And we’re off. Lent is underway! After a fabulous Jazz Mass, thanks to our own Joe DeMers; after a terrific three weeks of Interfaith Shelter Network, thanks to our own Darlene Morrow-Truver, Sandie Boelter and about 70 other volunteers; after the season of Epiphany…we have entered Lent.
Lent begins each year with the story of Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness where the devil comes and tries to get under Jesus’ skin. Jesus has just heard in his baptism that he is undeniably the son of God and then the devil shows up with these words, “If…if you are the son or God…do x, y, and z.”
This is a voice that is trying to call Jesus to question himself, to get him to doubt himself, to get him to take up the laborious and distracting work of proving himself. Whatever you believe about the devil, this is a voice that creeps into our lives, our institutions, and in all the ways that we do life together.
If you were really a good mom, you wouldn’t hesitate to get in the car and clean up your kid’s latest mess.
If you were really a good Christian you would be doing something for that unhoused man on the corner.
If you were really a good church, you would have bigger programs for young adults, for kids; you would be attracting more people, you would be taking on more in the name of justice and service to those in need.
It’s a voice that asks us to scrutinize ourselves and then jump through hoops to try to prove ourselves. The antidote to the devil’s jabs is, of all things, contentment.
The idea of contentment does not get enough air time in the church. By contentment, I don’t mean personal happiness or self-centered pleasure. I mean a deep and abiding sense of being settled into yourself, in your life, as it is, not because it is particularly good or wonderful but because God looks at you and your life as it is and calls you, “Beloved.”
We hear a lot about how our faith calls us to serve our neighbors, to love our enemies, to DO things but our faith most certainly also calls us to relax into what God has to say about us - that we are God’s, that we are beloved, that with us God is well pleased.
This isn’t a call to simply rest on our laurels and sit around eating bon bons. “I’m content after all!” No, it’s about resting not in the anxious energy of, “Am I good enough? How can I prove that I am x, y, or z.” It is about living from the truth that we don’t have to prove a darn thing about ourselves, which subsequently leaves room in our lives to actually respond, not to the jabs of the devil, but the call of the Spirit.
So, this Lent, in the midst of a world that is turned on its head and shaken up in so many ways, I encourage you to get serious about connecting each and every day with your own belovedness. Rest in what God has to say about you, as you are. The devil has very little power over contented people.
Peace,
Pastor Bekki