Time to be New
(Posted March 9, 2019) 
Last night when we gathered in quiet, together, to inaugurate the season of Lent, we received ashes on our foreheads or hands. And these are the words that accompanied that moment: The old has died. The new has come. Why not use the old words that some of us may remember from ashes given in our youth: Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. It is a basic and important difference, between acknowledging our nothingness, and realizing that Lent has been given us to become the best individuals we can be.
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That’s the thing I think that is far more important in our leaning out toward Jesus: realizing that God thought it important enough to create one and only one of us, out of the raw materials of this universe. For some of us, our parents saw our arrival as an answer to a prayer. We need to recognize that we have purpose. Within our hearts God lives, along with the absolute ability to create good in the world. Of course, also within us is the ability to ignore the voice of God, and listen instead to our desires, the ones that also damage others when we cave in to darkness. Lent is a time for us to listen for the good that we are being called to accomplish. Instead of giving up things, we need to adopt at least one new expression of God’s goodness, whether that’s prayer, or a meditation, reading a little each day from the Bible or walking out in creation to read the fingerprint of God in our own world.
As we visit Warrup’s Farm to witness maple sugaring this Sunday, let us recognize that Lent is a time to distill what exists in us naturally – our spiritual “sap” – into a sweet understanding of “God With Us.” See you this weekend, and enjoy the poem below that reminds us of our journey. – Pastor Pat Kriss
One night,
when you were just a star
someone hung every hope
every wish
every dream
they ever had
from your limbs
so if you ever feel inferior
ever start to doubt
your beauty
or brilliance
just remember:
You have constellations
lining the cathedral walls
of your chest, a moon for
a heart, and the sunlight
pouring through your skin
you are a symphony of stardust
and you were born to shine.
-- tyler kent white