Matt 28:8-15

So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples.Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.”

The Guards’ Report

While the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. And this story has been widely circulated among the Jews to this very day.

40 days has come and go, and what can we say about our time in the desert? What have we learned on our journey this year and what have we learned about ourselves? What did God change in us, and what was needing to be changed? And how did your life change over the last 40 days?

There wasn’t much that I needed to give up for Lent. I did spend a good deal of time each day praying and meditating, where ever and whenever. Taking set time out each day to sit and write for you was a kind of meditation. I attended services during this Lenten period. I asserted myself into my community. I became one of many. I worshiped with my community as was requested of me. If you are going to write about us, you need to be part of us so that you can have a fuller experience of Christian community.

I have spent this term reading my bible every day, something that has changed the way I pray every day. My Christian Spirituality class has helped my in ways I may not have mentioned before or even thought about until now.

We live in such an analytical world where we spend so much time decoding the codes, analyzing the situations, and trying to find the hidden meanings of things that we miss the real truth staring us right in the face. We spend too much time talking about what we want to do, what we should do, and how we should do it, that we never really get down to acting on what we speak of.

I worked on my amends list. I set an amends in motion to someone I thought I needed to reconnect with and that person has yet to reply to my letter so I don’t expect anything from it at this time. I am still working in my community as I have for the last seven years, we lost a few people in my home group over these last few weeks, and a loss is a loss no matter the reason. Our long term member ratio is falling.

Have you shared with your fellow on the road? Did you Give Big? Were you stingy with anything that you had when it came to offering assistance to anyone you came in contact with? Did you not speak when you should have? Did you do all that you could have to help fellow pilgrims on the road with you? Did you share your time, talent and treasure with everyone you had to opportunity to do so with? What did you learn about them, and what did you learn about yourself?

And now with Lent behind us, what are you going to do now???