Читать книгу The Sanctuary for Lent 2019 (Pkg of 10) - Juan Huertas - Страница 4

“Now is the time! Here comes God’s kingdom! Change your hearts and lives, and trust this good news!”

—Mark 1:15

We are here again at the beginning of Lent. Our humanity is at “full stretch” before God and before the community of faith. Some of us approach hesitantly: Why wear the sign on our foreheads? What sign is this anyway? Others come gratefully, memories of Ash Wednesdays past flooding the memory, remembering the sign on the forehead as a sign of hope, a sign of their baptism. Our baptism initiated us into a community of conversion. We made promises to live our life in God, a life of following Jesus. We surrendered to a life of constant conversion, of constant change. It is this promise that might be the hardest to keep; no wonder we need reminders of it.

Change is hard. We get used to the way we do things. We get used to our environment and our ways of being in the world. Even in difficulty we would rather lean on the familiar. Darkness can easily sneak up on us, making us forget that we are beloved children of God, making us forget that we can come home again. Ash Wednesday acknowledges that our willingness to change requires trust, and trust requires safety and community.

Today as we gather, we provide a safe place, a place where we reclaim our humanity and our need for grace and forgiveness. We also provide a reminder that we are not alone as we see the mark on our brothers and sisters, the mark on our friends and our foes. Look around! The kingdom of God is indeed among us!

Breath Prayer:

Loving God, . . . help me trust.