Dear People of St. James’,
Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, February 22.
I love Lent! Give me a season of repentance that picks me up out of my daily routines and assumptions and turns me around to set me on new life-giving pathways. Give me a season wherein I might learn of God’s grace and forgiveness so that I might learn and do mercy. Give me a season to embrace my own confusion and limits as I journey with Jesus’ confused disciples who also have the wrong idea about power and glory and greatness but who are being shown another vision. Give me a season to read the Word with new traveling companions and to learn from listening to them and to the voice of my own heart speaking. Give me a season to take a break from the consuming demands of consumption so that I might become more invested in the work of generosity. I love Lent.
I want to tell you that I particularly love Lent at St. James’. And of course, you are going to say, “Eileen, you are our rector. You have to say that.” But it’s true. When the People of St. James’ hear the invitation to a Holy Lent, it is not an invitation to a season of stultifying austerity in our liturgy and our lives. It is an invitation to take the words of the benediction seriously, to remember that “life is short, and we do not have much time to gladden the hearts of those who travel with us.” The invitation to a Holy Lent quickens our steps to love our beloveds, our neighbors, and even our enemies. We make haste to be kind, profligately extending invitations to friends and those we hardly know to learn and to walk together. We find joy in the midst of real sadness at the brokenness of the world. We find renewed strength to address our addictions that distort our relationships with others.
I love Lent, and it is coming: the drama of Jesus’ ministry of healing, liberation, and forgiveness; the moments of silence and confession; the coming together of new groups to study the Word; preparation for baptism and being welcomed as new members of St. James’; the joy of The Lenten Tea (Sunday, March 19). What will your journey look like this year? How will you let Love turn you around to walk in new pathways?
I will see you on that journey after we party and get our Alleluias out this Sunday!
Rev. Eileen
