{"id":4414,"date":"2025-03-09T20:44:29","date_gmt":"2025-03-09T20:44:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/2025\/03\/09\/it-is-well-based-on-deuteronomy-261-11-and\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T17:54:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T21:54:31","slug":"it-is-well-based-on-deuteronomy-261-11-and","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/2025\/03\/09\/it-is-well-based-on-deuteronomy-261-11-and\/","title":{"rendered":"It Is Well"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt. Is. Well.\u201d based on Deuteronomy 26:1-11 and Luke 4:-13<\/h1>\n

If I rewrote the temptation of Jesus story for today, it could sound a little different:<\/p>\n

The tempter said to Jesus, \u201cIf you are the son of God, scan social media for updates about your friends and ignore all rabbit holes and clickbait.\u201d Jesus answered, \u201cSow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love\u2026 so, no.\u201d (Hosea 10:12a)<\/small><\/p>\n

The tempter said to Jesus, \u201cHere is the world on a piece of paper, it is called the newspaper. Read this and tell me again that God is good.\u201d Jesus answered, \u201cGod\u2019s steadfast love endures forever, and God\u2019s faithfulness for all generations – and that truth is deeper than any news.\u201d<\/small><\/p>\n

The tempter said to Jesus, \u201cHere is a way to protect yourself, to get yourself out of the messes all around you.\u201d And Jesus said, like Jesus liked to say, \u201cWhatever you do to the least of these you do to me.\u201d<\/small><\/p>\n

That is, I think that a significant temptation facing us today is the temptation to become overwhelmed, to slide into despair, or to become self-protective. As many have pointed out, that temptation has been handed to us on a golden platter by those who believe that having us overwhelmed and mired in despair means we will be more compliant, but even knowing that, it is hard to stay centered.<\/p>\n

And, I want to make space to say, I don\u2019t think any of us can stay centered all the time and we all have different vulnerabilities, different access to resources, and different levels of tolerance, and with GOOD REASON some of us can\u2019t find our centers very much at all. Or ever. Which isn\u2019t any sort of personal failing, it is just that being attacked is dis-regulating.<\/p>\n

Some of you are already familiar with the story behind the hymn \u201cIt Is Well with My Soul,\u201d but as I think it is otherwise an odd choice of chorus for our gathering hymn for Lent, I want to tell the story again. Horatio Spafford\u2019s life was a bit like Job\u2019s. (Grimace) Spafford had 5 children and a lot of wealth. One of his children died, and then much of the wealth went up in smoke in the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. Two years later the family traveled to England but Horatio sent his wife and remaining children ahead of him while he finished some work. Their ship sank and all of his children died. His wife was saved. When he followed, and his ship traveled over the waters where his children died, he stood on deck and watched. And it is said that the song came to him then and there.<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

Now, I fear that the story can be a little bit too poignant, and someone could take from it that grief and loss are to be ignored or dismissed, and a person of sufficient faith can face any disaster with poise and grace. I don\u2019t mean ANY of that. I think that any grief comes in waves, and sometimes one finds a grace-filled peace and sometimes one finds the depths of despair. And I don\u2019t think being a person of faith insulates anyone from disaster or being deeply impacted by it.<\/p>\n

I do think though, that somewhere within us is a piece of our being that is connected directly to the Divine \u2013 some people call it soul \u2013 and nothing in the world can damage our souls. Our bodies can be harmed, our minds can be harmed, sometimes even our so called \u201cspirits\u201d can be broken, but nothing in the world can damage our souls. And we all have them.<\/p>\n

One of the reasons to engage in Contemplative Prayer is to allow the soul \u2013 who knows God intimately \u2013 the space to offer guidance to our beings as a whole. Another is to find that \u201cpeace like a river\u201d that our souls know but usually our whole beings can\u2019t access.<\/p>\n

The Quakers have done a lot of work in thinking about and learning about souls in this sort of definition. One of the things they teach is that souls are SHY. They get compared to wild animals, who spook easily, trust hesitantly, and need a lot of space. Some of the continued education time I\u2019ve engaged with while here at First UMC Schenectady has been devoted to \u201csoul-work,\u201d led by the Center for Courage and Renewal which was founded on the teachings of Quaker Parker Palmer.<\/p>\n

Courage and Renewal engages in practices to let our soul-wisdom out. Their retreats include a lot of silence, time for journaling and art, and the use of \u201cthird things.\u201d Third things are some sort of art \u2013 music or poetry or paintings, etc \u2013 that are used as a vehicle for reflection and as an indirect way to seek soul wisdom. People have a chance to notice aspects of the art, notice the feelings they have in response to the art, and wonder a bit about the connection. A practice like this is part of our offering on Wednesdays in Lent, a space with lots of silence, some intentional questions, and plenty of spaciousness. Those shy souls might feel safe enough to peak out!<\/p>\n

The wonder of the work I\u2019ve done with Courage and Renewal has been in learning that when one soul peaks out, other souls get really curious and are more likely to do their own peaking out as well. The wisdom of one soul is never exactly like the wisdom of another soul, but nevertheless they recognize that type of wisdom and their \u201cears\u201d perk right up.<\/p>\n

In an ideal world, this sort of wonder would happen every week in worship too, and I think to some degree it does. But worship doesn\u2019t have quiet enough silence, or patience, for it to happen a lot. Nevertheless, grace appears because God is like that, and sometimes we\u2019re really able to share our deepest truths and be heard by others deepest listening.<\/p>\n

Dear ones, the point I\u2019m trying to make may be a little obscure this time, so let me attempt to be clearer. Deep within you there is an unbreakable connection to the Divine. You may have other language for it, today I\u2019m calling it soul. While the upheavals of the world can do profound damage to you, they can\u2019t hurt your soul. Your soul might hide more deeply within you, or be more shy about sharing its wisdom, but it can\u2019t be hurt! It can\u2019t be hurt by distressing decisions or outrageous news or even by direct harm to you.<\/p>\n

Because God\u2019s own self is a part of you, and God is bigger and stronger and more loving than anything in the world could ever stop.<\/p>\n

Which is why, in the middle of Lent, in a time when it feels like our society and the world are rolling backward, I think it is really important to sing, \u201cIt is well, it is well, with my soul.\u201d I also think it is a great time to engage in contemplative prayer practices that help us connect with the Divine, with our own souls, and with peace.<\/p>\n

All of which helps us feel the truth of \u201cit is well, it is well, with my soul.\u201d Because the wonderful thing is, it always is, always, no matter what. Thanks be to God. Amen<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

March 9, 2025<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Rev. Sara E. Baron\u00a0
First United Methodist Church of Schenectady\u00a0
603 State St. Schenectady, NY 12305\u00a0
Pronouns: she\/her\/hers\u00a0
http:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/\u00a0<\/a>
https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/FUMCSchenectady<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt. Is. Well.\u201d based on Deuteronomy 26:1-11 and Luke 4:-13 If I rewrote the temptation of Jesus story for today, … Continue reading It Is Well<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[34,38,28,39,33,1357,1354,1265,1359,214,209,1358,56,1355,1356],"class_list":["post-4414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermons","tag-fumc-schenectady","tag-progressive-christianity","tag-rev-sara-e-baron","tag-thinking-church","tag-umc","tag-center-for-courage-and-renewal","tag-contemplative-prayer","tag-first-umc-schenectady","tag-it-is-well-with-my-soul","tag-lent","tag-parker-palmer","tag-quakers","tag-schenectady","tag-soul","tag-soul-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4414","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4414"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4414\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4640,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4414\/revisions\/4640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fumcschenectady.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}