Monday in the First Week of Lent

Today I'm pleased to include my Companion Elizabeth to this page.  Elizabeth has her own blog, but she will occasionally join us during Lent.

She has posted this reflection on our Facebook page as well.  Thanks, E!

Fifteen “Thou Shalt nots” to only 3 “Thou Shalts!”  That’s there in today’s reading from Leviticus.  But look: “shalts” frame the “nots”.  “You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am Holy” appears at the beginning and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself:  I am the Lord” concludes it.  Yes to holiness. No no no no no…to theft, lies, murder, grudges, and judging, just to name a few.  YES to love.  The passage tells me what I know in my bones to be true.  Holiness and Love are intimately related.  It has been easy to get confused about this.  With Bishop Michael Curry and countless others I am part of the Jesus Movement.  This is not my childhood Christianity—not primarily centered on trying to be a good girl—or nice.  It isn’t “Be holy…be pious” or “Be holy…be perfect.”  “Be holy: Love (like me!)” says God.  bell hooks calls it out:  our culture is mostly embarrassed and down right bad at loving.  She counters our “isms” that keep people down based on race, gender and class with a love ethic.  all about love: new visions lifts up love as a life-giving way.  She debunks the assumption that being ethical takes the fun out of life.  Love is what we “DO,” not so much what we feel. It transforms our lives.  She says “I know no one who has embraced a love ethic whose life has not become joyous and more fulfilling.”   That’s what I want: love, joy, freedom.  Lent is a season to “go for these,” but not without cost.  Jesus, God enfleshed, loves with no limit.  He loves even on the cross. He teaches what his Jewish roots did and do.  Become love-able.  We are able to learn to choose love, to become Holy.  God would not ask us to do what it is impossible to do.  Becoming more love-able means looking at where I fail at it.  Ouch.  The point isn’t the focus on failure.  I am heartened by a story told from time to time. When asked what about life in the monastery, a monk answered, “We fall down and we get up, we fall down and we get up.” The point is not that we fall down on loving, but to keep getting up.  Let’s dust ourselves and each other off and claim our love-ability this Lent. Dare to be Holy!