Seed and Yeast

 Lent Again, In a Pandemic

Gathering Prayer: A Prayer for the Beginning of Lent

O Lord, here we are again.

The season of Lent.

That time of the year to dig deeper

To reach wider

To love stronger.

The season of Lent

That time to embrace death

To walk towards the cross

To humble ourselves

To pray, fast, and give our lives in service.

The season of Lent

A time to give up or to take on

A time to contemplate life and death

A time to face the realities of our broken world

A time to dance with the darkness.

The season of Lent.

In these days be with us.

Walk with us.

Inspire us.

Call us.

Motivate us.

In these days be with us.

To serve our neighbors.

To sing in community.

To wrestle with your Word.

To sit in the silence.

O Lord, here we are again.

I pray for your kingdom to come

For peace to rule the day

For wholeness to emerge

I seek this peace for the world and pray I’ll find it in me.

I know the days will seem long and the nights even longer.

But you persisted for 40 days in the wilderness

And so, too, will I persist.

As you relentlessly love, may I relentlessly seek you.

For this season of Lent and forever more.

Come, Lord Jesus.

I am here.

Waiting.

Hoping.

Loving.

Seeking you.

Amen.

Written by Kimberly Knowle-Zeller (February 13, 2018) and found on the website: https://www.episcopalcafe.com/a-prayer-for-the-beginning-of-lent/

Scripture: Mark 1:14-15 - Common English Bible

¹⁴ After John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee announcing God’s good news, ¹⁵ saying, “Now is the time! Here comes God’s kingdom! Change your hearts and lives, and trust this good news!”

Photo by Seden Dirlikli

Musing

The fun has ended, if you can call it that in this seemingly never ending pandemic and social upheaval, we find ourselves living in. This Ground Hog like existence where every day seems so much like the last. A year ago, we heard things from Wuhan and weren’t sure what to make of them. We watched as cruise ships were refused entry or docked in quarantine. We started to see horrific numbers of sick and dead from a mysterious illness. And here we are sitting in nervous anticipation that the downward trend in infections, hospitalizations, and deaths and the increasing numbers of vaccinations will finally allow us to move on, move out and begin to live the new life that emerges after a long hibernation, a long season in the wilderness.

Lent began this week. We held our Zoom Mardi Gras; we ate our pancakes together virtually and we tried to find meaningful ways to let Fat Tuesday reign. But it wasn’t much of a party, it wasn’t a lot of fun. But still it was something, a punctuation mark on the season that ended and a step into this time of Lent. Fat Tuesday is meant to be the day you get all the indulgent stuff out of your kitchen, out of your house, and begin to get it our of your life. So, we party, eat pancakes, and know that the Ashes are coming.

Ash Wednesday, the day Lent kicks off. We often gather for a somber service for the imposition of the ashes, for a time of lament and a moment of dedication of ourselves to a journey of reflection, honest assessment, and acts of mercy and love. We had to use ashes on burlap squares that we tried pressing on our own foreheads. We marked each other’s brows by touching our computer screens. And the words of that folk hymn echoed in ways that maybe it never has before: Jesus walked this lonesome valley; he had to walk it by himself. Oh, nobody else could walk it for him; he had to walk it by himself. We must walk this lonesome valley; we have to walk it by ourselves. Oh, nobody else can walk it for us; we have to walk it by ourselves.”

Lent begins, a journey that has light and life and an empty tomb at its conclusion. This year we have been in a wilderness. We have been tested. We have been tempted. We have seen the best and worst of ourselves and others. We have listened and we have walked. Lent is our time of preparing, it is the season we use to get ourselves ready for the journey’s end, for that empty tomb, for the return of life. This year Lent can be our time to get ready to emerge from the tomb of Covid-19 isolation, from the wilderness of racism, from the temptations that bring about climate disasters, from the selfishness of meness.

Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday have come and gone, and Lent is upon us. Now what? We journey from the wilderness; we move into life and light. We come to the threshold of the Tomb and we look out and everything changes. We use these 40 days to prepare ourselves for the new life that we will emerge into. It may be after Easter, it may be after Pentecost but when we are able to step from the wilderness and through the tomb and into the new life, we will be ready because we have left behind all that encumbers us, all that tempts us, all that would pull us back to living in the ways that led us to the wilderness in the first place.

Lent begins, the journey to the threshold of life is upon us. Travel well.

 Closing Prayer

Whatever wilderness the Spirit has brought you to:

walk in boldness, as a beloved child of God

walk in peace, under the shelter of the Most High

walk in faith, knowing Christ walks with you. Amen.

~ written by Joanna Harader, and posted on her Spacious Faith blog. http://spaciousfaith.com/