Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.“
That one sentence contains everything we need to focus on during Lent – and the rest of our lives as Christ-followers. We are to proclaim the Good News that the Life of God has broken into our lives. We are to live in the Already – the time is fulfilled! We are to repent of the ways we fail to live in the fullness of that message. And we are to believe in the Good News. Proclaim it, live it, repent and believe it.
I said the other day that Ash Wednesday is threshold leading into Lent. Lent too is a kind of threshold, an antechamber if you will, leading into the greater mystery and promise of Easter life. And the life we inhabit in this world, embodied, constrained by time and the laws of nature – this life is also a threshold, a foyer, an antechamber leading into the Life we will enjoy for eternity with God. That’s the Good News we have to proclaim – that thatLife begins here and now, in this life, as we open ourselves to it.
Why do we need a practice of repentance? Because big parts of us are not on board with entering that Life God invites us into. We fear too much will be asked of us, it's too hard to pin down, we can't see it. But we don't repent to feel bad about ourselves. Repentance is about inviting our whole selves to join into the movement toward God.
And why stress believing? Because we’re more convincing when we talk about things we believe in. There is always room in belief for questions and doubts, but we don't have to give them a lot of space or make up a bed for them.
No one can make another person put God first. All we can do is call out from our own place on the path, “Hey, the view’s pretty good over here. Come walk with me a ways.” That’s why clergy want their congregants to participate in everything, all the time – not to gratify us, but because we’ve found satisfaction in shifting our center Godward and we want that for everyone.
Lent is a time to walk intentionally so that we might find our center shifting… and then we’ll want to stay on that path all the way to its End.
Save the Date! On March 6th I will host an online “Spa for the Spirit,” a Lenten retreat morning focusing on the spiritual practices that help sustain us as peacemakers. (Becoming Peacemakers is our Lenten focus at my congregations.) More info and a registration link will come next week.
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