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The forty-day journey of Lent, which parallels Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness, is a pilgrimage to the cross. We turn inward to reflect upon Jesus’ life and ministry, and how we might return to a closer relationship with him or how we might resurrect our faith or our commitment to discipleship.

We are well along our way on the Lenten road. We packed our bags and we know our destination. We have some resources—a journal, a map of sorts (the worship series itself) and our physical reminders of a shell and a rock. Yet, we won’t know exactly what will happen as we continue to travel. We may not know all of the stops.

Phil Cousineau, in his book The Art of Pilgrimage: The Seeker’s Guide to Making Travel Sacred, says that the “experience of the pilgrim in actually walking in the way of others enables them to become a participant in all that has happened. The pilgrim becomes one with all who have gone before.” (p. 96) Our trek through this season, then, is walking not only in the wilderness where Jesus’ trod, but on the road to Jerusalem with Jesus, with pilgrims from centuries past, and with Christians who have journeyed through this season before.

We stop at the table of hospitality where Jesus eats with all sorts of people. Who might we welcome to join us at our own tables? We recognize that we are sometimes called to be different because the way of Jesus is countercultural. We have to find our way around the things that attempt to lead us astray. We stop to rest and reflect along the way, dealing with the emotions of what we might be giving up or working through as we travel. We also know that this journey will end. It will draw to a close. Yet the end of Lent, the way of the cross, is not the end of the story. There is great mystery in how that all occurs, yet we believe it to be true.

We walk, knowing that Easter resurrection will come and that in the end there is a beginning. As the “Hymn of Promise” so beautifully says, “In our end is our beginning; in our time, infinity; in our doubt there is believing; in our life, eternity. In our death, a resurrection; at the last, a victory, unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.” (The United Methodist Hymnal, 707, v.3)

See you soon as we continue on The Way.

Pastor Jenny