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PARADISE CORNER

I don’t usually give these short reflection pieces titles. Maybe this one can
be different because Lent is on the horizon. Let’s call it “Lent: Fool’s
Errand or Errand into the Wilderness?”

I thought of the fool’s errand option while driving on 422 in mid-February. This was
posted on a roadside sign. “Technically, eye drops are blinker fluid.” It has never happened to
me (thankfully!) but people have told me it is a common practical joke for long-time employees
to send new employees for “blinker fluid” or “striped paint” or “a left-handed plunger.” The
new employee dutifully heads out to the hardware store (more likely Walmart today) and
everyone has a laugh when they return from the fool’s errand empty handed and embarrassed.
I thought of the Errand into the Wilderness when I remembered it as a title of a book I
read in my seminary class on American Religious History. Errand into the Wilderness by Perry
Miller is a classic historical analysis of the underlying aims that brought the first colonists to
seek religious freedom in what was then wilderness, but is now the United States. Harvard
University Press (the publisher of the book since 1956) notes that the title, Errand into the
Wilderness, comes from the title of a Massachusetts election sermon of 1670 about how the
word “errand” can have multiple meanings. Perry Miller wondered how these multiple
meanings of the word “errand” played out in the colonizing of America.

I wonder how these multiple meanings of the word “errand” play out when it comes to
our keeping of the liturgical season of Lent (i.e., the forty days that precede Easter, not
including Sundays). Remember my suggested title. “Lent: Fool’s Errand or Errand into the
Wilderness?”
What we make of Lent depends on how we see God at work. Does God send us to
complete pointless tasks for God’s own amusement? Does God invite us to enter a wilderness to
seek understanding of our purpose for being there? Lent can be a time to explore our purpose in
relationship to God’s purpose. Unfortunately, some are less trusting—even suspicious—of God
and God’s intentions. The gift of Lent, as I see it along with our own spiritual heritage is to
remember that “As disciples of Jesus, we are called to a discipline that contends against evil and
resists whatever leads us away from love of God and neighbor.” The discipline of Lent—self-
examination and repentance, prayer and fasting, sacrificial giving and works of love—along
with the gifts of word and sacrament help us—even guide us—in the wilderness time of Lent.
Most important, however, is Lent’s destination. The wilderness of Lent brings us to the great
Three Days of Jesus’ death and resurrection (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Day.
This is good news for us. In the end, Lent is no fool’s errand at all. Instead, it is a welcome. The
wilderness welcomes us to God’s gift of life beyond all boundaries.
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Live as children of light!
Pastor Scott Paradise