You will be receiving and reading this a few days after Ash Wednesday (February 22) and the “official” beginning of Lent. However, most of Lent remains in front of us as we make our way to Easter on April 9.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. – Philippians 1:2

Lent invites us to set aside minor religious matters and focus instead on the first principles of Christian faith. Two of the most basic Biblical ideas are “grace” and “peace.” These two words appear over 600 times in the Bible!

A kind, generous, forgiving, or lovely person may be called gracious. A gentle, amiable, non-violent, or conciliating person may be considered peaceful. But no one, not even at their finest and best, is perfectly gracious, perfectly peaceful, or perfectly anything! How disappointed we may be when someone we thought to be perfect turns out to be flawed. And, in truth, each one of us disappoints others when our promises of grace and peace, however well intended and earnestly pledged, fall short. No one is perfect.

But Scripture here declares that in Jesus Christ grace and peace appear, not as ideas, but in perfect human form. We see Christ’s perfect grace and peace in the Bible’s reports of his healing the sick, forgiving the sinful, seeking the lost, embracing those whom society casts aside, and teaching and showing the way to a life full of faith, hope and love. May this Lent be for each of us a season of deepening and growing discipleship so that when Easter dawns, Jesus Christ Is Risen Today will be more than mere familiar words of a hymn, but the sure and certain promise we fully trust and on which we gladly stand.

See you in church!
Rick