Pastoral Letter for Lent 2026
As we begin Lent I want to talk about Sin. We come from a liturgical tradition that traces itself back to the Apostolic Church: we believe in Jesus Christ, we place our trust in the Holy Bible as God’s Word for us, we pray the Lord’s Prayer and confess the creeds. And we believe in Sin. It doesn’t mean we put our trust in it; it means that we acknowledge that it is a force in all of us that is contrary to God’s way. We acknowledge it as a condition, Sin, that leads us to commit sins. We aren’t necessarily terrifically pleased with it, but we acknowledge Sin as real. We believe that the only ultimate escape from Sin is to pass through death to eternity.
But not all Christians are on the same page as us about this. Some believe Sin is an ancient expression of a superstition to explain why we do bad things. To them Sin isn’t a force but simply a consequence of having free will. Being a student of the social sciences I can understand how someone would believe this.
Others, generally evangelicals, believe sin is an action and that once you give your heart to Jesus you will not sin anymore. I can think of a great deal of evidence that does not support this stance.
Lent is all about Sin, about acknowledging it as the enemy, and acknowledging that we cannot rid ourselves of it. At best we can manage Sin. We manage Sin through worship, accountability, and conscience. In worship we name Sin’s devastating effect on us and we also receive the forgiveness of sins. We also set up, formally and informally, a network of accountability, people we answer to whom we love and respect, that ideally keeps us from making bad choices. And our conscience is our sense of right and wrong, that leads to shame and guilt, that drives us toward reconciling with God and each other. It is not a perfect system but I believe it has stood the test of history and is the best one we have.
The Ten Commandments are our benchmark for figuring out if something is generated by Sin. In a nutshell we see Sin in being arrogant toward God, using God’s name for personal gain, and creating a form of God we can control. And in relationship to others, we see Sin in violence, disrespect of elders, not respecting the boundaries of marriage, stealing, lying and jealousy.
It is lying I want to give particular attention to. We, honestly, live in the greatest era of lying human history has ever seen. It is expressed largely in two ways; one: we get our news from entertainers, rather than journalists, and two: social media sharing. I have never reposted anything on social media because a vast majority of the posts generated on social media are loaded with falsehoods. If you share a rumor that you heard that later turns out not to be true then you have lied. Even if you didn’t generate the lie in the first place you passed it on. That is still lying. That you were not the creator of the lie does not let you off the hook. That is social media in spades. It is distressing that a majority of people now get their news, which is supposed to be factual, from entertainers without journalistic ethics or from social media. The lies on social media are insidious because they often express something that we may want to believe.
I received a forwarded post about the Green Bay Packers and how the team is in a civil war in its locker room and its coach is being fired. I received it because I am a Vikings fan and a great many of my friends are too. Geography is funny that way. But I have friends who are Packer fans who forwarded a post that said, using the exact same wordage, just a different photo, about the Minnesota Vikings and how the team is in a civil war in its locker room and its coach is being fired. Word for word. It is a lie. Both of them are lies. The ‘friends’ who reposted it and forwarded it to me lied. Lies. And that is tame compared to the Hollywood and Washington DC stuff that gets passed along. And I get it in a barrage, as do you.
Journalists are ethically obligated to confirm their facts before they publish them. They can offer quotes but still the quotes are supposed to be placed in a context and the truth or untruth of what is being said still should be verified. We do not get a lot of actual news. We get inflammatory opinion, and fake posts packaged as news that confirm to us how we want to see the world. It is making liars of all of us every single day.
Our biggest social problem, that is an existential threat to our families, our neighborhoods, our churches, our country, and global peace, is lies. How many of us have lost friendships over the last several years because of this? ow How many of us have lost
The devil is not physically described in the Bible. But the devil is referred to as the Prince of Lies, and the Deceiver. We need to repent. We have handed everything we love over to evil, to lies.
Repent with me and recommit to truth. Jesus said: I am the way, the truth, and the life.
In Christ,
