“We confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word and deed…”  The Book of Common Prayer  page 447.  

Dear Friends:   

Lent is, thankfully, a season of turning. Not just our turning toward God. But, God’s turning toward us. Today we learn from the prophet Joel, God’s call to us to come back as God takes pity on us, heads off the enemy, teaches us how to live right. The prophet Isaiah reminds us that God will show us where to go to live our lives un-shadowed. In God, Isaiah prophesies, we’ll be made free!

In other words, we don’t do Lent untended. God is with us in our reconciling journey.

To reconcile is to bring harmony into estranged or broken relationships. To reconcile may even mean to restore a friendship. At the same time, to reconcile requires not just two, but three parties. Our very self, the other, and most importantly, God are necessary to reconciliation. We sin. God promises to forgive us our sin. Repentant, we turn and confess our sin. God forgives us and absolves us of our sin. With God’s forgiveness, our lives are changed. Hence, we’re called to form a new, loving, forgiving relationship with the other.  With God’s grace, we seek to come into agreement, harmony or even restoration with the other whom we are in estrangement or disharmony.

I imagine there is not a single one of us who is not out of sorts with or in disharmony with another. Lent, the time set apart to look inward, is a time to come to terms with our own self, and God’s saving grace in our sin. As The Episcopal Church we think of ourselves as sacramental: those actions within our worship life that reveal the truth of God’s love, grace and mercy. While two sacraments are essential to our eternal life in Christ, baptism and Holy Eucharist; five are considered “mights” or “oughts” or “shoulds”. Of the seven sacraments we practice, The Reconciliation of a Penitent is that exercise whereby we turn to God, privately, in confession with a priest, seeking forgiveness from God for wrongs done to us and by us.
Throughout these next forty days and forty nights consider what practice you might intentionally take on to draw closer to God. Perhaps The Reconciliation of a Penitent is the next necessary step to free you from the bondage of hurt. Review the rite beginning on page 447 from The Book of Common Prayer. Seek out the audience of a priest. Offer up your confession. Experience God’s forgiving, saving grace. The freedom may well release you to seek a harmony with the other.

Today, we take on the sign of ashes upon our forehead. For us as Episcopalians, I would venture to say wearing our ashes is probably the most public of evangelical actions. Jesus cautions us about practicing our piety before others. But, should we wear our ashes as a sign of our mortality, the fragility of our life without God’s saving grace, perhaps then it’s not our piety so much as our deep humility we show to a very broken world. Our ashes are a sign of the grace of God in Christ, within us to turn us toward a deeper generosity, and a more prayerfully intentional life with Christ and with others. 

May we not venture through Lent simply minimizing the power of God’s healing grace. May we not venture through Lent minimizing our responsibility in our relationship with God in Christ and with one another.
I wish you a most blessed and holy Lent. Let us know of your practices. Tell us of your journey through Lent. Begin it tonight with Ash Wednesday prayers and imposition of Ashes at 7:00 p.m. Attend worship and table talks following each week during Lent. Attend Wednesday night Interfaith Pot Luck Dinners and Dialogue beginning next Wednesday March 13. Take time for self-examination. Strengthen your relationship with God in Christ and give thanks.

We’ll see you Sunday for 8:30 and 10:00 a.m. worship with Food4Thought immediately following as well as Lent Intent Table Talks, held in the chapel this week.  We’ll tackle some questions around Jesus’ temptation with the devil and wonder, who or what is your devil?  Youth will venture into their own Lent program in Sunday Circle.  And, don’t forget, God is blessing us with hope as Sunday, DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME BEGINS!!!!  Next Wednesday, March 13, at 6:00 p.m. the Interfaith Potluck Dinner and Dialogue begin with our Muslim and Judaic friends.  Babysitting is provided.  Come, as we learn more of our similarities than our differences.  
See you throughout Lent dear ones.  May your Lent be Intent.

Blessings,

Hillary