Category: New Mexico

To be like those who dream

by Rev. Talitha Arnold, Senior Pastor, United Church of Santa Fe

When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion,
we were like those who dream.
Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with shouts of joy.
Psalm 126:1-2

Every fall as I drive to work, I feel like those ancient Israelites, filled with laughter and shouts of joy. Why? Because of the bright yellow cowpen daisies that spring up in every nook and cranny, empty field and street divider around Santa Fe this time of year. How can we not be filled with joy and thanks for such beauty in unlikely places?

But the composer of Psalm 126 also knew life isn’t always so abundant. The Psalm was written for the children and grandchildren of the Israelites who managed to make it back from the devastating exile in Babylon. Behind the shouts of joy and laughter were years of hardship and uncertainty.

In 2005, the southwestern United States was in the tenth year of a devastating drought. The pinon trees that covered the hills throughout northern New Mexico were among the casualties of the dry times. Stressed by drought and susceptible to bark beetles, they died by the thousands. Once green landscapes turned brown and grey with dead trees. For longtime residents, it felt like a death in the family.

But in late August, it started to rain. Within days, fields of wildflowers sprang up. We couldn’t believe our eyes. Yellow cowpen daisies, purple asters, and rare flowers not seen in a century covered the land. Scientists observed that it wasn’t only the rain that produced the riot of color. The needles of the dead pinons had provided the mulch and nutrients needed by long-dormant seeds. The trees would never be restored, but their death gave birth to a new beauty as far as the eye could see.

“May those who sow with tears, reap with shouts of joy,” proclaimed the Psalmist. “Those who go out weeping shall come home with shouts of joy.” The preacher-composer reminded the people of God’s power to call forth new life—and joy—in even the driest and deadest of times. The psalmist also called them, and us, to be “like those who dream”—to trust God’s possibilities in the hard times of our lives, our communities, our families or this world.

Whether our hopes be a return from exile or acres of cowpen daisies and purple asters, may the God of power and possibility give us the courage to “be like those who dream.”

And . . . may we be open to possibilities already present.

Do Lent, or not do Lent

by Rev. Talitha Arnold, Senior Pastor, United Church of Santa Fe

“What the heck is Lent?” a friend asked. “What’s with the ashes, the morose songs, the somber colors? I thought the United Church was for happy Christians. Why do we have to do Lent?”

Truth be known, we don’t. “Doing Lent” or giving up something for the next 40 days isn’t required at the United Church of Santa Fe. As part of the United Church of Christ, we’re in the reform Protestant tradition (Congregational, Disciples of Christ, Baptists, etc.) that historically didn’t “do” Lent. In fact, many “free church” Protestants looked with suspicion on Lent. Some still do. Lent was something those Catholics, Lutherans, or Episcopalians did. The ashes, giving up meat or candy, all that purple was a bit too Popish or liturgical for our tastes. As my friend said, we were supposed to be happy Christians.

Other Protestants didn’t mark Lent, because as one friend observed, in her church it was Lent all the time. With all the rules against dancing, drinking, and card playing, they didn’t have anything to give up!

So technically, we don’t have to do anything or give up anything for Lent at the United Church of Santa Fe. But many of us have found that Easter has deeper meaning, if we set aside Lent’s 40 days for something other than life or business as usual.

If we wanted to sing in a concert, we’d need to set aside time to rehearse. To compete in a basketball tournament, we’d take time to practice our free throws. The same is true for our experience of Easter. To know new life in any form—spiritually, physically, intellectually—we need to take time to practice. Setting aside the 40 days of Lent for study, prayer, silence, and other spiritual disciplines is a way to engage new ideas, new feelings, new possibilities.

Sometimes to let in new life, we also have to let go of some things. Before you start a new project, you might need to clear off your desk. Before you ran a marathon, you might want to shed some weight. The same is true of our souls. Sometimes we need to clean out and shed extra baggage to make room for something new.

Observing Lent is not required for admission to Easter at the United Church. Come Easter morning, you’ll be as welcome at United as you are any morning.

