Lenten Message 2021

“Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry”. – Luke 4:1-2

I don’t know about you, but the past year, the almost 365 days of Covid, have felt like a wilderness time to me.  Most of us are not “Doomsday Preppers” – we don’t have stockpiles of supplies set aside to prepare for upcoming pandemics or global disasters.  The past year has felt more like a worst-case-scenario movie than our normal, run-of-the-mill, life.  Everything has been disrupted – our jobs, our children’s schools, our grocery shopping, our travel plans, our health.  We have been in the wilderness for a long, long time.

Jesus’ time in the wilderness was a time of doing without and a time of prayer.  His time away from his regular life prepared him for his life as the Messiah.  After his time in the wilderness, Jesus did not return to life as he once knew it.  He wasn’t just a small town carpenter, a typical son of Mary and Joseph.  Instead, his wilderness time prepared him to do more – to be the messiah, to be a leader and teacher, to be a healer, to be a preacher, to live through the fame and infamy of being the Messiah who came to take on the sins of the world.

I believe this time we are spending in the wilderness is also preparing us for a better life to come.  After we get through the challenges of the past 12 months, we will be more resilient to take on the future challenges that come our way.  Our faith has been strengthened by the past 12 months so we can do a greater job at embodying the teachings of Jesus.  We now understand we can live through a disruption like Covid-19 and come out strengthened on the other end. 

We have just a little bit more to go.  I pray that you will feel the presence of the Holy Spirit in your lives to guide you, uplift you, and strengthen you.

May it be so. 

Pastor Amelie 

 ^“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” – Acts 1:8