Dear Friends,
Is Lent the Olympics of faith? I came across a line this past week by the scholar (of blessed memory) Phyllis Tickle who said: “Every five hundred years the church needs to hold a rummage sale.” It caused me to think, well Lent is also a little bit like a rummage sale, a little bit of spring cleaning of our spirits and our minds.
So, is Lent the Olympics of faith or a rummage sale? Maybe a little bit of each. It is a time, not unlike the Olympics, where many try to “do their best” in living into what they think is the best of their Christian life. And sometimes this includes getting rid of a lot of what we’ve accumulated across the years, yet is no longer useful to us.
What will Lent be for you this year? Will it be a time of challenging yourself to be a better advocate of justice, love and peace? Will it be a time for you to let go of some of what no longer (if it ever did) serve you well?
During this season of Lent at First Church we are inviting you into an intentional Lent, which will involve movement, and imagination and practices of faith. Last Sunday at the end of worship when we invited you to be marked with ashes we set up four stations at the north, south, east and west parts of the sanctuary and invited you to choose the direction you wanted to head into this Lent. I loved seeing you thoughtfully select which direction you would go.
Let’s see where Lent takes you, takes us, this year.
Keep tellin’ the Story,
Mike
Enjoy this lovely, sweet piano piece, an original by Reinout Gerlach entitled “Journey.”
This week’s takeaway: Is your Lent an Olympics of Faith or a Rummage Sale? (Both are good!)