Lent
Dear First Pres SLO Family,
Grace and peace to you all in the name of Jesus, the one who lived and loved and healed, all on his way to his death on the cross. Blessings to you this Ash Wednesday.
Today begins the season of Lent, the forty non-Sundays between now and Easter. Lent is an ancient church tradition describing a season of reflection, repentance, and fasting in preparation for the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus. It’s a time to do some inward-looking and confession—it’s no wonder that Lent brings with it an awareness of our own sin and brokenness—even of grief.
Very little of Lent comes naturally to us, and so we often use little strategies to discipline ourselves to embrace the season. Many people give something up. Others commit to spiritual practices to keep the reflection and the repentance front and center. More recently I’ve known people who have added something positive to their daily routine—a commitment to helping the poor, or communicating kind words to friends and family, and co-workers.
Whatever you do, welcome to Lent. I hope this is a meaningful time.
One writer offers this explanation of the season, and I want to share it with you.
“At Lent we take hold of this peculiar Christian calling, to embrace the death of Christ in hopes that this death in us might work the newness of resurrection life in those with whom we come in contact. Lent is not only a remembering of some reconciliation made ages ago, it is an enactment of the reconciliation we bear within ourselves for the sake of the world.” - J.R. Daniel Kirk
That’s a dense and rich paragraph, but it gets at the true heart and meaning of how Lent reminds us that our lives are different because of the death and resurrection of Jesus. I love his reminder that Lent “is an enactment of the reconciliation we bear within ourselves for the sake of the world”. I want that to be true for myself, and I want it to be true for all of you. Our lives of discipleship are meant to be a re-enactment of what Christ has done for us, in a way that shares that gift with the rest of the world.
Wow. That’s a lot more than just giving something up for a few weeks.
In the end, Lent reminds us that the sacrifice of Jesus, in some miraculous way, offers us the forgiveness and reconciliation we need and crave for our own lives and relationships. It’s a death that makes it possible, but the result is new life, and life more abundant.
Over these next weeks, we will be reflecting on the meaning of the cross of Jesus on Sunday mornings. We’ll see that Christ’s invitation to us is to re-shape our lives to the cross, both individually and as this church, to allow the cross to reform and renew our lives so that we can care as Jesus cared, and love as Jesus loved.
May God bless you with a new sense of how Christ’s sacrifice changes our lives. May that be true for you and for me during this special season.
In Christ,
Pastor John