Column: "Repent and believe the Good News..."

We start the season of Lent with the Gospel theme: repent and believe the Good News of what God has done, is doing, and will do by the death and resurrection of Christ in us and through us in human history by the power of the Holy Spirit. [Try to diagram that sentence!]

So what will change in your life in these next weeks because of the personal Lenten program you have adopted — if you have adopted one!?

If you say, "nothing will change," I will believe you because I know how hard it is to change our habits. If you can say, "I am making some progress," then I applaud you and thank God for the struggle underway.

"Repent" means to turn away from or turn around. You see, God calls us into an intimate relationship to the Divine "in the face of Jesus" (2 Cor 4:6). The Almighty wants us to live in the Present in the Presence!

That means the Lord calls each of us from where we are into a path of life walking toward the fullness in body, mind and Spirit which we will discover living in the divine presence throughout our lives. That’s the goal or the target.

"Sin" in Greek means to be off target, so anything that keeps us off that path is sin and needs to be weeded out of our lives. Yet we are so easily attached to the things and events and people of the past.

We may have been deeply hurt in the past by someone we love. That scar continues to be present with us, and if we dwell on it as the victim, if we have not found ways to heal, then we are still being dragged off target. We are still suffering the effects of sin, the effects of the violence and hurt done to us. Christ invites us to turn to Him and be healed.

Contemplative prayer, the quiet coming before the Lord and letting Him speak to us without words, heart to heart, can bring healing to such deep wounds.

For others among us, we are still looking back to some glorious past in which "we were really somebody!" One writer speaks of how being on the high school football team provided him such adulation. "When we walked down the halls of the high school, we could just hear the girls singing the great Alleluia chorus."

Perhaps it was a success in business, a special love relationship, or some other past glory on which we continue to focus even though it is no longer a living part of our lives. Repent. The past holds little for us except lessons for the future.

Elements of self-worth, efforts to prove ourselves lovable, efforts to quench the deeper thirsts —these can lead to the compulsive behaviors or simply deep and familiar habits which are hard to change.

The Gospel lessons from Matthew in this season, called Lectionary A (see BCP p. 888ff), all flow from an historical pattern, which was preparing persons for Baptism on Easter Sunday morning after the all night Vigil service the night before. Again and again we will hear about how Baptism bonds us to the risen Lord, which bond can change our lives for the better if we will walk in the path in which He leads us and not stray into the swamp, which is sin.

When we have turned away from the things that keep us off the path in which the Lord would lead us, then we begin to discover the power of His Holy Spirit in our lives and the deep inner joy and peace which this can bring.

So take a look at where you are. What needs to change in your life so you can answer the question: What on earth am I here for? Then what is keeping that change from happening? You have 40 days to make some changes.

Lent, as I have said before, is a time of preparing for Easter. That's Church code language. What it truly means is that we have 40 days to discipline our eyes and ears to see and hear God at work in our lives, and to practice living as He would direct: walking as He guides us.

So let's be about it: give alms, fast, and pray — these the Lord recommends to us as disciplines for Lent (see Mt 6).. What will you be doing?