One of the reasons I love the Episcopal
Church is the ceaseless rhythm of the liturgical seasons. These seasonal rhythms give me the comfort of
predictability in an unpredictable life.
The different spiritual insights and gifts of each season help me to
discover different facets of God, and thus to grow a little more faithful in my
devotion to God. Therefore, I can say,
with a touch of irony, it is good that Lent is upon us once again. Many people groan at the thought of
Lent. They groan because the Church has
too often caused people in Lent to contemplate hair shirts and so much
groveling before God. Personally and
theologically, I do not think this is a spiritually fruitful approach to Lent. I believe Lent is a season when we
can, within the safe embrace of God’s love, engage in a process of
renewal. It is a season to become
vulnerable to the less than admirable elements of our lives, to become open enough
to consider the truth that we have wandered off the path. It is a season to work on becoming receptive to
the healing power of God’s love. Having
managed to fruitfully engage in this process in the past, I commend it to you as
a path towards embracing new life in the Risen Christ at Easter.
As it has been written,
… basic
to the whole idea of Lent [is that] whatever directions our lives are going, we
are very possibly off course. Our
compass has stuck; [and] we are headed the wrong way and don’t even know it[2].
Lent is a time when the
Church exhorts us to slow down, get back to basics, and to consider how we may have
lost our bearings. Sometimes, finding
our way anew can be difficult because, as it has been rightly noted,
We know we are sometimes out of line, but we
are not entirely sure where the lines are drawn[3].
I think we all wonder what
the parameters, the norms, the standards, and boundaries are for living as
faithful followers and as ambassadors of Christ (II Corinthians 5: 20a) in the
world.
I have been reflecting on these thoughts in
relationship to the Baptisms we will do at the Easter Vigil and on Easter
Sunday, and in relationship to recent deaths in the parish. In the process, I have become aware of a
vague sense of internal and spiritual malaise. At the same time, I am sustained by the
knowledge and experience of God’s awesome power and love, which call into
being, and make new all things (Revelation 21: 5).
These reflections help me to rediscover and
redraw the parameters and boundaries of faithful living. Let me show you where those lines are drawn
for me, using the most frequently used Collect in the Book of Common Prayer:
“O God of unchangeable power and eternal
light: Look favorably on your whole
Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your
providence, carry out in tranquility the plan of salvation; let the whole world
see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things
which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought
to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus
Christ our Lord[4].
My path is to journey within
the lines of God’s plan of salvation, and to live within God’s power to raise
up that which was cast down, to make old things new, and to bring everything to
perfection.
I believe a fruitful way to begin your
Lenten discipline is to get in touch with God’s active, renewing or redeeming
presence in your life today or in the past; or in life around you. Having in mind the Baptisms that occur at the
end of Lent, I begin this holy season with a powerful vision of God’s plan of
salvation and Christ’s victory over death.
I have a deep sense of the power of the Holy Spirit to renew and empower
life ritualized and symbolized in the cleansing of Baptism.
I have adopted a phrase in the second verse
of the seventh chapter of Second Corinthians as a mantra
for this Lent: “Open your hearts.” In
this vein, I share a brief spiritual insight by Macarius, one of the ancient Desert
Fathers:
The
heart itself is but a small vessel, yet dragons are there, and also lions. There are poisonous beasts, and all the
treasures of evil. But there too is God,
the angels, the life and the kingdom, the light and the apostles, the heavenly
cities and the treasuries of grace – all things are there[5].
The Lenten Exhortation[6]
calls us to “self-examination and repentance, prayer fasting and self-denial,
and reading and meditating on God’s holy Word”[7]. It is a call to discern the dragons, lions,
and poisonous beasts that dwell in our hearts, that feed our less then
admirable qualities, which draw us from our relationships with God, that divert
us from our spiritual journeys, and that erase the healthy boundaries of our
lives. Self-examination is but narcissism
if it is not accompanied by repentance.
Repentance can be understood as the opening of our hearts to let go of “the
treasures of evil.”
Another approach to Lenten discipline is to
think of opening our hearts in order to make room for and to receive “God, the
angels, the life and the kingdom, the light and the apostles, the heavenly
cities and ‘the treasuries of grace’”.
So, this Lent, open your hearts to let out
all that gets in the way of a more life-giving relationship with God, and that
inhibit you from doing God’s work in the world.
Open your hearts to receive the grace, love, and mercy of God. Open your hearts so you become more fully the
people God created you to be, and become more fully the servants in the world
that God calls you to be.
Let me conclude with an astute observation
about the human heart,
Surprisingly,
a heart full of love and affection expands, while one filled with selfishness
and suspicion has a strong tendency to shrink[9].
AMEN.
[1] II Corinthians 6: 13.
[2] Synthesis,
Ash Wednesday – Year C,
[3] Ibid.
[4] The Book of Common Prayer, 280, 290, 5115, 528, 540.
[5] Op Cit, Synthesis.
[6] The Book of Common Prayer, 264-265.
[7] The Book of Common Prayer, 265.
[8] The Book of Common Prayer, 265.
[9] Op Cit, Synthesis.