FROM THE PASTOR

Lent is a Journey

Lent is a journey, not a destination.  And our Lenten discipline, especially around care for God’s creation is also a journey.  We can’t solve the massive issues and threats facing our environment.  But each thing we can do to preserve and protect God’s good creation is a step in the journey, a link in a global continuum of care and adoration of the Creator.  I think this prayer nicely expresses the journey:

This life, therefore, is not godliness  

but the process of becoming godly, 

not health but getting well, 

not being but becoming, 

not rest but exercise. 

We are not now what we shall be, 

but are on the way. 

The process is not yet finished, but it is actively going on. 

This is not the goal but it is the right road. 

At present, everything does not gleam and sparkle, 

but everything is being cleansed.” 

  –Martin Luther  

 

(Martin Luther, “Defense and Explanation of All the Articles,” Luther’s Works, vol. 32, Career of the Reformer II (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1958), 24.