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March 5, 2014

Friends:

Abraham Lincoln once told a story during the Lenten season:  “It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: ‘And this, too, shall pass away’.’’ 

Too often in Lent, we focus on sacrifice and giving up, rather than growing; we look to loss rather than renewal. We recognize that all things pass away and put ashes on our foreheads and rend our garments as we look to the coming of the cross. It is right to be reflective, but Lent is also a time of purpose, of enlivening the Gospel.

The prophet Joel addresses this when he tells us: “Even now, says the LORD, return to me with your whole heart, with fasting, and weeping, and mourning; Rend your hearts, not your garments, and return to the LORD, your God.”

This is a season for returning to God. It’s also a season for rediscovering and spreading the grace of God. People sometimes ask me what unites us as United Methodists and what one thing we have to offer the world. I tell them – “grace.” Grace defines us. Grace transforms. This Lent, I wish you grace.

I also wish you promise. As the theologian Howard Thurman tells us, this is a season of promise. God is at work as new life stirs, and new hopes are readied. Together, we recognize new dreams and the possibilities of new life.

I regret that our Lenten Clergy Day Apart had to be cancelled because of inclement weather. Our speaker that day, the Rev. Dr. Hal Recinos, of Perkins School of Theology in Dallas, who had intended to speak to us about living awake in the gospel by staying close to those who suffer. That is another component of Lent. Together, we go to the altar to give thanks to the God who dwells among the powerless, forgives the powerful, and comforts us all with friendship.

Rev. Recinos sent me a poem, "The Walk," which he wanted to use during our time apart "to create a context of penitential yearning." I would like to share it with you today, with hopes it prompts your heart in this season of promise.

 

The Walk

we came this way before
afraid of the dark, looking up
at the stars that know nothing

of what lies ahead, or a world
in need of heaven, or the cries
on all the corners, or the need

to make truth out of all the
faulty things that make our
trembling self. we came this

way before frightened by the
falling spray of tears left by
people wildly against the sharp

voices quarreling on the sidewalk
and dragging us into empty pits.
we came this way before hoping

to find light lingering some place
not yet seen and drawing us over to it.

 

Lenten Blessings,

Bishop Marcus Matthews
Bishop, Baltimore-Washington Conference
United Methodist Church