WORSHIP MATTERS
Preparing for Lent
After months celebrating the Light come into the world, we turn out attention to the cross. The texts of Scripture turn our attention holy Child whose birth we celebrated in late December to the adult Jesus, who willingly makes a sacrifice of His life for the redemption of humanity. That sacrifice, as we all know, is made upon the cross. Jesus bought our forgiveness and our salvation when He died upon that cross, and we spend the forty days of Lent (excluding Sundays) in prayerful reflection on that mystery.
This Lent will look a little different from previous years, in that we still must deal with the continuation of the Covid pandemic. We will, though, this year as every year, look to ways to enrich our appreciation and knowledge of Christ’s gift of Himself to save us from sin and death.
Our “theme” or project for Lent this week will be, “The Road to Hell.” Now, most of us know the old bromide, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” But the way to perdition is paved or laid out by good intentions, bad intentions, sin, and so on. We will examine all those things which inadvertently, and advertently, we do that leads us away from Christ and His kingdom of light and life to death and hell. Christ saves, and He does so despite our lack of merit and our failed intentions and sin, but perhaps, with prayer and study, He might also help us to do a little less road construction for hell.
