An old man was asked, "How can I find God?" He replied, "In fasting, in watching, in labors, in devotion, and above all, in discernment. I tell you, many have engaged in these disciplines without discernment and have gone away from us having achieved nothing. Our mouths can smell bad through fasting, we can know the Scriptures by heart, we can recite all the psalms of David, but we have not that which God seeks: love and humility."
We are at the beginning of Lent, when self-denial and discipline are high on the agenda of Christians and indeed a surprising number of non-Christians. But as those words with which I began suggest, the disciplines of the season are only means to an end - the end being the love and humility that God seeks from us.
The old man's words echo a part of Jesus's Sermon on the Mount, which condemn fasting for its own sake: there's no point in fasting if all you do is look gloomy and give yourself a hard time; it's of no use to you and is certainly of no use to anyone else. To paraphrase an old saying: fasting is as fasting does.
As we move into Lent the days are lengthening once again. Yet even as winter recedes and new life is, in its good time, making ready to explode all around us, the subtle rhythm of the Church's year encourages us to stand back, to reflect, and to prepare with penitence and austerity for the momentous events that lie at the end of the next six weeks.
So how can we use the season of Lent? How can we most effectively inhabit this time that is so often one of tension between the disciplines with which we were raised and contemporary understandings of the season's purpose?
The Jesus who spent time in the wilderness was human, as we are human: as the letter to the Hebrews says, in every respect he has been tempted as we are. So Lent is, first of all, a chance for us to take seriously our call as Christians to be human; to rejoice that God has given us the freedom to refuse to assent to evil: the evil of which we know ourselves to be capable.
At the same time, it is a time for us to acknowledge our complicity with the collective evil of humankind that is so often at the root of disease and hunger, the desperation and squalor and terror of the lives so many in our world are condemned to live. We can, if we will it, use the season of Lent to begin to glimpse within ourselves what we were truly created to be: people created in love by God in God's own image and likeness.
Yet if and when we fail to live up to this call - and, let's face it, most of us will - we can be certain that God will not let us go. Time and again God will call us back to God's self in the person of Jesus whose human arms stretch out from the cross to embrace the whole of humankind in an act of divine love.
Fr. Chip
Episcopal Relief and Development Sunday
Feb. 14 at both churches 
We invite you to join us as we observe Episcopal Relief & Development Sunday on the first Sunday in Lent, Feb. 14, 2015.
At the 2009 General Convention, Lent was officially designated as a time to encourage dioceses, congregations and individuals to remember and support the life-saving work of Episcopal Relief & Development. We invite all Episcopalians to join together on Episcopal Relief & Development Sunday, and throughout the Lenten season, to pray for those living in need.
The sacrament of reconciliation
The Sacrament of Reconciliation (Book of Common Prayer, pp.446ff) is a rarely-used, yet always-available opportunity to seek spiritual refreshment in troubling times. If your conscience troubles you and the confession of sins in the common liturgy has not proved sufficient to bring comfort, you might want to consider meeting with me to share in this confidential sacrament of solace and spiritual strengthening. I will be available throughout the Lenten season, whenever it might be convenient to meet with you. Simply give me a call and I would be most happy to prepare you for this rite, and then walk with you through it.
The Vicar
