Pastor's Message

March 2026

Dear Friends in Christ,

This year, the whole month of March falls within the season of Lent.  “Lent” comes from an Old English word meaning “to lengthen.”  The daylight hours are getting longer now.  Spring is coming.  This is good news for those of us with a touch of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)!  The season of Lent is the 40 days before Easter (April 5th this year), not including Sundays, which are always “Little Easters”: little celebrations of Jesus’ victorious resurrection from death.  Why 40 days?  Well, 40 is a very Biblical number. Basically it means a long time.  Noah was on the ark for 40 days while it poured rain.  The Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years while they learned to trust God.  Jesus fasted in the wilderness for 40 days before Satan tried to tempt him.  Lent is like spring cleaning time for the soul.  During Lent we are called to struggle against all that gets in the way of loving God and loving our neighbors as ourselves.

During the 40 days of Lent, we Christians seek a deeper walk with our Savior Jesus as we follow his path to Jerusalem and his cross, his grave and finally his glorious resurrection.  Many Christians observe some of these disciplines of lent: prayer, fasting, confession and forgiveness, worship, Bible study, giving to poor people and good deeds for our neighbors in need.  To be sure, these disciplines are not ways to somehow earn our way to heaven. Forgiveness of sins, life and salvation are always the free and gracious gift of God to us all through the death and resurrection of God’s Son Jesus Christ.  But the disciplines of Lent help us to be intentional about our faith, as we endeavor to walk more deeply with our Savior Jesus to his cross on Good Friday.

It actually took early Christians quite a few years before they could embrace the cross as our chief symbol of faith.  In the first century, the brutal Roman empire crucified lots of people to make an example of any who were considered a threat to Caesar and the empire.  It was a very painful and shameful way to die in public view.  But God took this lowly and despised means of torture and death and use it to save the whole world.  Then God raised Jesus victorious over death to reign forever at God’s right hand.

Lent is also a good time to take an honest look at our own mortality.  We received a cross of ashes on Ash Wednesday as we began the season of Lent.  We were reminded that “we are dust and to dust we shall return.”  All of us human beings die one day.  It’s a very sobering honest reminder that sends us running to Jesus Christ as our only hope of salvation.  During Lent we “cling to the Old Rugged Cross”.  We know that everlasting resurrection life follows death for us, just as it did for our Savior Jesus.

  ~ Peace in Jesus, Pastor Dennis