We are at the midway point in our Lenten journey this year and all around us we hear God whispering, “Return to me.” From our Hebrew bible readings this Lenten season around God’s covenant and faithfulness (and our waywardness), to our Justice Ministry’s work with FAITH, to our church council’s study of The Making of an Ordinary Saint by Nathan Foster, we are invited to look in the mirror at our lives and ask are we really walking humbly with God, allowing God to abide with us in every nook, cranny, corner and cell of our bodies, relationships, lives and communities?
God extends this invitation to us every day, every moment of our lives, of course, but during Lent we are invited to tune in closely and examine our lives… have we really accepted God’s invitation wholeheartedly? During Lent, many of us choose a habit or discipline to lean into this invitation more deeply, not because we can earn God’s presence or promise, but because we
recognize that our waywardness (Moses called it being stiff-necked) means we often overlook God’s invitation or respond shallowly. As Richard Foster, Nathan’s dad, says “The disciplines are simply a means to train our mind and body. They place us in a position to live with God (more deeply and freely).” Choosing to try or explore more deeply a spiritual habit or discipline
helps us better orient our lives to pitch our tent with God and allow God to pitch God’s tent with us.
4 Abide in me as I abide in you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. ~John 15
This invitation to walk humbly with God, to abide with God, is not just for us, as individuals, or even as families. The way we individually respond to God’s invitation sends ripples across our networks of relationships, our communities and even the cosmos.
He has told you, O mortal, what is good, and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God? ~Micah 6
Micah invites us to do justice and love kindness/mercy but is that even possible without first walking humbly with God? Reorienting our lives to abide with God equips and empowers us to love kindness/mercy and do justice and both of these responses to God’s faithfulness shape our communities and our kosmos. When we abide deeply with God, we experience God’s grace and
God’s promises and can’t help but share them and reorient our communities and congregations so that others can experience them as well.
This Lenten season, is there a discipline you’d like to try or explore more deeply to reorient your life around God’s invitation? Nathan Foster, like his dad, highlights 12: Submission, Fasting, Study, Solitude, Meditation, Confession, Simplicity, Service, Prayer, Guidance, Worship and
Celebration. If you’d like to learn more, join the council in reading The Making of an Ordinary Saint by Nathan Foster. There are 3 copies available in the library or order your own copy.
If you have been practicing the disciplines for a while, reorienting your life to consistently and deepy abide with God, you may be looking for ways to make sure others experience God’s presence and promises themselves. Join us at the Nehemiah Action Assembly on March 18 th at 6 pm at Our Lady of Hope Catholic Church as we ask our elected officials to make sure our
neighbors have access to affordable housing and push for sustainable development that protects our neighborhoods and communities from the devastating effects of flooding.
In the peace and love of Christ,
Pastor Kari