Dear People of Light,
Just a short time ago, we were talking about how
Jesus makes US the “light of the world,” when he declares that we are “salt of
the earth and light of the world.” And
in a “flash” …it’s become Lent.
In fact, by the time you’re reading this, we’re sunk,
nearly two Sundays deep into Lent!
You know the darkness does not overcome the light
…but in Lent, the darkness appears to be winning—with Jesus walking toward
Jerusalem and soon to be crucified, to die, and be buried. In fact, when this happens, doesn’t the
darkness win?
Ask Pilate, who I think leaves Jerusalem that
year thinking that he’s solved this Jesus-problem by putting him to death, even
though Pilate was never convinced Jesus was the problem!
Lent isn’t a story about the darkness
winning. I know you know this.
But like the darkness not overcoming the light, as
we hear our story, as we read our story, it sure seems as if the world gets one
over on Jesus.
Lent is not a story about how bad we are and how
much we need to repent for. Lent is our
reminder that despite what seems to be happening, God isn’t losing! Despite the fact that Jesus is arrested,
tried before the religious leaders, tried before the civil authorities, and put
to death …God is busy writing another ending.
The story God is writing is that God’s great love
for us isn’t thwarted.
God loves us all the way through who we are and
whatever we have done, or what’s been done to us or through us. God loves us all the way! So that when the crowds cry death, when
Pilate can’t find any way around it, when the hammers fall, and the nails
pierce, when breaths fade, and his body slumps, when his side is breached, when
he is dead, and the stone is rolled—God is busy writing another ending.
Love wins.
The light is the forever reminder.
Even when the darkness thinks
it has the upper hand—even when we think the darkness has the upper hand! It’s God’s hand, with a pen in hand, writing
about love.
You are the beloved of God. …NOT the bad of God.
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