Dear Friends:

One of the “handy man” projects that I tinker with is refinishing and rebuilding old furniture.  This is a good thing because much of our furniture is old has needed repair. 

Over time I have found that it is often better to find someone who knows what he is doing.  (Thank you, Larry Schmehl.)  But I have has some successes.  One project that stands out is the experience of redoing my grandfather’s old desk.

 The desk had a rough life.  For a long time it was a pastor’s old black desk.  When I was a child, the desk lived in the basement over near the washer.  A few years later, my mom painted the desk “antique red” (a salmon color) and gave it to her then teenaged son.  For years I built models on that desk.  It came to be covered with layers of enamel paint, model glue, and filler putty.  If that weren’t bad enough, over the years I put weird stickers on it, carved it with an Xacto knife and moved it about a dozen times.  By the time I was ordained and serving in my first parish, the desk looked tired.  In fact, Kara understandably suggested that we get rid of it.  I was tempted, but decided to strip it and see what was under all that of that gunk.

After several applications of Stripeeze and Circa 1815 stripper (and a little help from a propane torch), I had almost gotten all of the finish off.  The original black finish was gooey and tenacious, but even that began to yield. 

The wood didn’t look great but it was o.k.  I decided to give it a good sanding.  That was even better.  I figured that I would stain the desk dark and it would be nice enough.  To clean it off I rubbed it down with turpentine. 

Imagine my surprise when a lustrous gold and black grain emerged from the top of the desk!  It is really lovely!  That grain hasn’t been seen for years.  I don’t even think that my grandfather had seen it.  But it is there and that old desk, with the help of some stain and varnish, took on a new life and proudly served as my home desk for years.  We have recently moved it into the boy’s room where it serves as their study desk.

Now, you know I’m not telling you all of this to give a lesson in re-doing furniture.  Rather, I want to suggest that my grandfather’s desk is a good metaphor for what we are doing in Lent.  The desk was never worthless.  Its beauty was always there but hidden by all of the gunk on it.  The accumulated stuff had to go before the desk was fit to be in one of our main rooms.

In this season of Lent, more than any other, we examine ourselves to try and discern what is in the away of our being the kind of people God would have us to be.  That is, we examine our sinfulness. 

This is a season of repentance.  We are called to strip off the habits, the hates, and the fears that stand between us and being worthy to stand in God’s presence.  We take on a new way of being, learning to trust God more deeply and to love each other more willingly.  In Christ we have the opportunity to become new people, the children of God. 

The first step is repentance.  To repent is an action more than a feeing.  We can feel sorry for our sins but to repent means that we “turn around”.  We turn from our sin and embrace a new way of life.

Lent, then, is not a season of pitiful wallowing in sins past.  It is, rather, a time to courageously take an inventory of ourselves and to resolutely set aside vices which may be covering the wonderful person God has made you to be.  

Our repentance is full of hope.  Jesus has washed away our sins and is eager to empower us in becoming full children of God.  We prepare our selves to stand in the presence of the risen Lord on Easter morning.

“I invite you, in the name of he Church to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word.”  (Ash Wednesday, BCP, p. 265)

                                                                        Your Brother in Christ,

                                                                        Wilson +