Coming Home to God
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
So often we tend to think of Lent as some kind of glum and gloomy period that we have to slog through. And that’s made worse somehow because it happens during the growing brightness of early spring. Just as the days are noticeably lighter and the goldfinches are starting to grow more and more yellow—this is when we plunge into Lent, beginning it with the gloomiest of rituals, putting ashes on our foreheads and reminding each other that we are on the pathway to death.
Ugh. No wonder many of us have a little trouble with Lent.
This year I’d love to do a little re-framing and ask, “Is it possible to see Lent through a different set of lenses?” Is it possible to see it as a hopeful time of excited preparation? And might we re-frame the disciplines we often practice intentionally in Lent?
I think so. Let’s give it a try.
It occurs to me that at the heart of Lent are our preparations for coming home to God.
Just think a bit about the excitement we may have felt when we were able to go home again after a long absence—maybe going home for Christmas or for Easter. It feels very exciting just to prepare to see our loved ones again. We may go out and get some gifts to take home with us. We may be up much of the night before baking pies or breads. We may take a lot of care in packing our bags so that we can be sure we’re not forgetting anything important. We go and get the oil changed in the car to ready it for a trip. We do the laundry ahead of time to make sure we have enough clean clothes (or conversely if we are in college we load up our duffel bags with as many dirty pieces of laundry as we can find.) And if it’s a very, very special event we’re going home for, maybe we’ll even drop a few pounds so that we look extra good standing next to our smaller sisters.
And so it is with Lent, in a way. Think of Lent as the time spent readying to go home to God. We read in the excerpt from the prophet Joel today that God is calling us, saying, “Return to me with all your heart. Rend your hearts and not your clothing. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing.”
Preparing for going home to God can be joyful indeed, for we know that we’re getting ready for the ultimate feast, the ultimate homecoming. It’s also joyful if we are able to trust that God’s character is infinitely loving and forgiving. As Psalm 103 says, “The Lord is full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger and of great kindness” . . . and “As a father cares for his children, so does the Lord care for those who fear him.”
When I think of going home to God I think of the Prodigal Son, returning home a loser and a total failure, yet being embraced and welcomed by his Father, with the past totally forgotten. So I hope we can have the courage to own up to things in our past, or maybe in our lives right now, that beg to be confessed and forgiven. There is nothing to fear if we are honest with God.
And we go home to God in several senses, don’t we? We go home to God whenever we take a deep breath and invite the Holy Spirit’s presence with us. We go home to God when we receive Holy Communion. We go home to God when we prepare for a great feast-day, such as the Feast of the Resurrection. We go home to God when we die, crossing over into that next life—the one that never ends.
Here’s a summary of the ways we might prepare ourselves to go home to God. Just like going home to family, we may want to clean up, to shape up, and to listen up.
First, clean up.
Cleaning up includes rituals like heartfelt confession during the Eucharist, remembering that God loves a broken and contrite heart. Cleaning up can also include private confession with a priest, especially warranted if we have complex situations that we can’t see our way through. Confession is meant to be joyful, because we know that God is thrilled with us and we also know that it feels so good to be forgiven.
Second, shape up.
There are many practices that Christians have used over the millennia to get in shape (in the spiritual sense). These include fasting from certain things that we’ve become dependent on; giving alms to help the needy; adopting practices of prayer such as saying the Daily Office in the morning or evening; and working toward social justice by volunteering our labor, time or resources with an organization that helps people.
Third, listen up.
Listen for God’s guidance by engaging in the practice of reading the Bible or reading spiritual books; or partake in either of our Lenten programs here. We will offer a Wednesday evening program that helps us to practice meditation and forgiveness; and we will offer a Sunday morning program that adapts the 12 Steps of the Anonymous Groups to Christian living.
And above all, almost paradoxically, we can allow ourselves to feel a deep joy this Lent. The joy comes from the Holy Spirit, who is thrilled that we’re paying attention and getting ready to go home.
And to close, listen to the words of this hymn that was written by a monk from Weston Priory in the 1970’s. It says it all so well, and in God’s voice:
Come back to me with all your heart,
don't let fear keep us apart.
Trees do bend, tho' straight and tall;
so must we to others' call.
Long have I waited for your coming
home to me and living deeply our new life.
The wilderness will lead you
to your heart where I will speak.
Integrity and justice
with tenderness you shall know.
Long have I waited for your coming
home to me and living deeply our new life.
You shall sleep secure with peace;
faithfulness will be your joy.
Long have I waited for your coming
home to me and living deeply our new life.
Amen.
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