Thursday, February 18, 2021
Thursday after Ash Wednesday
Ann Tarlton
The Collect of the Day
Direct us, O Lord, in all our doings with your most gracious favor, and further us with your continual help; that in all our works begun, continued, and ended in you, we may glorify your holy Name, and finally, by your mercy, obtain everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Readings: Deuteronomy 30:15–20
The Lectionary readings for today, the day following Ash Wednesday, seem to sum up almost the entire journey we are asked to travel during the Lenten season….a journey which travels through living fully to suffering, dying and rebirth
In Deuteronomy we read “Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult.” “See I set before you today, life and prosperity…. for I command you today to love the Lord your God and to walk in His ways, to listen to His voice and to hold fast to Him. For the Lord is your life and he will give you many years in the land”.
In Psalm 1, the psalmist tells us that “Blessed is the man” whose “delight is in the law of the Lord". “He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither"….:
Both of these readings tell me that in listening to God’s voice, following his laws and living in love. I will find true life right here on earth.
In Luke’s Gospel Jesus reverses the preceding readings and states that “whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever wants to lose his life will save it. Yikes…… We have traveled from life right on through to suffering and death, ultimately Jesus’ death on the cross.
And, yet, in my deepest core I think I get it…… and my question to myself is….what do I have to die to to find true life, true love? I don’t think Jesus is telling me or anyone else to just die, rather he is asking each of us to die to all of those things which get in the way of truly living life from a place of love, a place of forgiveness, a place of no judgments, a place where all of God’s children are seen, treated and heard as equals. It is in that place that we will die to ourselves and finally find true joy.
When all is said and done, the pain of Lent is followed by Easter and the glory of Easter is in the Resurrection of our Lord. The journey is up to us. Peace to all.