Ash Wednesday, March 5
An Abundant and Expansive Grace
“I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” – John 10:10
Lent can sometimes give off a negative vibe. It’s viewed as the season in our faith when we give things up, but I imagine that God wants more for us than just 40 days without chocolate. I imagine God calling us into a life so abundant and expansive that faith, joy, and hope spill over, filling not just our hearts but the world around us.
The scriptures for this Lenten season, which come to us from the Revised Common Lectionary, are parables and promises of God’s abundant and expansive grace. Jesus as a mother hen, a prodigal son welcomed home, a fig tree nurtured with care and hope, precious oil poured out lovingly and freely, stones shouting out with praise – these sacred texts are brimming with a gospel of grace. We’ve done nothing to deserve or earn this grace, and yet, like water, it brims over.
From these holy words come an invitation into a radically different Lent and into a fullness of life. It’s an invitation to be authentically who you are, to counter scarcity and injustice at every turn, and to pour out grace whenever and wherever it is needed. When we allow ourselves to be filled to the brim with God’s lavish love, that love spills forth. It reaches beyond ourselves. Like water, God’s love rushes and flows, touching everything in its path.
This Lent, I’m flipping the script. I’m going to practice releasing the Lenten view that drills down on devotion as a response to guilt, sin, or shame. If love is our foundation, then how might we live differently? How might we let go of fear and embrace a life led by love’s promises?
Lent is not merely a season of deprivation; it is an invitation to more – more grace, more justice, more hope, more trust. It is a season to practice living fully – not just in joy, but in honesty, lament, and transformation. It is a time to increase our capacity to receive God’s love and to reflect that love in the world. It is time to contextualize our faith and make it our own.
Leaning into the story of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection let’s open ourselves to this expansive life that God has in mind for us.
So this Lent, let us trust – fully – that we belong to God. Let us open ourselves to the grace that already surrounds us. Let us step forward into the life God dreams for us – brimming with hope and possibility.
God of abundance, you call us into a life that overflows with your grace, love, and mercy. Help us to release fear and scarcity, embracing instead the fullness of life you have set before us. Fill us to the brim with your presence, that we may pour out your love into the world. Amen.
Rev. Lane Cotton Winn