The Pastor’s Offering: What’s in Your Rule?

Dear Beloveds,

At last night’s weekly “Creating Your ‘Rule of Life’” faith formation gathering, we dwelt with the words of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. Specifically, we sat with a small part of her chapter, “The Three Sisters,” and listened for the principles, values, practices being revealed to us by corn, beans and squash (the Three Sisters). As conversation built, we began to discover that these plants were teaching us a great deal about God’s kin-dom. In the messiness of the dirt, among the relationships between these plants with each other and the planter, we noticed a way of life that was grounded in mutuality, in reciprocal giving and receiving, and in the concept of enough.

What was emerging was a different world than our society has formed us in, one counter to transactional giving and competitive relationships. A tender, gritty, vulnerable world that offered us a new imagination for how we can live as beloved children of God, seeking to co-create God’s beloved kin-dom.

Whether or not you are participating in the Wednesday night discussion group, we are all invited to create our “Rule of Life.” This practice is about intentionally naming what grounds you, guides you, and sustains you as you move through the world. It is a formational practice that uncovers what has formed us, what we want to form us, and what kind of world we want to be a part of forming.

The Three Sisters were unexpected companions and teachers for some of us, perhaps old friends to others. Regardless, as we entered into relationship with them we began to understand more fully what motivates each of us and how we want to show up in the world. Who are your (un)likely guides this Lent? What world awaits you, your family, our community, under the surface?

in communion,
rev. lacey