March 2020 Newsletter Article

Welcome to Lent brothers and sisters,

Although I resisted at first, I have begun to rely on the Google Maps app for directions to my travel destinations. As I clumsily finger my way through the app’s maps and driving routes, I often find myself looking at street names that are nowhere near where I want to go. But often, a button will pop up on the screen, RECENTER, it reads. When I click it, I can find myself on the map again.

During Lent, God is setting before us a RECENTER opportunity. It is said that we live in “the age of raplexity”. Rapid and complex change. All of us lose our way. Our crazy life becomes crazier. Unfortunate decisions reap difficult circumstances. As the poet William Butler Yeats writes in his powerful, foreboding poem, The Second Coming:

Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
​Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

​Christians believe there is a center in our lives that does hold, that does point toward a true north.
As Jesus assures us, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.”

The Jesus way:
Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples..
The Jesus truth:
“For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
The Jesus life:
​I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them will bear much fruit.

The center that does hold strong and true is the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Lent is the season to recenter, let Jesus be our focus.

Praying a meaningful Lent for all of you,
Pastor Michael