Lent and the Love of God (Lifelines front page article)

Lent and the Love of God

A number of years ago, I served a church in which the teenagers would host a Valentine’s dinner on Valentine’s Day for the older adults as a fundraiser.  One year, Valentine’s Day fell on a Ash Wednesday.  We decided to go ahead with both the supper and our Ash Wednesday service.  I will never forget all the smiling faces under ash-smudged foreheads, among the muted lighting, red balloons, carnations, and spaghetti.  The somber mood of the Ash Wednesday service was a stark contrast to the affectionate and joyous mood of the Valentine’s Supper.

There was a message there for anyone who would look for it--Valentine’s is a day of love.  So is Ash Wednesday.  God’s love is about the kind of love we celebrate on Valentine’s Day, but it’s also about the way that affection and romance are connected to the deeper loves of covenant, loyalty, and self-sacrificial service.

This year, like the year of my ashy Valentine’s supper, Lent comes extremely early.  We will throw a pancake supper party on Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday), the last day before Lent, February 12, in the Fellowship Hall at 6:00 pm (thanks to the men for flipping pancakes!).  We will begin our Lenten discipline together on Ash Wednesday, February 13, with a service of the imposition of ashes at 6pm.  The entire community is invited--children, youth, and folks from outside our church, especially.  

Throughout Lent, we will host lunches at noon each Tuesday.  This years speakers will be Dr. Karl Stegall, pastor emeritus of Montgomery First UMC and director of the Stegall Seminary Scholarship Foundation (Feb. 19), Rev. Ashley Davis, pastor of Trinity and Wallsboro UMC in the Wetumpka area (Feb. 26), Dr. John Ed Mathison, pastor emeritus of Frazer UMC and president of John Ed Mathison Ministries (Mar. 5), Rev. Dan Morris, Superintendent of the Dothan District (Mar. 12), Dr. Jim Graham, pastor of Coosada Baptist Church (Mar. 19), and Dr. Rob Couch, pastor of Prattville First UMC (Mar. 26).

Let these opportunities be part of a season of faith in which you focus on your relationship with God in an intentional and special way.  On Valentine’s Day we set a day apart in our calendar to remember and renew our affection for those with whom we are in love.  Use this Lent to push aside distractions and fall in love with Jesus afresh.

Be blessed,

Nathan