March 2022

Dear Friends in Christ, 

We are on the cusp of another season of Lent as we journey again through the seasons of the church year. The days are also beginning to lengthen. A little more sun shines each day, and we prepare our lives and our souls for incomprehensible grace and new life.

Lent begins with Ash Wednesday, March 2nd, where hundreds of millions of Christians receive ashes on their foreheads in churches all over the world. Why ashes? Since Old Testament times, ashes have been used as a symbol of mortality. When ashes are placed on our foreheads, we hear the words: “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.” It’s a reminder that the world, that often seems so important to us at this moment is passing and we need to give more thought to what comes at the end of our earthly life, which is: eternal life.  Ashes are also a sign of our need for repentance and a heartfelt acknowledgment that we are sinners and fall short of the glory of God. To many in the modern world, the very concept of sin seems old-fashioned. Yet, sin is part of our human nature, brokenness is our human condition, and we need Christ in our lives. We need to repent (turn from our wicked ways) and trust the Triune God will show up for us again and again.

The word “Lent” comes from an old English word for springtime. Think of it as a form of spring cleaning for the soul. In the early years of the Church, it was confined to a few days before Easter. But by the fourth century it was extended to forty days before Easter, a period associated with the forty days and nights that Jesus spent in the desert, tempted in the wilderness, just after his baptism (Matthew 4:1-11). “Forty days before Easter” may be somewhat misleading. The Church doesn’t count Sundays among the forty days, so the period of Lent, lasting from Ash Wednesday through Holy Saturday, actually covers 46 days. Whether 40 days or 46 days, in the great scope of things Lent is a time to pause, to rethink, a time to mend what is broken, a time for healing, a time to seek God’s transformative power.  

Join us this Lenten Season as we seek God’s mending power to restore, repair, perfect, and equip us making us whole again, in all areas of mind, body and spirit. Please check out our mid-week Lenten schedule and pick up one of the daily 2022 Lenten devotion booklets called “A Time for Mending” for your daily reading, reflection, and prayer.

In Christ, 
Pastor Jim