Easter Devotional
Naming God’s Presence in Lent
By Rev. Adam R. Quine, First Presbyterian Church of Lincoln

[March 24, 2018]  Y’all, it’s March! Can you believe it?! You know some things I love about March? Clocks falling back an hour (even though it means we’ll lose a bit of sleep), baseball’s beginning, and the last days of bitterness. The skies are becoming brighter with the promise of winter’s demise.

I’ve been watching more birds appearing in the skies around my home. Silas and Chloe are getting that look in their eyes that they know I’ll soon be getting the garden going again.

There’s another thing I love about this March, in particular: Lent.

Lent comes from an ancient Teutonic word meaning “Spring.” It’s the season when we set out to lose our false self to gain our real life. Jesus said it best in Matthew, “Those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake sill find it.” During this holy spring, we set out to awaken from the slumbers of deception and despair to begin living in the eternal life offered to us through Christ. And that leads me to another thought I have. Beyond this season, there is another, even more glorious one that beckons to us. And when I think about that season that’s just around the corner, it makes me ponder, “What’s the story I want to tell the world about my love for what’s to come?”
 

“On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.”
~John 14.20

That’s what.

That’s my story and my answer as to why I believe in God. Because this is the message of Easter; this is the wilderness walk of Lent. For forty-six days, we travel beyond the shadow of our egos so the light of Christ that opened a tomb can open our eyes to the astonishing realization that we are in Christ, thus in God and each other. Nothing, as Paul says in his letter to the Romans, can ever separate us from God’s love. Lent is the time for us to prepare, to begin again, to turn away, and to decrease in ourselves so that Christ may increase in us.

As we walk together toward the Paschal Mystery that is still enveloped by the not-yet- broken clouds of winter and bitterness, we will name the brokenness of our lives. But we will also emphasize the love and acceptance God still has for us (and will always have for us), despite our tendency to wander from our true selves. We will reclaim our baptismal identity.

How do we live faithfully into our identity? The foundational answer is paying attention to and following Jesus. We do this by studying the Gospels and sitting with our Wounded Healer, while also walking with him towards Jerusalem. In studying who Jesus was in the Gospels, we will discover who Jesus is to us. To do this, we must respond to the call of Lent that invites us to face all of who we are openly and humbly: the parts we like, the parts we try to hide from others, and the parts we try to hide from God; then we offer them to God for healing.

Ultimately, by walking with Jesus during this season, we will find the courage to answer the question “Is it possible to discover God’s presence in the midst of all this stuff?”

The answer has been, is, and will always be yes. And that’s my why to the what. That’s why I love this particular March… the march toward Easter.

Why?

Because in Christ, we’ve been given the gift of life and to become alive… again!