Lent is a time of self-examination and reflection, when I try to focus with more discipline on my relationship with God. It is steeped in traditions of fasting, prayer, meditation, reading of scripture and service. However, I find it hard to put these things into practice. What does that look like for me? How do these practices help me to experience God? How can I learn them and who will support me with grace, forgiveness and love? Can church give me those answers?
I have found the following explanation, so simple and pure: a picture of what it means to be church, that gives meaning to the practices of Lent, new life through the resurrected Christ here and now.
take out a cup and some bread
and put it in the middle of the table,
and say a prayer and examine yourselves
and then make sure everybody's rent is paid and there's
food in their fridge and clothes on their backs
and then invite everybody to say "yes" to the resurrected Christ
with whatever "yes" they can muster in the moment
and then you dip it in the cup in the ancient/future hope
and trust that there is a new creation bursting forth
right here and right now and
then together taste that new life and liberation and
forgiveness and as you look those people in the eyes
gathered around that table from all walks of life
and you see the new humanity, sinners saved by grace,
beggars who have found bread showing other beggars where they found it
remind yourselves that this is what you believe ....
From Rob Bell's last sermon at Mars Hill
Here at Christ the King is where I find myself, a beggar who has found bread (soaked with grace) showing others where I found it.
Julie Meitzen
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