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Here is your worship bulletin, weekly newsletter and calendar for the week of February 22, 2026.
Join us for Worship at 9:30 am on February 22, 2026, the 1st Sunday in Lent. Rev. David J. Wood, Interim Senior Minister, will lead the service.
A Note from David J. Wood
Dear Friends,
Did you get to see Alysa Liu’s gold medal performance last night in the Olympics? For me, it was the highlight of the Olympics so far. Her story is extraordinary: after winning two US championships at age 13, at age 16 she “retired.” She had lost her love for the sport and said she just wanted to move on with her life. Two years later, she returned to skating…and now, two years later she wins the gold!
What I found so compelling as I watched her last night was her complete joy about just being there. She was the epitome of a person doing what she was doing for the sheer joy of it. It appeared that everything else—including winning—was beside the point. She gave it all up, left it all behind only to choose it again freely. No longer driven…more passionate than ever. From the skating world’s perspective, she entered the wilderness and returned more at peace, than ever before. It was if she was above it all…and yet more grounded, more attuned to everything and everyone around her than ever before.
This past Wednesday, as part of our Ash Wednesday Vespers, I shared the following except from Mary Oliver’s poem, “In Blackwater Woods”:
To live in this world,
You must be able
To do three things;
To love what is mortal;
To hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it;
And, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.
Maybe I’m making too much of Alysa’s journey…especially for one so young. Maybe.
This Sunday, the First Sunday in Lent, we will contemplate a time when Jesus entered the wilderness…a period of testing of his identity, of whether or not he would be true. The temptations he faced came in relation to what he cared most about. Everything was in the balance.
What might we learn about our own lives from this foundational moment in his life?
See you Sunday,
Peace,
David