First Sunday of Lent

Dear Friends: This Sunday is the first Sunday of Lent, a time of reflection, repentence, and introspection. It is a time to confess our sins and transgressions to the Lord, to look inside, and to give our lives over to God afresh. And this is a good thing -- we need a time specially set apart for confession before God, to help keep us oriented towards God, and not towards ourselves.

But this season is also a time of preparation for Easter, when Christ rose from the dead, overcoming death, and all that life might throw at us to oppose the Lord. Odd as it may sound at first, this is also a season chock full of the grace of God, with splashes of Easter joy penetrating our consciousness every Sunday.

So Lent presents us with a Holy Tension. See how this works itself out when we compare Ash Wednesday to the first Sunday of Easter (the Scripture reading is Mark 1:9-13; you might want to take a look at it before proceeding)

repentence...........................baptism

ashes..................................water

"I confess"..........................."This is my Son"

You can easily see what I mean. Lent always focuses us inward on our need for grace, and focuses us upward to the giver of grace.

This passage finds Jesus wandering in the Wilderness for 40 days, to experience temptation at the hands of the devil. Jesus overcame this, enabling us to overcome temptation when we encounter it. But notice that the Wilderness is the place where God is met, and where God places us when we need it. Jesus was compelled to go into the Wilderness by the Holy Spirit.

Perhaps the tensiion of Lent can give us clues as to how to deal with our own Wilderness situations. We'll talk about this on Sunday, and I'll see you there.