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Celebrating Lent in a Messy World |
2008-01-23 |
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Ash Wednesday, on February 6th, begins the penitential season of Lent. Webster's Dictionary defines penitence as "sorrow for sins or faults, and implies a humble realization of and regret for one's sins or wrongdoing. Repentance suggests additionally an awareness of one's general moral shortcomings and a resolve to change." During Lent we ponder what it means that we are sinful, and that Jesus took our sins upon himself on the cross in order to save us when we could not save ourselves. Lent is not a time to strenuously attempt to be a person who is good enough to go to Heaven, but a time to honestly and humbly recognize our sinfulness and need for God and His mercy. Martin Luther in the Small Catechism asks "Why should we remember and proclaim His death?" The answer is, "First, so that we may learn to believe that no creature could make satisfaction for our sins. Only Christ, true God and man, could do that. Second, so we may learn to be horrified by our sins, and to regard them as very serious. Third, so we may find joy and comfort in Christ alone, and through faith in Him be saved."
Life beats us down. We become discouraged. We selfishly focus on our selves and our needs, and still we do not find lasting satisfaction. We try to help others and our efforts seem to do little or no good. As long as our focus is on us and not on God, we will continue in a descending spiral of frustration and meaninglessness. Lent forces us to look beyond ourselves to the cross and the salvation it alone can provide.
Kathleen Norris writes on Repentance in her book "Amazing Grace", about how while working as an artist in residence at parochial schools she had children write their own psalms. "Once a little boy wrote a poem called 'The Monster Who Was Sorry.' He began by admitting that he hates it when his father yells at him; his response in the poem is to throw his sister down the stairs, and then to wreck his room, and finally to wreck the whole town. The poem concludes: 'Then I sit in my messy house and say to myself, I shouldn't have done all that.' 'My messy house' says it all: with more honesty than most adults could have mustered, the boy made a metaphor for himself that admitted the depth of his rage and also gave him a way out. If that boy had been a novice in the fourth-century monastic desert, his elders might have told him that he was well on the way toward repentance, not such a monster after all, but only human. If the house is messy...why not clean it up, why not make it into a place where God might wish to dwell?"
This Lent finds us, as always, in our messy houses. Come to services during this penitential season and be reminded that God is in that messy house with you, and in Jesus has come to clean it, and you, up.
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Summer: starting Memorial Day Weekend
9:00 am Worship Service KMSD Broadcast
10:00 am Coffee and Fellowship
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9:35 am Educational Hour
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10:45 am Worship Service
WOW (Worship on Wednesday) 6:30 pm |
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Milbank SD 57252
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