This Sunday is the Second Sunday IN Lent. It is also St. Patrick’s Day. Although the tradition is to wear green on St. Patrick’s Day, for worship we will stick with purple, the Lenten liturgical color.
While some may go to a special worship service to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day; other traditional celebrations include partying, attending festivals and of course, drinking. Since St. Patrick’s Day occurs during the liturgical season of Lent, historically, Lenten restrictions on eating and drinking alcohol were lifted for that day. That’s unnecessary this year because St. Patrick’s Day is on a Sunday which is already a feast day, where such restrictions don’t apply.
Thinking about all of this, I was struck by how often religion focuses on Heaven and is a means of escaping from the realities of now. As such, we feel the need to go to great lengths to justify any enjoyment in this life on earth. However, in Psalm 27:13 from the assigned sacred text for this Sunday, the Psalmist says, “I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord, in the land of the Living.”
The Psalmist possesses a faith that is not just eternal but imminent, meaning at hand, and about to happen while he was still alive. His is a faith that does not just hope for the best, it anticipates the realization of his hopes. What keeps the Psalmist faithful is the anticipation of hope and dreams that he expects to be realized in this life. Not just pie in the sky bye-and-bye when we die, but something sound, on the ground, while we’re still around – that is the faith of the Psalmist.
I believe in Heaven (a place where we are eternally present with God) but I also believe that God wants us to experience all that God has to offer us in this life we have on earth. Join us in worship this Sunday. We’ll explore this more in my sermon “Seeing the Goodness of the Lord, In the Land of the Living,” based on Psalms 27.
About Author
