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[Jesus answered,] The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” ~ John 3.8

Do you hear it?

If faith for Abram looked like taking the next right step into an unknown future, then Nicodemus coming to ask about Jesus was certainly a great act of faith – stepping out in the dark of night to learn more about who Jesus was.

How much did Abram lose when he responded to God’s command to leave his home and family, trusting that ‘the land God would show him’ would provide a future? I imagine the grief was palpable, and the fear great. Yet, in faith, Abram did the next right thing. He took the first step, then the next, and then the next. He couldn’t see the future, didn’t know what it held, but he knew who held it.

I was recently at worship and noticed that the series of stained glass windows in the sanctuary highlighted several important stories from the Hebrew scriptures. What struck me about the image of Adam and Eve in the garden was that the only things visible were their hands, and the serpent’s body was wound around them like shackles, resulting in the poignant picture of what it is to be ‘bound to sin.’

One Sunday a parishioner came to me and said, “I don’t think our worship is very welcoming. We say, ‘Good morning!’ and then proceed to talk about how awful we are with the confession and forgiveness. What must visitors think when we force them to talk about how bad we all are?”

Lent calls us to repentance, to turn from that which does not give life. This week I invite you to write or make a list of all that is getting in the way of you experiencing the fullness of life in Christ. What are those things in the congregation that no longer give life?

What defines you? What defines your faith community? Or rather, who defines you? In the gospel lesson for Sunday, the tempter tries to identify Jesus as the Son of God by the acts he performs rather than simply by who he is.

“In these post-COVID years, I find myself wondering if church is experiencing just such a wilderness. Everything has changed, and our communities are doing their best to pick up the pieces and carry on, only the pieces we have don’t seem to fit our world anymore.”

“Ok, time to get honest. Does the church ever start to feel like a burden? Or do you sometimes feel like being part of a congregation isn’t so different from being part of another organization that has finger-pointing or bad-mouthing?”

“Even when ashes are imposed while standing on street corners or reaching through car windows the words resonate, a vibration pulsing with the reality we all do our best to avoid: everything and everyone dies.”