by Pastor Dan Baumgartner

War, nuclear fallout, starvation, hostility, the near annihilation of the human race.

These are the images from the Cormac McCarthy book I read recently called The Road. I didn’t bother seeing the movie. The book was worth a week of depression all by itself. But weaving through the landscape described by the dark words above was one sustaining image - a road. Hence the book title. McCarthy’s characters were on their way somewhere, though not quite sure of the destination.

The season of Lent is fast-approaching for people who follow Jesus. It’s a serious time of reflection and preparing ourselves before Easter (April 4). We’re going to be on the Lenten road for six weeks. We have an advantage over the people in the novel, because we know where we are going. Or at least, we think we do.

We’ll start on Ash Wednesday (Feb 17) in worship at 7 pm (not 7:30 as previously), being marked with the sign of the cross. From that point on, our sermons and teaching times will follow a modified version of what is often called the Stations of the Cross (Via Crucis). As best we can we will follow the final events of Jesus’ life as he moved towards the cross, pausing to reflect at key places. We hope to be more than mere observers.

For the first time, this year at Bethany we will have mid-week Lenten worship times each Wednesday of Lent (Feb 24-March 24) at 7 pm. These simple services will be shorter (50 minutes) than normal and these teaching times, when combined with Sundays will give us 10 points of Jesus’ passion to study. It is weighty material. In Jerusalem, the traditional road that Jesus walked is called the Via Dolorosa - the Way of Sorrows.

We know Jesus ended up at the cross. What we don’t know is what might happen to us if we share his road. Where might God find us? Where might we be called to sacrifice, to repent, to serve, to be healed? Who could become our companions along the way? What surprises might occur? By the time we get to Maundy Thursday (April 1, also 7 pm) we will be different people.

Jesus’ journey was a snapshot of his whole life, marked by caring for those on the margins, by opposing injustice, by deflating pompous faith, by making costly sacrifices. This is the way he chose. And it is the way he invites us to follow. And this following is not some general spiritual sense or a mere religious practice. It is intensely personal. Not private, but personal. It is in Jesus that God gets personal.

Eugene Peterson says it like this: “The way we come to God is the same way that God comes to us. God comes to us in Jesus; we come to God in Jesus. It is the same way, the Jesus way.”

Maybe we are more like the characters from McCarthy’s novel than we thought.

They set out determined to stay on the road, not knowing exactly where they would end up. We set out on the Jesus way, and I suspect we’ll be surprised at where it may take us. The difference is that we know who we walk with.