Ruminations from Pastor Brian

Week six: March 9, 2007

Greetings, pilgrims on the Journey!

It sure feels like spring!  Snow melting, sun greeting us by 6:00 in the morning, the Twins playing ball in Florida.  What’s not to like about it?

Here we are in mid-Lent already. I hope you’ll take the opportunity to be fed at the Lord’s Table at communion this Sunday.  John Wesley believed so strongly that we encounter Jesus there that he urged the early Methodists (and us!) to take communion every day if possible.  There’s a place for you in God’s presence at the table…

How are you doing with your spiritual exercises for Lent?  (To take a second look at the checklist from Ash Wednesday, click on http://www.centennialumc.org/News/my_preperation_for_easter.doc.  It’s easy to get overwhelmed just with regular life, and doing an extra spiritual exercise can put me over the top.  But yesterday I went to the meeting of covenant group of pastors of which I am a part, and found there that in encouraging a friend and sharing my heart, I came out of there stronger, more whole somehow.  “Bear one another’s burdens,” Paul says.  I hope you have a place that you can share your soul as well.

Here in mid-Lent, I find the words of Paul elsewhere to be a good encouragement and challenge for my soul.  In 1 Thessalonians, Paul writes: “Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else. Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not put out the Spirit's fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt. Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil.”

I appreciate—and need—the challenges here.  They’re worth praying over.  But then Paul reminds us that God is involved in all this, not just me…and I really need to be reminded of this!  Paul writes:  “May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.  [In other words, the day God is aiming history toward—and what you and I are to live into each day--when the lion lies down with the lamb and God wipes away every tear from the eyes of the suffering.] The one who calls you is faithful and he will do it.” 

May you know that God is faithful, and with you on your journey. 

Brian

P.S. Remember to turn your clocks ahead by an hour when you go to bed on Saturday night…daylight savings time is here!