Every year we gather together 40 days before Easter, not including Sundays, and mark the beginning of the season of Lent with Ash Wednesday. Lent represents the season that Jesus spent in the wilderness at the start of his ministry. It was a season where the Holy Spirit led him to a place where Jesus spent time growing closer to God by engaging in fasting. As the church began to grow, leaders used the season before Easter as a time to teach new Christians as they prepared for baptism. 

Now, it’s a season for all Christians to grow deeper in their relationship with God. Here at St. Paul’s throughout this season of Lent we will be diving into a sermon series asking “What is?” What is baptism? What is communion? What is prayer? What is sin and salvation? What are all these things that we talk about here in church and just kind of assume we all know what we’re talking about?

It’s a season of learning and growing together. On Ash Wednesday we dove into spiritual disciplines. It’s a phrase we use all throughout Lent as we talk about how Lent is a season of preparing for Easter because we engage in spiritual disciplines that help us to grow closer with God. These disciplines are biblical habits that aid in spiritual growth. 

Jesus talks about spiritual disciplines in Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21. He calls us to give thanks to God and give to others expecting nothing, not even praise, in return. He calls us to take time to be apart from others while being in conversation with God. He calls us to time to fast from something that has become a source of distraction from God as you seek to grow in our relationship with God. Or fasting from something you love, as a way to constantly be reminded of the mighty acts God has committed through Jesus Christ. And to take time to show love to others, the way God has shown love to you. 

Christ calls us to do these things privately, intentionally, and earnestly. These acts are not to be bragged about. These acts are not to be done so that others say, “oh you’re such a good Christian!” 

These acts are between you and God. These acts are all about growing closer to God. Yes, we gather together throughout the season of Lent to check-in on one another, but this is an individual journey to partake in. 

John Wesley called them means of grace, ways that we build up our faith. Wesley talks about practices like reading and meditating on scripture, prayer, fasting, going to worship, healthy living, participating in sacraments like baptism and communion, bible study, and holding our Christian sisters and brothers accountable as they do the same for us. Wesley talks about doing good works, visiting the sick, those in prison, feeding the hungry, and giving for those in need. Wesley talks about seeing justice, ending oppression and discrimination, and addressing the needs of the poor.

Even doing just one of these things, when we’re doing them as ways to show either love of God or love of others, they are spiritual disciplines that help us to grow.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ: Christians have always observed with great devotion the days of our Lord’s passion and resurrection. It became the custom of the church to prepare for Easter by a season of penitence, fasting, and prayer. This season of forty days provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for baptism into the body of Christ. It is also the time when persons who had committed serious sins and had been separated from the community of faith were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship for the church. The whole congregation is thus reminded of the mercy and forgiveness proclaimed in the gospel of Jesus Christ and the need we all have to renew our baptismal faith.

I invite you, in the name of the Lord, to observe a holy Lent, by self-examination, penitence, prayer, fasting, and almsgiving; and by reading and meditating on the Word of God.

Let us pray: Almighty God, you have created us out of the dust of the earth; grant that these ashes may be to us a sign of our mortality and penitence, so we may remember that only by your gracious gift are we given everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.

Blessings friends,
Pastor Nicole