Reverend Ref +

ASH WEDNESDAY SERMON (or something like that, as I made it up as I went along)

It's Lent. Today is the first day of that season of fasting, prayer, self-examination, self-denial and penitence. We hear alot during Lent about these particular topics. But what does it all mean, and how can we live into this season with a vision of holiness?

I was talking with a friend of mine this morning who is preaching today at her field ed site. Jokingly, I asked her if she was going to do the "hell and damnation and down on your knees you worthless worms" sermon.

She said, "C'mon, you know me better than that. Even in Lent, there is Good News."

She's right. Even in Lent, there is Good News. As I see it, the whole point of the fasting, prayer, self-examination and self-denial is to re-order our lives so that we put God back where he belongs. If all we do is deny and abuse ourselves, we have failed. We live the entire year accumulating things and focusing on our own desires. But now we are asked to do without and put the focus outside of ourselves. Self-denial leaves a hole in our lives, to be sure; but if we work at living out a holy Lent, then that hole gets filled with the voice of God.

So how do you view Lent? I have come to see Lent as equal to times of personal struggles. We have all experienced the death of someone close to us: a friend, a parent, a spouse. During those times, and afterwards, it does seem like we are wandering around in the desert. But even here, there is Good News. Isaiah talks about this when he says, "The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places."

Lent is a parched place. Other times in our lives are parched places. But the LORD will guide us, we just need to be willing to let him. We need to recognize that our tendency to be self-indulgent doesn't allow God the room to work.

This Lent, spend some time in prayer and fasting and self-examination and self-denial, and let God guide you; because in that journey, there is Good News.