LENTEN BLOG | fEBRUARY 14, 2024

Lent's Love Is Different Than Valentine's

Throughout the year, the Southern New England Conference of the United Church of Christ reproduces the Daily Lectionary for use by churches.  These are the suggested readings for Ash Wednesday, February 14th:  Psalm 51:1-17; Joel 2:1-2, 12-17 or Isaiah 58:1-12; 2 Corinthians 5:20b – 6:10; and Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21.  I would encourage you to read these short selections as part of your Lenten practice.

Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of the church’s Season of Lent.  Lent’s 40 days replicate Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness.  This is a time of introspection.  A time to ask questions about where God fits in our lives and where our lives fit in God’s plan.  Jesus asked Himself those questions and emerged changed from his 40 days.  He was a confused carpenter in Nazareth.  He accepted baptism at the hands of a hellfire and brimstone preacher who celebrated the judgment and destruction of a sinful world.  And then Jesus emerges from the 40 days in the wilderness fully committed to preaching the Good News of a loving God to everyone, especially the outcasts and the sinners.  The Jesus who emerged from the 40 days was unexpected. 

Lent is often referred to as a time of repentance, and we then often associate repentance with sin.  However, repentance means to change.  It does not need to be limited to talk of sinfulness.  It can range to conversations about how we can change to live better into our faith in a crucified Saviour.  Is the cross only about forgiveness of sins or is the cross about something much more fundamental that changes who we are?  Is the cross not about Jesus’ death in isolation, but as the final proclamation of His lived gospel, His lived Good News? 

This year Ash Wednesday falls on Valentines Day.  When we think of Valentines Day, we think of mutual affection.  The love we share on Valentines is (hopefully) returned.  During Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday, however, we delve into the unconditional love of Jesus that culminates in the cross.  Jesus’ love flows from who Jesus is.  It is not based on conditions.  It’s not relative; it’s inherent.  Jesus loves even when that love is not returned.  This is the ineffable mystery stated so perfectly in the cross.  It is the perfect revelation of God’s love for “God is love.” (1 John 4:8, 16)

In order to appreciate such an intrinsic love, we need to look inside of ourselves and make sure that our faith is also deeply sincere.  This is the message in today’s Gospel reading from Matthew that tells us to beware of hypocrisy.  Today we begin a journey that maybe we don’t know where it will end, but it begins with the humility of daring to look up to the image of a crucified Jesus and wondering what that kind of love means in our lives.  The cross is how Jesus died, but more importantly it’s a profound testimony about how Jesus lived.  Through the lens of the cross, through the lens that removes the distortion of hypocrisy, let us look at our lives, and let us change if need be.
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If you’d like, here is the link to the Southern New England Conference’s daily reading schedule:  www.sneucc.org/lectionary.