This Rector’s Closing Thoughts article was originally published in our 2023 Easter Season Bellringer.
Our 40 days of Lent are nearing their end. We just have the final leg of the journey to go: Holy Week. Holy Week is a powerful opportunity to walk with Christ through the sorrow of the cross and onto Easter. I encourage you to finish Lent up strong by walking with Christ these last few days. We have a lot of special services to help you do just that. I invite you to join us to walk this last leg of the journey together.
And once our 40 days of Lent are over, we will have 50 days to celebrate in Easter. I have always loved that fact: the challenge of the Lenten desert may be long, but it is not as long as the celebration of Easter. As the psalmist says, “Weeping may spend the night, but joy comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:6).
I encourage you to celebrate Easter as profoundly as you embrace Lent. It is quite common to take on a Lenten practice or two. These practices in Lent help us to fulfill the invitation at Ash Wednesday to observe Lent “by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy Word.” These practices are wonderful; I have been spiritually nourished by them over the years. I wonder sometimes, though, if we should consider adopting Easter practices. Not practices of fasting, but of feasting. Not practices of asceticism, but practices of flourishing. Not practices of inward self-examination, but ones that make us look outward, reaching out to one another, connecting and deepening relationships, seeking new life through Christ’s resurrection.
I encourage you finish this Lenten journey and then to fully celebrate Easter. I encourage you to find a way to connect with one another. I encourage you help with the flourishing and thriving of all of humanity and all of creation. I encourage you to adopt a practice that reflects and brings about resurrected life in the world.
Bingham+
