Ready or not, Lent is quickly approaching. On Wednesday, we will gather to be marked with ashes, the traditional beginning of the Lenten Season. For the next 40 days, we are asked to pray, fast, and perform good works as we prepare to celebrate the joy of Easter.
Over the past three weekends, we have heard the inspiring, yet challenging words of the Sermon on the Mount. This weekend, as we prepare to begin our Lenten journey, we conclude Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount with the words “Be perfect, just as your Heavenly Father is perfect.” While God is not calling us to perfection, Jesus is inviting us to act wholeheartedly, to interact with the world around us with integrity, compassion, tenderness, and most importantly, with an all-encompassing and inclusive love.
Our faith journey is not about getting directly from point A to point B, about following a specific list of things we should and should not do, but rather, it’s about experiencing all that the world has to offer, while remaining a person of character and protecting not only our own dignity, but also that of our sisters and brothers in this world.
With the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus offers us a moral compass, a set of guiding principles to help us navigate the twists and turns of life. While roadmaps are helpful, they force us focus on the end of the journey rather than the process involved. A compass, on the other hand, simply points us in the right direction as we journey through life.
This weekend we will provide the Little Black Books to help guide us through the Lenten season. In addition, may we take the words of The Sermon on the Mount to heart by challenging ourselves to let go of all that holds us back from fully loving, forgiving, and wanting the best for one another. We have to start somewhere, and perhaps a good starting point is to identify a person or people who we find difficult to love, and to spend our Lenten journey asking God to help us to more fully open our hearts, our hands, and our minds to them as we more fully embrace our discipleship in Christ Jesus.
May God bless you and your loved ones today, tomorrow, and forevermore.