Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
This image captured by Roger Casco depicts Christ's Temptation in the wilderness. The 40 days of Christs journey into the desert is the foundation for our season of Lent, preparing for the most glorious day of our faith, Easter.
This image denotes the real hunger of Christ and the real and not fantastical calls of temptation that surround us. Hunger and stones are a part of Jesus 40 days. They are a part of the life of too many children of God around the world. In fasting, Jesus depicts his reliance on God and his identification with those who have no choice but to live among stones in their hunger.
For some of us, Lent invites fasting from some want of our life. Acknowledging our needs in living, Lent encourages us to differentiate need from want by giving up something that makes us happy, but not necessarily healthy.
For others, Lent entails a taking on of something. Taking on an activity of service, prayer, reading, journaling, attentiveness for the forty days.
In both cases, it is a hope pf the season that the practice might continue. If you practice something good for 40 days it could become part of your routines.
Join with us tonight to stay with Jesus. As disciples of Christ, worship the Savior who took on hunger, Satan, temptation and death. In our service of ashes, acknowledge our mortality and our eternal God who continues to care for a world who cannot differentiate want from need.
