As we come to the end of our Epiphany look at Isaiah 61;1-4, we are reminded that when we proclaim liberty, bind up the wounded, and comfort the mourners, we become repairers of what is broken in our lives and in the world. Isaiah promises we will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, to display his glory. They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations; they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.
Today is Valentine’s Day, and Wednesday is Ash Wednesday.
Both offer us a chance to consider how we can be part of what Verna Dozier
called God’s Dream, what Martin Luther King Jr. named as Beloved Community, and
what Episcopal Presiding Bishop Michael Curry identifies as the Jesus
Movement—the Way of Love. At the end of his book Love is the Way, Curry
says, “Love does [change the world]...When God, who is love, becomes our
spiritual center of gravity, and love our moral compass, we live differently,
regardless of what the world around us does…Love can help and heal when nothing
else can. Love can life up and liberate when nothing else will.” This image of
a mug available from Thistle Farms reminds us that Love is the Most Powerful
Force for Change in the World.
Love is the only way to become a repairer of the ruins and devastations caused by seeking our own way instead of God’s. In the Christmas hymn “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” we sing/pray that God will “Bid…our sad divisions cease/ And be Thyself our King of Peace.” At the end of the season of Epiphany we can recommit ourselves to living in a way that honors the Babe of Christmas and the Man on the Cross of Good Friday. We can sing again “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” and welcome God into our hearts and lives as we enter Lent.
Speaking of Lent, I invite you to join me in turning from distrust to leaning into God, from dis-union to finding common ground, from discord to love by looking for love and good in the World, the Church, our Nation, the Social Order, in Nature and in our Families. To do this, I’ll be using by the Life Transformed: Way of Love in Lent curriculum from the Episcopal Church, prayers found in the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer (which can be accessed online), as well as assorted other resources.
Ash Wednesday is the beginning of Lent, the time the Church
sets aside for us to intentionally draw closer to God. The Life Transformed:
Way of Love in Lent curriculum suggests that we do that by looking at the
Easter Vigil readings, starting with the basic premise of Lent—that we TURN
from whatever separates us from the Love of God.
Romans 6:3-11 says we who have been baptized into Christ
Jesus were baptized into his death…so we too might walk in newness of life…We
know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be
destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For whoever has died is
freed from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also
live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die
again; death no longer has dominion over him. The death he died, he died to
sin, once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you also must consider
yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
If we believe that is true, then we can Turn and live
differently. And that starts with self-examination. There are spiritual
practices to help us do a spiritual self-examination. One is the Reimagining
the Examen app (free) by Loyola Press. (You can get everything in an app
now!!) There are several different Examens to choose from, or you can let the
app give you a different one each day.
A simple examen (a daily time to review your relationship with God) is also simply stopping at the end of the
day to think about the “Wow”, the “I’m Sorry”, the “Thank You!”, the “Help me”,
and the “What do you want me to do” moments of our day.
This week I would encourage you to do what participants in the Lenten
curriculum are asked to do: “write a letter to yourself containing
your hopes and prayers for this journey {or I might say for Lent itself}.
Imagine that you are starting this time by facing toward the metaphorical West
in your life – the habits, beliefs, or behaviors that draw you from the love of
God – and make a commitment to TURN away from them. See this as an opportunity
to turn to a new way of life with God, which is promised to us in baptism.”
Seal it and put the letter away until Easter.
