A Pastor’s Thoughts

By Rev. Nancy Adams, Owego United Methodist Church —

March 5 began the season of Lent on Ash Wednesday. Lent is a season of 40 days prior to Easter, not counting Sundays. Sundays are not included since every Sunday is considered a “little Easter.” 

Lent was established in the 4th century and was when converts to the Christian faith were prepared for baptism. It was also a time when those who had committed sins and separated themselves from the community of faith were reconciled and restored to participation in the life of the church.

Lent is a time to be reminded of the mercy and forgiveness of God as proclaimed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. While new every morning are God’s mercies, the season of Lent is an opportunity to renew and/or deepen our faith in Jesus Christ.

Lent, at its most meaningful, is a time of self-examination. Often, people give up a bad habit during this time, but while it can be a time of self-denial, it can also be a time to take on disciplined Bible reading, deepen our prayer life, show more compassion, and engage in healthy habits that are incompatible with our unhealthy habits. 

The sixth week of Lent is what we call Holy Week, which begins with Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on a donkey on that first Palm Sunday. It’s important to note that if a king came for war, the king rode a horse. If a king came for peace, he rode a donkey. From the very beginning, Jesus has been called the Prince of Peace.

Later that same week is Maundy Thursday, sometimes called Holy Thursday. The term “maundy” is derived through the Old French “mande” from the Latin mandatum novum, a “new commandment” associated with John 13:34: “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”

Maundy Thursday is also the commemoration of the Last Supper of Jesus with His disciples, in which He instituted what we call Holy Communion, changing what normally happens during the Passover meal.

After the Last Supper, Jesus went out to one of His favorite places, the Garden of Gethsemane, to pray. He was arrested that night, and the next day died for us on the cross so that we can know that we are forgiven, no matter what we’ve done. That’s why we can call it “Good” Friday.

Lent ends on Easter, when we celebrate what, to me, is the most glorious day of the year. It is my favorite day of the year. I get to proclaim the greatest news there is: Christ is risen – and what that means for us in 21st Century Upstate New York.

One of my favorite parts of our worship service is the Children’s Time. I usually bring an item in a brown bag as the object of the lesson I have for the kids.

I think it was on the first Sunday of Lent last year that I brought a lint brush, asking the kids what it was for. It’s used to brush lint or pet hair off our clothes. I renamed it a “Lent” brush to remind us that when we see or use a lint brush, what Jesus does for us. Just as a lint brush removes what doesn’t belong on our clothes, Jesus wishes to remove what doesn’t belong in our lives.

Again, we don’t have to wait for the season of Lent to make intentional changes, seeking to draw closer in our relationship with Jesus, but Lent is an opportune time to do just that. Jesus desires to remove what hinders us from living life as God intends. In a Lenten Bible study in a church I served several years ago, we used the book “Gospeled Lives” by John Indermark. It was an extremely meaningful study, and Indermark included a simple yet profound prayer in his book.

That prayer has impacted me in the years since, and I pray it often. The prayer is simply, “Jesus, remove from my way whatever keeps me from Your way.”

May that not just be our Lenten prayer, but our daily prayer. May it be so.