Lent 2021: Making Life Better for all People.
The Lenten season has started. Lent is six weeks (excluding Sundays) dedicated to prayer, fasting, and reflection to prepare for the grand celebration of Christ conquering death and his resurrection.
So, when I think of Lent, I am reminded that Easter is coming. We will soon celebrate the victory of Jesus over death through his resurrection and the gifts of forgiveness of sins and eternal life to all those who believe in him.
In light of this, this Lenten season invites us to a particular time of reflection about our relationship with God and how we practice what we say we believe. 
As we are reminded about the meaning and purpose of our faith, we are also confronted with the realization that we may not be living up to the expectations of Jesus’ teachings.
Are we living up to Jesus’ teachings? Are we there yet? If you are like me, then you are far from it. We are trying; we stumble now and then, but we are not in denial, and we are making progress even if it is just a little bit every day.
With this in mind, today, I want to invite you to a serious and responsible self-reflection about how we are living our faith, but most importantly, how is our relationship with God and one another.
Henri Nouwen described Lent as a time to re-focus and to re-enter a place of truth to find ourselves in God once again. This is precisely what I invite us to do and get out of this Lenten season: find our place in God and affirm our identity as disciples of Jesus Christ.
Let me begin with a simple question: how are you observing Lent? How many of you are fasting, reading Scripture, praying? 
Great, that’s what the church traditionally has done for many centuries. Lent is a time of faith renewal as much as it may be a time of reconciliation with God. Fasting, reading Scripture, praying are means of grace that help us be strong in our faith and closer to God. 
So, if you are practicing this, that is wonderful; keep doing it.
Today’s challenge is to go beyond a personal renewal of our faith and reconciliation with God. What if we commit to practice our faith to make the world better: more loving, kinder, compassionate, truthful, and empty of hate and evil? 
What if we show our faith to others in ways that make life better for them? What if we are a tangible blessing to others?
One of the most prominent critics I make of our Christian church is that more often than not, we are primarily known for what we are against than for what we offer. Things like, “Christians don’t do this or that, don’t say those words or go to those places.” Fine, I won’t argue, but our faith is less about what we don’t do and much more about how we make things better for all people, just like Jesus did.
With this in mind, here is an idea of how we can observe Lent. This is the reading from Romans 12:9-21 using The Message translation,
“Don’t fake your love, be real. Run away from evil; cling to good. Be good friends who love deeply. If you see someone in need, do something about it. Don’t be a cause for others to trip over but bless those even they disagree with you. Laugh with your friends when they’re happy; share tears when they’re down. Discover beauty in everyone. Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do, but be generous in your goodness to all people. And last, don’t let evil get the best of you; get the best of evil by doing good.”
As you can see, in this Scripture, Paul is telling how Christians are to love one another and how they are to be engaged in their relationships with others. Paul explains that proper Christian behavior is doing everything for all people’s common good. 
And our text doesn’t just say, “Love others more,” but it describes specific behaviors for loving others that Jesus himself modeled.This helps us see that Christian love is not just being nice to people but that Christian love has a moral orientation toward the good. 
When we show love toward someone, we are moving them toward God’s goodness, so they too may find themselves in God. That is what Christian witness is about.
Since our faith is less about what we don’t do and much more about how we make things better for all people -just like Jesus did- let’s make part of our Lent’s resolutions to bring people to Jesus by practicing genuine love and showing generous goodness.