But perhaps if we take the 40 days of Lent to practice new life or if we set aside time to remember the sacredness of our lives and all life, then maybe, just maybe, Easter might have a new meaning for us this year. We don’t have to “do Lent,” but we might be surprised what’s possible if we do.

Fasten your seat belts—Lent has come!

Get ready—because Easter is on its way!

Elements

by Rev. Dr. Barb Doerrer-Peacock

Elements of the SWC Logo

the saguaro – our faith communities

The saguaro cactus is unique to the Sonoran desert of central and southern Arizona/northern Mexico. It weathers the harsh desert climate through slow and steady growth, adapts to the heat with a tougher skin on its sunniest side, grows its arms to balance itself against the winds, and provides a home and nourishment for a wide diversity of desert-dwelling creatures.  In our logo, the saguaro is the symbol of our Southwest Conference churches, with its adapted cross-like shape it reminds us of our relationship and rootedness with God as shown to us by the life of Jesus. We grow toward God and reach out with arms into our communities.  We are adaptive to the needs of our changing environment and balance ourselves to accommodate the heat of challenge and transitions. We seek to create safe sanctuary and space for welcoming diversities of people. We also draw a unique mission identity from our geographic region that lies on our nation’s southern border.  There are many “borders” in our life, and in following the path of Jesus, we seek to bridge those borders and boundaries with love, justice and acts of compassion.

the sun – our still-speaking God

A primary character in any desert geography is the sun. It gives light and heat, often in extreme ways. It holds the power of both life and death. Our logo sun is the symbol of our relationship with our Still-Speaking God.  The spiral echoes our UCC comma, a metaphor for our continuing testament.  God’s transcendence and immanence is also symbolized in the spiral – the inward and outward spiritual journeys, and the rays of God’s light that reaches into any void and chaos, reveals truth, the warmth of compassionate love, and the heat of passionate commitment to a just world for all.

the mountain – our everyday sacred spaces and callings

Mountains have represented mystical and sacred spaces to human beings the world over, in all ages. The mountains of the Southwest are widely varied from barren piles of volcanic rock, to thickly forested and habitats of wildlife, to colorfully layered canyons and cliffs, mesas and buttes, carved through eons by wind and water.  The mountains in our logo represent our grounded everyday spaces in which we live out God’s calling and incarnate the kin-dom of God.  There are peaks and valleys to our lives that we navigate, there are hidden dangers, yet also grand vistas.  There are deep grounded traditions, yet also places we stand to vision the future.  There is sustenance and nurture, caring for and teaching one another, sheltering the weak, giving challenge and leadership to the strong.

the wind – God’s Spirit among us

In many places in the Southwest, the wind is often a constant companion, blowing across wide expanses of high and low deserts. It carries with it topsoil and dust, much-needed moisture and variations of temperature and weather.  Wind is one of the symbols of the Holy Spirit, blowing with power through the people of God in every time and place, sustaining and guiding life and God’s purposes. Our logo wind, like clouds around the mountains, is God’s Spirit among us, in our life spaces, guiding, sustaining, and empowering us. It brings us through the cycles of seasons, of sunrises and sunsets, it rides on our prayers and our songs to give strength for new beginnings and good endings, fertile soil of creativity and transformative change.

the water – our shared structures and resources for ministry and mission

The element of water in the Southwest is definitive.  It defines life by where it exists, how it flows, and where it is not. Plants and animals have learned to survive and thrive even in the midst of its scarcity. It is vital for life yet can be destructive and bring death in its force. It connects us through shared resources, yet it divides us by defining boundaries and borders. In our logo, as the waters of baptism welcome us to God’s grace and community, our water element represent the structures and resources of our life together in ministry and mission.  We are stewards of our faith community organizations and resources. We strive to maintain a fluidity and adaptability needed to stay vital, yet also recognize the need for boundaries and organizational structure to hold us accountable to each other that we might live with integrity even as we are surrounded by God’s grace.