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Bishop Matthew Gunter's Lenten Message


510 S. Farwell St., Eau Claire WI 54701 • 715.835.3734 Map to the Cathedral


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Bishop Matthew Gunter's Lenten Message

 Bishop's Message: A Lenten Reflection

“I’m converted, but I’m not converted that far.”

E. Stanley Jones (1884–1973) was a missionary in India. While there, he

established a Christian Ashram, a sort of spiritual community and retreat center. Jones recounted this story:

In the Ashram, we gave the servants, including the sweeper, a holiday one day each week, and we volunteered to do their jobs for them. The sweeper’s job included the cleaning of the latrines before the days of flush toilets. No one would touch that job but an outcaste [the lowest of the low in the Indian caste system], but we volunteered.

One day I said to a Brahmin [upper caste] convert who was hesitating to volunteer: ‘Brother, when are you going to volunteer?’ He shook his head slowly and said:
‘Brother Stanley, I’m converted, but I’m not converted that far.’

 

“I’m converted, but I’m not converted hat far.” You’ve got to appreciate the honesty. Lent is the time in the spiritual rhythm of the church year when we take an honest look at the state of our faith and ask ourselves, “How far am I converted?” Is my conversion limited? What limits it? What holds me back from loving God with my whole heart, mind and strength? From loving my neighbor as myself?

Do I receive each day with expectancy as a gift from God?

Am I dying to self so I can enter more fully into the joy of God and live for others? Do I see every person I meet, every encounter, as a gift?

Is there forgiveness I have yet to give? Forgiveness I have yet request or accept?

Where am I storing my treasure? Am I caught up in the madness of accumulating more and more? Or am I learning to let go, learning to give more and more? How converted am I?

Do I live each day shaped by the knowledge that God’s kingdom has broken into the world and into my life; God’s kingdom of love, truth and joy; justice, freedom and peace? How converted am I in embodying that love, truth and joy; justice, freedom and peace?

How evident are the fruit of the Spirit in my day-to-day life: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control?

In Lent, we engage more intently in this self-reflection and invite the Holy Spirit to continue working conversion in us. I’m converted. How converted am I?

 

Under the Mercy,