean that you
don't love God.

Speaker 2 (09:04):
Right right exactly.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
The only person that it is seemly to be perfect
is Jesus.

Speaker 2 (09:11):
And.

Speaker 1 (09:13):
You know, like the rest of us are going to
slouch and struggle towards the cross, and that is what
it means to be human. And remembering that humanity, I
think is especially important during this Lindon season. I agree.

Speaker 3 (09:29):
I remember who said this, Molly, but you've used the
word perfectionism several times. But it's a quote I read
a lot. It says, don't let perfectionism be the enemy
of the good, so still do good. We're not going
to be perfect at it, but still do the good.
So yeah, I try to remind myself that a lot.
Don't let perfectionism be the enemy of the good.

Speaker 1 (09:52):
We live in the Western Michigan and Western Michigan. I
think one of our afflictions is that we all think
we should look perfect even if we're not. And I
wonder what it would be like if we could let
go of that particular shackle, you know, yeah, because I
think it would allow other people, as you you know,
the enemy of the good. It would allow other people

(10:13):
us to talk about the ways that we struggle and
you know, and maybe we could we could find community
in that and continue to love Jesus even more than
we do now.

Speaker 2 (10:25):
I agree, I agree, although having a child allowed me
to really let go of the way that I look
since I was like, you know what, I can take
him to the bust stop in my pajamas. It's fine,
it doesn't matter.

Speaker 3 (10:36):
Yeah, good for you, Jessica.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
Yeah, Well, are we ready to read our text? Every
year Lent one is the temptation of Jesus, So just
be forewarned that devil appears in this text.

Speaker 3 (10:53):
This is from the Gospel of Luke. Filled with the
Holy Spirit. Jesus returned from the Jordan and was led
by the spirit to the desert for forty days to
be tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days,
and when they were over, he was hungry. The devil
said to him, if you are the son of God,
command this stone to become bred. Jesus answered him, it

(11:17):
is written one does not live on bread alone. Then
he took him up and showed him all the kingdoms
of the world in a single instant. The devil said
to him, I shall give to you all this power
and glory for it has been handed over to me,
and I may give it to whomever I wish. All
this will be yours if you worship me, Jesus said

(11:41):
to him in reply. It is written you shall worship
the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve.
Then he led him to Jerusalem, made him stand on
the parapet of the temple, and said to him, if
you are the son of God, throw yourself down from here.
Written he will command his angels concerning you to guard you,

(12:05):
and with their hands they will support you lest you
dash your foot against a stone. Jesus said to him
in reply. It also says you shall not put the
Lord your God to the test. When the devil had
finished every temptation, he departed from him for a while.

Speaker 2 (12:23):
I always find this text sort of thought provoking every
year anyway, And part of the reason it's read on
the first Sunday of month is because it sort of
steps the stage for that forty day period of leentth too,
that it's meant to be a wilderness experience. It's meant

(12:44):
to be kind of this the way I've talked about
it in the past with my congregation, this time of
confronting what keeps us from from God, or what keeps
us distant? And this year it feels particularly relevant because

(13:07):
I'm aware of what exactly it is that Jesus is
tempted with. You know, He's tempted with all of the
earthly power, right, He's tempted with the power that emperors

(13:27):
have sought since the beginning of time. He's tempted with
the ability to sway people, like bend them to his will, essentially.
And I think in this time, in this place where

(13:50):
we see that kind of lust for power played out
in real time, lust for riches, lust for power, lust
for the ability to bend people to your will. The
fact that Jesus rejects that that that here is the
Almighty God in Christ rejecting everything that the world says

(14:18):
you're supposed to see. And I think that's a powerful
I think that's a powerful testimony and a powerful witness
to who God really is and what God really is
about in the world.

Speaker 1 (14:32):
What do you think best?

