from the March LOGOS

For a second month, we find our LOGOS in Lenten colors, so to speak. It is likely that some of the flock known as St. John’s Episcopal Church began Lent on Ash Wednesday by devout and holy exercise; by fasting and prayer, and additional works of mercy and charity. It is also likely that some members of the parish have not yet let Lenten practices take hold. And some might not at all. This is not is any sense a reprimand, so relax.
However I do want to add my encouragement to any who have been intentional in their Lent, and for those who might just be starting those holy intentions. Devote yourselves to them; devote them to God, and you will find Him in them.
However, there is a bit of instruction, or at least a thought provoking tidbit I want to share as we approach mid-Lent . We must realize that we are not earning anything with God as we practice this discipline (or ascesis as we have learned on Wednesday evenings). If we thought we were, we would immediately become discouraged because we only imperfectly keep these things, and failure on one point, if we are trying to be saved by keeping a law, is failure in total. Though we cannot be perfect, we can participate in the Perfect, by faith and intention and love toward God in Christ.
From the Zen tradition it is taught that the first step in gaining perfections is the attentiveness to one’s breath. In every moment, breathing intentionally is the key that unlocks the universe. But of course this is a daunting task for the novice! And so it is taught that one, conscious, perfect breath in a day makes the whole day worthwhile.
For the Christian, we can resound on the same idea from the thoughts of Teilhard de Chardin, who wrote that for all of God’s will to be made perfect in creation, in fact as the one event that would guarantee that it would be fulfilled in all, was that Christ came down and fulfilled it once; if He did it once, He will saturate the universe with it.
So we stand in Lent, having forgotten our disciplines, or eaten what we said we wouldn’t, or lost our temper, or whatever, and made Lent imperfect. But the gate to completeness or perfection in God is one moment, one breath, and cosmically, one Life. It happened and it is bound by the will and power of God to spread; there is no chance that the new life in Christ Jesus will not eventually saturate and resurrect all the whole universe, including you and me with our failures and imperfections.
We do not like to think that God is in the imperfections, working to show his strength in us. Lent is a time to realize (that is, to let the truth sink in) that we are ever-weakening. We can either rely on our human strength to mask that truth, or we can grow further and further in reliance on Him. We began Lent with the pronouncement of our death, “Remember that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return.” We must learn to offer to God not only our creativity and our genius and our wonderful abilities and talents, but also our fears and our failures and our weaknesses, for “his strength is made perfect in out weakness.”
And be confident even in the valley of the shadow of death, that “He who has begun a good work in you (me, you, the church, the human race, the cosmos) will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.”
May Lent be a blessing to you.

Guy+