From the Pastor: Return to the Lord

Dear Peace family,

Hard to believe, but here comes another Lent. Ash Wednesday this year is February 22nd.

In many ways, Lent can be kind of a downer. We call it a “penitential season,” which means that our liturgy takes on a more subdued cast. Traditionally the word “Alleluia” is put away for the season, to be brought out again at Easter. The color of the church turns to purple. On Ash Wednesday we are reminded of our mortality (“Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return”), and that sober realization is never far from our minds throughout the weeks of Lent.

In other ways, Lent is a wonderful time indeed! It is often the one stretch during the year when we work a little harder at spiritual discipline. Our lectionary each Sunday serves up some of the most incredible Scripture texts of the whole year—wonderful readings that challenge us and move us and instruct us. Lent is, you might say, the “spring cleaning” of the soul, a time for sweeping away the dust and the cobwebs as we prepare for the great Easter feast.

Our custom here at Peace has been to join together each Thursday evening during Lent for a simple soup supper (though let’s be honest: the cooks in this congregation produce soups that are anything but simple!), followed by Evening Prayer (using the Holden Evening Prayer service). It is a lovely time when we can focus together on some theme for a few weeks.

This year I’d like for us to focus on the Psalms during our Evening Prayer together. We’ve done this a couple of times in the past—once back in 1989, and then more recently in 2006. But there are 150 Psalms in all, so there’s still a good bit of material we can cover!

The Psalms, of course, are the “prayer book of the Bible.” Luther said this: “The Psalter ought to be a precious and beloved book, if for no other reason than this: it promises Christ’s death and resurrection so clearly—and pictures his kingdom and the condition and nature of all Christendom—that it might well be called a little Bible. In it is comprehended most beautifully and briefly everything that is in the entire Bible.”

And so in this season of Lent, when our focus is indeed on “Christ’s death and resurrection,” the Psalms can once again draw us into the contemplation of those wondrous acts of God. I’m in the process now of selecting which Psalms we will choose for our meditation together during these weeks; if you have a particular favorite, let me know, and perhaps we can include it.

May God grant us all a holy Lent— time for amendment of life, and for the grace and comfort of the Holy Spirit.

                                                                                   Peace to you,

                                                                                   Pastor Richard O. Johnson