Speaker 3 (14:34):
I guess I took it a little more personal that
where am I controlling? And where do I want power
in my own life? And people I want to control,
events I want to control. Just think about all the
things I've prayed for for years and years and years,
and God has not answered that those prayers. I still pray,

(14:54):
I still, you know, forge on. But if I was
in control, and this is what I would, you know,
but you're not, you know, to give up control to
trust God. So I think I took it a little
more personal that, you know, where do I want to
control people? Where do I want the glory? Where do
I want the power in my own life and in

(15:16):
the ministry work I do and with my family? Boy,
I wish I could crank them around, but you know,
there are different things you'd like to do that you
know I don't. That's not yours, that's not yours to do.

Speaker 1 (15:27):
Beat.

Speaker 3 (15:27):
So I was I was thinking about that, that those
you know, the temptation that we're all tempted in some way,
and Lent is a good time to look at those temptations.

Speaker 1 (15:37):
I think it for me, what do we think? I mean,
these are these are classic temptations, right, But what do
we think are like temptations of this time in our place?
You know, I'm not sure like I would ever be
tempted to jump off the parapet at the temple, but
part of that is because I'm risk averse. You know,
I don't want to and plus I know I'm not

(15:58):
God right, But what are those things like? Kind of
those temptations because because I mean, you said there was
some when the devil had finished every test, he departed
from him and tell an opportune time that's ours and
yours said something different. But I think one of the
important things about this text is that there are still

(16:21):
temptations happening, right.

Speaker 3 (16:22):
Yes, I think one of our temptations of this age
is isolation. That we have isolated ourselves from each other,
and we were doing that before COVID and then COVID.
Really it just we have isolated and we're not all
back out doing things and being with people and building
friendships and relationships. I have nieces and nephews who only

(16:44):
talk with their friends online. They play these video games
and they do this group thing, but they never see
each other. They never It's like, that's not the same
thing as being with people. You're in your bedrooms doing that.
So I think isolation, there's a big temptation in our society.
We're isolated, and we wonder why we're lonely, and loneliness

(17:06):
has become such an issue. I think we've isolated ourselves
and we talked about perfection. I think sometimes we're afraid
to be out there and say, yeah, I'm still struggling
with this, Yeah I struggle with that that it's hard
to say that out loud to people.

Speaker 2 (17:20):
I think you're right. I think we've been conditioned to
believe in this like just hyper individual like even before
the pandemic, that the sort of American mentality is this
like hyper individualism, right, like you make it on your

(17:44):
own and you aren't supposed to rely on anybody. You know,
where the pioneers where, the where the explorers like that,
that's sort of built into our our conditioning. And but
but that's not how we were created to be. We
we weren't created to be so individual. We weren't created

(18:06):
to like be in our bedrooms and play video games
and not and not have community. We were created to
offer mutual aid. We were created to exist in these communities,
to bear one another's burdens, to care for one another.

(18:27):
And I think the temptation is to separate from that
and to think we can do it all on our own,
that we can attain our salvation on our own, that
we can somehow be perfect on our own and time
and again we are shown. You know, I know I

(18:48):
am in my own life, I'm shown like, no, that's
not that's not how this works. You need to you
need to be vulnerable with other people, and you need
to be in community with other people. And Molly, when
you were saying, you know, temptations still exists, that reminds me.

(19:08):
You know, we pray it, at least in my tradition
every week. I pray it probably every day, you know,
lead us not into temptation, or in some translation, save
us from the time of trial, keep us from going
down this road where we're tempted by this, keep us
mindful of what we were created for.

Speaker 1 (19:28):
You know. The other thing that I just I'm always
very aware of is kind of thinking that if we
had one thing, it would solve our problems, whether it
be like a comfort or on our beds or you know,
like and all we have to do is just like
click on that thing and it comes to our house.

Speaker 2 (19:49):
You know.

Speaker 1 (19:50):
Like in some ways, I would say, another big temptation
is our dissatisfaction, you know, with the lie that we lead,
which are already full and wonderful that's another that's another
thing I think kind of and maybe you could put
this under the the realm of capitalism, you know, kind

(20:12):
of this this this structure where we where we can
have pretty much, at least theoretically almost everything we want.
And I think it's very easy to just kind of think, oh,
if I had this or if I had that, then
all of my problems would be solved. You know, this

(20:32):
is not exactly the same thing, but it's close enough enough.
I was listening to this this podcast a couple of
weeks ago, and about our bodies and about how a
lot of people say to themselves, well, you know, first
of all, they like, if I were thin, then I
would be happy. People will say, and then they say, well,
you know, kind of body positivity comes in and says, hey, look,

(20:57):
you know I should be happy with the way that
I am. And so so then there's like guilt about
not being happy. And this woman was kind of saying, hey,
what about this. What if we were kind of neutral
about these things, and we said, in this place where
I am right now, I I can be loved, I

(21:18):
can find as you say, community, there are options and
things for me right now. Like you say, I do
not have to live in isolation. And I just feel
like there's kind of like there's always something that we
don't have. There's always something that the next thing that

(21:38):
we want. And I wonder, I wonder about like you
know about that particular temptation being such a loud one
in this time, in this place, Well.

Speaker 2 (21:51):
I think it shows up like as you were just
saying that, I mean, think about if you are on
social media, Like your social media feeds, right, like the
tailored they're tailored for what tempts you to show you that.
Like right now, I am getting a ton of these
like collagen supplement things on my feed because I clicked

(22:16):
on one thing because it was because I'm forty five
and you know all the things that go with being
a woman who's forty five, and so now like it's
just constantly getting that like look younger, and your skin
will look really good and you won't you know, your
joints won't ache and all of this stuff, and our

(22:37):
feed is like I don't like, I mean, it's almost
like it's tailored to be the voice of the devil
being like just do this and you'll be happy. Just
buy this thing and you'll be happy. Just drink this
thing and you'll be happy. And it's that is like

(22:59):
when you were saying that, I was just thinking of that,
like social media feeds that are that are just tailored
to do exactly that, like put all those temptations in
front of us.

Speaker 1 (23:13):
And the other thing is that I think this passage
reminds us is that just because somebody is quoting scripture
does not mean that it is right. Correct. I mean,
the devil there is quoting scripture each time. So just
because somebody says something in the words of Jesus or

(23:34):
in the words of the scripture does not mean that
it is right. It is our job to discern it.

Speaker 3 (23:41):
Yes, I had a priest a long time ago say
I never used scripture as a weapon, and I've never
forgot that he said that. But to be very careful
when we're quoting scripture.

Speaker 2 (23:50):
Right, because the devil knows scripture too.

Speaker 1 (23:52):
I think that's a really good thing to say, Beth,
never use scripture or love as a weapon.

Speaker 3 (24:00):
Yes, right, I know.

Speaker 1 (24:04):
I think our tradition is very clear on those things.

Speaker 3 (24:07):
Yes, I think so too. Yes, at a confessor say
to me one time, maybe it's sometimes better not to
say anything, and I thought, Okay, I get it. Yes, yes, okay, Beth.

Speaker 1 (24:21):
You all did not see the face I made. But
you know that's like that hits all of us, doesn't it.
Sometimes it's sometimes better not to say anything.

Speaker 2 (24:29):
Oh yeah, yes, although I am reminded then of a
meme that that said, you know, sometimes it's better to
say anything. But I can't do that. I shut my
mouth and subtitles come out of my face, which is true.
I can do that, not say anything, but I cannot

(24:51):
control what's happening.

Speaker 1 (24:53):
So you turn your zoom camera off at that point
in time, Jessica.

Speaker 2 (24:56):
I might have yes, I do. They're not in church
and somebody says something like during a temple talk or something,
and I'm just like, I like poker with you.

Speaker 1 (25:09):
Yeah, you would win a lot of money. Okay, okay.
With that For finishing, I hope that all of you
all have a very blessed Lent. We are grateful to
be able to do this show, and on behalf of Beth,
Jessica and myself Molly, we wish you a happy and

(25:32):
fruitful Lent.