The challenge of this time of year, this season, that the church calls Lent, is to seek God, to head out into the wilderness of our lives, and to face the temptations that hound us head on and to call upon the name of the Lord.

How can we take on this challenge in our own personal lives? May God give us the strength and courage to dare greatly and to face the challenges that lie ahead.

We are all going to die - each and everyone of us. There is something humbling about telling a person, even the youngest of us, "remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return."

It may seem odd to include a sermon about the inevitability of death in a podcast about encouragement, but it's important to remember that even amongst the tears and sadness of a loved one passing on, there is life among death.

Ash Wednesday is one of the most powerful days in the whole of the church year. It is a day when we come together to be reminded of our own mortality. All of us get a limited amount of time here on earth. Knowing that, we get to decide, how we want to spend that time. How do we want to live? What do you want to do with the time you have been given? Take some time to reflect on how you might come alive during the season of Lent.

Who passed on their faith with you? Each generation must find a new and compelling way to pass along the faith – re-gifting God’s love and teachings to their children.

From our founding, St. Barnabas has wanted to be a church for our children. Not just our own children, but in the sense of for future generations. Our vestry and leaders met yesterday for Forward Journey – our annual leadership gathering. And we spent a lot of time talking about how we reach future generations. How do we adapt so that we can continue to share our faith with our children and children’s children? How do we learn across generations?

Let us be courageous in sharing God’s love with our children, and our friends, and our neighbors.

Love your enemies…this feels like one of the hardest things Jesus tells those of us who want to follow him. Do good to those who hate you, pray for those who abuse you. How can we actually live this way? The world around us feels increasingly divided, every day the news points to political infighting, stories of hatred and abuse filling our collective consciousness. Hatred has a way of multiplying within us.

We have a tendency in this life to mirror our opponent, to become the very thing we say we hate. Jesus invites us to walk another way. A way of mercy and love. A way of forgiveness and generosity.

Change must begin with our own hearts, the power to forgive and be forgiven, to give and receive love, to move beyond our own ego and see that we are part of God’s vision. It is a dream that doesn’t make sense if we play by the rules of the world around us. We have to look to God to show us another way, to learn to love as God loves us.