March 2009 Message from the Pastor

The Way of the Cross

I don’t believe that Lent is to be lived by depriving yourself of certain pleasures, by inflicting pain on yourself to better understand Christ’s pain, or by maintaining a somber, sad attitude. It may be healthy to give up things (like chocolate or fatty foods) and contemplating Christ’s passion and death is sad, to be sure. But the more important task for Lent is true repentance or turning our lives around to embrace God’s desire to heal and strengthen us.

Raquel St. Claire, in her book Call and Consequences on the Gospel of Mark says that even Jesus’ command to “Take up your cross and follow me!” does not imply constantly suffering as he suffered. She understands it to mean that we should be following our callings and expecting that there will be challenges or crosses along the way. Challenges may imply pain, but it’s not God’s intention for us to be constantly in agony. Like the pain of childbirth, it leads to something greater, a new and better life. We live with the expectation of God’s recreation and like St. Paul, face even hardships with a sense of joy.

Lent is certainly a time for reflection. As we read through the Sunday lessons, we will hear again about the various covenants God established with the people of the Hebrew Scriptures. How does God still covenant or contract with us today to see us through challenging economic times? Repentance (see especially Psalm 51 which we read on Ash Wednesday) implies transparency as we look at our lives and realize where we are falling short. You will hear these words of “Trust” (in God’s covenant with us) and “Transparency” frequently during this year’s Lent.

We invite you to use the books called 40 Day Journeys which highlight various Christian figures of past and present times. These books will be available to you to read as part of your daily devotions and also to discuss with others following our Lenten devotions each Wednesday night. Use these inspirational work to shape your own thinking and work of repentance.

Lent can be a time for growth and new understandings of God’s dynamic ways. Christ dies that we may live and know the limited power that even death has for us. We look beyond the cross and see the resurrection, the new creation. Let us embrace this forty day period not with foreboding but wonder.


Pastor Jim Friedrich