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Pastoral Reflections Rev. Dr. Jack Haberer Beloved FPCA Friend,


Lent is upon us. Spring is soon to be sprung. Te two seasons are one and the same, insofar as Lencten is the Anglo-Saxon word for “spring.”


Tis a season for new beginnings. One of the blessed joys of living in a place like the Lehigh Valley is that the promise of spring is one that pops with the new buds on the trees. Sure, the fall colors draw tourists from the cities, and falling snow brings skiers, but my favorite change comes when the tiny bursts of green first speckle the barren gray branches of the trees. It’s all about new life.


“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive


you.” —MATTHEW 6:14


In this season of Lent we hope to bring bursts of new life to your experience of God. We are exploring the well-memorized words Jesus taught us on how to pray. Te Lord’s Prayer is at once the perfect prayer to pray on any occasion and at the same time an apt outline of all other kinds of prayers. From its opening of familial intimacy to its concluding acclaim of God’s grandeur, from its humble deference to God’s will to its plea for protection from trials and temptations, from its appeal for sustenance to its alignment with God’s plan of reconciliation, this prayer says it all.


Have you wanted to arrive late to a Bible study or team meeting, just to avoid being called upon to pray? Have you found yourself saying inside, “I sounded so clumsy” after mustering the courage to pray out loud? Well, this prayer, when understood, will give you the ticket to quiet those qualms and end those embarrassments.


Moreover, this prayer will empower your conversations with the God who went to such great lengths—Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection—to enter into a tender relationship with you. And we all know that relationships hinge on conversations. Knowing and being known hinge upon talking and listening to one another. God’s media of choice are speaking to us through our reading/discussing of scripture (along with the “foolishness of preaching”) and our speaking back to God. And that speaking back is so succinctly outlined by this Lord’s Prayer.


In these days, I’m particularly prodded to focus on the part of the prayer that addresses reconciliation: “Forgive us our sins [debts/trespasses] as we forgive those who sin against us.” Te February preaching series on cultural humility has highlighted the public crises of our day: the rising tide of distrust, fear, hatred, and violence against one another, especially between different people-groups. We too easily put the blame on somebody else, or we build fences around our own enclaves of familiarity to enjoy the luxury of disregard. Jesus’ prayer allows none of that. It acknowledges our blameworthiness, appealing for forgiveness, and then it extends comparable forgiveness toward others’ blameworthiness.


Tat’s radical. But then again, Jesus wasn’t crucified for being just a nice guy. His gospel and call to prayer were a call to radical living in relationship with God. And that relationship was designed to spill over to our relationships with the world around us.


And so, in this season of new life bursting on the trees, may your conversational relationship with God burst into a whole new realm of intimacy—and may a lifestyle of reconciliation be one of the outgrowths. Tis the season of Lent, the launch of spring.


Grace and peace to you and yours, 3


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