Preparing the Soil for New Life
Hello TCBC EM members and friends,
Spring is around the corner because we will be back using Eastern Daylight time this Sunday, March 8.
For many, the season of spring is an even bigger adjustment Spring calls gardeners, landscapers and agricultural workers to prepare again to work the soil. It's "stoop labour": digging and tilling the ground. And it's done year after year in the spring.
Preparing the soil is a useful metaphor for what the Lenten season is about. In the weeks leading to Good Friday and Easter, as Christians we may work through our faith and intentionally dig deep. We should not be afraid to upset the ground. We are preparing our hearts for new life.
Prayer is essential: if you struggle with being persistent in working towards your goals, have you looked at your prayer life? What important immediate and life-long goals are you choosing to consistently pray through?
Also essential is communion. So when is the last time you looked with joyful expectation to meet with people? What was at the heart of that joy? Do you have a desire to break bread with other followers of Jesus?
Finally, there is an opportunity to reexamine out lives by reading through Jesus' journey to the cross. Our Lenten devotional this year focuses on the last words of Jesus.
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34)
"Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise." (Luke 23:43)
"Woman, behold your son... Behold your mother." (John 19:26-27)
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34, Matthew 27:46)
"I thirst." (John 19:28)
"It is finished." (John 19:30)
"Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." (Luke 23:46)
Prayer, communion and scripture is our main message for this month.
Easter Sunday (Apr. 5) is also a day reserved for baptism and child dedication. Please speak to me if you have not been baptized yet but a desire to be. Also, parents who would like their children to be dedicated to the Lord this Easter, please let me know.
Hope to see you on Sunday and/or connect with you during the week.
Blessings,
Rev. Nolan