Faith Works 2-20-21
Jeff Gill
Where you do not want to go
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We are now into Lent, the period leading up to Easter, which falls as it does on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox, also known as April 4 this year.
I will admit to a certain holy impatience with a tendency to make Lent all about what we don't do, what we do without, and this year especially. Disciplines can and should include sacrifice, and practice in making willing, even cheerful sacrifices can be good for any of us, but Lent can't just be about avoiding "Alleluias" and giving up some dietary treat for 40 days (not counting Sundays, since they're feast days and hence a time to celebrate at any season, each a little Easter).
Yet this is also a good year for a penitential turn, particularly if you've not wrestled with that side of your faith very much. We've been wrestling and resisting and yes, even resenting all that we've given up since last March, and our attitude towards such things can also be a spiritual weathervane whose predictions we perhaps should attend to with care.
A couple of cautions these next seven weeks, for regular readers here. My commission many years ago, and the responsibility I still feel, is that "Faith Works" is meant to be open to how faith is part of the lives of all of us, in many and various ways. The religion column, in a generic sense, almost left these pages when previous writers here used the space to bash on denominations and practices not their own. I was asked, when I inquired about picking up the opportunity to write here, "can you write about faith without telling over 90% of my readers they're idiots?" Beyond that initial request, I've never been told what to write about or what I can't cover, and I appreciate that. And I respect the need for a place to invite seekers and non-believers to hear discussion of faith which is inclusive.
What you'll be getting the next few weeks, though, will be explicitly Christian. I've always been clear about that being my own basic orientation, and what I preach and teach on my own. These next few columns, though, will be written on the assumption that you share some basic propositions of Christianity: if that's not you, come back after Easter, but I think there's still going to be plenty of interest to anyone as I reflect on the purpose and meaning of Lent.
It's going to be a series of mediations on John 21:18-19. And even more particularly on the comment by Jesus to Peter in verse 18: "Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you used to dress yourself and walk wherever you wanted, but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will dress you and carry you where you do not want to go."
We have in many ways been going where we do not want to go in the last year. Or is that just me? No, didn't think so. Thank you. So "where you do not want to go" is my compass, and in a contradictory way my anchor for this Lent.
And it constitutes my partial answer to the question I ended with last time, asking about how faith community leaders can deal with the mass communication and mass confusion so many people are living with these days: "Is there an answer for preachers and ministers in this misinformation age?" I think we do have an answer for how people can deal with the complex and contradictory messages we all get from the culture around us, but in many ways, that answer is "where we do not want to go." Which is a challenging message to share. In many ways, it won't be popular. It never has been, and is potentially less so now.
If you're willing to think about why we all have to spend some time in our lives "going where we do not want to go" then I invite you to join me here this Lent.
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he's been taken a number of places he did not want to go in 2020. Tell him where you've been at knapsack77@gmail.com, or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.
