Fifth Sunday of Lent: Restoration

In the season of Lent, we often focus on our spiritual health and how we might expand it or rather just nurture it with more intention, so that we may be prepared to celebrate the resurrection, the new life that is possible as we embrace the ways of love that Christ has taught us. For this season of Lent, we continue our “season of recovery” as we focus on wholistic health as essential to our spiritual lives. The demands of following Jesus are great. He shows us that sometimes we must make extraordinary efforts to move in a new direction. As we consider the health of humanity, we cannot ignore the need to heal the very planet that sustains us. We live in increasing chaos of a beleaguered environment and the hoarding of resources. We want to be “saved” by something or someone else, but we discover this week that we are in the boat with the One who shows us our power to turn it around, to calm the storm. We protect the jewel that is our home, restoring something beautiful from scars of the past. We focus on the importance of recovery of environmental health, reclaiming our sense of who we are and being able to proclaim new redemptive stories of divine worth.

Sharing with our Community Leaders: Rev. Paul Perez, the Michigan Conference’s Associate Director for Mission and Ministry