March ‘25 - Lenten Season
Happy March and beginning of the Lenten Season. As Lent officially begins on Ash Wednesday on March 5th, I am asking that we take a different approach towards the weeks leading up to Holy Week and Easter. Typically lent is a time of sacrifice, i.e., giving up something. Often, we take the approach to cut back on sweets and chocolate which only seems to benefit our waistlines and possibly improves our health.
As we enter this period it may be helpful to turn back the clocks to an old phrase taken from the 1896 novel by Charles Sheldon, “In His Steps: What Would Jesus Do?”. Since the early 1900’s the question was asked, what would Jesus do in this situation? It became extremely popular in the late 20th century when we experienced a reflective campaign of “WWJD”, a time that spoke to many young people who were attempting to make decisions.
Our society is in a state of chaos caused by a movement of Christian Nationalism that is espousing beliefs that are not Christ like, nor do they reflect the teachings of Christ and the church. All churches are grounded in a set of beliefs that are faith based. The church has through the ages used creeds that were recited in worship to remind us of what we believe and often answers the question of why we believe. The church needs to begin the task of asking the question, “Are these actions in alignment with the teachings of Christ?” From what we are seeing the answer is becoming a NOT! As followers of Jesus Christ, we are called to bring comfort and protection to the least of these by doing many of the following: Feed the hungry, provide shelter to the homeless, help the strangers in a foreign land, clothe the naked, provide comfort to those in need, to help the afflicted. In essence we are being summoned to protect all of God’s children without concern to their place of birth, the color of their skin, the language that they speak, the level of their wealth, their age, their mental state, or any other criteria that is currently being employed.
Jesus was a radical in his day that stood up for the oppressed by ministering to their needs without concern for his own wellbeing. He was arrested, imprisoned, and crucified for doing what God sent him to do. By standing up we may be censored and even imprisoned, but again we need to ask ourselves, “WWJD?” If we can learn from history, we can understand that by turning our heads and ignoring the current situation we will only allow it to become worse. There will be opportunities to raise our voices to speak out against the actions of rogue politicians, but we must be united because there is safety in numbers. The current situation indicates that no one is safe from the tyranny that currently exists in our country and the entire world.
How can we make a difference? We can live like Christ, we can share his teaching and empathy towards those targeted, we can lift our voices to oppose what is happening. As brothers and sisters in Christ we need to become activists rather than reactionists that respond when we believe that we are next. There has never been a more urgent time than now to live by our faith and trust that God will protect us.
In closing I urge each of you to be safe, be aware of what is happening, and above all believe that God will be with us as we sail through an uncharted territory that may have some dire circumstances. Keep the Faith and continue to ask the question, “WWJD?”
Blessings, Pastor Dave