Interim Pastor - Ann Wahlers

 

Dear Friends in Christ,

               Some years ago I heard a rather cynical clergy person state, “Why not just do away with Lent!  And forget about Holy Week as well!  Let’s just get to Easter.”

               This person was really crying out in lament over the fact that so many modern Christians seem to place so little importance upon the journey to the cross.  Yet, I believe, it is spiritually impossible to celebrate the resurrection, the “new birth” given, the gift of Easter, unless we journey with Jesus through the pain, loneliness and spiritual searching required on the way to the cross.

               There is a true story of a pastor from South Africa who was finishing his first year as a full-time pastor in the U.S.  He had also served the church in South Africa, so he was asked to compare the role of the church in the U.S. with its role in South Africa.

               “I am still trying to come to terms,” he said “with a culture where Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are more obligatory days of church attendance than is Good Friday.”  “In South Africa,” he went on, “we have experienced so much suffering and evil that Good Friday is a pivotal day for us.  We cannot understand the hope of Easter apart from confronting the pain and agony of Good Friday  But in America people come to church on Palm Sunday and again on Easter, with no services in between.”  “Good Friday provides an opportunity to challenge the superficiality of American optimism that so easily turns into cynicism.  It does so by inviting Christians to discover the profound hope of Easter that comes only on the far side of sin and evil, a hope that enables us to see the world and ourselves more truthfully and redemptive.”                          (Resource unknown)

               What does it mean that Mother’s Day and Father’s Day seem to take precedence over the Passion journey?  Are we in denial of our own pain and, therefore, do not want to walk the walk with Jesus for fear we will have to meet our own suffering on the road?  Or is it that we do understand our own complicity in Jesus’ walk to the cross and hide from ourselves by not accepting the invitation of the journey?  Whatever may be the reasons for avoiding the journey, take the hand of another this year and participate in the passion of Jesus.

               What matters most is to follow Jesus Christ in his passion and to see ourselves mirrored in him.

Whether we know it or not, we bear the imprint of his cross.  We often are judged unjustly, we fall, we find life’s journey hard, we know the mystery of death, and we recoil from it all.  To face life’s dark side in ourselves and in our world, we need images of hope, and Jesus offers images of hope through his passion and resurrection.  Jesus transforms the reality of evil we find hard to bear.  By accompanying him on the way of the cross, we gain his courageous patience and learn to trust in God who truly transforms us from our own pain and despair.

               This is what John Bell, leader of the Iona Community tells us about Lent.  “The engagement of people in celebrating the season of Lent is often spoken of in terms of a journey.  And this is perfectly appropriate, because the intention of Jesus was never to sit still like a guru in a retreat house and have people come and bow at his feet.  Rather, he summoned people to follow behind him, and in Lent we are challenged to review how closely we are following, and how far we have moved in our discipleship.”

               “Travelling the road to freedom, who wants to travel the road with me?

                Partnered by staunch supporters who, come the dark, will turn and flee;

                Nourished by faith and patience, neither of which is plain to see:

                Travelling the road to freedom, who wants to travel the road with me?      Iona Community

 

Pastor Ann