March 1, 2025
Beloved of God,
Five days into this month, countless Christians throughout out the world enter the spiritual season called Lent. Lent is a period of 40 consecutive days, excluding Sundays, leading up to Easter, in which followers of Jesus take up a special intention of preparation for the celebration of Christ’s resurrection. They ready themselves to rejoice in His resurrection by focusing on repentance.
Lent begins with Ash Wednesday, which this year falls on March 5th. That day, at noon in the Sanctuary, we will have a worship service that sets us up for Lent’s 40-day emphasis on repentance.
To repent is to turn ourselves around – to turn away from sin and to turn to a righteous God. It is to reassert God as the center of our lives – as our reigning preoccupation, our ultimate aspiration, and our deepest consolation.
Why is the first day of Lent called Ash Wednesday? Because “ashes” are an ancient symbol of repenting. (Job, for example, prayed in Job 42:6, “I…repent in dust and ashes.”) And why are “ashes” a symbol of repenting? Because they are also symbolically associated with grieving and facing our mortality. In repenting we grieve and mourn our failing to give God His just due, and we remember God is more significant than we because we are limited creatures who die and He is the unlimited Creator who has always existed and will always exist.
Many view Lent as oriented more to the negative than to the positive. But that’s not true. Repenting is an essential part of how we gain forgiveness and everlasting life! And that’s why the first commandment Jesus gave in His public ministry, according to Mark 1:15, was to “repent and believe in the good news”. Repenting and believing go hand in hand! Or, to change the metaphor, they are two sides of the same coin: Having faith in Him! To turn to a holy God is to turn away from sin, and to turn away from sin is to turn to a holy God.
Lent is a positive time because it opens us to receive the grace of God. Our taking a good, long, honest look at ourselves and thereby growing aware of our sinfulness make us aware of our need of God and His unearned, unlimited kindness. And our awareness of all that gives us the poverty of spirit that, Jesus says in Matthew 5:3, makes the kingdom of heaven ours – makes us blessed! Be blessed, dear ones! Start Lent with the Ash Wednesday service – yes, it will be livestreamed – and attend worship every Sunday as we continue the sermon series on most of the key parables of Jesus!
Warmly in Christ,
Rob & Adele
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