From The Interim Pastor : March 2010

When Christianity was new, still resonating with its Jewish roots, the year revolved around a Passover now renewed by Resurrection. The history of God's saving ways, ancient story of the release and rescue from Egypt was infused with this new chapter of God's intervention in Jesus,the long promised Messiah.

So Lent became the time of preparation for the greatest holy day of all-Easter. New believers were prepared in the weeks preceding the celebration of the resurrection to enter into the community of faith. Lent was a time therefore, of awakening and emerging. In the Northern Hemisphere, the seasons of creation have undergirded this deep imagery.

Lent has become a time to face the truth of our humanity, our utter inability to be God, and our inability to believe that God is. Our human limitations get us into all kinds of trouble, seizing up our relationships with ourselves, with each other, and with the earth itself. In our desperate attempts to measure up to what we imagine we ought to be or in our fatalistic abandonment of the gifts God has given us, we deny our limitations and/or the miracle we are. Unable to hold these two polarities in tension, we wreak havoc in our relationships and on the earth.

It is for this we need salvation by the one who is without limits, and who also loves us beyond measure. Ash Wednesday begins Lent by forcing our eyes open to our failings. Whose interest do we really serve? Do we loose the bonds of injustice? Do we undo the thongs of the yoke? Do we let the oppressed go free? Do we share our bread with the hungry? Do we bring homes to the homeless? Do we cover the naked? If not, we serve our own interests, not God's. Because we do not our churches are bare,our vestments are black on this day. If we are to begin the journey toward life and be able to welcome the Messiah, we must begin in this place, clear about how far God must come to meet us. Our forebearers remembered Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. It was the one day the Hebrew High Priest could enter the temple's Holy of Holies, bearing in his body the repentance of the nation. It was the day to stand before God vulnerable and stripped of pretense. It is how we begin Lent, the season of awakening.

The coming Sundays will walk us along the path to Easter. First, we must remember our story, the history of our salvation. We can confess with our firebearers that we come from the same wandering Aramean who first heard God's call. The story traces God's faithfulness. We are reminded that the righteous flourish and will not be shamed. We are called to keep our eyes and ears turned toward God, not the many temptations around us.

In all of our journey of Lent, may we be given grace to see ourselves as those needing renewal and direction in life. May we be honest enough to search for redemption in the story of our salvation in Christ. And may God bring to our congregation the strength to face not just Lent, but our journey of discovery His will for us at Faith United Lutheran Church.