Mary, the mother of Jesus is said to have both, “treasured” and “pondered” (Luke 2) her experiences with your son Jesus. Both of these words are foreshadowing of the kind of personnel self-reflection each of Jesus’ followers would experience as the death of the Christ becomes more and more of a reality.
The Epiphany season always seems rushed; there’s so much going. Jesus is here and there, he’s active and he’s at work. Everyone around Jesus is learning and growing and becoming very aware of how different Jesus truly is. Now, as the season of Lent takes hold things begin to focus. Like the light of day coming to focal point in a sunset, the life of Christ is becoming more and more focused on his greatest task: his death!
The season of Lent has arrived. We were engrossed in learning and excitement just one week ago. Now our pattern of worship and internal worlds will become more reflective, contemplative, confessional and communal. Like the mother of Jesus, who will be allowed to come to terms with our own true, sinful nature in light of the perfect, holy nature of the Son of God. Lent invites us to allow the truth of sin in the world to be seen. Lent provokes us with the question, “How do you deal with the problem of sin, evil and the devil?”
Each week in Lent I invite you to return to this website for a special mid-week devotional; an opportunity for your to reflect and respond to the true nature of Christ and contemplate who you truly are as a Child of God. Some weeks will include reflective texts. Others will include hymn responses. The content will vary but all of it will be presented with the encouragement to answer that question and to relish in the love of God’s response to the same.
“May God bless our walk through this darkness. Knowing that the light of resurrection will guide our way. Amen”
Pastor Jake