Airing Some Clean Laundry!

Airing Some Clean Laundry!

You’ve heard of airing dirty laundry—a practice I don’t recommend, and I certainly don’t intend to do that now.  However, airing (or drying) clean laundry is good! Part of the process involves the use of a “lint” filter.  This crucial, yet simple invention makes dryers possible!  It keeps fires from starting, and enables the dryer to safely expel the moist, warm air that it produces...sans the messy lint.  Ah, after a weekend of house-cleaning, I have laundry on the brain, but it’s nice to get everything all spiffy and ready for spring!

Anyway, a lint filter is awfully important.  I wouldn’t do laundry without it!

In church, we don’t have lint filters, per se, but we do have Lent Services, and I guess you could even call them Lent filters, too, because Lent changes how we see things.  Lent is a reminder of our own sinfulness and the need to confess our sins.  Lent is also a reminder of the sufferings that Jesus endured for our sake on the cross, to pay for our sin and guilt.

Lent just isn’t the same without going to a midweek service in addition to the Sunday service, and neither is the big Easter Sunday celebration.  After all, to get to the empty tomb, and to his exaltation, Jesus had to go through the pain of Calvary’s cross and the sting of death itself.  In this way, Jesus died and rose from the dead so that we could be cleansed, fully, from all our sins, and forgiven.  That is how we have been changed. It only fitting that we devote our time to focusing the themes of Lent.

Indeed, for us to experience true joy as Christians, there is no shortcut.  It revolves around confessing our sins and trusting solely in the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus for us.
Furthermore, this life is all about taking up our own cross and following Christ. One way we do that is by being vigilant and faithful in our worship attendance throughout the season of Lent.  
I wouldn’t do Easter without it!

This Lent, we are blessed to be meditating upon the “Songs of the Exiles” found in various readings from the Old Testament book of Isaiah.  As we do so, we draw strength from God’s Word and Sacraments and also from the process of gathering together with one another on our own Lenten journey.  We sing together the songs of Lent, and our song, with all its differing harmonies, melodies and rhythms, blends beautifully with the centuries-old songs of the believers in ancient Israel.

I could go on, but for now, I simply urge you to be faithful in your church attendance all throughout the season of Lent, to the very end, and I look forward to worshipping with you, singing with you, and sharing in food and fellowship, too. May God’s blessings be multiplied unto you, now that Spring has sprung and Lent is in full bloom!

In Christ’s love,
Pastor Daryn