God.

It’s the first Sunday in Lent and we are already feeling like giving up.
I don’t mean giving up something for Lent. I mean simply giving up.
We have lost family members and friends and people in our communities.
We’ve lost power and confidence and certainty.

We need you.

You are, we read, outside of time.
With you, we read, a day is like a millennium and a millennium is like a day.

We are, you know, inside of time.
With us, a day can feel like forever. Forever can feel like a day.

Your plan, I think, is to redeem time, to give meaning to the fact of our existence, if not to each moment. Jesus, you came at a specific time to a specific place. When John was saying that someone was coming that would fulfill the old stories, you came.

And you stayed through the praise and the punishment and the abandonment all the way to the death. And you came back and sent your spirit and promised that you would be with us.

Whether we feel you or not, you promised. Whether we know it or not, you promised.

You are here.

And that is good news.

The good news.

May we, please, know and feel your presence today?

Through Christ our Lord we ask.

Amen.