Whiteboard: Lent

With Ash Wednesday we formally enter into a new season in the worship life of the church, the Season of Lent.

In a single sentence: Lent is a time when we journey away from the temptations that get the best of us and toward God's grace, love, and mercy.

Lent is a time of sacrifice and self-discovery. We purposefully use these forty days from Ash Wednesday until Easter Sunday to look deep in our own lives, find all those things that keep us from God and keep us from fully becoming exactly who God calls us to be, and recommit ourselves to the faith. And we do it every single year.

A colleague of mine likes to talk about Lent as spiritual spring cleaning. “Isn’t it ironic,” she used to joke, “that we start out our spring cleaning by making ourselves purposefully messy on the first day?”

Lent is an intentional time, woven into the fabric of our church year, that we might re-evaluate our lives, re-consider our commitments, and purposefully grow in the ways that God is calling us to. The journey of faith isn't a one-time decision, but rather a lifelong commitment and process. It is why you do your spring cleaning every year…because no matter how deliberate, how neat and tidy, how antiseptic and clean you are there is still new dust that collects and dark corners that need to see the light of day. That is what Lent is all about. Making room for God, clearing out all the clutter and cobwebs that have gotten in the way, and clearing out the sin that clings so closely.

This year during the Sundays in Lent we won't simply be looking closely at our own intentions, temptations, and growing edges, we'll be looking closely at some of the most familiar stories from our biblical tradition. We'll look closely and carefully at these holy accounts to see what fresh knowledge, insight, and call to action they might have for our lives. And what better place to start then right at the very beginning with a Genesis account of the Garden of Eden. 

Come join us this Sunday (and every Sunday during Lent!) as we dive deep in the stories of our faith. 

Yours in the Journey,

Rev. Brian

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Genesis 2:15-17, 3:1-7

The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, ‘You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.’

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal that theLord God had made. He said to the woman, ‘Did God say, “You shall not eat from any tree in the garden”?’ 

The woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.” ’ 

But the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ 

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.