The Journey of Lent

The season of Lent is upon us! Today is day two of our 40 day journey to the cross and beyond. Last night, at Seneca Presbyterian Church, we read scriptures and spoke prayers that unite many Christians in their observance of Ash Wednesday. We confess to You, O God, all our past unfaithfulness: the pride, hypocrisy, and impatience in our lives; our self-indulgent appetites and ways and our exploitation of other people; our anger at our own frustration and our envy of those more fortunate than ourselves; our negligence in prayer and worship, and our failure to commend the faith that is in us. Then we marked our foreheads with the sign of the cross using ashes burned from our Palm Sunday palm branches. It is a reminder that sin is real and we feel its consequences in our lives even when we live by the grace of God. The world is not as it should be, and even those of us who profess to have claimed God’s vision for the world are still responsible for a large portion of its mess.

Our response is two-fold. First we accept the grace of God into our lives. That’s where we must begin, because without that there is no hope. But that grace is more than forgiveness for what is past; it is power to re-make the future. We can change – slowly, with effort, through the power and presence of the Spirit within us. We can then become more faithful partners with God in the re-creation of God’s world.

Lent is the season to do the work of changing. Just as we cut away the old growth from our bushes and trees in the spring, Lent is the time to cut away the dead limbs of our lives so that life can return and thrive. Otherwise there is little hope for the “garden of our souls.” Intentional practice helps – and is most likely a necessity – if we are to succeed in passing from death to life during Lent. Some practices call upon us to “do without” – like the ancient way of fasting. Some Christians actually do fast, keeping alive the tradition that is so much a part of Hebrew and Muslim faith. Others fast in more intangible ways. We take away something from our lives that is important to us – a piece of chocolate; a weekly hour of our time; a craving that pulls us away from God and from one another. Then we let our hunger for what we have relinquished remind us of our hunger for God.  

Some practices call us to add. We find time to intentionally seek God – usually through some form of devotion and prayer. There are many resources in print, but in our age the web is also full of options. For instance, if you want to explore fixed hour prayer – the tradition that calls for regular morning, midday, and evening prayer - check out: http://www.explorefaith.org/prayer/prayer/fixed/pray_the_hours.php. This page will allow you to choose a time zone and your browser will pop up the appropriate prayer for the day and the hour. (Take time to read background information about fixed hour prayer within this same web site.)

As we gather for worship at Seneca Presbyterian Church each Sunday this Lent, I want to focus on the dead wood of our lives and how we can cut some of it away – for the sake of our own lives and the life of the world. The Gospel of Luke will be a faithful guide. This Sunday, we begin with the amazing Parable of the Good Samaritan. From the experience of an unknown traveler who was left “half dead,” we will identify one of our most critical threats to life through the amazing and surprising twist Jesus gave the story. For your own reflection, consider this: if you were in need of rescuing, would you allow your most hated and feared enemy to be the one who rescues? Just who would that be?