Redeemer Review
The Episcopal Church of the Redeemer
March, 2007
From the Vicar
An Invitation to the One Earth Lent
It’s Lent again and time to write you yet another note about this most holy, and for many of us, most
difficult, season in the church year. Lent just palpitates with expectation: giving up something we like,
living a more disciplined life, spending more time in prayer and study, and who needs to do more when
already there are not enough hours in the day?
First, then the good news. The word Lent comes from the same root as lengthen. Even though it is a
moveable season, it always happens in February and March, the time when light is so clearly returning
after the dark months of December and January. The very promise of early spring is that there is more
time. Lent happens as nature is growing: daffodils are bursting through the soil, plum trees and acacias
and tulips are opening their blooms; new leaves unfurl their shiny skins. The birds awaken the dawn
with their mating songs and build their nests. In nature, early spring is all about potential, the work in
progress, not the fruits of our labor.
Growing has never been easy, however. If you ever were a teenaged boy or the mother of one, you will
recall those physical growing pains that plagued the body during adolescence. To be a seed breaking
apart and germinating, a chick pecking its way out of an egg, a mother giving birth, a student
struggling with new concepts, an athlete training to run the marathon or the Iditarod, or a restless soul
seeking the peace of God, - all these take work. One of the reasons I love Lent is that it gives me a
finite space within which to practice my own growing edges.
At Redeemer this year, we will engage corporately with the question of what can one church do in the
face of our mounting environmental and ecological crisis. Put in such stark words, it seems almost too
big to take on, but as Jesus said about some camels and the eye of a needle, with God, all things are
possible. I believe that. I also believe that the best way to take on big questions is right here in the
neighborhood, so our Lenten series in this One Earth Year is all about local conservation. We’ve got
great speakers lined up and I think you’ll feel really jazzed when you discover just how much each one
of us can do. On Sundays, to carry the One Earth theme into the heart of prayer, we will be using
Eucharistic Prayer C, which incorporates hymns to creation. Also, watch for some new music which
we will be learning together.
Finally, as promised, I’m posting my Lenten meditations on my new blog, “God’s Sled Dog”. You can
get to it through our website and you can write responses by clicking the word “comments” at the end
of the post. All views are welcome and loved. A blessed Lent to each and every one of you.
Blessings,
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