Open Doors: Lent provides an opportunity to reflect on selfishness, and the power to change
By REV. DR. REBECCA BRIDGES
“If it’s not about love, it’s not about God.”
The above words often show up in sermons given by Michael Curry, presiding bishop of the U.S. Episcopal Church (where I was ordained a priest), our sister church in the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Curry is known for speaking freely and enthusiastically about Jesus’ abundant love for us, including when he famously preached a sermon on love at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. (It’s a powerful sermon—if you have 13 minutes to spare, you can find it on YouTube.)
As Curry stood at the pulpit in St. George’s Chapel of Windsor Castle, he preached about love with an energy and passion that made many of those gathered squirm uncomfortably in their seats: “There’s power in love. There’s power in love to help and heal when nothing else can. There’s power in love to lift up and liberate when nothing else will. There’s power in love to show us the way to live.”
But Curry also has some thoughts about the love’s opposite—the force in the world that keeps us from fully experiencing the depth of God’s love for us and prevents us from fully sharing that love with our neighbour. In another sermon, he observed, “I’m convinced that the opposite of love is not hate. The opposite of love is selfishness, and hatred is derivative of selfishness. You see, selfishness or self-centeredness … is the root of all evil. It is the source of every wrong. It is behind every bigotry. It is behind every injustice.”
As Bishop Curry observed, “Love can lift us up when the gravity of selfishness will pull us down. Love can bind us together when selfishness will tear us apart. There’s another word for selfishness. Believe it or not, it’s called sin. That’s why we have Lent, a season to deal with sin. But love is the cure.”
The Season of Lent (40 days of prayer, reflection, and fasting that many Christians observe between Ash Wednesday and Easter Sunday), and indeed our lifelong way as followers of Christ, is a way that is meant to be paradoxical and countercultural.
We are to be in the world, but not of it. We are stuck in the mud and muck of this imperfect world. And yet we are also set free, like a kite or a banner, free to fly and wave in the wind, yet anchored by the security we have in God’s love for us and our love for one another.
In this season of Lent, we have an opportunity to reflect on the inherent selfishness that permeates so much of our world — of “what we have done and what we have left undone” (as we confess each Sunday). Not just as individuals—but as churches, as institutions, and as a society.
Yet even in the face of such stubborn selfishness, may we yet feel encouraged and inspired by the abundant mercy, grace, and hope to be found in the loving, liberating, and lifegiving way of Jesus. Unconditional forgiveness and unselfish love have the power to change us, and through us, to change the world.
If you are looking for opportunities to gather, pray, and reflect this Lent and Holy Week, know that all are always welcome to join us at St. Aidan’s in the Beach.
Learn more about our worship services and small groups at https://www.staidansinthebeach.com/
– The Rev. Dr. Rebecca Bridges is the Incumbent (pastor) of the Anglican Church of St. Aidan, 2423 Queen St. E.
