"Return to the Lord, Your God,
for He is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love." 

(Joel 2:13b ESV)

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

The prophet Joel’s recording of the words, “Return to the Lord,” implies that we came from the Lord. One does not go back to something unless one had been there already. The Lord has made us and we are His (Psalm 95). The Lenten journey, then, is not a trip into the vast unknown; it is a coming back to the One we rejected and continually reject in our sin who welcomes us mercifully and lovingly so that we may be everything He has created, redeemed, and sanctified us to be.

The season of Lent’s fasting, prayer, and almsgiving challenge us to hearken to the words recorded by the prophet Isaiah: Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the LORD: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug (Isaiah 51:1 ESV). We come from good stock because we came from the Lord. Our sin has been forgiven in Jesus’ Name so that whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s (Romans 14:8).

Even though we run away from the Lord in our sin as our parents did in Paradise, the Lord seeks us through His Holy Spirit working through Word and Sacraments so that the redeeming work of Christ Jesus who died on the cross, rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and is returning at the end of time may benefit us by bringing us a life of love and a love for life. The Lord is life and the Lord is love; returning to Him is returning to life and returning to love.

Thanks be to God this return need not be something we fear; there is no fear in love as perfect love casts out all fear (1 John 4:18). None of us deserves Christ’s welcome, yet He extends it to us so that new life may be ours. Lent, then, is a time for coming back—returning—in order to move forward—progressing. Moving forward would be marvelous for us and progress would be a magnificent gift we can give to the world.

Forth in the peace of Christ we go;
Christ to the world with joy we bring;
Christ in our minds, Christ on our lips,
Christ in our hearts, the world’s true king.
We are the Church; Christ bids us show
That in His Church all nations find
Their hearth and home where Christ restores
True peace, true love to all mankind.

(Lutheran Service Book 920: 1,5)

Return to the Lord your God during these renewing days of Lent as you continue “Making Disciples for Life” by “Engaging the World with the Gospel of Hope.”

I am praying for you. Our gracious Lord bless and keep you always.

Peace and love in Christ Jesus,

Bishop Taylor