How might we overcome our temptations?

Aloha! We have now come to the prayerful, penitential season of Lent, 40 days of sober spiritual reflection as we make our way to Holy Week and Easter.

Last Sunday, March 2, the final Sunday after the Epiphany, we focused on the
Transfiguration of Jesus, and the “sneak preview” it provides of the glory to come in our
heavenly home. And as we counted down the days to Ash Wednesday, we enjoyed our
first “Shrove Sunday” pancake brunch during fellowship time. (Our enormous thanks to
the many folks who planned, prepared, served, and cleaned up for us!) On Ash Wednesday, many of us gathered here at St. Tim’s at Noon and 6 p.m. to receive the
imposition of ashes on our foreheads, and to recall the reality that we are dust, and to
dust we shall return. It was a meaningful way to enter in to this holy season.

This Sunday, the 1st Sunday in Lent, we’ll focus on the story of the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness from Luke 4:1-13. How was he tempted? How did he overcome those temptations? How are we tempted? And how might we overcome our temptations? I join with you in the spiritual quest to find answers to these questions that make sense in our daily lives.

I hope you’ll join us on Wednesday evenings during Lent, March 12 through April 9, for our “Soup & Study” gatherings starting at 6 p.m. in Sumida Hall. We’ll enjoy fellowship over a simple meal and have a conversation about the five “Will You” questions in the baptismal covenant using a study guide (available for $10 per copy). We’ll close our time together with the service of Compline. Please sign up on the clipboard in the back of the church to let us know when you can bring soup!

In this season of spiritual preparation, we’re encouraged to “give something up” (perhaps an unhealthy food, drink, or habit) and/or “take something on” (perhaps volunteering to help out in a different way at church or in our outreach ministry, for instance). These actions are intended to help us focus on our need for confession and God’s cleansing.

This season is also a time of holy preparation for those who wish to be baptized at our Easter Vigil service on the Saturday evening before Easter Day. If you have not already been baptized in the Episcopal Church or in another Christian tradition, and would like to be, please let me know so we can prepare for this momentous sacrament.

I hope you will prayerfully consider how you will spend these 40 days of Lent, and that you’ll avail yourself of as many opportunities to gather at St. Tim’s as you can.

Dear sisters and brothers, I am so grateful for you! You are in my prayers, and I ask for your prayers for St. Timothy’s Church, for our dedicated staff and our devoted lay leaders, and for your vicar. May God bless you and your loved ones in this holy season. 

Aloha Ke Akua!
Fr. Pete+