Does that question intrigue you? Challenge you? What might happen that could make Lent more powerfully different and meaningful for you and our parish this year?

 

For some of us the very word “Lent” may elicit negative associations. Perhaps Lent most immediately brings to mind heavy church language like sin, repentance, confession, sacrifice, and discipline. Historically, the church has observed Lent as a season of penitence and fasting, self-examination and self-denial. In our weeks-long journey to the cross of Good Friday followed by the joy of Easter Sunday, we are reminded why we need these events in the first place: because of our sin and our mortality.

 

For all of the spiritual benefits that come from honest confession about our fallenness and finitude, we misunderstand Lent if we think its only purpose is to “cut us down to size.” We misconstrue the gift of Lent if we assume that its primary aim is merely to bring clarity about the negative aspects of our lives. Lent is a time to seek God’s presence in all facets of life, including the good things. The problem is that while negative events increase an awareness of our dependence on God, positive events tend to obscure such awareness. When times are going well, we may develop a false sense of self-sufficiency that diminishes our attentiveness to God. As a familiar adage goes, “the good is often the enemy of the best.”

 

I believe this is an important truth for us to remember this Lenten season. St. George’s is living through a very prosperous phase in our shared life and history. It is my opinion that our church is more vital, stable, and well-poised for the future than at any time since I have known the parish. In the past year we completed renovation and restoration on our parish facilities, enjoyed a larger annual budget over the previous year, and made significant progress toward our goal for the Living Waters Capital Campaign. Simultaneously, we experienced increases in worship attendance, Christian discipleship participation, and the number of small group ministries. Scheduling rooms in the facility for classes and meetings is increasingly a challenge. Our new worship service, The Table, has been a great success, surpassing our own initial attendance expectations. Our adult Inquirers/ Confirmation class this winter has the highest enrollment ever.

 

Yet it may be precisely in such a positive phase of robust vitality that we inadvertently become inattentive to God’s voice.  What if it is precisely when times are good — precisely when we are most susceptible to self-satisfied regard for our life and direction - that we should pause to listen to the call of the One who is not merely good but best? What if bustling vitality, growing ministry, successful programming are not the keys that unlock discovery of God? In fact, what if a primary focus on these good things impedes access to the very best thing – a robust life lived in the active presence of God?

 

I am proposing that this year’s Lent be very different for St. George’s Church. I would like us to rest from our busyness. I want us to fast from programming. I desire that our entire parish commit to a Lenten pattern of listening to the voice of God. I believe God has an important word to speak into our common life, and I worry we are not hearing it unless we decide to pause from our activity to pray together intentionally.

 

Therefore, the church is not offering any Lenten programming this year and discouraging any meetings or activities at the church during the evening hours in Lent.  Obviously, there are important ministries such as the choir for whom weekly rehearsal is essential. Otherwise with very few exceptions we want the church to go quiet at the end of the workday, a time during the week when so much begins to happen.

 

A touchstone verse for this Lent comes from the third chapter of 1st Samuel.  When Samuel is a young man serving God under his mentor Eli, one of Israel’s priests, the Lord calls to him one night by name. Samuel isn’t yet familiar with God’s voice, so he thinks that Eli is calling out to him, and he goes to see what Eli wants.  At first Eli sends Samuel back to bed, but when this occurs two more times, Eli realizes that God himself must be calling the young man. He tells Samuel to go back to bed and to wait there. When Samuel hears the voice calling him again, he responds with the words Eli suggests to him: “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” This is

a turning point in Samuel’s life, and he begins a new relationship with God.

 

I am struck that the voice of God touches Samuel in his rest rather than in his youthful vigor, diligent service, or energetic activity.  St. George’s will be more intentional than ever this year in adopting a posture of rest to listen to the voice of the Lord. The only activity we are planning for Lent outside of our daily and weekly rhythms of worship is actually not a program or meeting at all. We will offer a Wednesday evening prayer gathering to which we invite the entire parish, and especially our church leaders. As you may read on page 2 of this edition of The Shield, this gathering will be a meditative time for reflection on how God is speaking into our lives, including space to listen to His voice. Your entire staff leadership team has prayed for

months about how we might come together as a church this Lent to rest in the Spirit and discern the Lord’s blessing and will for us. We believe this will be an extremely important time for St. George’s, and I strongly encourage you to participate in this prayerful mutual attending to God’s presence.

 

There is no easy guidebook on how to know what God is saying into our lives.  But what we can know is how to establish some conditions that sharpen our attentiveness and hearing. First of all, we need to be intentional about freeing ourselves of all the “cares and occupations of daily life” that rob of us the time and energy to be aware of God’s voice. God may indeed speak in the whirlwind – out of the midst of chaos and frenzy – but it does seem more often the Lord whispers in the gentle breeze, when it is quiet and we are restfully attentive to listen.

 

It is difficult and paradoxical for busy modern people to believe that when we stop relying on our own potencies to achieve the good life is actually when have the most to offer to God – surrender, rest, yearning, attentiveness – and the greatest access to the highest potency there is for the good life. As the great early church bishop and theologian St. Augustine once spoke of God, “You were here inside me all the time I was running around outside looking for you”

(Confessions, 10:27).

 

In the name of this God whose voice may speak most clearly when we counter-intuitively refrain from all our activity on his behalf, I invite you to join your brothers and sisters at St. George’s this Lenten season in this shared prayerful pause. For this God who calls also continues to harbor marvelous dreams for our future life together.  “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.

 

-Leigh+