Walk the Road of Lent

Ash Wednesday will be celebrated on February 10 at both 12 p.m. and 7 p.m. at Ascension. You are invited to gather with your brothers and sisters to worship God and be reminded that God cares about your whole life.

In Lent, we hear God’s promises in new ways…that EVERY end is a beginning; that EVERY night gives way to morning; that EVERY hurt can be healed; that EVERY broken moment can be redeemed; that EVERY life lost can be found; that EVERY cross carried can be given to Jesus; that EVERY prayer spoken is heard.

In my life, Lent is the ground on which I walk the journey of my faith. Sometimes the ground is hard and packed down. In other areas, the ground is dry and cracked. Still other roads are muddy and hard to navigate. And then in the season of Lent, I am blessed – as are you blessed – with soft and fertile ground ready and waiting for the new thing God promises to do in each of our lives…should we choose to be open to what God will do in us and through us. Will you choose to walk the road of Lent? Will you let your journey of faith lead you in a new direction at God’s invitation? The invitation has been made…God waits for each of us…will you come?

I wrote those words last year to share the wonder of God’s promise to be with us. The words were important enough to share with you again as the season of Lent arrives with Ash Wednesday.

After the four weeks of Advent that lead us to Christmas, the 40 days that make up the season of Lent, leading us to Easter, provide the most powerful witness to the events of Holy Week that call us to an empty tomb on Easter morning. God provides everything we need on our journey. You only need to hear God’s call and follow. I know that sounds easier than it is. Our journeys of faith are so often complicated by schedules, careers, children, parents, spouses, weather, and those life circumstances beyond our control. It is true. And then, it is not true.

Our individual journeys of faith are of God’s design. Not one of us travels the same road and yet our journeys provide moments of awareness of the other. I am reminded of the words of the song:

Will you let me be your servant? Let me be as Christ to you? Pray that I might have the grace to let you be my servant, too. We are pilgrims on a journey, we are trav’lers on the road. We are here to help each other walk the mile and bear the load.

Lent is our opportunity to travel the road together to help each other walk the mile and bear the load. You are invited to join us on this journey through Lent. Come and see the new thing God is doing. Peace be with you.

~ Pastor Chris Marien

(This post was originally published in Ascension’s February 2016 newsletter).

Days of Light

What joy to celebrate the birth of our Savior once again in these Christmas days. It always fills me with wonder and awe to see the body of Christ gather to sing the old songs while experiencing the story and love of God in new ways through the journey of Advent darkness to Christmas light. Even as the world often does not know what to do with the birth of our Savior, you and I hear the call of God to be witnesses to the light of God coming into the world.

Now we find ourselves on the edge of the season of Epiphany – the season of light. I am filled with peace in these days of light – each day a reminder of God’s presence in my life and in the life of the world. When we see the difficult and painful realities of our world, our hope in Jesus gives us strength to face the days before us.

Some of us are experiencing a broken relationship; some of us are living with the consequences of a decision made long ago; some of us are afraid to reach out to someone in need; some of us are wondering how we will get through one more day; and some of us are fearful of the seemingly downward spiral of a world in turmoil. Through all of these fears and worries, the light of God in Jesus Christ shines chasing away the dark night of our fear.

Our invitation is to trust God and follow God from the manger to the temple to the River Jordan to the healing and saving work of God on the cross and through the gate of death to the other side of the empty tomb. The old Norwegian hymn, “I Am So Glad Each Christmas Eve” reminds us of God’s promise.

I am so glad each Christmas Eve, the night of Jesus’ birth! Then like the sun the star shone forth, and angels sang on earth. The little child in Bethlehem, he was a king indeed!
For he came down from heaven above to help a world in need.

“He came down from heaven above to help a world in need.” This is not a future promise to God’s creation, it is a promise already fulfilled. Thanks be to God! In our daily lives, our invitation is to trust what God is doing because of what God has already done. Now there is a promise fulfilled that I can take comfort in during challenging days.

After the Advent Concert Worship weekend, a member of the congregation sent a reflection to the office. I found her words full of the faith we are invited to engage trusting that God is at work in the world. Here are her words.

