{"id":3428,"date":"2022-02-25T09:16:23","date_gmt":"2022-02-25T14:16:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.highpoint.edu\/religiouslife\/?page_id=3428"},"modified":"2022-03-02T21:33:59","modified_gmt":"2022-03-03T02:33:59","slug":"lent-letter","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.highpoint.edu\/religiouslife\/lent-letter\/","title":{"rendered":"Lent | A Letter from Rev. Dr. Preston Davis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Being Christian in a country that professes wide Christian affiliation, there are some real benefits. The national work calendar always honors our big religious holidays. But then again, when we have time to do so, how do we honor this Christian calendar?<\/p>\n

First, look at how we treat Christmas. We see it like it\u2019s our birthday, rather than for the One who “came to bring good news to the poor and recovery of sight to the blind.”<\/p>\n

Then, there\u2019s Easter. \u00a0With vague attention, we paint Easter with pastels and bunnies instead of attending to the earth-shattering, stone-moving event in which a Jewish Galilean, God\u2019s own flesh and bone, is put to death by the State only to be resurrected.<\/p>\n

But Lent. It’s still Lent, particularly for those who have ears to hear it and eyes to see it. The beauty of Lent is that it\u2019s the remnant of the liturgical calendar that holds spiritual integrity. It’s hard to commoditize “from dust you came and to dust you shall return.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sell that, Jeff Bezos.<\/p>\n

Lent is the open window into how we could see our Christian spiritual practice. We get a chance to look into the face of our mortality, facing our end, but instead of finding despair, we find the face of God looking back and whispering to us three words in a still, small voice.<\/p>\n

\u201cBe not afraid.”<\/p>\n

Lent is also the window into what we could see as our Christian spiritual witness. We could be a people who say collectively, “Death, where is thy sting?” No need for narcissistic dread. We as a people could say:<\/p>\n

I’m free to love as God has already loved me. I\u2019m a visitor not the host on this pilgrimage of life. I can take God seriously and myself less so. I’m liberated from my false perception and position as Alpha and Omega. I can give up that seat to the One for whom it was always meant. Get out of God’s throne; let God be God.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When I came to High Point University in 2013, I wasn\u2019t surprised that Hayworth Chapel offered no Ash Wednesday service. Who would come to that? But I said to myself, “New chaplain, new programming. Let’s, as another chaplain suggested to me, \u2018throw things on the wall and see what sticks.\u2019”<\/p>\n

It stuck.<\/p>\n

We opened the doors, swiping ashes on hundreds of foreheads of 18- to 25-year-olds and whispering to them,<\/p>\n

Repent. Believe the Gospel.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And they did not stop coming. Why?<\/p>\n

We ache for a moment of what is real rather than what is sold to us. In looking at ourselves in the mirror with black smudges on our foreheads, we discover that Jesus\u2014as he always has done\u2014returns us to what is real.<\/p>\n

This mortal coil is transfigured into a quest when following Jesus. Suffering is transformed into a chance to provide healing. Preparing for the future as it will be morphs into answering the question, “What does grace ask of me?”<\/p>\n

Christians who can\u2019t be bought like their holidays know where the enemy lines are. They walk across those lines because the body of Christ is looking for enemies to love. In Lent, we walk toward the crucified and resurrected One, and when we do, we all learn once again how to practice resurrection.<\/p>\n

May these devotionals for each day of Lent\u2014written by faculty, staff, and students of High Point University\u2014do something within you. May they draw out the deep within you that calls to the deep of God.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

May you follow Jesus, allowing him to return you to what is real.<\/em><\/p>\n

May you be transfigured as to lose the world but gain your soul.<\/em><\/p>\n

May you walk into and through Lent, all the way to the cross, and out the tomb.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

With Love,<\/em><\/p>\n

Rev. Dr. Preston Davis<\/em><\/p>\n

Minister to the University<\/em><\/p>\n

\"211004<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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