Pontius Pilate shows us what happens when the historical and the eternal intersect.
Lent
Lent | Liturgy of the Passion (Year A)
Isaiah 50:4-9a; Psalm 31:9-16; Philippians 2:5-11; Matthew 26:14-27:66
Faced with someone trying to deny me shelter from the rain, I thought, are you kidding?
Our lives are overstuffed, and we desperately need to fast.
Lent is early this year, so it coincides with Black History Month for a full 18 days. This overlap of sacred and secular calendars proves doubly sacred for Christians in the U.S. The sacred journey of Lent leads us to the cross—at the end of Jesus’ life of healing ministry and preaching good news to the poor. The sacred journey of Black History Month leads us to the lynching tree—as well as to African American innovators such as the man who developed modern blood storage and transfusion.
On Ash Wednesday, as we remember our sins and ask to be forgiven, let's also remember what we love and ask to love it more.
Spring comes slowly here. We are so deprived in winter—of color, light, smell, vitamin D. Lent is an almost unbearably slow wait.
This Lent, add a journey story to your reading. Follow Gilgamesh to the ends of the earth or the Knights of the Round Table into the forest.
I try not to get too worked up about the commercialization of church holidays. It seems inevitable in our culture, in which most people are at least nominally Christian yet the real national faith is capitalism. The Christmas shopping season is annoying and the Easter candy aisles are dangerous, but it seems futile to rail against things that are more symptom than illness. It is pretty perplexing, however, when marketers try to capitalize on Lent.