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Lenten Lesson 1 -- The Way is a person
"The Way is a person, and that person is Jesus Christ," said the Rev. Steve Bales Friday afternoon to a community congregation of more than 100 gathered at St. Alban's Episcopal Church for the inaugural lesson of the 2012 Community Lenten services.
Bales' journey on the way to the Way included paths of darkness, drug abuse and death. It wasn't until he was in the throes of emotional agony the day after the death of his infant daughter that he was able to hear the Lord calling to him, "It's me, Steve. I love you and I want to help you, but you have to let me."
He first called on the Lord in a drug induced stupor, after seeing his baby hooked up to all kinds of machines, "God, they tell me you're real. If you're real, give me back my daughter."
The next morning, little Shanna Lynn's condition was unchanged. The doctors told Steve that babies with her condition simply didn't survive, so he headed back to McCook to prepare his wife, Denise, for the heartbreaking news.
His voice cracking, he revealed that instead of dying, Shanna's condition did improve, enough so that on Mother's Day, they were able to bring her home.
"But I forgot my promises," he admitted. "And she took a turn for the worse. We went back to the hospital in Omaha, but she died."
A Christian couple came alongside the grieving couple, offering them bed and board while Shanna was in the hospital. The morning after Shanna's death, Steve said he woke to a pain "deeper than anything I'd ever felt." There were no words that could console him and his host, Pete, suggested that they go for a walk.
"While we were walking, I heard a powerful voice, clearly audible," Steve said. The voice said, "It's me, Steve. I love you..."
"I looked at Pete, to see his response to the voice," said Bales. Pete was just walking along the sidewalk, giving no indication that he had heard anything, let alone a powerful voice speaking words of love.
"I decided it must be a hallucination," Bales said. He brought his grieving family back to McCook, where, "we were surrounded by people, surrounded by love."
During a visit from some Christian friends, Steve turned on the television to tune them out and channel surfed, landing on a Christian broadcast.
"Some man was on the screen talking about 'someone out there struggling with drugs', Steve said. "Then, I heard the same voice, the same words I'd heard on the sidewalk in Omaha.
"I gave my life to the Lord then and there. I no longer had any desire for the drugs. I had been delivered."
Our Lord knows our hopelessness, our helplessness, our lostness, Bales said. Mere hours before his arrest, knowing that his disciples would soon feel that hopelessness, that helplessness, he comforted them with the words recorded in John14:1-61:
"'Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father's house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.'
"Thomas said to him, 'Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?'
"Jesus answered, 'I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'"
Although the world may look at that statement "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me," and see intolerance, Bales sees something else entirely.
"This is a wide open invitation to all of mankind, to come into the presence of Almighty God!" Bales asserted.
The Way is not found in traditions, he warned. Not in doctrines, either, nor in the thousands of theological books that have been written.
"The Way is a person and that person is Jesus Christ, our Lord," he said.
The 2012 Lenten series is focused on "Finding Our Way Through..." Bales reiterated the upcoming lessons:
"Finding our way though temptation; through tough choices; human weakness; the darkness of human reasoning; and through hopeless choices."
Bales said, "Before you can find your way through those things, you have to find your way to the cross, you have to find your way to Christ."
The Rev. Mary Hendricks, rector at St. Alban's welcomed the congregation and led worship. Cheryl Havens served as organist. Christy Stevens offered special music, singing "Via Dolorosa," the "Way of Suffering."
The women's ministry at First Congregational Church prepared and served a luncheon featuring two entrees, dinner salad, home made dinner rolls and a vast array of pies.
The annual Lenten series will continue Friday, at St. Alban's with the Rev. Gary Brethour, pastor at St. Patrick Catholic Church, exploring "Finding Our Way Through Temptation" at 12:05 p.m.
Free will offerings are accepted in the entrance to the sanctuary to support the ongoing work of the Red Willow County Ministerial Association and at the entrance to the Parish House, to help offset the cost of the food.