Lenten Pastoral Letter – by Fr. Tom Ortung

Dear People of St. Andrew’s,

As you read this, Lent will have begun with Ash Wednesday on March 2nd. I have appreciated the longer than usual Epiphany season this year as a time to begin this ‘journey home’ with you before having to venture out into the desert wilderness of Lent. As I mentioned in my February pastoral letter and in various other ways in sermons, writings, and conversations, there is a theological arc to this season that begins with the Magi at Epiphany and concludes with Jesus’ Transfiguration this past week. Themes of light, revelation, glory, call, and transformation abound. Our readings and life together in this part of our journey are about building up, encouraging, coming together as the Body of Christ, giving and receiving good gifts, and equipping one another for that Lenten journey we begin again now. I hope and pray some of this has stirred in each of you.

Our collect for this past Sunday’s Transfiguration readings is an artful pivot between the seasons of Epiphany and Lent. In it we pray that we “beholding by faith the light of his countenance, may be strengthened to bear our cross, and be changed into his likeness from glory to glory” )more on this in my Feb. 27 sermon). As the Epiphany road home detours into the Lenten wilderness, the theme of spiritual journey continues. Like that pivotal point in Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken”, our decisions consciously or not, can sometimes lead us off course before we make a ‘course correction’ and get back on ‘the right path’. In his book Mere Christianity, CS Lewis writes about our human desire for progress on this spiritual journey:

We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to
the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong
turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are
on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and
walking back to the right road; and in that case the one who turns
back soonest is the most progressive.

Lewis likens this to a math problem. If you make a mistake early in the calculations, no amount of crunching the numbers will ever get you to the correct answer. Lewis makes the point that sometimes the spiritual journey means turning around and returning to the place in the road where we first got off track. He’s talking about repentance. And Lent is that reminder to us all of our need to turn back/turn towards God. The transformation that God is working in each of us, and displayed so gloriously at Jesus’ Transfigura-
tion, is closely connected to our individual need to self-exam, and where necessary, to repent and return to the Lord.

In fact, these ideas are so closely connected that in the Biblical Greek, they both have the word ‘meta’, meaning ‘as a result of change’, as their root. And while change, even good change, is never easy, it can truly lead to greater glory. This is the hope of Transfiguration on the eve of Lent that helps carry us through those dry sojourns in the desert… (Stay tuned, more of this to come during Lent.) …and on to Easter!

And so, while we will make the liturgical and theological shift into Lent in March, it invariably comes with some change, as you would expect. But those reminders are just that, reminders. Pastorally, though, I am keenly aware of this ‘longer Lent’ (as I nicknamed the pandemic at Lent two years ago), and its continuing effects on us. We remain in this ‘longer Lent’, much as we might wish otherwise. Because of this, I hope and pray you will be gentle with yourselves and one another in recognition of what has already been given up in your lives. I can’t answer what that means for any of you. It isn’t mine, or anyone else’s, to do. I can however journey alongside, as you may allow, while you explore the desert in search of hidden flowers that will sustain you through your temptations.

While the image of Jesus alone in the desert can seem daunting if we try to take that on ourselves, I will also remind you that He was tended there by the angels and emerged from the desert stronger for it. We have our angels too, and one another, so that we can all emerge from these Lenten lands better prepared for the road ahead.

Meanwhile, closer to home, I want to thank each of you for continuing to hang in there with the pandemic and with our necessary precautions. I know it’s hard. It is my hope that we will emerge from this part of the desert as we get closer to Holy Week and Easter. Oh, what a glorious celebration that will be! In the meantime, we plan to continue with the precautions already in place and will reevaluate as conditions hopefully improve. Our part in that is to continue to hope and pray and do what we can to be safe for ourselves and one another.

I want to thank everyone who has been contributing to our musical outreach during services while we haven’t been able to have the full choir and praise band. I also want to thank Dave Tinsley for his thoughtful and evocative adult education series these last few weeks. We had a strong turnout on Zoom since we couldn’t meet in person.

We will continue our adult education during Lent with two topics and times so that we can reach as many people as would like to participate. Continuing Monday evenings 7-8PM beginning March 14th, Peach McDouall will facilitate a conversation on the Anti-Racism Covenant Bp. Rickel and our diocese have endorsed. I led a similar conversation with my previous parish and will be present for the discussion also. I will also be offering a Wednesday morning 10:30-11:30 study that will examine the relationship between Jesus and Peter beginning March 9th. Both adult education opportunities will be held using Zoom with a fervent hope that we can convert that to a hybrid plan, virus conditions permitting. Zoom invitations will be emailed

I have also ordered Lenten devotionals that will be available in the Narthex. I was encouraged when I visited in December to see that St. Andrew’s was using an Advent Henri Nouwen devotional and that you were familiar with his writings. I have long been a devout follower of Nouwen and hope this Lenten devotional will speak to you as well as many of his writings have spoken to me.

Please know that you are in my thoughts and prayers and that I look forward to hearing from you with any pastoral concerns, questions, or encouragements.

Lenten Blessings, Tom+