When I attended the Christmas concert on Dec. 13, I was so moved by [the] production and message I received of Christ’s coming to earth to be among us, I felt I had to say something about it. We had the children singing to the glory of God, the choir at its best singing the joy to the world, instrumentalists playing, the Bell Choir ringing their hearts to God, the Folk Choir singing, and Ben and the Praise Band singing for us. The message Pastor Angela read to us was the message that means Christmas to me. I was overwhelmed with joy. As I sat there, I pondered the budget cuts and the many changes in our church in the past several years and I feel that our church is going in the right direction. There is no way we can make changes for the future without stepping on someone’s toes. Unfortunately someone gets hurt.

My prayer for 2016 at Ascension is that we all can work together and we can nd ways to make up the shortfalls in our budget. We all need to listen to our Lord who speaks to us through the holiday season and all year. Remember my favorite Bible verse, ‘I can do anything through Christ who gives me strength.’ We can do it, I know we can! ~ Arlene Davis

What I appreciate most about Arlene’s words is her unwavering trust in God. In the midst of worship and praise of our God, Arlene saw the light of a manger overflowing with God’s love for a world in need. We will never know a day in our lives without a deep and definite need for God’s presence. I am grateful to serve among a community of faith where joy is shared; where faith is active; and where our faith finds grounding and strength through the worship of God.

May these days of light in this season of Epiphany bring you joy and peace.

~ Pastor Chris Marien

(This article was originally published in Ascension’s January 2016 newsletter).

Joy in the Journey

Dear People of God,

There is joy in the journey of this life. It’s all about the journey. We always talk about journeys as if they are something we are trying to complete. We speak of extended vacation, the terminal illness, the marriages on the edge of divorce, the job we wish we could quit, the educational process, the committee meetings that seem to go nowhere, the life we live each day, and the report that needs to be finished yesterday. We live our lives hoping to complete our tasks a little early so that we might have a little free time over the weekend, or when we retire, or when spring break comes. And somehow, we end up behind again. We look for the easy way out and road most traveled. We look to any option that might help us finish a project sooner or relieve the suffering more quickly. Yet when it is all over, most of the time, we find that we had to travel the entire journey to get to where we most needed to go.

Holy Week is one of those journeys. One of those journeys that offers no easy solution and no quick release of the suffering and pain that will come in the days ahead. Jesus walks the road, measures each step on this journey, from the triumphant entry into Jerusalem to the pitiful, humiliating death on the cross. We walk this road too. Jesus helps us to measure our steps as well. We look to the joy of Easter morning as the end of the journey. We know that there will be pain, sadness, betrayal, and guilt along the way, but we have this feeling that somehow it has to be this way in order for us to conclude the journey at Easter, at the empty tomb.

Yet, we have to look past the empty tomb. For Jesus, and for us, the empty tomb of Easter morning is not the end of the journey, it is only a measured step. The empty tomb surprises us with joy on Easter morning. A light in a journey of darkness. Yet it is just a glimpse of the light that will flood all around us when we enter into the Kingdom of God.

The end of the journey is not Easter morning. The end of the journey is eternal life with Jesus in the Kingdom of God. Easter morning and the empty tomb only share with us a glimpse of the end of the journey. Yet, the end will not come until a place has been prepared for each of us.

Holy Week (Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, and Good Friday) helps to push our tired feet farther on the journey. When we enter into the gates of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, we walk with our heads held high as our Savior is hailed as king and palm branches rise and fall in joyful praise of Jesus. Maundy Thursday brings us to an upper room away from the rest of the world, where we will eat with close friends, have our feet washed by our Savior, and go to pray with Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Good Friday will take us to the highest levels of government as Pontius Pilate debates with Jesus and finally hands Jesus over to be crucified. We will stand at the cross, in darkness, and feel the tears on our face and hear the hammers as they pound the nails into the flesh of Jesus. We will stand in the shadows and feel helpless. We will wait, with the whole creation, for Jesus to breathe his last so that we can carry him to the tomb and prepare his body for burial ourselves. And we will wait and pray and hope for something miraculous to happen.

So do not look for the end of the journey, rather find joy in the journey. Find your joy in Jesus Christ, and, all of a sudden, the joy of the journey will be complete and the end of the journey will come too soon.

With prayers for your journey ~ Pastor Chris Marien