The Lenten Walk

 

 

 

 

We certainly needed a weekend of good weather this Lent! The sky was a beautiful blue and the air almost balmy. We began to think to ourselves---Yes, spring may actually come this year! Over the weekend, Bryan and I spent some time in Western Maryland. The stream that runs through our property was full, sparkling and rushing down the hill into the valley. There was snow all around, yet the birds were calling to one another in bright trills. 

 

On Sunday morning, I took a walk to gather items for my story box for the First @ Five Eucharist last night. Here’s what I gathered and shared with the adults and children in the Child Jesus Chapel last evening.  First, from the box, I took out rocks. Many rocks—large and small. I placed them on the carpet. These rocks symbolized the sins that we all carry with us---the sins in thought, word and deed that we have done and the actions we have left undone. As we say in the General Confession, “we confess that we have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what we have done, and by what we have left undone. We have not loved you (God) with our whole heart; we have not loved our neighbors as ourselves.” All those sins become like rocks in our lives---we carry them around as burdens. We sometimes throw these rocks at each other. These rocks weigh us down. By the time we are adults, sometimes we are dragging around a big bag of rocks. That’s when we come to Jesus. We lay those sins at his feet. He is a man of sorrows. He understands how we come to the place that we are. He takes those sins and carries them for us, redeems them in his death, and brings us to new life.

 

So last night, we said the General Confession together, and then we all took a rock, we carried those rocks—one by one—over to the icon of the child Jesus, Mary and Joseph—and left those rocks there. Then we walked up to the altar and gathered together to celebrate the Eucharist. We confessed our sins, gave them over to God, and rejoiced in new hope around the Lord’s Table. The children were especially joyous last night around the altar. When I got to words of institution (“Take, eat, this is my Body given for you. Do this in remembrance of me”), they instinctively said the words aloud right along with me. They even added a “DING” for the sanctus bell at the end of the appropriate line. As always, children understand the simple mystery of the sacraments much better than we adults who get caught up in theologizing and rationalizing. It was a holy moment!

 

At the bottom of my story box were two other items. There was a tuft of green moss that I found down by the stream. Green as bright as the new grass in the fields and on the hillsides in the spring. There was also a green leaf from the holly tree. These two items were symbols of new birth and life that we long for as we walk the way of Lent to Easter Day. 

 

On my walk in the woods, there was also something that I could not bring for the story box, but I ended my story by telling about what I saw. As I rounded the driveway back home, I happened to look down at the front bed. There were the daffodil shoots making their way up through the snow. A sign that the winter is almost past. Spring is on its way. Nature shows us resurrection even before we can!

 

This week, as we prepare our hearts for the new birth of Spring and Easter, say the General Confession, find a rock (real or imagined) and lay it at the feet of Jesus: