One of my favorite movies is “Mr. Holland's Opus” (1995). At the end of the movie Mr. Holland is retiring and feeling as if he wasted his life because he never wrote and published music as he originally wanted to because his wife became pregnant. He took a teaching job instead because he discovered that life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.

 

In the closing scene one of his former students who is now Governor comes in and reminds Mr. Holland that “We are your symphony Mr. Holland. We are the melodies and the notes of your opus. We are the music of your life.” What he realizes is it’s not about the direction you take, but it’s about the direction you give that makes your life a symphony. He finally realizes of all the lives he changed, the one that changed the most was his own.

 

I have come to discover that even in the course of a year there is a life rhythm and tempo that we follow as the church. The hope and anticipation of Advent burst forth into the wonder and joy of Christmas. The shortest of the calendar, the ten days of Christmastide dances into the season of light: Epiphany.

 

This year the beat will be changing, abruptly, on February 22nd with the start of the forty-day-season of Lent. It ends with the chorus of Christ the Lord is Risen on Easter morning with drum rolls and trumpets heralding the triumph and rejoicing over Christ's resurrection.

 

Originally Lent started as a period of instruction for new converts preparing for baptism which traditionally occurred on Easter eve. As the beat of time changed, Lent became a time of self-discipline, reflection and penitence when those who were alienated from the church were invited to be reconciled and restored back into the Christian community. In the early church, Christians gathered together for one of the most intimate and emotional moments of our faith: the

imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday. The ashes (traditionally the charred remains from last year's palms) became a symbol of our broken promises, our dashed hopes, and life-dreams that all too often seem to go up in smoke. Ash Wednesday is a liturgical reminder for each of us that in some way we are all alienated from others around us and from God….and that a spirit of forgiveness is at the very foundation of our faith as Christians.

 

This year I am inviting you to consider and reflect about how you will begin Lent, what you want to do and accomplish, how you will grow spiritually, and to consider your responsibilities in your walk of faith through this season and beyond. It could be as follows:

 

1- My church and my faith asks me to honor God with at least one hour each week in worship experiencing and praising God with my personal opus of love.

 

2- My church and my faith asks me to invest at least an thirty minutes each day growing spiritually through study, meditation, and prayer. What is my plan for doing that?

 

3- My church and my faith asks me to give at least one hour each week in finding ways of helping those in need, in Christ’s name. In what direction will I aim that effort?

 

4- To remember that God asks me to give my best, my first, and my all each day, leaving the results in our Lord’s hands. If I do this the end result may be my own symphony of love for God. Do you realize that each one of us is a symphony in God’s hands?

 

I also invite you as you prepare for Lent to recite and make Wesley’s Covenant Prayer a part of your daily devotion, a way to begin your opus to God with the end thought of one day being a symphony of love. It reads: “Lord, I am no longer my own, but thine. Put me to what thou wilt. Rank me with whom thou wilt. Put me to doing, Put me to suffering. Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee, exalted for thee or brought low for thee. Let me be full, let me be empty. Let me have all things, let me have nothing. I freely and heartily yield all things to thy pleasure and disposal. And now O glorious and blessed God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, thou art mine and I am thine. So be it. And the covenant which I have made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven. Amen."

 

May this Lent be a time of spiritual growth and renewal for you and for our congregation! As we commit to growing spiritually the blessings we will receive.

 

Love,