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Bishop Park's Lenten Letter

Published: 2/24/2009

February 4, 2009

Dear United Methodists of the New York Annual Conference:

Greetings to you and your loved ones in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

Someone recently observed that Life is a journey and the journey is a life.  We do not create the journey, the journey creates us.   As United Methodists who cherish Wesleyan theology, practice and tradition, we deeply resonate with these words.  Life in faith is indeed a journey.  We are a people on the road to be more like Christ Jesus.  As an individual or as a corporate body, we do not stay where we are as if we were a finished product.  God is not finished with me yet.  God is not finished with us yet.  God is not finished with this world yet.  This is a very Wesleyan understanding of who we are as a people of faith.

We are on a journey.  But as a people of faith we have a clear sense of the destination.  Cosmically and historically, it is the consummation of the Kingdom/Reign of God expressed so well in the Lord’s Prayer:  Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  (Matthew 6:10).  In a human and individual sense, it is to be like Jesus who perfectly reveals the image of God.  Jesus said, Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. (John 14:9).  This Jesus also said, Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. (Matthew 5:48).  To say the least, I have a long way to go on my journey – how about you?

For all of us, without exception, it is a life long journey to reach the destination.  The good news is that we will get there, if not in this world, then in the world to come.  Between now and then we have only to ….fix our eyes on Jesus, author and perfector of our faith. Hebrews 12:2).

Lent is a sacred time when we are ever more intentional in focusing our journey on Jesus.  We do well to heed this advice from the Book of Hebrews:  Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance that race marked out for us. (Hebrews 12:1).

May God richly bless you, your loved ones, and your Lenten journey!

Your Companion in Christ,

Jeremiah J. Park