Full to the Brim: An Expansive Lent

My two-year-old son Theodore loves water. Little surprise as an infant I would often hold him as I watered the garden. It became an evening ritual for us. These days he is less likely to want to help with the hose, but while I am watering, he regularly comes to me wanting a small cup to be filled to the brim so he can independently water the plants of his choosing.

We are about to start another year of the journey through lent towards Easter. As we journey, we will be following material entitled “full to the brim – an expansive lent”. Primarily this will be expressed through our Sunday Worship services. But also, an accompanying devotional and bible study group will seek to deepen our understanding. This resource includes readings, artwork, and poetry. 

Traditionally lent has emphasized restraint, confession, and piety. The origins of Lent were that one was to leave their old life behind to fast and prepare to be baptized into a new way of living. This is perhaps best illustrated in the tradition of Shrove Tuesday. It was traditional in many societies to eat pancakes or other foods made with the butter, eggs and fat that would be given up during the Lenten season. For British Christians this is believed to have begun in the 16th century. This would typically lead into a season of fasting for the 40 days of lent, when only simple foods would be consumed. This was a way of stepping back from the regular grind of life, to take time and to ponder again the meaning and life made possible by a life based in our baptisms and the promise that God has already claimed us as God’s own. A promise that is so secure that there is nothing that we can do to erase or change God’s everlasting love for us.

The scriptures that we will encounter this Lenten season are stories of God’s limitless grace abounding through parable and promise. Grace that is undeserved, grace that we cannot earn yet just like water it overflows. And when we allow ourselves to be filled by God’s lavish love, that love cannot do anything but overflow, and touch everything and everyone in our path.

We will ask the question “If love is our beginning, how can we live our lives led by love’s promises? It reminds us to live fully—as we pursue justice and hope, or express grief and gratitude. And so, this Lent, let us trust—fully—that we belong to God. Let us increase our capacity to receive and give grace.

Andrew Howley

February 2022

Come Rain or Shine

“I will keep on.”

That’s what I heard him say.

I will keep on

driving out demons

and healing people,

speaking the truth

and loving endlessly,

searching for the lost sheep

and crying for the brokenhearted,

feeding the hungry

and welcoming the outcast.

“I will keep on.”

That’s what he said, right

after he said my name, right

after he called me beloved, right

after he welcomed me home

and saved me a seat.

And I knew,

there was no stopping him.

I was under his wing.

Come rain or come shine,

today and tomorrow,

this love keeps on.

Poem by Rev. Sarah (Are) Speed