Holy Communion Anglican Church
East Greenwich, RI – Standing Firm on Biblical Truth and Christian Tradition
Do you wish to grow closer to Jesus? Do you want to strengthen your faith in Him? Then follow Him to the cross this Holy Week. Ponder the depths of His suffering and the weight of your sin, so that you may know the wondrous glory of His infinite love.
The Apostle Paul tactfully used the technology of his day to preach the Gospel all over the world, even as the Romans transformed the world around him. Yet he did so fearlessly because of his confidence that nothing could separate him from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord. For ministry in our modern age, digital media represents the new Roman roads.
Yes, we look forward to the Easter holiday, with all the celebration, colors, and the Easter feast. It is good to do so. And a Lenten discipline makes us appreciate them all the more, but we must place the focus on what is truly important. Lent is for preparing our hearts for Easter, not preparing our stomachs for the feast. Likewise, we cannot prepare for Easter over a weekend. It is a pilgrimage in Christ’s footsteps, to follow His ministry and His Passion.
Beloved, the victory that Christ won over sin has given us greater blessings than those which sin had taken away from us. Let Lent be a reminder to us that there is a much higher purpose that exists beyond our mortal pain, as we march on to the joy of our Easter Vigil in this life, and eternal reward in the next. O happy fault!
We may not be able to see all which God is doing to redeem our present difficulties, but we can see His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, standing before us, ready to sustain us, and asking, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?” My dear brothers and sisters, we have seen Him; He is here, and He is able to keep us from falling and bring us to his glorious presence, without fault and with great joy. May we respond like the man born blind, saying, “Lord, I believe.”
Since the days of the Early Church, the season of Lent provided a time when converts to the Faith were prepared for Holy Baptism; when those who were separated from the Body of the Faithful were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness and restored to the Church; and all Christians reminded of their need to renew their repentance and faith.
Few hurts are more personal than that of betrayal. Yet, Jesus loved his betrayer radically and sacrificially, with full knowledge of the evil that would befall him.
When we give our attention to worthless things, we are robbing God of that same attention. Not that God needs our attention, but that we abandon His ways, and we allow our relationship with Him to wither. We give our attention to that which we value most at that moment in time. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
The Baptized live in God’s heart. This is a Christian’s greatest trust. This creates love and in love His People move towards the Triune-God. If God the Father has given His own Son for all who believe, no one can accuse the saints, no one can condemn us, nothing in all creation can separate us from His immeasurable love .
Lent is an opportunity for the renewal of our mind. It is a time to discern God’s will through meditation and prayer. To stay focused on renewal, it will be necessary to put aside the pleasures that distract us.