“Whoa! Where did that blue car come from?”
That was the gist of the question I asked myself when I turned onto Broadway yesterday afternoon. I thought I was paying attention. I thought the light was in my favor. Clearly I was not and it was not. I avoided a collision and drove a little more carefully the rest of the trip.
Earlier this week, on Ash Wednesday, I found myself asking a similar question: “Whoa! Where did that question come from?” We used John Wesley’s “22 Questions” as confession during Ash Wednesday worship. John Wesley was the Anglican priest who shaped much of our United Methodist theology.
Those questions have the ability to jolt you to attention. They were written to be asked to the members of a small group that Wesley led. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to confront hard, probing, convicting questions every day.
Facing our realities; the ways we’ve messed up and the glaring fact that we are always one day closer to our deaths, is a big part of the Ash Wednesday experience. It can and should be a raw, personal moment of owning our reality. Ash Wednesday gives us permission to admit that we need God’s help and Jesus’ saving grace as we find our way through life. Even if there is a collision. Even if there is a near miss.
On Ash Wednesday, we also heard the prophet Joel tells in a clear, passionate way, “Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me, with all your heart.” Confront the questions. Face the reality. And return to me.
I’m going to try to move through these forty days of Lent with a heart that is perhaps a bit wearily cautious, but one that is also ready to face the hard questions and then fall once again into the arms of a God who never turns away.
I hope you will take part in worship at Grace during Lent. We will focus on all the ways that we are called to more and how to move beyond all that keeps us from living the abundant life that Jesus promised. Worship is in the sanctuary at 9:00 and the service is live-streamed on Facebook and You Tube.
What are your thoughts as you enter this sacred season of Lent? What collisions or near misses have you lived through? Another question our friend John Wesley loved to ask; “How is it with your soul?” May our answers be true and may we respond with confident honesty knowing that God waits for our return without judgement and with unending grace, love and acceptance.
Whoa!
Peace,
Pastor Linda
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