The Treasure of Re-gifting

As I have journeyed through Lent this year one major theme has come up. How can I give up something that instead of just being given up, can be given again?

This “regifting” of sorts has prompted me to think deeply about what exactly I have that I don’t “need” but someone else may need. Perhaps, the true meaning of Lent is to give to those that are in need and not just vainly give up something as an empty act of religiosity.

This is central to today’s reading. Knowing, and I mean truly knowing Jesus, is not demonstrated in a vain act of repetition, rather it is a whole act of emptying yourself in service to those on the margins.

God provides us, in today’s reading out of the Hebrew Bible, a very important call to service. The spiritual thirst that Jesus quenches for us is complementary to the physical thirst of those living on the margins. God says that God will help us on the day of salvation. And this salvation we desire will only draw nearer if we learn to help one other, if we learn to see God in “the least of these.”

So, in your Lenten fast remember that taking away can often provide the greatest gift.

What is something you can give that you don’t “need?”

Author: Brett Banks, Theology Department