Pastor's Paragraphs | April 14, 2022
Pastor's Paragraphs | April 14, 2022
Today is the 44th day in the Lenten Season.
If you're like me you might be wondering why we've even embraced this journey of darkness. Sure, Ash Wednesday we get: an annual reminder of our mortality seems appropriate in our often narcissistic and "main-character-energy" filled lives. Why the other days, though? Why the long journey?
Darkness fatigue is a natural feeling during the season of Lent. We'd rather be people who walk in the light than in the dark. The reality is we're often never honest enough with ourselves to admit is that life is never fully lived in the light.
Wars are being fought all over our world. Sickness and disease fill our lives and our communities. Disagreements over so many things tear us apart every day. Mental and physical health affect us like a roller coaster ride as we ride the hills up and down over and over again.
Even the moments of clarity where everything is going well and we can't think of a single dark thing affecting our personal lives, we know that the waves of darkness could be just a corner turn away.
The season of Lent reminds us of this reality. It reminds us that we live in a world that exists between the dark and the light, never fully falling into either. As Jesus trudges through a desert of darkness so, too, do we push through the sands of pain and grief.
The truth is that we can't fully understand the light of Easter if we don't first take the long journey through facing the realities of darkness. Jesus didn't just pop up alive, he had to face deeper darkness than we could ever imagine to get to resurrection day. So, too do we.
As we reflect tonight and tomorrow on Jesus' gasping for his final breath, I hope that we'll be reminded of how important that gasp is. We're told that Jesus is "God with us," and every moment of his life in this mess of a world – of our lives – was lived by our God.
We take the long-way through the darkness each Lent, not just because it reminds us of the darkness in our lives, but also because it reminds us that God has also journeyed in it. We turn our hearts toward the light of Easter, knowing that the darkness is not always quickly traversed. We turn our eyes toward the hope of an empty tomb knowing that sometimes we will get stuck sobbing in the cavernous darkness of the tombs of our own lives.
Resurrection does not always come quickly for us, but it always comes. May we draw hope from this. May we not ignore the darkness in our lives or the lives of those around us. May we never turn from the long-way through difficulty. May we never lose sight of the promise of Easter: that whether journeying in the light or in the dark we follow a God who journeyed this path first.
If you're like me you might be wondering why we've even embraced this journey of darkness. Sure, Ash Wednesday we get: an annual reminder of our mortality seems appropriate in our often narcissistic and "main-character-energy" filled lives. Why the other days, though? Why the long journey?
Darkness fatigue is a natural feeling during the season of Lent. We'd rather be people who walk in the light than in the dark. The reality is we're often never honest enough with ourselves to admit is that life is never fully lived in the light.
Wars are being fought all over our world. Sickness and disease fill our lives and our communities. Disagreements over so many things tear us apart every day. Mental and physical health affect us like a roller coaster ride as we ride the hills up and down over and over again.
Even the moments of clarity where everything is going well and we can't think of a single dark thing affecting our personal lives, we know that the waves of darkness could be just a corner turn away.
The season of Lent reminds us of this reality. It reminds us that we live in a world that exists between the dark and the light, never fully falling into either. As Jesus trudges through a desert of darkness so, too, do we push through the sands of pain and grief.
The truth is that we can't fully understand the light of Easter if we don't first take the long journey through facing the realities of darkness. Jesus didn't just pop up alive, he had to face deeper darkness than we could ever imagine to get to resurrection day. So, too do we.
As we reflect tonight and tomorrow on Jesus' gasping for his final breath, I hope that we'll be reminded of how important that gasp is. We're told that Jesus is "God with us," and every moment of his life in this mess of a world – of our lives – was lived by our God.
We take the long-way through the darkness each Lent, not just because it reminds us of the darkness in our lives, but also because it reminds us that God has also journeyed in it. We turn our hearts toward the light of Easter, knowing that the darkness is not always quickly traversed. We turn our eyes toward the hope of an empty tomb knowing that sometimes we will get stuck sobbing in the cavernous darkness of the tombs of our own lives.
Resurrection does not always come quickly for us, but it always comes. May we draw hope from this. May we not ignore the darkness in our lives or the lives of those around us. May we never turn from the long-way through difficulty. May we never lose sight of the promise of Easter: that whether journeying in the light or in the dark we follow a God who journeyed this path first.
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