Scripture is both ancient and timely, and each week it has a message for people who live in this time and this place. The habit of listening for God’s personal message to me in Sunday Scripture is one my old spiritual director (God rest him!) encouraged me to adopt. Now that I write about Scripture, I listen even more carefully. As we continue through Lent, perhaps you’ll allow me to suggest a message from each of the Sunday Gospels we’ll hear as we make our way to Easter.

March 7, Third Sunday of Lent: Luke 13:1–9 Jesus is asked about the sudden and tragic accidental death of eighteen people and about several Galileans executed by Pontius Pilate. Jesus uses these incidents to emphasize the need to live a life that readies us for our own final day. The end comes for sinners and saints and everyone else, so carpe diem! Seize the day! “Anytime” never comes. “Someday” is not a day of the week. Stop putting off what you know you need to do—forgive, go to reconciliation, take those children you love to the park!

March 14, Fourth Sunday of Lent: Luke 15:1–3, 11–32 The prodigal son enjoys a brief spell of debauchery, the father is ready to forgive, and the older brother is envious of his father’s love for his less-industrious brother. All the capital sins show up: the younger brother’s sloth, greed, gluttony, and lust, and the elder’s pride, anger, and envy. My spiritual director said we all struggle with the Big Seven, but we each have a favorite—a pet capital sin. One message this week is to pay attention to which sinful behavior we turn to when we’re not at our best. Whatever our proclivity to sin, God always stands ready to welcome us back. But don’t forget the message of last week—seize the day! If you haven’t been to reconciliation yet this season, go! What are you waiting for?

March 21, Fifth Sunday of Lent: John 8:1–11 Today’s Gospel story is rich in images: the cowering woman about to be stoned to death, the angry men with stones at the ready, Jesus kneeling in the dust while scribbling something we’ll never get to read, Jesus standing to say, “OK, guys, whoever is without sin can throw the first stone.” I’ll take some time to compute my personal sin/stone ratio, and then for every sin I’ve committed, I lose a stone to throw. Given that rule, my pocket is pretty much free of stones.

March 28, Palm Sunday: Luke 22:14—23:56 Of all the messages of this day, I always come back to thinking about that fickle crowd yelling “Hosanna!” one day and “Crucify him!” the next. Crowds are fickle. What crowds do I find myself in? What are we yelling?

As this month ends, Christians will be crowding into churches. To fully participate in Holy Week, I have to plan as if I’m going away on vacation or retreat. There are meals to prepare in advance, our family Easter celebration to plan, four days of church clothes to have ready for each member of the family. The Holy Week crowd is safe to join—saints and sinners living as well as we can so that when our final day comes we will look back without regret; saints and sinners who recognize our own sins and empty our pockets of stones; saints and sinners whose feet are washed, who kiss the cross, who sing out their Alleluias on Easter. It’s a good crowd.

See you in church.