Jesus put things so simply, didn't he?  Love God and love your neighbor.  Go and do likewise.  Do this in remembrance of me.  Seek and you shall find.   Attend to the log in your own eye before fussing about the speck in your neighbor's eye.  Your sins are forgiven.  As my Abba has sent me, so I send you. 

Jesus was plain-spoken and direct.  NO beating around the bush, no tentative mumbling.  I am...the Truth, Jesus says.

The One who is the Word made Flesh speaks to us in words of utter clarity.  And those words wrap around us, settle into our hearts, guide our steps and -- if we take our Christian journey seriously -- draw us into abundant life.

Long before Lent became a time focussed primarily on self-examination and sacrifice, Lent was the season when people were prepared for Baptism.  Lent was a time of learning, a time of formation according to God's Word.  The Church had a most interesting term for those who were in baptismal preparation.  They were called "catechumens"; literally, people who studied the content of the faith, that body of received teaching called the
Catechism.  This time of baptismal preparation took place within the life of the Christian community, thus exposing catechumens to all the entire life of the Body of Christ: sacramental life, service and witness to the larger community, prayer, and stewardship of the resources with which God had blessed them.    

This Lent, I invite us all to read and study the Catechism.  You'll find it in the Prayer Book, near the back, by its other name, the Outline of the Faith.  You may hear people ask, "Well, what DOES the Episcopal Church believe?" Answer them boldly!  Our beliefs are strong and timeless and, yes, thrilling. One of the wonderful things about being an Episcopalian is that we take our
beliefs with such seriousness: we plumb them, wrestle with them and earnestly seek to apply them to all manner of complex issues.   These beliefs are far too sacred, far too important, to be turned into a true-false test.  Of
course we believe they are true!  (and we affirm that each time we recite the creeds).  What we are about is going deeper, seeking ever-greater understanding...entering into conversion more fully.

Someone once said that Christian life embraces three fundamental "B"s:   Believing, Behaving and Belonging.  How much we have to rejoice over here in Maine, as our congregations work hard on these three B's.  Study groups are multiplying.  We are asking questions about how our Behaving towards one another (especially in areas where we disagree) reflects the Gospel.  We are
probing deeply into what Belonging means, as we grow in understanding that we are one Body.  Now available is the wonderful Study Guide on Principles of Mission in the Diocese of Maine (see our web site, or ask your clergy about this).  Together with studying our Catechism, I urge all congregations to use this program of study, developed by the Compensation Committee (who rightly believe that "belonging together" is fundamental to every question of dollars and cents).

This Lent, let's go back to our earliest traditions.  May it be a time of learning and formation, of paying attention to our Believing, our Behaving and our Belonging.   God bless us richly in our Lenten journey with Christ.

With love in the Word made Flesh,