02 17 2026

02 17 2026
The focus of St. James Presbyterian Church’s weekly 30-minute Prayer Break Gathering is based on one of the scriptures of our PCUSA Daily Lectionary Philippians 3.1-11.  Today we will be focusing our thoughts on verse 8a.

​Rarely do we reflect at the beginning of Lent of the profound synchronicity of the faith claims the often converge for our Muslim and Jewish brothers and sisters.Tonight we gather for Prayer Break as we stand at the threshold of Lent, entering what we have called truth-season, a time not for shame but for honest re centering in Christ. We will reflect on the apostle’s words, “I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord,” and consider what may be too heavy to carry further into this next stretch of the journey.
As we step toward Lent, our Muslim neighbors are entering the holy month of Ramadan, a sacred season of fasting, prayer, generosity, and deepened surrender to God, and our Jewish neighbors are moving through sacred rhythms that lead toward Purim and Passover, remembering survival and liberation. Across our city, indeed around the world, hearts are turning toward discipline, mercy, memory, and devotion. We gather as followers of Christ, grateful to seek God deeply in this shared season of spiritual seriousness, and you are invited to pause, listen, tell the truth, and pray.

Philippians 3.1-11
1Finally, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord.
​To write the same things to you is not troublesome to me, and for you it is a safeguard.
2Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh! 3For it is we who are the circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh — 4even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh.
If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: 5circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.
7Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. 8More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. 10I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, 11if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
Shrove Tuesday Meditation — Entering truth-season
Tonight the road stretches out before us. Here in New York City there are no parades echoing through our streets as in New Orleans. There is a quieter turning. Shrove Tuesday arrives as an invitation to confess, to tell the truth before we wear ashes, to loosen our grip on whatever has distorted our vision. We pause in the middle of an ordinary day and allow this holy interruption to reorder us. Lent is not shame-season. It is truth-season. We are not gathering to rehearse failures. We are gathering to come home to what is most real.
We listen to the apostle in Philippians who writes with luminous clarity, “I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” This is not despair speaking. This is hindsight speaking. This is a man who has looked carefully at his life and decided what is worth carrying forward and what is ready to be released. He once trusted his pedigree, his training, his performance. Now he says, “that I may know him.” That is the shift. That is the re centering. Temptation is not about chocolate or small habits. Temptation is identity distortion. It is the whisper that we are what we accomplish, what we conceal, what we defend. It plants suspicion between us and God and invites us to hide. Paul refuses that distortion. He chooses relationship over reputation. He chooses being found over proving himself.
And from Psalm 42 we hear the soul’s honest question, “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me.” That question is not accusation. It is permission. It allows the soul to speak without fear. It teaches us how to confess. We name the weariness. We name the anxiety. We name the places where suspicion has grown. Confession clears the windshield. It allows us to see the One who has been walking beside us all along, the God who has us covered even when we try to cover ourselves.
Imagine this Lenten journey as a long roadway stretching beyond what we can see. As a child on a long trip, you might have looked out the window and called out license plates from distant states. Florida. Ohio. Texas. California. Each one a small sign that the world is wider than your small seat in the car. Lent unfolds like that. We do not see the whole forty days at once. We glimpse signs of grace along the way. A moment of patience where irritation once ruled. A quiet honesty where there was concealment. A softened word where harshness used to live. These are blessings appearing on the horizon, small confirmations that knowing Christ is reshaping us.
And here is the intimate step. As your pastor, as one who is walking this road with you, I trust that God is asking something of each of us. There is likely something you already know is too heavy to carry further. A way of defining yourself that no longer fits. A suspicion about God that has lingered too long. An old confidence that needs to be laid down so that a deeper knowing can rise. Lent is not about dramatic gestures. It is about honest release. With the apostle’s wisdom and hindsight, we ask what must be shed so that we may be found in Christ more freely. I will journey with you in this. Individually. Collectively. We will not rush this road. We will not pretend. We will travel it together.
As we move into this wilderness, we carry our prayers with us. For family. For our congregation. For neighbors and strangers. For a world trembling under violence and confusion. For ourselves. We do not leave intercession behind when we confess. We bring our prayers along, trusting that God desires to be with us more than we have ever desired to be with God.
So we ask the Spirit to steady us on this road. When our souls feel cast down, draw us toward hope. When identity feels distorted, remind us that we are already held. When it is time to release what no longer serves your purpose in us, give us courage. Let us notice blessings like distant license plates along the highway of these forty days, small signs that grace is already traveling ahead of us. And now, as you take one more step into this season, why are you cast down, O my soul. Hope in God. As you take one more step toward Lent, what and for whom do you pray?