The Oasis - March 5, 2025
Author: Rev. Eric Dupee
March 05, 2025
Ash Wednesday, March 5th, marks the beginning of Lent, my favorite season of the church year. We will gather in the sanctuary at noon for repentance, prayer, and the receiving of ashes. The ashes are a symbol of repentance and a reminder that “we are dust and to dust we shall return.” I love Lent, because it is a period of time in which we self-reflect and maybe take on a spiritual discipline, such as fasting or prayer. I hope you make note of the events happening at First Parish during Lent.
I view confession and repentance as vehicles for recognizing we might want to start over. They are ways to acknowledge the path we are on might not be the one that is most faithful or life-affirming. Maybe we want to start again. In her book No Enemies Within, Dawna Markova shares this story:
I used to love to watch my grandmother make bread for the sabbath. Elbow-deep in flour, she taught me kitchen psychology, while braiding the dough. One morning, when I was five or six, she said, without lifting her eyes from the table, “People have energy which makes their lives yeast. Their souls get sick if they don’t let it out. It gets confused. It doesn’t have a way of rising so it twists and strangles instead of becoming a new pattern.” Her fingers tangled in the dough as she spoke and her beautiful bread became a mass of chaos. She struggled to free her hands. In the process, the shape of the bread was destroyed.
“Then we have to go back to the beginning and start again with the kneading and the rising,” she said, as she began to punch the dough flat again.
It seems to me our lives, or our relationships, or the systems and structures of our world can get confused and twisted. Lent can be a time to go back to the beginning and start again. It’s a time to evaluate and remember we belong to God. By following the movements of Jesus from the wilderness of temptation to Holy Week and his death and resurrection, we can reflect on how our lives can better reflect the love of Christ. Joy comes from making that journey with Jesus.
I wish you blessed and meaningful Lenten journey!
Eric
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