Was it by chance that so many things happened last week between sundown on Fat Tuesday evening and sun down on Ash Wednesday? I don't believe everything that happened was purely happenstance!

Just after 9:00, as you may have heard elsewhere, I received a phone call from our former landlord just as the Joint Session of Congress was starting. I was informed our former worship space was no longer usable because unbeknownst to the landlord, the banquet rooms had been packed with video and arcade games while the owner's personal grand piano had been summerly rolled into the lower level catering kitchen. He offered a "mea culpa" or an acknowledgement that this circumstance, in his mind, was "through my fault" with obvious anguish that our scheduled worship could no longer occur in that place. Our landlord continued to offer use of the Premier Condominium Association's gathering room, at his expense, so we could still worship within the confines of the Will-O-Wisp. After subsequent discussions with our congregation President (Beth Johnson) and Worship Committee Chair (Jim Luedeke) I thanked our landlord for his kind offer and informed him that we had decided to move to an already determined fallback location. These circumstances are what led us to hold Ash Wednesday's joint service with the congregation of McHenry United Methodist Church (UMC) which had been hosting our weekly "Friday Game Night" since our July 31st departure from the former Sand Flat Plaza storefront.

Between a breakfast planning meeting with McHenry UMC's Pastor, discussions with Pittsburgh's "Senior Life" (formerly known as Lutheran Social Services) President, and final preparations for the evenings joint service, I was unable to attend Shepherd of the Hills regular, Wednesday noon Bible Study. It was only after our joint Ash Wednesday Service that I first heard about how, after removing all our worship belongings from our former lakeside worship location, that our Bible Study group spent their entire gathering discussing Exodus 26. That is, how they spent their whole time together reading and discussing the sheer size and complexity involved in the setting up and tearing down of the Israelite's original Tabernacle. The Bible Study groups discussion subsequently revolved around what it took to put up and take down the Israelite Tabernacle whenever the people had to move during their 40 year journey, and our experience in setting up and tearing down our worship space since we made the decision to leave the storefront and to return to the place where, where what became SOTH, first started as a "Lutheran Fellowship".

We understand Lent as being a time for prayer, fasting and repentance. That it is a period for reflection which extends "40-days" and which provides us a period of preparation for the resurrection of Our LORD on Easter Sunday. We refer to this practice as encompassing a 40-day period of preparation which only comes to an end upon the resurrection of our Lord and Savior. Unlike previous years however, this Lenten journey is not solely a spiritual journey. This Lenten journey involves a very real physical journey and often challenge.

As the Bible study group read on Ash Wednesday, SOTH's journey has been much like that of the ancient Israelites who carried all their belongings, including all the detailed items that were required for worship of the one God as they moved through the desert for 40 years. Exodus 26 tells us of the many curtains with blue, purple, and crimson colors along with shapes of cherubim all with the necessary clasps, wood frames, rings, and pegs so that the Ark of the Covenant could be brought inside and kept separate within the Holy of Holies by yet more curtains. How the table, lampstand, and screen were used within and without to protect the Tabernacle's entrance which was made of "fine twisted linen, embroidered with needlework" which was supported with gilded wood, golden hooks, and five bronze bases.

These various Tabernacle items reminded the Bible Study group and me of the various banners, poles, upright bases, the font, the altar, the many altar cloths to include the paraments and the "fair linen", the candle sticks, and the bread we also carried last Ash Wednesday out from the Will-O-Wisp (WOW) as we moved our worship into McHenry UMC. How we moved all these many items along with the wine and cross which specifically remind us of our Lord's last supper and our Savior's crucifixion.

In journeying from WOW to McHenry we literally crossed a significant lake, one which made me remember and to reflect upon a reading from the Gospel of Mark. "Jesus Calms a Storm" in chapter 4 begins with the words, "On that day, when evening had come, he [Jesus] said to them, "Let us go across to the other side"". Last Tuesday night, besides being invited to take up our Lenten journey, were we also asked to move to where God needs us in order to fulfill God's plan for SOTH?   Leaving the storefront last summer was traumatic and we were blessed by being able to return to the place where we first began. We were allowed to recover from that move's trauma in a familiar and very beautiful place. That was exactly what we were in the process of doing as we moved toward last Ash Wednesday.

We had produced new cards for the visitor center, rental offices, and hotels while we had begun organizing how we will use them to invite new residents and others to join our mission "at the lake". We had realized that we are not to be a traditional church built solely of members, but rather a community were full-time residents enable outreach for the regular "gales" of visitors and vacationers as well as for those who cannot worship and praise God due to work schedules or for any other reason. I believe SOTH is meant to be where God's people can be found, rather than being hidden away from the seasonal flood and tide of travelers into this Deep Creek Lake area.

We can grieve the fact that we have been sent back out into the world and we can argue that we will need time to pray, fast, and to repent during these coming 40 days, yet at some point we will need to start preparing for the day that will soon be upon us. That glorious day when we remember the Resurrection of our Lord!!!

As we await that glorious day, this Lenten season we are reminded what the ancient Israelites saw, how life with God is not something we can only worry about on Sundays. How our journey requires us to also carry God with us, if not in our hearts and minds, then literally in our hands, arms, or on our backs. This year's Lenten journey is only one little part of the journey we are called to traverse. Our annual Lenten journeys empower us with waystations, times to pause for prayer, fasting, and repentance as we proceed on our journeys from baptisms to our deaths. Yet as we journey between those two pillars, we are called not just to live out our lives, but to: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." That is, to be a Community of Christ at Deep Creek Lake for its many visitors, vacationers, and neighbors!