Wednesday, February 20, 2024

Good morning everyone – brilliant sunshine lifts the spirits and I hope and pray that family day weekend was an experience that lifted all your spirits as well.  We spent time with our grandchildren yesterday and with our younger daughter on Saturday afternoon.  It was wonderful – great conversations, great fun and a beautiful sense of being family to each other.  I would not have traded it for the world!

As we head into the second week of Lent, we continue to recognize that Lent is a time to practice – to share in each other’s suffering and to ready ourselves to be able to do so.  Some of the suggestions for things to give up last week (things like apathy and negativity) all help us to practice sharing in each others suffering.  Suffering, pain, grief,  they are not just individual experiences. They are community experiences.   We were never meant to suffer alone.  We continue to confess that God is present with people all around the world and that so often, God’s presence is felt in the kindness of both strangers and loved ones.  So let us continue to practice.

This coming Sunday, we will explore Lent as purpose.  Christ’s purpose on earth was to help us to get out of ourselves, to get over ourselves, to break open our hearts and minds to truly care for others.  Jesus said it this way – ‘if any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.  For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake and the sake of the gospel will save it’.  Powerful words that have a lot of meaning for us as people and as a church.  There is freedom in letting go of self-centeredness and narcissism.  There is freedom in a life of service to others.

With those things in mind and to help us to prepare for this Sunday and beyond, I offer the following as things to give up during this second week of Lent:

Day 7 of Lent – Wednesday, February 21 – please give up self-centredness – all of us have a bit of narcissism where we place ourselves at the centre of the universe – let it go

Day 8 of Lent – Thursday, February 22 – please give up your privilege – especially if you are white – it is a societal privilege given to white people over racialized minorities – it is both blatant and subtle – be aware of it and give it up as you are able

Day 9 of Lent – Friday, February 23 – please give up your sense of entitlement – one of the best descriptions of entitlement is the following: ‘if it is not a problem for me, it is not a problem at all’.  This is simply not true.  Give up that entitlement as best you are able right now

Day 10 of Lent – Saturday, February 24 – please give up defending the status quo – privileged people love to keep things the way they are because it protects their social standing and their way of life – changing the status quo is necessary to care for, listen to and fully embrace people who are not protected by the status quo

Second Sunday of Lent – we will focus on the word ‘purpose’ as it pertains to our life together here at St. Andrew’s.  We are a church committed to caring for our community – right now a way to do that is to share our building by creating and nurturing strong partnerships in the community with like minded groups - including other churches, indigenous groups working towards healing and reconciliation and perhaps even a downtown day care.  The list is endless.

Day 11 of Lent – Monday, February 26 – please let go of always needing to be right – in a Snoopy and Charlie Brown cartoon, Snoopy says he is going to right a book on theology.  He has the perfect name for it ‘Have you ever considered you might be wrong?”.  There is wisdom is letting go of always needing to be right

Day 12 of Lent – Tuesday, February 27 – please let go of bitterness – all the above work is really hard.  If you try and don’t succeed, bitterness can be the result.  Be gentle yet persistent with yourself.  Know that God loves you just for who you are.  Allow that love to inspire you and to let go of any bitterness

Day 13 of Lent – Wednesday, February 28 – stay tuned 😊

Take care, each of you.  As you try to let go of all these things, I also suggest you adopt a mantra during Lent.  The one I suggest is as follows:

I am a child of God

I am loved

I am forgiven

I am embraced

I belong

God delights in me as God delights in all.

With love and care,

Marty