February 2023

Dear beloved in Christ, 

February 22nd marks our beginning of Lent. What does Ash Wednesday and Lent mean to you? How have you observed Lent in the past? Lent is the forty-day journey toward Easter, which begins on Ash Wednesday. This is a day of repentance and worship when our foreheads are marked with the sign of the cross using ashes or dust or dirt. As this is done, we hear “Remember you are dust and to dust you shall return”. We acknowledge that we die and return to the earth. At the same time, the cross also reminds us of the cross marked on our foreheads at baptism.

The origin of Lent is that one was to leave their old life behind to fast and prepare to be baptized into a new way of living.  In essence, this was a practice of stepping away from corrupt power, scarcity mentality, and empty rituals in order to live a more expansive and full life of faith. And so, our Lenten theme this year is called, Full to the Brim. It’s an invitation—into a radically different Lent, into a full life. It’s an invitation to be authentically who you are, to counter scarcity and injustice at every turn, to pour out even more grace wherever it is needed. When we allow ourselves to be filled to the brim with God’s lavish love, that love spills over. It reaches beyond ourselves; like water, it rushes and flows, touching everything in its path.

The scriptures for this Lenten season are filled with parables and promises of God’s abundant and expansive grace. Jesus as a mother hen, a prodigal son welcomed home, a fig tree nurtured with care and hope, precious oil poured out lovingly and freely, stones shouting out with praise—these sacred texts are brimming with a gospel of grace. We’ve done nothing to deserve or earn this grace, and yet, like water, it spills over.

Full to the Brim reminds us to live fully—as we pursue justice and hope, or express grief and gratitude. If love is our beginning, how can we live our lives led by love’s promises? And so, this Lent, let us trust—fully—that we belong to God. Let us increase our capacity to receive and give grace. Let us discover the expansive life God dreams for us.

Grace and Peace,

Pastor Jim