Pastor's Message

March 2006

The most common images or moods associated with Lent are probably those of darkness, mourning, sorrow, and distress. Indeed, suffering and sorrow are largely the themes of Ash Wednesday, with its picture of the looming day of the Lord and its call to turn and repent. Even for those already convinced of their sinful nature, the danger of overburdening the soul with a message of unrelieved mourning is ever-present. It is like offering a band-aide for a mortal wound

But in fact this woe of the cross is not the entirety of Lent. To focus on the cross as the only image of Lent is to blind ourselves to the fullness of God’s activity. The tone of the Lenten season, even in the midst of its call to turn, repent, and be cleansed of sin, is one of optimism. The first reading on the first Sunday in Lent sounds this note. The rainbow is placed in the heavens, a sign of God’s presence and promise, and life goes on with that assurance. Sunday after Sunday, the same theme is presented. I will preach on the Old Testament Lesson for the five Sundays in Lent this year. The themes in these lessons are the covenant that God has made with his people. A promise is made to Abraham, even though he is too old for it to be kept. Fiery serpents bring death, but God sends healing. Those who lose their lives actually save them. God sends the Son not to condemn the world but to rescue it. Over and over, impossible difficulties contain the seeds of God’s saving action.

Lent is not a time for wallowing in sin. It is a time for taking care of the soul. The image for Lent is not punishment but bodybuilding. The church has always known it, even when we have lost sight of it in our focus on wailing and gnashing of teeth. It is the season for preparing for salvation, for learning what being forgiven and made whole means. Repentance may tear down what is weak and twisted, but it also builds up that which is of God.

The Self Study materials have been completed and the process of analyzing the information is beginning. All of our individual impressions and opinions need to be considered, and then a cohesive picture of the whole congregation needs to immerge. From this picture the Search Committee will develop a Profile of St. Paul's UCC to be shared around the country with Pastor’s seeking new Calls. They will then also begin to see Pastoral Profiles with the aim of matching the gifts and talents of a new pastor to the image and vision for new pastoral leadership which emerges from this time of Interim ministry. In some ways this time of Interim ministry is like Lent. It is a time to be self-reflective, to tear down and examine the past with an accurate and searching introspection. It is also a time to hear the promise of God’s covenant with us renewed and strengthened. And it is a time of building up the Body of Christ in this time and place. It is active and productive time, time well spent as we await the immerging picture of new pastoral leadership.

May this Lenten season speak to you all through the power of the Holy Spirit, of God’s love and continuing covenant with us. May the increased opportunity to worship and the heightened introspection individually and corporately lead us to a clearer sense of our mission, ministry and pastoral needs.

Pastor Cluley