During this Lenten season,
First Church is focusing on health and recovery.
Each week we've been taking one word from the beginning of the creation story in Genesis chapter 1.
This has been our guidance and focus for our own spiritual health and collective recovery.
As we've been imagining how the Lenten journey has unfolded,
Each one of these words has been our centerpiece,
Our theme,
Our focus for this spiritual journey.
As we begin Holy Week,
We start with Palm Passion Sunday,
The day where Jesus enters Jerusalem triumphantly and finds his way in and through the streets of Jerusalem.
As palms are waving,
As children are running beside him,
Imagining how the day unfolds.
So today,
Our word of focus for this meditation is day.
Day.
What's in a day?
It is dawn to dusk and to dawn.
That is a day.
We mark time with this kind of movement,
Yet it is not all about time.
So let's take just a moment to find our center,
To find our way in the day that we have before us.
I invite you to find a comfortable position,
Sitting or lying down.
As you find your place of rest,
Begin to feel the earth beneath your feet or the earth supporting your body.
If you're comfortable closing your eyes,
I invite you to do so.
Begin to breathe.
Day is your day,
A gift,
A series of moments from dawn to dusk to dawn.
In the movement of time,
As with your breath,
Measuring moment to moment.
I invite you to breathe and concentrate on the inhale and exhale,
The rhythm of your day,
Just as it is.
Not in a series of to-dos or scheduled appointments or bells ringing,
Rather breath.
This involuntary timekeeper,
This beautiful movement of your day,
Finding presence right where you are.
A day is the fullness of experience.
It is expectation and it is exhaustion.
A day is imagination and it is fulfillment.
The in-breath and the out-breath.
Your day is this present moment.
A way for you to begin anew.
And what is enveloped in this moment is how you will live it,
Who you are in it,
And what you will become with this gift that is right now.
The moments between expectation and exhaustion,
The moments in between imagination and fulfillment.
Find your breath,
Find your breath in this here and now.
On this Palm Passion Sunday,
We remember a distillation of one event nearly 2,
000 years ago when crowds lined the streets of Jerusalem to welcome King Jesus.
This one event points to the apex of the history of waiting for the Messiah.
It is also the culmination of the hope of the oppressed.
And ultimately it is the height of God's affirmation of a liberative love.
In this one day,
With all of this meaning,
All of this purpose,
What we have is right now,
Waiting,
Hoping,
Affirmation.
Find your breath.
What is it about this day that you're finding yourself in?
Are you in a posture of waiting?
Are you leaning into hope?
Or are you basking in the affirmation of that liberative love of God?
Wherever you find yourself in this moment,
It is an invitation for you to live into it as fully as you possibly can.
So in these next few moments of silent meditation,
Let us meditate on this question today.
What will you do with this precious day you have?
What will you do with this precious day that you have?
What will you do with this precious day that you have?
What will you do with this precious day that you have?
What will you do with this precious day that you have?
What is in a day?
It is dawn to dusk to dawn.
That is in a day.
What will you do with this precious day that you have?
In these moments that we've shared,
It is an opportunity for you to understand where you are in the waiting,
In the hoping,
In the affirming of this day.
And for you to realize that God is in the midst of each one of those movements,
Just as God is with you in the inhalation and the exhalation,
And even the parts between.
As you come out of this meditation,
I invite you to seek refuge.
I invite you now to set an intention for how you will arrive in this precious day.
Being mindful of the breath that is before you.
Being bold and focused in all of our movements,
Recognizing that each moment is a gift.
Each moment is an opportunity.
Each moment is an affirmation of the love that is within you.
Set an intention right here and right now on what you will do with this precious day.
And now as you're comfortable,
Open your eyes to greet this moment and get on with your day.
