Lent is a question, a gift, and a summons. The questions of Lent are: What are we doing? Are we working for that which does not satisfy? Are we spending for that which is not bread?
The gifts of Lent are free, gifts in the gospel that sustain life: free wine and milk, free water and bread, and all the markings of sacrament.
The summons of Lent is to bear new fruit. Do what is in sync with the God of the gospel, the God who has another intention for our lives, who wants us out of the rat-race of “big is better” and so has mercy, who gives us pardon when we do not do enough by doing two things at once.
We are left with a new sense of ourselves as God’s people: no longer working for that which does not satisfy; receiving good gifts that we need for life; engaging in a new productivity of that which heals and transforms.
Let us pray. You are the God who disrupts our lives with an invitation. During this season of Lent, may we stop and may we start again: may we stop our strivings marked by greed and anxiety, may we start again the work of compassion and generosity.
Amen.
+Pastor Brooks
The First Baptist Church is a community of loving, God-fearing people who seek to embody the Five E’s-Education, Emancipation, Empowerment, Enhancement and Evangelism. As we serve God’s people, we acknowledge that without Him “we can do nothing,”
