Yes, it is Lent. As I write this it is Ash Wednesday. Hundreds of ASD people and others you invited came to have ashes put on foreheads. We have 2 memorial services this week, a wedding last week and Lent starts today. We’ve had healing prayers for people and lots of grief for lost loved ones as well as a celebration for a life long lived. This is how life goes. The church is here for all of this and during this unique liturgical season we remember celebrations and losses.

Lent reminds us to prepare for death. “Dust you are and unto dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3) Lent also reminds us to look at our strategies for coping with life. What do we do on a regular basis to find relief from boring routines or the pressures of family, jobs, relationships, etc.? We recognize these in ourselves and certainly in others’ lives. We are limited. Lent reminds us to reconnect with our limitations rather than try to bypass them.

Take a good look at the strategies baked into our lives that are not God. Not because these are bad in themselves, but because they replace our dependence on God:

social media escape

alcohol and food

excess concern about our bodies

anger transmitted to the ones we love or don’t love

Lent calls us to a time to change strategies knowing we are being seduced by the world, the flesh and the devil. This Sunday we look at the reality of evil as we see Jesus being tempted to be the messiah in any other way than going to the cross. That cross must be carried by Him and we are called to carry our own. Maybe you need different strategies to replace what you normally rely on to cope with reality:

memorizing scripture

commitment to community

falling in love with God

rightly ordering your loves

worshipping together and learning to activate the Holy Spirit in you for the sake of others

The church invites you to the observance of a holy Lent, a time of self examination, repentance, renewal and freedom (Book of Common Prayer pg. 269). St. Augustine says it well, “ We need to empty ourselves of all that fills us so we may be filled with what we are empty of.”

Come and See

+Philip