Each Monday, the Lamoni Heartland USA Diversity Team will publish a Lenten Reading.
This weeks reading is by Evangelist Kris Judd.
2020 was more than a year. It was a season in our collective life where we experienced intense reactions – fear and panic at the thought of infection, illness and insufficient resources; gratitude for lives extended and vaccines created; horror at violent rioters and insurrectionists; frustration with schooling, isolation, political attacks, and selfishness…
The season of 2020 painfully displayed the inequity in how our brothers and sister of color have been and continue to be impacted differently. Disparities in healthcare, income, voting rights, treatment by police, access to internet and education have all placed before us the reality of racism in this country we claim as free. As followers of Jesus, we are called to proclaim not only the injustices we witness, but a different reality – a season of justice and peace, the kin-dom of God, the brotherhood/sisterhood of all, God’s Shalom.
We are reminded in Doctrine and Covenants 164:9b:
When your willingness to live in sacred community as Christ’s new creation exceeds your natural fear of spiritual and relational transformation, you will become who you are created to be. The rise of Zion the beautiful, the peaceful reign of Christ, awaits your wholehearted response to the call to make and steadfastly hold to God’s covenant of peace in Jesus Christ.
As a people poised to fulfill God’s ultimate vision for the church, and to contribute to God’s vision for all of creation, what might our Lenten journey invite us to be and do? How might our willingness to live in sacred community be strengthened and stretched to include all of God’s people and creatures? What does this period of Lent have to do with this sacred invitation?
B. Michelle Horton invites us into postures and practices for this season of Lent that help prepare our wholehearted response to God’s call.
This is the season to remember, repent and release
This is the season to return, rend and be redeemed again
This is the season to turn, tremble and trust
This is the season of sacrifice, surrender, sackcloth and to be still and know
This is the season of prayer, praise and proclamations
This is the season to meditate, mourn and moan
This is the season to give, to grant, to offer grace
This is the season to listen, learn and leave
This is the season to wail, weep, wait, worship and be washed by the Living Word
We are poised to move closer to God’s vision for creation. May this season of Lent be one in which you find your heart broken for the sake of others, love deepened for yourself and all of others, and hope strengthened by signs of a new reality – the season of God’s shalom.