First Sunday in Lent, February 14, 2016; The Rev. Pamela L. Werntz

O God of hope, grant us the strength, the wisdom and the courage to seek always and everywhere after truth, come when it may, and cost what it will.

We began our worship service this morning with a doubly long musical prayer and we will end with a doubly long musical sermon, so as we make our way through the middle, I want to offer you some very brief reminders and suggestions about how you might begin this season of Lent. I have three reminders and four suggestions for you. First reminder: the word Lent comes from the Middle English word for Spring. It is a word that embodies hope. (Especially on a cold day like today!) For those of us in the northern hemisphere, the days are getting longer and lighter. In churchy terms, Lent is the season when we get ready for Easter. So in a religious sense, too, Lent is a word that embodies hope. It’s not hope in something that may happen – it’s hope in something that has already happened and keeps happening. One of the amazing and wonderful truths of the Easter story, though, is that resurrection doesn’t care whether people are ready or not. Just like gravity doesn’t care whether we are ready or not – or whether we like it or not – or even whether we believe it or not.

Did you read about the great discovery announced this week that gravitational waves actually make noise? Columbia University astrophysicist Szabolcs Márka, a member of the discovery team, told the Associated Press: “Until this moment, we had our eyes on the sky and we couldn’t hear the music…The skies will never be the same.”

So Easter will come this year at the end of March, whether we believe it or not, whether we hear it or not, whether we are ready or not! But for many of us, celebrations are better when we are prepared – when we are ready to celebrate. The season of Lent in the Church invites us to spend a good long time getting ready. And the Church gives us some strong suggestions about how to do that –the Church gives us a preparation program of diet and exercise actually. We are exhorted to examine our hearts and turn toward the Holy One through prayer, fasting and sacrifice, and through reading and meditating on God’s holy word. Many of us aren’t really that fond of diet and exercise. However diet and exercise really work to promote health and fitness, physically and spiritually. And for faithful people in community, it’s not just about personal health and fitness – it’s about the health and fitness of our parish, of our Church, and the health and fitness of the wider world.

Second reminder: the 40 days of Lent do not include Sundays. Sunday is for Sabbath, for refreshment and rest from the work of giving up or taking on whatever you are giving up or taking on for Lent. And my final reminder to you is that the whole idea of Lent is to deepen our awareness of the closeness of the Holy One – of the Divine, on our lips and in our hearts. Lent is a time to strip away whatever separates you from your deepest knowledge of Love in yourself, in your parish, in your community, and in the world around you – indeed, in total strangers.

To that end, I have four suggestions: prayer, fasting, alms giving and scripture study.

First suggestion: This Lent, pray in a way you’ve never prayed before – pray with color, pray without words, pray on-line, if you’ve never prayed with The Book of Common Prayer, discover it this Lent! Perhaps pray only thanksgivings in your individual prayer time. Imagine 40 days of thanksgiving for the bounty that the Lord your God has given you.

Second suggestion: Fast from whatever is keeping you stuck in the narrow place – the mitzrayim, often translated in the Bible as Egypt. Abstain from illusions of certainty, security, or self-sufficiency. Take a measured break from cynicism or despair. Eschew resentment for a season. Step away from control, from irritation, from anger or shame, from worry or struggle. You can break your fast on Sundays – bring all of that to church, confess it and take in the assurance of absolution.

Third suggestion: give away more money than you can afford for the relief and benefit of those who are poorer than you. Enough said.

Fourth suggestion: read scripture. If you want to start with the Hebrew Bible or First Testament, I recommend reading the Psalms. You might not get to all 150 of them. Forty is plenty, and you don’t have to go in order – just read one or more each day. If you want to start with the Christian or Second Testament, I highly recommend that you read the book of Philemon, even if you’ve read it before. You can read it in less than five minutes. You can read it every day to see what you notice, what speaks to you, and what difference it makes. I’d love to hear what you discover!

Former President of Czechoslovakia and then the Czech Republic, Vaclav Havel wrote about this about hope: “life is too precious a thing to permit its devaluation by living pointlessly, emptily, without meaning, without love, and, finally, without hope.” I beg you. Begin this Lent to get in better shape for the hope of the blessing of the Easter proclamation that Love is more powerful than any sin; Love is more powerful than even death. Stop doing whatever is keeping you feeling separate from The Great Love. Do whatever you can this Lent to get ready for going more fully, more whole-heartedly, into the place where your deep joy will meet the world’s deep need, which is the place where the gates of heaven are always wide open.

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