Saturday, March 14, 2026

 

Christ Memorial Episcopal Church at Kilauea on Kauai


As so many of the previous blogs have stated, Lent is a time for reflection, penitence & repentance, prayer and general soul-searching or self-examination. The initial prayer in the Ash Wednesday service where we recognize that God forgives the sins of all who are penitent and ask Him to give us contrite hearts so that we might acknowledge our brokenness and so realize perfect remission and forgiveness for our sins, starts off the season of Lent beautifully. Along with repentance, prayer, fasting, etc., we are asked to observe a holy Lent by reading and meditating on the word of God. That’s a lot of things to do and think about for 40 days and nights!

In Psalm 51:1-2, we acknowledge our offences and ask for God’s mercy, to be washed free of sin - to have our transgressions blotted out. Although verse 10 isn’t part of today’s reading, it is one of my favourite Bible passages. Psalm 51:10 states “Create in me a clean heart, O God and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”  The psalm goes on to state that “My sacrifice, … is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart… .”  This psalm appears on several of the lists of readings for the Lenten season and I can easily see why.  It is a cry for God to be merciful, to keep us close (I like to think of Him holding us in the palm of His hand), to be compassionate to us and to wash us clean i.e. forgive all our sins.
 
In Luke 18:9-14, we hear Christ’s parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector at prayers. The Pharisee essentially thanks God for making him better than others while the tax collector expresses remorse and asks for God’s mercy. Let’s try to be more like the tax collector – not just in Lent but throughout our lives. Let us confess our offences and ask for God’s forgiveness. As stated in Luke 18:14, “Everyone who exalts himself will be humbled and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” The Lord’s prayer is always a good start…”forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” 

This is part of the penitence and soul-searching that I try to follow during Lent. I’m not very good with the fasting (I do try), but to pray and follow the Bible readings is a comforting way of reflecting on how Christ was sacrificed for us, died for our sins and rose again so that we might have life everlasting.  

During the remainder of Lent, as we follow Christ’s journey from the sermon on the mount, through the parables given to his disciples, through his crucifixion and joyous resurrection, let us remember that “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16) and be forever thankful.

Jacky Hall-Buckland




What a Friend We Have in Jesus   Paul Baloche 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Friday, February 27, 2026

Image
  Ezekiel 18:21-24, 30-32   But if the wicked turn away from all their sins that they have committed and keep all my statutes and do what is lawful and right, they shall surely live; they shall not die. . . .  Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked, says the Lord God, and not rather that they should turn from their ways and live? But when the righteous turn away from their righteousness and commit iniquity and do the same abominable things that the wicked do, shall they live? None of the righteous deeds that they have done shall be remembered; for the treachery of which they are guilty and the sin they have committed, they shall die.   . . .   . . Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, all of you according to your ways, says the Lord God. Repent and turn from all your transgressions; otherwise iniquity will be your ruin. Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spi...
Read more

Ash Wednesday

Image
  The Conversion of St. Augustine by Fra Angelico   Daily Lectionary for Ash Wednesday The Lord remembers that we are dust . Psalm 103   “I didn’t know you were supposed to be mean for Lent.” So said one of my children around the age of ten after an Ash Wednesday service. They found my going around telling people that they were going to die, and quite literally rubbing it in, a little cruel. And to an age with childlike delusions of its own morality and immortality, the unvarnished, universal and personal conviction of sin and sentence of death in the marking of this day must seem mean. We would rather pretend otherwise.    “You are dust.” It reminds me of the contemporary idiom, “You’re toast.” But this dreadfully honest diagnosis is the first step in our healing. And I would commend healing to you as a new and ancient way of thinking about Lent. A 6th Century Office Hymn for Lent is titled Now is the Healing Time Decreed .   Ash Wednesday, Penitence, Len...
Read more

Sunday, March 1, 2026

Image
Matthew 17:1-9 The Transfiguration As soon as I looked through the readings I was given for this reflection, I knew I would have to include the beautiful note my dad wrote to my mom in the front of the New Testament he gave to her on their wedding day in 1981. He quoted the verses I have chosen to reflect on today from the Gospel of Matthew: “Jesus then came up to them, touched them, and said, ‘Stand up, do not be afraid.’ And when they raised their eyes, they saw no man, save Jesus only.” My dad included a note saying, “The last two words are the ones which will bring you peace.”  I don’t know if our world is actually any worse than it has ever been, or if it just seems that way because most of us live in relative comfort and have time to worry and dwell on the thousands of tragedies we are bombarded with through the 24 hour news cycle and social media. But things certainly do feel heavy a lot of the time. Even if we eliminate the news and the outside world, we will continue to en...
Read more