Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the liturgical season of Lent. I don’t have any long teaching, no lengthy message today – only a brief reflection to help us focus on what this time is all about.
Lent has traditionally been a time for focusing our attention on our living and our relationship with God. That’s taken many different forms over the centuries -- but I like to think of it as a time for making space for the holy in our lives; a time for clearing out some of the garbage we all tend to accrue and carry around with us, leaving us little time or room for growth of any kind.
The reading I’ve chosen to focus on today comes from the prophet Isaiah and is just one small part of a much longer ‘sermon’ on all the things the people were doing wrong—and how much better their lives would be if they, instead, dedicated themselves to doing the right things, and doing them the right way.
Isaiah, speaking for God, points out that too often we fool ourselves into believing that what we are doing is what God wants, when in reality we are just doing what we want – usually the easiest thing, or something that make us look good without actually changing anything -- things like conspicuous fasting. After a few chapters spelling out how they are doing it wrong, Isaiah (still speaking for God) spells out exactly what God would prefer:
“Is not the kind of fasting I choose
to loosen the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free, and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter?
And when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and the Lord will say: “Here I am.”
Lent is a good time to spend sitting in silence, listening mindfully for what God is really saying to us. Or if there truly is no time for sitting, we can still listen. Can we hear it? Can we stop the world’s frantic rushing and nattering long enough to hear?
40 days in Lent. 40 days we can spend ignoring our spirit’s need for quiet and repose and connection—or we can open our hearts, our eyes, and our ears and mindfully receive all that the Spirit’s love is trying to show us and tell us.
Peace...and may we, this Lenten season, grow in listening and understanding and experiencing that deeper connection.
Peace...
Lent has traditionally been a time for focusing our attention on our living and our relationship with God. That’s taken many different forms over the centuries -- but I like to think of it as a time for making space for the holy in our lives; a time for clearing out some of the garbage we all tend to accrue and carry around with us, leaving us little time or room for growth of any kind.
The reading I’ve chosen to focus on today comes from the prophet Isaiah and is just one small part of a much longer ‘sermon’ on all the things the people were doing wrong—and how much better their lives would be if they, instead, dedicated themselves to doing the right things, and doing them the right way.
Isaiah, speaking for God, points out that too often we fool ourselves into believing that what we are doing is what God wants, when in reality we are just doing what we want – usually the easiest thing, or something that make us look good without actually changing anything -- things like conspicuous fasting. After a few chapters spelling out how they are doing it wrong, Isaiah (still speaking for God) spells out exactly what God would prefer:
“Is not the kind of fasting I choose
to loosen the chains of injustice
and untie the cords of the yoke,
to set the oppressed free, and break every yoke?
Is it not to share your food with the hungry
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter?
And when you see the naked, to clothe them,
and not turn away from your own flesh and blood?
Then your light will break forth like the dawn,
and your healing will quickly appear;
then your righteousness will go before you,
and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.
Then you will call, and the Lord will answer;
you will cry for help, and the Lord will say: “Here I am.”
Lent is a good time to spend sitting in silence, listening mindfully for what God is really saying to us. Or if there truly is no time for sitting, we can still listen. Can we hear it? Can we stop the world’s frantic rushing and nattering long enough to hear?
40 days in Lent. 40 days we can spend ignoring our spirit’s need for quiet and repose and connection—or we can open our hearts, our eyes, and our ears and mindfully receive all that the Spirit’s love is trying to show us and tell us.
Peace...and may we, this Lenten season, grow in listening and understanding and experiencing that deeper connection.
Peace...
RSS Feed