Executive Director's Weekly Reflection

Dear Friends, Greetings of love and peace.  For many Christians around the world, this past Wednesday was Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, a season of reflection, self-denial, repentance and renewal, leading up to Easter, the greatest feast day of the Christian year, celebrating the victory of life over death in Jesus' resurrection. This year I find myself wishing that our entire world would engage in serious Lenten discipline.

Lent recalls Jesus' 40 days of prayer and fasting in the wilderness at the beginning of his public ministry. During the 40 days (excluding Sundays) of Lent, Christians are asked to imitate Jesus in prayer and self-denial; to seek repentance and renewal of life.

My childhood memories of Lent are powerful. Leading up to Lent was a challenging deliberation about what to give up. Depriving myself of something I enjoyed, say sweets, was not easy, but it did help me feel closer to Jesus in his fasting, and also closer to the poor all over the world whose lives were an unending fast. I grew to enjoy the challenge of doing without something I liked

Giving up a negative behavior could be even more difficult, but it also drew me closer to Jesus, who called all who wanted to follow him to love God fully and to love their neighbors as themselves. And I think it made me a better person.

I recall one Lent giving up fighting with my sister. We usually got along well. But, like any siblings close in age, there were times when we did things that hurt each other, sometimes intentionally. That Lent I learned how difficult it was, especially when I felt I was right and she was wrong, to step back from an escalating conflict and catch my breath.
I also learned that stepping back often created the space to resolve a conflict in a way that dissolved hard feelings rather than making them worse. That's a lesson I continue to practice.

In addition to giving something up, we also took on something extra for Lent. We went to church more frequently during the week and spent more time in private prayer or reading the Bible. We were also encouraged to take on a positive practice, such as forgiveness or patience or helping someone in need.

I also took on odd jobs. The money I made, with the money I saved from giving up sweets, went into a "mite" box, named after the tiny but powerful amount of money a poor widow gave in a story Jesus told.

On Easter everyone brought their mite boxes to church as part of the Easter offering dedicated to helping others in need. If giving up things you like to eat helped you identify with those who were hungry, making and saving money to help feed people was doing something to help alleviate the problem.

This intentional giving up and taking on made Lent seem like an especially holy time, a time to think and act more deeply in accord God's will for a world where individuals lived righteous and upright lives; and where tribes and nations lived in peace; where the hungry were fed and the sick cared for.

Looking back, I can see what a profound impact the lessons I learned from those Lenten disciplines have had on my life. And I'm grateful in a way that fills me with joy to begin this year's Lenten journey with countless Christian brothers and sisters all over the world.

I am also grateful for and humbled and inspired by what I have learned from my Muslim brothers and sisters through their observance of Ramadan, a month of fasting, purification and alms giving; a time when they believe the gates of heaven are opened wide and Allah awaits with transforming love.

I feel the same about what I've learned from my Jewish sisters and brothers as they have journeyed faithfully - in introspection, repentance and amendment of life - through the Days of Awe - from Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, to Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

I'm grateful for the devotion I've seen from dear friends of diverse traditions as they dedicate themselves to rituals of self-examination, purification, self-denial and renewal of life. These practices make us better people. Holier people. And they help us make our world a better place, a kinder place, a more just and peaceful place.

So, as this Lent begins, I find myself yearning to experience the power for global transformation that might come if we, from all faiths, practiced these rituals together for a month. If, together, we repented of the madness humanity is inflicting on the sacred community of life on Earth; and, repenting, vowed together to amend our lives, eliminating negative practices and practicing virtue.

And then, together in joyous celebration, recommitted ourselves to making peace, justice and healing sovereign in this world.

What do you think?

Love,

Charles

The Rev. Canon Charles P. Gibbs