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My spirit sensed the heavy hearts of some; those struggling to enter into this Lenten season with a clean heart and a right spirit.
Holy Saturday is the silence of a period which straddles death and life; it is the silence of work done and yet unfinished. That silent and holy Saturday is the space between mourning and rejoicing; it is a time in which death has not yet been defeated, nor can victory be proclaimed. Holy Saturday is a time of doubt and unbelief. It is a time of a descent into hell.
Our nation is at this very moment considering one of the most significant pieces of legislation of our modern era - the Affordable Care Act, an attempt to insure some of the 49.9 million Americans who do not have health insurance. It is an imperfect plan for a flawed system, but it sheds light on a national crisis. There are too many sons and daughters, too many mothers and fathers who don't have access to the most basic of health care until there is a catastrophic medical event.
As Christians, we are often scared of emotions like rage and anger. When we experience these emotions, we believe that they are unholy or unrighteous or not Christ-like. And so we suffocate on our natural emotions, afraid that we sin by expressing them.
The Lenten season is a time for confession and repentance. The celebratory joy of the assurance of pardon, embodied by the Easter season, is almost already upon us. But let us sit with the corporate and private confession of sin a little while longer. Let us sit with the necessity for reparations a little while longer. Let us sit with our own complicity and guilt and privilege a little while longer. True repentance and reconciliation begins with a contrite heart.
Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you? The Lord will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these, you did for me.
As Christians, we are called to love our neighbors not because "we" are better and "they" are worse; or not even because "we" are whole and "they" appear to be broken.
Today is Ash Wednesday and some Christian churches will impose ashes on foreheads as a visible sign of the start of this Lenten season. The ashes are a sign of repentance and contrition. But I've been thinking about the less familiar counterpart to ashes: sackcloth.
I am a weary Christian and I enter this Lenten season with a weary heart. I am struggling with a religion that I can barely recognize, a faith that has been so twisted and stretched, that it scarcely resembles the teachings of Jesus.
